The channel is usually just the delivery mechanism. These tactics treat it as the argument. When the format does the talking — when the object, the time, or the placement carries the meaning — the audience receives the message before they've registered it as advertising. Here are four tactics from the Storytelling Engine where the medium is the point.
- Let the Format Do the Arguing
- Hijack the Channel to Prove the Point
- Build Something Physical That Can't Be Ignored
- Make Time the Medium
1. Let the Format Do the Arguing
Build the message into the medium itself — and the ad becomes the proof.
Certified — BMW, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, 2019
BMW needed to sell its certified used cars as genuinely like-new — not just claim it. Goodby's answer: re-run the original ads for the same models with minimal tweaks and updated voiceovers. The creative choice was the argument. If the ad still works, so does the car. An integrated campaign built at a fraction of the cost, using media efficiency to reinforce the product promise.
Audi's The Cropped Car (DDB, 2024) removed 1.5m from every car visual across OOH, social and press — the legal safety gap cyclists are owed. The absence was the message. The Guardian's Pee Ad (Åkestam Holst, 2018) turned a print ad into a pregnancy test — the medium revealed life in the most literal sense possible.
