Are we storytelling – or just telling stories?
While storytelling has become one of adland’s biggest buzzwords Rob Lowe argues marketers are failing to make the necessary emotional connections.
I remember first hearing people talk about ‘storytelling’ a few years ago. I never quite understood it then and I still don’t fully understand the term now.
In fact, like many others, I think it’s overused marketing jazz.
A story to me typically has a beginning, a middle and an end. It’s structured. It depicts an event or series of linked events. I can think of a handful of campaigns that do that;
- AAMI’s Rhonda and Ketut
- the New Zealand Transport Agency’s ‘Mistakes’ Car Crash ad
- and their ‘Tinnyvision’ Snapchat content series
But there’s not much of it and not many people do it effectively. I don’t know who first coined the term ‘storytelling’, and I’m sure it helped serve a purpose at the time in selling in a campaign, but why do the rest of us still insist on white washing our campaigns with it? I don’t think people have taken the time to question why storytelling might be effective on motivating consumers in the first place.
My belief is that some stories, if told well, can inspire emotions in their listeners. When bards travelled medieval England, telling stories, singing songs and reciting poetry, there was a similar intention, to pass on information and entertain people. People listened because what they said inspired excitement, fear, hope and wonder. All strong emotions.
And in fact, it’s emotions, not stories, that influence people. This is what I believe we’ve failed to acknowledge.
Emotions have greater influence on consumers than rational fact. Maya Angelou, an American poet and author, once said: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
The same goes for brands. I choose Nike because the brand inspires me to lead a healthier life, not because it makes better sneakers. I choose Apple products because I feel its single-minded ethos reflects on my own work standards, however I’m sure Samsung phones do just the same thing. I believe that what people mean, when they talk about ‘storytelling’, is that their campaign will inspire some emotion in the consumer. However this doesn’t necessarily make it a story.
Psychologists have for many years acknowledged that it’s emotion, not rational thought, that leads people to chose one brand over another. In 2013, Psychology Today published an article that said: “For consumers, perhaps the most important characteristic of emotions is that they push us towards action.”
The thought goes as far back as the 17th Century when the French mathematician and philosopher, Pascal said: “The heart has reasons, which reason doesn’t understand.”
What we’re really trying to do as marketers, is move people. And this is why there’s been a trend recently towards cause related campaigns that show brands doing something good for society, such as Always’ ‘Like a girl’, or tear jerkers like Samsung’s ‘Hearing hands’
They’re emotional and from a cynical point of view, they’re designed to create emotional connections with the consumer and ultimately sell more product.
When we launched Poem we set out with the intention of offering a more human PR offering. To us that means having a human (and therefore more emotional) insight at the core of everything we do. Whether that be social content, a stunt, launch event, influencer involvement, press office tactic or online video, everything we do has a cultural tension that’s relevant to the interests of the people we’re trying to engage.
Brands can’t just make noise any more. They need to start acting in a more human way in order to gain social currency. They need to be authentic and culturally relevant.
Droga 5 CEO, Sudeep Gohil put it well at a recent Google Fire starters event, “Understanding humans is one of the future aspects of planning,” Gohil told the audience. “Being part of culture is more important than any strategy you can come up with because no one turns around and says I love that strategy or I love that ad, instead they talk about things they love which is generally not the stuff we create.”
From our previous integrated agency experience and the campaigns we’ve both led, we came to believe that this emphasis on a more human approach is far more effective and cost efficient than shouting at people or telling tall stories about storytelling.
It’s also just as relevant to all communications, whether that be paid, owned or earned media channels.
- Rob Lowe is a founder of PR agency Poem
Great article Rob, thanks for sharing. Your take on storytelling is so on the mark.
Mary Angenou?!! That should be Maya Angelou.
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Thanks for spotting Jill. It should be corrected now.
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Storytelling. Yet another word the industry uses to avoid using the ‘A’ word.
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Great read Rob!
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I emphatically agree, so does Stefan Sagmeister. https://vimeo.com/98368484
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Theatre has a long history of being on the one hand, loved celebrated and enjoyed, and on the other hand considered dangerous, immoral, mendacious, and even criminal.
Beautiful words such as acting, depicting dramatising, role playing, phantasise/now fantasize, theatricality, playing, and story telling, all have a double meaning, supported by the mixed attitudes towards theatre which have prevailed, and are, indeed, at the centre of the characterisation within the ING ads.
Story telling, and telling stories, are one and the same, but they have the imposed duel meaning or the double entendre.
Story telling is not to be described or encircled by the use of a dictionary or lexicon to pin it down as so many foolish people attempt to do with a hosts of individual words. They must have context, and so must theatrical story telling.
Many Ausrtralian dramas, including radio, tv, and film, fail to function properly as a finished product because of the absence of good story telling. Any ad which can be deemed pointless or unmoving , has probably suffered the same problem.
Shakespeare, Maugham, Ibsen, Chayefsky, Lope de Vega, and Cervantes, were all great story tellers, but there is a huge range of story telling between these gentlemen and the writer of the simple 15 sec radio ad, but there is no less artistry, no less theatricality and no less purpose, Story telling is story telling, and the world has existed and flourished upon, and because of it.
