What Is Storytelling?
“I went out this morning and stumbled over my ex.” That is the simplest form of a story. Anyone can tell a story. But to tell a good story is an art form. It requires a combination of different aspects: creativity, logic, attention hook, connection to your audience, and lots and lots of practice.
Storytelling can take on various forms: image, audio, cinema, or simply words. Regardless of its format, storytelling can ignite the audience's imagination, guide their emotions, change their perspectives, and even empower them to take action. Basically, it can achieve all the impact that marketing aspires to make.
Why Use Storytelling?
Bey is a young deaf girl. She grew up with a burning love for the violin. But life was tough with our girl. “A deaf tries to play the violin is a waste of time!” A bully at school always made sure those words slid into Bey’s ears. She starts to question why she cannot be like other people. Despite challenges, Bey stood strong and registered for a classical music competition. The bully did not let Bey have that opportunity. She had people crush Bey’s violin, wanting to shatter her dreams.
You think it’s over? No. That event set our girl’s determination aflame. She appeared last minute at the competition with her poorly amended violin and played the most beautiful melody. She won the biggest standing ovation of the night. What a beautiful story isn’t it? This is in fact a successful commercial of Pantene Thailand called ‘‘You can shine’ collecting awards left and right and rose to international acclaim.
Now you may wonder: “How did that story have any marketing impact?”
Marketing’s final aim is to sell. To do that, we need to persuade the customers. To persuade customers, we need to make them listen, and hopefully remember. How do we do that? The answer is simple: storytelling.
Humans are storytelling creatures. We love stories. We remember facts far easier when they are interwoven into a good story. When there is a story told, we listen. With that in mind, storytelling is indeed a powerful marketing tool.