TV commercials with 10/10 brand storytelling

Brand storytelling is important to connect with your customers. Advertising campaigns are most successful when they’re memorable (for the right reasons).

For customer marketers, brand storytelling is how you turn existing customers (or users) into emotionally connected advocates who stay longer, engage more deeply, and spend more over time. When campaigns are memorable for the right reasons, they reinforce your brand values and strengthen loyalty with both existing and potential customers. None of this driving one-off engagement malarkey.

It’s important these storytelling advertisements are relatable and elicit an emotional reaction from the audience. They should also ensure that they accurately reflect your brand values. You'll be right on track to connect with the right audience and inspire brand loyalty with your existing and potential customers.

In this article, we break down five iconic commercials and extract practical storytelling plays customer marketers can apply to advocacy, lifecycle campaigns, and customer storytelling programs.

We picked campaigns that had a narrative, memorable sets, characters, or slogans. We also chose campaigns that made a mark on the history of that brand.

In no particular order, here are our top five picks for memorable brand storytelling in marketing – and the lessons behind them.

1. John Lewis' Christmas commercials

John Lewis, a UK department store for home goods and clothing, has made its name on the small screen with its infamous Christmas commercials.

These commercials are most well-known for their distinctive style of storytelling. With little-to-no dialogue, each ad follows a simple but effective formula: a heartwarming story built around a central Christmas theme.

Every year, John Lewis drums up widespread anticipation for their upcoming Christmas commercial – a feat largely due to their signature use of reimagined song covers, where well-known tracks are stripped back and reinterpreted to underscore the emotion of each narrative.

Their 2013 commercial, “The Bear and the Hare,” features a fully animated 2D-style video reminiscent of the Disney Renaissance of the 1990s. It featured the story of a bear who always misses decorating the Christmas tree because it’s hibernating. This year, its friend, the hare, buys an alarm clock so the bear can wake up in time and see the decorated Christmas tree for the first time.

With Lily Allen’s cover of the song “Somewhere Only We Know” playing in the background, this ad is designed to get you invested in the characters and have an emotional reaction to the story being told. It ends with the slogan “Give someone a Christmas they’ll never forget”.

Another great example is their 2018 commercial, “The Boy and the Piano,” which begins with Elton John with his back to the camera, playing the piano. The video follows the life of Elton John backwards, through his famous concerts and looks. Elton John gets younger and younger, ending with him as a little boy coming down the stairs on Christmas to find his mother has gifted him a piano.

The video ends with the young Elton John playing two notes of a chord, then finished by the older Elton John. The slogan for this ad is “Some gifts are more than just a gift.”

These ads are created for the sole purpose of pulling on viewers' heartstrings using exclusively visual storytelling with no dialogue. This means that viewers are engaged in figuring out the story and following its threads to see the final outcome.

John Lewis has built up a following around these ads and, in turn, around their brand. Storytelling advertising creates an emotional connection with the brand.

Why it works

• The ads lean heavily into emotional, visual storytelling rather than product features, making them memorable.
• They create annual anticipation, turning the campaign into an event audiences look forward to.
• The consistent style and music choices create a recognizable storytelling identity for the brand.

Storytelling principle

Emotional resonance through simple visual narratives.

When audiences become invested in a story, they begin to associate those emotions with the brand itself.

Steal this for customer marketing

• Create an annual customer story moment (e.g., a yearly customer awards campaign or flagship video story tied to your biggest industry event).
• Experiment with minimal product messaging in your most emotional stories – let the customer narrative carry the message.
• Reuse recurring storytelling elements (music, visuals, themes) across customer campaigns to build brand recognition.

2. Old Spice: Terry Crews and Isaiah Mustafa

Old Spice is a company with a very strong run of campaigns that are fast paced and often rely on absurdist humor. This first began with the 2010 ad featuring Isaiah Mustafa. The aim of this campaign was to appeal to a younger audience and shake off the ‘grandpa’ reputation.

Isaiah starts by saying: “Hello, ladies. Look at your man. Now back to me. Now back to your man. Now back at me. Sadly, he isn’t me.” This is a humorous opening that quickly achieved meme status and is still quoted often.

The main drive for the ad was to motivate women to buy Old Spice for the men in their life to make them appear more like the man in the video. The ad ends with the line: “Anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice and not a lady.”

What’s important to note is that this ad was first released on the internet, where its target audience was most likely to find it. This shift helped develop a distinct brand personality that matched the humor and absurdity popular in internet culture.

Later ads featuring Terry Crews amplified this approach. Unlike Mustafa’s suave delivery, Crews’ character was loud and boisterous. With quick cuts, continuous shouting, and random events happening out of nowhere, the ads mirrored the chaotic humor of internet videos.

Eventually, the brand created a narrative where Mustafa and Crews competed against each other, representing different scents.

