We live in a new attention economy, where time, as never before, is gold and information saturation has become highly intense. Communications should be aimed towards the personal, emotional and relational aspects. How? Storytelling –either commercial, personal, business or territorial. It gives credibility to the brand and reinforces its social aspect.
The current crisis generates brand scepticism, trust lack and reputation loss, on the contrary, storytelling contributes to credibility generation –since personal aspects are a major trust source. Storytelling contributes to optimism, –since it develops the more ludic aspect in humans– and offers a context that makes sense, organizes dispersed information and overcomes audience fragmentation.
This document was prepared by Corporate Excellence – Centre for Reputation Leadership and contains references, among other sources, to the work of Antonio Nuñez, communications consultant, “Storytelling en una semana” and the statements made by Teresa Perales, Paralympic winner swimmer, during the “I Jornadas de Innovación y Comunicación: Arriesgar y Perseverar” organized by the Communications and Brand Innovation Laboratory at the BBVA, in Madrid, 2012
1. Insights&Trends
I36/2013
Communications
Storytelling or The Art
to Tell Brand Stories
We live in a new attention economy, where time, as never before, is gold and
information saturation has become highly intense. Communications should be
aimed towards the personal, emotional and relational aspects. How? Storytelling
–either commercial, personal, business or territorial. It gives credibility to the
brand and reinforces its social aspect.
The current crisis generates brand scepticism,
trust lack and reputation loss, on the contrary,
storytelling contributes to credibility generation
–since personal aspects are a major trust source.
Storytelling contributes to optimism, –since it
develops the more ludic aspect in humans– and
offers a context that makes sense, organizes
dispersed information and overcomes audience
fragmentation.
Money, as an advertisement inversion and media
buy, is no longer a way to get people’s time or
attention. Nowadays, talent drives money and
attention drives communications. Based on this,
stories become a strong way of expressing human
emotions and conflicts.
Characteristics of a Good Story
There are numerous keys for a story to become
successful. However, a good story should mainly
have an eminently convincing proposal. It should
spread the brand core idea and achieve a link, an
emotional connection with its stakeholders, as
well as overcome the fragmentation and attention
deficiencies in current communications.
Stories -since ancient times and mythology- reflect
archetypes, human thinking and emotional and
rational conflict situations that have to be solved
through overcoming conflicts. Often, a hero
embodies values and abilities that help to overcome
those conflicts.
This hero has to make a journey, the hero journey,
where the hero gets to know and recognize himself.
The hero overcomes vicissitudes and proves,
experiences that when projected are used as example
and guidance by tribe members –the individual social
reference group, today online social communities.
This has a clear pedagogical goal, since it refers
to universal truth, as psychoanalyst Carl G. Jung
pointed referring archetypes case.
Stories should gather that conflict, they have to
be properly structured, following a logical event
structure as well as a narrative. Stories should
communicate strong feelings and deep emotions,
specific details and above all, universal truth.
Besides, they should have a vital proposal, as well
as brands.
This document was prepared by Corporate Excellence – Centre for Reputation Leadership and contains references, among other
sources, to the work of Antonio Nuñez, communications consultant, “Storytelling en una semana” and the statements made by Teresa
Perales, Paralympic winner swimmer, during the “I Jornadas de Innovación y Comunicación: Arriesgar y Perseverar” organized by the
Communications and Brand Innovation Laboratory at the BBVA, in Madrid, 2012
2. We can point 4 different stages in which stories
are divided, grouped in three different classical
action times as we see in novel, or opera (opening,
crux, end):
5.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Storytelling or
The Art to Tell
Brand Stories
Storytelling according to media
Opening scene.
Successive crisis, conflicts.
Climax or crux, conflicts start to solve.
Conclusion, final solutions.
Apart from the events sequence, there are other
keys for a story to be good; Conflicts (leaded to
collective psyche, trying to put oneself in someone’s
else place,) emotions (connecting and linking
people,) feelings (keeping in mind every sense,)
truth (a good story never tells lies since fiction has
big truths itself,) and sense (it gives vision and helps
to solve problems).
Storytelling Advantages
Storytelling has itself some important advantages
regarding communications. They can be summarized
in 5 different areas:
“Brands need
to generate
and connect
ideas, values,
stories and
content,
getting
companies
closer to
people”
1.
