Worldbuilding As A Brand Building Strategy

Your Brand Story Is Valuable IP. Time to Treat It Like One.

We're living in an era where consumers devour rich, complex narratives across multiple platforms, dive deep into expansive fictional universes, and actively seek out layered storytelling experiences. Yet somehow, most brands are still treating their stories like footnotes supporting found data instead of franchises.

How Does It Work? Let’s Look At Hendrick's Gin

One of my favorite examples of worldbuilding as a brand building strategy is Hendrick's Gin's Undersea Imaginarium. On the surface, it might look like maximalism for maximalism's sake. But dig deeper, and you'll find a masterclass in brand IP activation:

• Core Story Asset: Alignment between super-premium and curiosity and exploration

• World-Building Elements: Submarine aesthetics, mystical sea creatures, Victorian-era botanical science

• Scalable Touchpoints: Physical spa experiences, cocktail recipes, digital content

• Audience Engagement Layers: Immersive treatments, shareable moments, brand mythology

The ROI? Every piece of this universe can be:

• Repurposed across channels

• Scaled up or down based on market

• Adapted for different audience segments

• Measured for engagement and conversion

And what I love most about this example is how purposeful everything was – how every aspect of the experience related directly back to a brand narrative pillar, the product’s point of differentiation, or an insight around how their customer engages. Even more so, this is a great example of purposefully using experiential to earn media, engage influencers, and allowing them the opportunity to put their lens on the experience when sharing it out to their audiences.

If you want to learn more about how the team at Hendrick’s Gin deploys worldbuilding strategies, I highly recommend the On Strategy Showcase episode with their CMO. Check it out here!

The Business Case For World-Building

I know, not every brand wants to, needs to, or can build out a fully fictional fantasy world to tell their stories (if I know my audience like I know my audience, they fall into one of these three groups in order of prevalence: agency friends, healthcare marketers, B2B marketers, my extended family, and then finally, consumer marketers). And yes, building rich brand universes requires investment.

But here’s a data point for you: The average consumer spends 7+ hours daily engaging with content. And they're not just passive viewers – they're active participants who:

1. Decode Easter eggs in their favorite shows, games, and stories

2. Trade theories about narrative arcs across social platforms

3. Create fan content around beloved IP and attend events as their favorite characters

4. Seek out immersive experiences tied to their favorite stories

Let’s look at what the actual, functional things a worldbuilding strategy delivers for your brand:

Content Scalability

Every element of your brand universe becomes a self-sustaining content engine and stories can be told across multiple touchpoints without losing coherence, or more importantly, interest. User-generated content has a clear framework to build upon

Experience Economics

Every touchpoint reinforces the others, creating compound return on narrative investment (woo!).Physical activations become more effective when they're part of a larger narrative and digital content has deeper resonance when it connects to a broader story.

Audience Investment

Deeper engagement leads to stronger brand loyalty and word of mouth, rich narratives create more opportunities for personal connection, and complex universes create co-creation opportunities and reward sustained attention.

All of this has gone far beyond audiences and fans seeking out entertainment. This is how modern audiences engage with compelling narratives, period. And our brand stories? Those are narratives whether we’re treating them like one or not.

Looking Forward

As we move deeper into the attention economy, the divide between brands that invest in narrative ecosystems and those that don't will only widen. The winners in this space aren't just telling stories – they're architecting living, breathing universes that evolve with their audience.

Here's what that future looks like:

Ecosystem Over Episodes

Gone are the days when brands could succeed with disconnected campaign "episodes." Tomorrow's leaders are building narrative frameworks where every touchpoint – from social posts to product packaging – reinforces and expands their core story.

Community-Powered Evolution

Your audience isn't just consuming your story – they're helping write it. Smart brands are creating narrative spaces flexible enough to incorporate user-generated content while maintaining brand integrity. This isn't just about engagement; it's about creating story systems that become more valuable the more people participate in them.

Cross-Platform by Design

The most powerful brand universes are platform-agnostic but platform-aware. They maintain coherence across channels while leveraging each platform's unique strengths. A TikTok challenge should feel connected to your latest pop-up experience, which should tie back to your product story – all while feeling native to each space.

Your Next Steps

Here’s some thoughts to assess your worldbuilding readiness and a checklist to get you started:

1. Audit your current brand narrative. Map out your story elements, identify gaps, and look for natural expansion points.

2. Evaluate your content ecosystem. Are you creating disposable content or building on a coherent narrative foundation?

3. Identify your unique story space. What aspects of your brand universe are uniquely yours to own?

4. Start small but think big. Begin with one aspect of your brand story and build it out completely before expanding.

5. Measure what matters. Track not just engagement metrics but story resonance and narrative recall.

Remember: In a world where content and culture are currency, the brands that win won't just be the ones with the biggest budgets – they'll be the ones that create the most compelling brand universes for their audiences to explore.

The future belongs to brands that understand this fundamental truth: Your story isn't just what you tell – it's the world you create for your audience to live in.

SUPER! Ready to turn your brand story into your strongest asset? 💪