Look into any marketing blog or book from the last few years, and you're bound to read something about storytelling. Content professional Jelle Annaars will take us beyond the buzzword and all the way back to Aristoteles, explaining hands on how storytelling techniques can make your communications more effective.

1. FRIDAY SESSION #71
Storytelling behind the hype
12/12/2014
By Jelle Annaars
@Cleverwood
#FridaySession

2. Contents
 Definition
 Why storytelling?
 The 7 basic plots
 The Hero’s Journey
 Who’s your hero?
 What’s your message?
 Effective storytelling examples
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3. Definition
“A story is any account of connected events,
presented to the person reading or listener in a
sequence of written or spoken words, or in a
sequence of (moving) pictures.”
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4. Definition
A good story has:
 a beginning
 a middle
 an end
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Jean-Luc Godard:
“A story should have a beginning,
a middle and an end, but not
necessarily in that order.”

5. Definition
A good story has:
 protagonist
 inciting incident (“as usual, … until one day…”)
 sequence, suspense
 ending with some form of meaning or moral
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Mark Twain:
“a tale shall accomplish
something and arrive
somewhere.”

6. Why tell stories?
Story is how—long, long ago—we learned to take the
confusing flow of many things that happen and try to make
sense of them. It’s a fundamental way that humans
organize and store information.
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7. Why tell stories?
Stories catch our attention.
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David Mamet:
“The audience will not tune in
to watch information. You
wouldn’t, I wouldn’t. No one
would or will. The audience will
only tune in and stay tuned in
to watch drama.”

8. Why tell stories?
We remember stories, not facts
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9. Why tell stories?
It’s a way to stand out in times of Content Shock
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10. 7 Basic plots
 Roughly, only 7 stories exist
 After research by Carl Jung
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11. 7 Basic plots
1. Overcoming the monster
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• Perseus, James Bond, Star Wars
2. Rags to riches
• Cinderella, Great Expectations
3. The Quest
• The Wizard of Oz, Lord of the Rings
4. Voyage and Return
• Odyssey, Alice in Wonderland, Gone with the wind,
Gravity

12. 7 Basic plots
5. Comedy
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• A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bridget Jones Diary, Mr.
Bean
6. Tragedy
• Romeo & Juliet, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Black
Swan
7. Rebirth
• Beauty and the Beast, A Christmas Carol, Despicable
Me

13. Business examples
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14. Business examples
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15. Business examples
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16. Business examples
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17. 17

18. The Hero’s Journey
1. Overcoming the monster
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• Jaws, James Bond, Star Wars
2. Rags to riches
• Cinderella, Great Expectations
3. The Quest
• The Wizard of Oz, Lord of the Rings
4. Voyage and Return
• Odyssey, Alice in Wonderland, Gone with the wind

19. The Hero’s Journey (Joseph Campbell)
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20. The Hero’s Journey (Joseph Campbell)
Simplified:
 Hero (protagonist)
 Who wants something
 Obstacles or antagonist
 Help of a mentor
 Balance restored & life improved
Think Star Wars, The Matrix, …
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21. Who’s your hero
Who’s your hero?
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22. Who’s your hero
“If your stories are all
about your products
and services, and how
they help improve your
customers’ businesses,
that’s not really
storytelling…it’s a
brochure.” – Jay Baer
(Convince & Convert)
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23. The Hero’s Journey (Joseph Campbell)
Classic example: Apple’s 1984 ad.
They could have just said: we make better
computers…
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24. Who’s your hero
Tips to connect to your audience using story
 Let your audience be the hero
 You are the mentor/helper
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25. Who’s your hero
Tips to connect to your audience using story
 Or let the hero be someone they can
empathize with
 Your personal story
 Another audience member’s story
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26. What’s your message?
 What does the sequence or outcome of
the story tell us?
 What’s your moral or message?
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27. Effective examples
The LEGO Movie
Messages: there is a builder in each one of
us, be imaginative, you’re never too old
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28. Effective examples
Boeing
When you are the hero, make it interesting
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29. Effective examples
General Electrics
When you are the hero, make it interesting
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30. Effective examples
1,000 Stories (women in business)
Using stories to motivate others, and then
persuade lawmakers, financial industry, ...
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31. Effective examples
Hollaback’s 1,000 Stories
Classic use of the Hero’s Journey to build a
community
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32. Effective examples
Greenacres Woodland Burials
You can use/share stories on a very small
scale
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33. Effective examples
Mountaintop Library
It doesn’t have to be expensive
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34. Q & A
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35. Thank you !
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Jelle Annaars
Trainer
Mobile: +32 485 524 744
jelle.annaars@cleverwood.be
Twitter: @78inch