What Richard Branson taught me about storytelling
In this guest post, McCann Worldgroup boss Ben Lilley shares what he learned about storytelling by hanging out with Virgin founder Richard Branson on Necker Island.
We are an industry awash with “storytelling”. Everyone’s a storyteller and every brand has its story to tell. So where are all the great brand stories?
Storytelling is not the problem here. For all of us seeking to create meaningful connections with information-saturated consumers, the art of storytelling – and its power to move and persuade – is more essential than ever. The problem is that most brand stories are just not that interesting, or not being told very well. Or both. Yes, yes, there are notable exceptions. But there are precious few consistently great brand storytellers. And in my book, there are none better than Sir Richard Branson.
Branson and Lilley on Necker Island
Ben, this is great. Can you put this into context – who else was invited and what was the purpose of the 5 days?
Cheers
Whilst Branson still spruiks / sells his own (and the brand of Virgin), as being dynamic, non corporate, fun and playful, it / he are indeed very corporate today.
Take Virgin Australia as an example. John Borghetti is pictured in the in flight magazine, sadly wearing a tie. Please people: stop wearing ties!
Back in the good ole days, when my meeting finished early in Melbourne and I was at the airport at say 4pm, the friendly Virgin staff would always seem able to get me on an earlier return flight back to Sydney. Nowadays the busy Virgin staff state that unless I buy a flexi fare, then tough, you have to wait. A little different to the maestro of corporate brand fudging Dicky B who continually tells stories like: “Life’s short; break the rules”. his staff appear to be totally held up, as do his customers; by the rules. Oh how contradicting Mr Branson is today, when you take a closer look at his businesses.
I can’t really sum up the Virgin Australia brand in Australia today. It isn’t as good service wise as Qantas. It is cheaper as a brand, only a little cheaper now in terms of price. I don’t trust folk who wear ties. No need for them in 2014, which is why I still do warm to Dicky B, even though many of his stories, I feel, are to make his brand appear far more flexible than it actually is.
Hi @me. Of course happy to elaborate. The Leadership Gathering has been running for four years now and is hosted by Richard at his home on Necker. It brings together a different group of business, community and creative thought leaders each year to share and discuss ideas that can benefit the work of Virgin Unite and Australian charity Igniting Change (http://www.ignitingchange.org.au/).
This year’s group included TED’s Chris Anderson and his wife and founder of the non-profit Acumen Fund, Jacqueline Novogratz, performance artist Marina Abramovic, Sudanese child solider and now musician and actor Emmanuel Jal, Igniting Change founder (and previously Red Nose Day founder) Jane Tewson, as well as Richard and his son Sam Branson. It was a remarkable group! You can read more about the content and format of the week on Richard’s blog:
http://www.virgin.com/richard-.....ire-change
Thanks Ben, what a cool experience that must have been. I am a huge proponent of fail often, fail fast and fail forward. Branson has done an excellent job of making commodities sexy, arguably through his creative story-telling and readiness to take risks.
A golden strategy really; refine perfection in your product, generate buzz and let the experience take care of itself. An inspiring guy and story!
@Believer….. perhaps rethink your support of the Fail mantra. Read this > https://medium.com/p/c5d64b3ae96b I also suspect Richard Branson has a lot of smart people working for him too.