Why it works

• The campaign uses distinctive humor and tone to make the ads immediately recognizable.
• It was platform-native, leaning into the style of content popular on the internet.
• Recurring characters created a narrative universe audiences could follow.

Storytelling principle

Tone as differentiation was the main winner here. Old Spice didn’t just change its messaging – its entire personality was given a re-fresh.

Steal this for your customer marketing strategy

• Encourage advocates to create content in formats native to their preferred platforms (LinkedIn posts, TikTok videos, podcasts).
• Use humor and personality in customer stories to stand out from traditional case studies.
• Build recurring narratives around recognizable customers or advocates who appear across multiple campaigns.

3. M&M’s: The Red and Yellow M&M’s

M&M’s brand storytelling uses memorable characters to create a multitude of advertisements.

Many commercials feature these characters in everyday situations such as office meetings, boardrooms, or awkward social moments.

Unlike the previous examples, this storytelling style doesn’t focus on serious themes. Instead, it portrays the brand as casual, fun, and quirky.

The characters are distinct in color and personality, and each represents a different flavor of M&M’s.

Since their introduction, the roster of characters has grown and allowed the brand to create countless new scenarios and stories.

Why it works

• Characters create a consistent visual link to the brand.
• Each mascot has a distinct personality, allowing for endless storytelling scenarios.
• The brand builds a recognizable storytelling world.

Storytelling principle

M&Ms commercials are all about character-driven brand storytelling. Their recurring characters make a brand easier to remember and easier to build stories around.

Steal this for customer marketing

• Define three or four customer archetypes (e.g., the innovator, the efficiency-seeker, the power user).
• Revisit these archetypes across case studies, webinars, and events.
• Let customers recognize themselves in these “characters,” making your storytelling more relatable.

4. Nike's “Find your Greatness”

Nike is a familiar name in the sportswear industry and their slogan goes hand in hand with their logo as immediately familiar and identifiable.

The slogan “Just do it” was created in 1989 by Wieden and Kennedy to accompany Nike’s first major television campaign.

Nike later expanded on this idea with the “Find Your Greatness” campaign. The ad opens quietly with only the sound of cicadas. You see a rural landscape with a purple and pink sunrise. From the horizon, an overweight runner is seen jogging slowly toward the camera.

Then the voiceover begins:

“Greatness is just something we made up… greatness is no more unique to us than breathing. We’re all capable of it.”

The ad presents an everyday runner instead of a professional athlete, shifting the definition of greatness.

Why it works

• It reframes the hero from elite athletes to everyday people.
• The slow, uninterrupted storytelling creates authenticity and emotional impact.
• It aligns perfectly with Nike’s core value of personal achievement.

Storytelling principle

Make the customer the hero.

By highlighting ordinary athletes, Nike made greatness feel accessible to everyone.

Steal this for customer marketing

• Feature everyday customers, not just power users or big-name brands.
• Focus your storytelling on personal transformation and progress, not just results.
• Let the product play the supporting role, while the customer remains the hero.

5. Always' “Like a Girl”

Always is a company that produces period products alongside other hygiene products for women. Their slogan reads: “We Care About All Women and Girls: We're on a mission to unleash girls' & women's confidence.”

Their 2014 campaign ran with the slogan “Like a Girl.” The ad shows young adults acting out instructions like “run like a girl” or “fight like a girl,” exaggerating weak or clumsy movements. The same instructions are then given to young girls, who perform them normally and confidently.

The commercial asks the question:

“When did doing something ‘like a girl’ become an insult?”

The campaign sparked widespread discussion online and won an Emmy for Outstanding Commercial. Always also launched the #LikeAGirl hashtag, encouraging women to share their experiences.

Why it works

• It addresses a real cultural issue, making the campaign feel meaningful.
• It aligns closely with the brand’s core mission of empowering girls.
• It encourages community participation through social media.

Steal this for customer marketing

• Identify a limiting belief or misconception your customers face.
• Design a campaign that reframes that belief through customer stories.
• Invite customers to share their experiences through community storytelling or social campaigns.

Storytelling patterns across the campaigns

Conclusion

These campaigns show that memorable brand storytelling doesn’t follow a single formula.

Instead, the most effective stories tend to share a few common principles:

• Emotional resonance
• The customer as the hero
• Alignment with brand values
• Distinctive storytelling styles

For customer marketers, the goal isn’t just to promote products, but to create stories that customers want to participate in, share, and remember.

Quick storytelling checklist for customer marketers

Try this simple audit for your next campaign:

• Does the customer play the hero, or does the product?
• Is the story emotionally engaging, not just informative?
• Does the story reinforce your brand’s core values?
• Could the story become a repeatable campaign or narrative theme?

If the answer to most of these questions is yes, you’re likely on the right track to creating storytelling that resonates long after the campaign ends.

Want to put this into practice? Get certified in strategic storytelling and walk away with frameworks you can use straight away.