The art of storytelling

Future Foundation’s Karen Canty has been on a storytelling mission – learning about its history and development – and why today it is so important for brands. So what can businesses learn from this simple, inbuilt human prerogative?

Storytelling is, perhaps, the mot du jour among marketing circles – the idea of developing a narrative that engages consumers, pulls them into a brand’s sphere and creates new routes to a lasting relationship is irresistible.

But do many marketers understand what a good story really entails? Is it as literal as telling your brand’s history – like The Lego story, made in 2012 for its 80th birthday? Is it about using different media to engage with consumers wherever and whenever they are?

Last month I was a storytelling guinea pig, taking part in the development of a new course from Craft of Communication, a theatre-based communications training agency. It was, happily enough, on storytelling – with a particular emphasis on what this means for brands.

Let me elaborate…

The story of stories – as old as humanity

The workshop took us on a journey to understand the history of the story and the profound way that storytelling is woven into humanity’s cultural narrative. And it was fascinating. Did you know, for instance, that Romeo and Juliet is based on a series of motifs that are old as humanity itself? (Winter vs. summer, dark vs. light, the beauty and potential of youth.) Or that every fable and nursery rhyme you can name has a vast folklore tradition?

We looked at Cinderella, which is estimated to have over 1,000 different versions across the world – the theme of a wicked stepmother is grounded in the reality of a past where childbirth was extremely dangerous, mothers often died and children were left in the care of other women, while men remarried for financial gain. Although there is no evidence of glass slippers…

Dialogue – not just a two way street

In Ancient Greece, theatre and storytelling were huge parts of Greek culture and it was the Ancient Greeks who invented the Second Actor, opening up a world of possibility in narrative development. For many thousands of years, folklore tales were passed down through oral tradition – monologues via one protagonist.

But the Greeks brought in deuteragonists – two voices – and tritagonists – three voices – breathing life into “dialogue”, which literally means ‘the flow of meaning’.

While we business types use the word ‘dialogue’ as a catch-all for ensuring we’re not just shouting messages at consumers, there really is a lot more depth involved. Dialogue is about conveying meaning and about owning the story, and when thinking about marketing and strategy, this should be at the forefront of our minds.

Brand as hero

Finally, we were asked to think about the ‘hero’s journey’ – the narrative journey from ordinary world, via crossing a threshold and lots of sword seizing, to returning with an elixir – a story that George Lucas’ Star Wars took entirely literally.

We were asked to recast our brand as the hero, exploring ways that we could take a brand on a hero’s journey of its own. How could we tell our story as compellingly as Star Wars? (Answer: lots of Ewoks and no Jar Jar Binks).

So what does all this mean for brands? It means that we can learn a lot from taking a step back and thinking about storytelling, not as a marketing buzzword but as a profound, inbuilt human prerogative.

When you’re thinking about how to tell your brand’s story, think about your audience – think about how you can create empathy and genuine, meaningful connections.

Think about what do your characters look like and how can you make them loveable? Think about the archetypal narratives such as comedy, tragedy, overcoming an obstacle, a quest and see whether they create new narratives – but please don’t feel you need to cast your brand as a Hobbit. Consider how you can communicate your story with new technologies, platforms and devices.

Ernest Hemingway once won a bet by crafting a complete story in just six words.

“For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.”

Ask yourselves, does your brand have a six word story?