“I try to innovate on all platforms” — YBF talks to Tristan Tales
Tristan Tales is a branding and digital mastermind. Don’t just take our word for it; he has amassed millions of subscribers and followers across YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram.
Tristan Tales has also conquered the fine art of storytelling and going viral — skills that any company, be it a startup, scaleup or corporate, would love to get their heads around.
What are his secrets, how does he do it and how can YBF-based entrepreneurs use storytelling to get their brands out there? Tristan was kind enough to invite us into his world and give us some top tips on leveraging social media to get noticed.
Thanks for talking with us, Tristan. How important is branding? How do you differentiate your brand in the crowded social media influencer space?
Branding is incredibly important, it helps you stand out in an oversaturated industry. When your audience follows you for a reason and they expect a certain type of content from you it’s important to stay consistent to your brand. In addition to knowing yourself and your personal brand well, you have to also understand and know your audience just as well.
I’ve established a brand that revolves around interactive, comedic and creative content. When you think Tristan Tales, you think interactive. From my Choose Your Own Adventure videos, to my interactive art stories and games, my content, from the very beginning, has always had a level of interactivity and active viewing that sets it apart from your average storyteller.
What is your favourite new tech tool that you use to keep Tristan Tales content fresh and exciting?
I try to innovate on all platforms by overcoming their limitations and taking advantage of their features in an unconventional way. For example, using the story feature’s drawing tool to create artwork that will transform when you tap on it. Or using the poll feature to allow viewers to dictate the direction a story goes. On YouTube, where most people use the end thumbnail video buttons to link to another video on their channel, in my Choose Your Own Vlogventures, I use them as choices that the viewer can make to decide which direction they want the vlog to go.
In regards to specific software tools, I couldn’t live without my MacBook pro and Adobe Premiere Pro
What has been your most viral piece of content to date? How did you come up with the concept?
I’ve had many videos surpass the million-view mark. However, one of my bigger triumphs was having an Instagram story get 900,000 views when at the time I had less than 100,000 followers.
Stories don’t easily go viral as they only last for 24 hours, so I was very surprised. The concept was a Choose Your Own Adventure, where the viewer tapped through the story as if they were flipping through a comic book. For example, they’d tap to clip #8 to go into a dark cave or tap to clip #11 to go around it and into a narrow pathway full of spiderwebs. It was a combination of live action, and interactive art (using the draw tool), in addition to putting the viewer in the driver seat of the narrative that I believe allowed the story to be successful.
You’ve worked with huge global companies like Amazon, Coca-Cola, MasterCard and Red Bull. How did you help brands like those innovate to stay ahead of the game?
Each brand has a unique identity and different story to tell. When I partner with them, it’s my responsibility to combine their voice with my own. A lot of people (brands, influencers, consumers all included), don’t know all the creative ways you can combine the features of a social media platform to make innovative content.
I’ve experimented with social media platforms in ways that most users didn’t even know was possible, so when I work with a brand I share some of my storytelling secrets that I have up my sleeve. It’s fun because although my audience might be used to my wacky, unusual, and interactive stories, the brand’s audience probably hasn’t even seen the platform used that way before, which ultimately increases the viewers’ active engagement.
What has been your favourite partnership to-date and why?
One time the Red Bull Air Force picked me up in a tiny Red Bull plane, and just as we were 10,000 feet above a spring break beach party, they threw me out of it. All so that I could be the first person ever to snapchat while skydiving. I gripped my phone so tight in my hand I nearly cracked it, I was so worried I was going to drop it into the ocean [laughs]!
There are two types of brand activations that I like best: Anything that involves a unique and exclusive experience, and/or when the brand gives you creative authority to come up with something 100% true to your brand. The Red Bull activation above perfectly exemplifies this.
We’re Australia’s top innovation hub and house 75+ tech startups in our coworking space, working in fintech, Web 3.0, data analytics, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, machine learning…How can companies that are just starting out leverage social platforms to get noticed? What are your top tips?
It’s not as easy as it used to be three to five years ago. It’s becoming harder and harder to grow on social media. The best ways are to post consistently, and to collab with influencers who share a similar audience as the one you’re trying to cultivate. Most importantly, ask yourself why am I posting this, why do my followers want to see this, before making the post. Too many people just post to post, everyone’s feeds are already saturated enough.
The unfollow button is easier to push than follow.
What ingredients make a really good story?
Oh man, I could talk on this for hours but I’ll try to be concise: Theme, Goal, Obstacle. Storytelling is truth telling. We, as human beings, are walking stories, each with a unique story to tell. We have goals. We face obstacles. We learn lessons. Storytelling is presenting the viewer or the protagonist with goals and obstacles along a journey that will ultimately uncover a truth of how we connect with each other. The key, however, is being able to make your viewer feel that the story they’re about to hear or see is worth listening to. Make the first three seconds count.
Snapchat or Instagram? And why?
That’s tough. I think as a content creator, Instagram takes the cake. It has tons of user-friendly tools that help you make or distribute your content. However, I am interested to see where Snapchat’s discover section is going. With the right creative, Snapchat could be the leader in vertically displayed original mobile content.
What’s in store for the future of Tristan Tales?
In addition to creating an interactive choice-based YouTube video series for my channel and other interactive content across platforms, I have several digital series’ in different stages of development at a variety of production companies and networks, some that we may look forward to seeing come to life later this year.
I’m also a huge advocate for VR, MR and AR, and hope to get more involved with that side of the industry as well. If you’re reading this and work in those areas feel free to get in touch!
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Words by Courtney Blackman