Never sell it short, never despair, and never send it up, unless you intend to use it to produce great comedy or satire.
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Journalists, writers and editors have been story telling for Centuries in newspapers, and then in TV news programmes over decades. The opening up of diversified channels requiring more content, especially video, has provided brands with opportunities to tell stories and the advertising industry with headaches because of they weren’t sure how to do it quickly, cheaply, and repeatedly – skills that PR and journo types have in buckets. Storytelling is relevant. Just make it in a hurry and don’t pretend it’s art.
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Nice piece Rob. Totally agree on the emotion element. Rachel Botsman does an interesting TED video where she refers to the increasing importance / relevance of trust & reputation – Themes along a similar vein.
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The first time I came across the term ‘storytelling’ it was in relation to content not advertising. Narrative storytelling is recognised as being one of the most powerful methods of persuading people – that’s why Barristers use it, that’s why every religion uses it in their books and teachings. I think what we have here is a case of creative agencies trying to stop the flow of revenue to those who really know how to craft a true narrative eg. Publishers, documentary film makers etc that to your point, can evoke an emotional response as well as persuade.
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This is what storytelling is to me…
Good stories are often quite long, complex, have a lot of characters, happen in different places and over time. They are not a 30 second ad campaigns. Only when you string a few together, with a clear narrative, like AAMI, do you start to get
some value. Even then consumers see it as just advertising. I see storytelling and it’s power as very much a real world thing. When you telling real stories about real people then the effectiveness is greatly enhanced. The “single-minded ethos” of Apple Rob mentioned comes from not just it’s advertising but the whole story about the company, it’s leader, it’s history, it’s rise and fall and rise again. Advertising is just a bit player in the big story. The company founder, the country of origin, the workers can “inspire emotion in the consumer” a lot more than an ad campaign. When I’m asked to do great ‘story telling’ for a client then I do it as part of a bigger story using a real event or… I think of it as a part not a whole.
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Storytelling is a buzzword? Not something parents have done forever, humanity has done for eternity? Advertising agency so and so’s for how long?
And white-washing our campaigns through it? Through story telling?
Please, please, please tell me there are people out there who can see the sheer absurdity of this?
I love my work but when I read this I despair.
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This jumped up “creative” industry called advertising is constantly corrupting concepts from the real world to bluff the people with money who pay them. “Storytelling” in advertising was allways a stretch – and an insult to humanity’s greatest art form . Only suckers by into it. The same suckers who believe “disruption” is actually something other than being a little different.
If you’ve got either of these words on your agency website – and chances are you do –
you’re stupid.
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Many thanks to everyone that’s taken the time to comment or add thoughts. I feel that a few people, Bea especially, have misinterpreted my intention behind the article, which wasn’t to belittle ‘the art of storytelling’. Storytelling can be highly effective, as the examples I’ve included show, and is one of many ways to inspire emotions in people. Within the marketing industry however, the term has been overused and misused, making it less meaningful.
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“What we’re really trying to do as marketers, is move people”.
What you’re really trying to do as marketers is debase human emotion and expression to increase corporate profit. Don’t kid yourselves.
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Rob,
You clearly make a differentiation between story telling and telling stories, and within the context, I understand why.
However my point concerning the mixed feelings towards theatre, actors, and creative people in general, over the cenuries, is important even in your logical use of “telling stories.”
Telling stories is just fine. so long as they are good stories. I suggest that the people you are referring to, have been confusing story telling with the spreading bullshit.
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Well said, Rob. Agree!
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“I think what we have here is a case of creative agencies trying to stop the flow of revenue to those who really know how to craft a true narrative eg. Publishers, documentary film makers etc that to your point, can evoke an emotional response as well as persuade.”
Not from where I sit as a publisher. ‘Tis very much the other way around with funds going to PR …
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Great read Rob. It reminded me of the Nescafe Gold Blend saga in the UK, starting with a couple flirting in the first ad, through the developing relationship, with each ad leaving a tease for the next. When they finally finished the ad series they had loads of people begging them to continue the story. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Blend_couple
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Great read thanks Rob.
At the risk of being widely criticised, I think the Dove Real Beauty campaign also hit the mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk
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Yep, most of the examples are “just telling stories”
I just read a great article here http://www.b2bmarketinginsider.....orytelling
It sums up, to me, what great Storytelling is about from a Brand perspective. I like the first line “Great storytelling starts with a narrative bigger than yourself.” This is what gives any story impact.
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Hi Lee, I like your example. It demonstrates the point that brands need to act in a more human way and inspire emotion. Instead of trying to sell products via retail messages, Lincoln Electric appealed to people’s personal pride in what they do. “Our audience is anyone who would consider or could be convinced that welding and metal fabrication is a lifestyle, as opposed to just a job or trade.” That’s social currency. Would have been interesting to see if it increased sales. Rob
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“Understanding humans is one of the future aspects of planning”
Really?
I thought it had been for the past forty years or so.
Maybe I’ve been doing it wrong all this time.
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