Modern storytelling in marketing is about engaging your audience in a story that allows them to join the dots as they go along, to be engaged and help create that story.

This creates the perception that what you are doing is telling a natural, authentic and engaging story from a point of view that the target market can understand and connect with.

It's one reason modern marketers use the "internet famous" in advertising campaigns. It helps the market connect more quickly to the brand as they perceive the message to be less risky, more real and more credible than an advertisement that is put together in a slick studio.

It also helps give the perception of a brand that listens to its consumers and understands their needs — or fears.

This was the aim of the of the first advertisement from the No campaign: to change our perception of who a No supporter is and why they are voting no, and setting the opening chapter for the story that the No campaign will build over the coming weeks.

Women soften the message

The point of view used gender well to counter our existing biases and perceptions of who might be voting No — that is, older demographic white men.

Instead the point of view used women's perspectives, including a mother talking about how changing marriage equality would then change the education her children would receive, and how this may impact on them. This makes the argument more localised, to someone we can all relate to.

One of the most successful road safety messages ever in Queensland, measured by actual behaviour change, used a mother and children as the key part of the message. They are the one perspective that quickly grabs our attention, and makes us take notice and think about our behaviour. And of course respect.

Using this point of view softens our response towards the message and connects with the family market through raising fears of what can happen to those they love the most: their kids. It also subtly implies that freedom of expression may be restricted through compulsory education about what marriage equality may mean if implemented.

It doesn't take marriage head on

The underlying message here is clear and has been well thought out by the No team. Realising it will be harder to take on Yes with a straight-up attack they instead have gone down the path of what has worked so well in so many social marketing campaigns around the world.

It made the unknown potential consequences of behaviour what viewers should fear.

It didn't focus on the Yes vote or the actual same-sex marriage issue itself.

This keeps the message consistent with the point and helps develop a stronger resonance and liking towards the No vote.

Short and simple

Next there is the structure itself.

There isn't a flood of information like what nearly sunk Malcolm Turnbull's campaign in 2016.

Instead in the short 24 seconds (another part of the strategy), there are only 24 words to digest and primarily close-ups of the speakers. The tag line at the end allows us to process the information quickly and simply. Again well thought out.

If this message is any guide from what to expect from the No team then we can expect more like this: heavy on a narrative that families can relate to, with the underlying theme being about the how consequences of marriage equality becoming law will impact upon every family in Australia in ways they haven't thought of.

What it also says is the team behind No are not a bunch of old white men sharing a tea on Sunday nights, but people who know a thing or two about running an advertising campaign. It looks like the attack ad of old may have been consigned to the past as well.

Andrew Hughes is a lecturer in marketing at the Australian National University.