2.
3.
4.
Remembrance: it has a mnemonic aspect, a
narrative map that contributes to remember
the story and the automatic memorization.
Enjoyment: it has a ludic aspect, it
helps people to get fun and contributes
to their positive perceptions.
Context: the story is put within a context,
it contributes to the organization and
meaning of dispersed information.
Connection: it connects people from
different backgrounds around a group,
tribe or community in which they
get to know each other and recognize
each other. They share values.
Implication: each member of the group
has a role in the group, they do not get
an imposed sense, but a proposed one
helping every member to share it.
Depending on the media type and communications
channel in which the story is told, the storytelling
can have different intensities, as well as bigger –or
smaller- customization possibilities, having a different
interactivity degree, added to the story structure.
For example, television can add a very low
personalization and interaction but a higher
intensity. When it comes to digital terms, it happen
exactly the contrary, adaptation and variation
possibilities increase, but intensity decreases. On the
other hand, games and apps are the ones with the
highest interactivity degree –non personalizationbut a lower intensity.
Storytelling. Written Storytelling.
Digital Storytelling.
Brand stories are different depending if the story is
told, written or digital. In the first case, there is no
previous written composition, time is less intense
but the story can be easily evaluated, understood.
Content is adaptable and customized according to
the public and its reaction to the story.
In the second case, there is a written composition,
a previous structure, a thinking stage. The story
focuses in technological tools, with a specific
content created for the written format and a
time much more intense that in the case of a
told story.
Graph 1: Classic Storytelling
y = tension
crises
climax
dénovement
opening
scene
x = time
beginniing
middle
end
Source: Ismaels Corner, 2012.
Insights
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3. Storytelling or
The Art to Tell
Brand Stories
Graph 2: Storytelling Matrix
Print publications
High density
Educational
properties
Linear
TV and online
films
Customized
Immersive
Garning
Mass produced
Interactive
Low density
“The best
content
and stories
should not be
an artificial
add, but
something
natural that
perfectly
matches with
the brand;
the main
characters
of this story
should be the
stakeholders”
Casual Garning
Source: Brand Stories, 2012.
In the third case, the digital story has an
extra element with regards to the above ones,
that is, motivation. Digital stories enable a
higher interactive actuation, facilitating the
implementation of learnt things and above all,
their spread and reach to the rest of the community.
Teresa Perales Story
The story of Teresa Perales, paralympic swimmer
medallist, may be one of the best examples of
storytelling applied to personal brand. She suffered
a conflict when she lost her mobility affecting
her sport career; she went through a crisis that
she overcame after facing different stages of selfknowledge and personal growth.
Perales’s story shows the fight for survival and search
for abilities and potentialities. Till the moment she
needed, those abilities and potentialities were not
used or taken advantages of. The inner strength was
hidden, but a shift in her attitude occurred. She
accepted herself, had a behaviour modification, and
overcame the crisis.
The Spanish winner showed that main obstacles –in
that particular journey of paralypic hero- were inner
sabotage, that is, excuses for not even try and get
other things in a different way; along with limiter
belief and values, that stop ourselves and generate a
negative thinking self-compassion cycle.
Conclusion: Content Generation
and Connection
As in the case of branded content, brands need to
generate and connect ideas, values, stories and content,
getting companies closer to people and not the other
way around (as previously pretended in traditional
communications and conventional advertisement).
The best content and stories should not be an artificial
add, but something natural that perfectly matches
with the brand; the main characters of this story
should be the stakeholders –employees, clients….
Regarding brand communications, there has
been a shift from the sectorial consensus (unite
audiences around a sole truth, in a way of a real
passive enjoyment that leads to proper passivity
of consumers) to a sectorial conflict (reflecting
faithfully the vital questions, casuistry of life, not
only showing the problem but solving it.)
Because a good story decrease attention paid to the
world (other brands unconsciously) and increase
attention paid to our life (the brand), tensions, and
possible solutions increasing our engagement to
reach that goal.
Her story has every element to produce that needed
remembrance and enjoyment. Her story contributes
decisively to emotional audience implication and
one can place himself into her position.
Insights
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