storytelling in a digital age silicon beach 2013 slide_share

A storytelling story

Steve Earl

@mynameisearl

steveearl G+

What’s a story anyway?

Once upon a time..

113 years ago Michelin became one of the first content marketers. It became, in part, a media company. It made tyres in Clermont Ferrand, and had an interest in people buying more rubber products. So it encouraged a behavioural change by publishing content that inspired people to travel more – Le Guide Michelin, a list of tested, and often exclusive, restaurants. And in France, there are few better emotive motivators than food.

These were simpler times though, and already most brands were seeing that rather than being the publisher of their own content, they needed to break through into mainstream published content – the content governed by the media.

News drove the narrative.. Cue Ed Bernays, PR founding father and the man behind the Torches of Freedom campaign in 1929. It was an integrated PR campaign intended to add to a brand story, but it was first and foremost about milking the news reach and influence scope of the mainstream press.

The narrative intentions were there, but news was its accelerant. Before long, news became all-powerful and narratives – the things that wove story pieces together, became translucent or invisible.

Cue storytelling by proxy..

In the 1950s post-war era, growth of TV and radio as broadcast media combined to make media relations the proxy for brand storytelling. In fact while plans were developed and maintained, we chased news exposure first and foremost. It would stay that way for a good 50 years.

And storytelling in colour..

Although the 1980s saw an expansion, diversification and modernisation of conventional media that heralded the change that was to come later.

A two-way street again..

When the web came and the internet became mainstream, storytelling once again had greater potential for brands, because we could foresee a two-way street. We could see the eyes of the audience, just like Bernard Cribbens imagined he was doing when he peered through the lens of the TV camera on Jackanory in the past.

©2011 Daniel J. Edelman, Inc. All rights reserved.

Content marketing, brand storytelling, PR or

whatever you call itRegular media

Social media

Owned media

The story

Now, media fragmentation, digitisation and socialisation has changed everything, and that pace of change is accelerating. Effective digital story-telling must take advantage of the different kinds of media today, each with distinct characteristics and rules of engagement, but also connected to, influenced by, and dependent upon one other.

As brand and corporate storytellers, we need to consider these dynamics and target all types: Traditional or Regular, Social and Owned, employing various strategies to tell and amplify a story across all areas. It means evolving how we think, plan and measure earned media, taking a more holistic and integrated approach.

Now, the book never closes..

In recent years we’ve seen dramatic changes in the media landscape and the way that people consume and share news and information. For starters it’s global and it’s 24/7. For companies and brands, this has profound implications. It means that we have to find entirely new ways to tell our stories. Today there are new channels, new tools, new approaches…and new rules of engagement.

Explosion of media channels ©2011 Daniel J. Edelman, Inc. All rights

reserved.

We live in a multi-screen world

©2011 Daniel J. Edelman, Inc. All rights reserved.

Every company is a media company ©2011 Daniel J. Edelman, Inc. All rights

reserved.

Stories are social

©2011 Daniel J. Edelman, Inc. All rights reserved.

Stories Last Forever ©2011 Daniel J. Edelman, Inc. All rights

reserved.

©2011 Daniel J. Edelman, Inc. All rights reserved.

2

BUTconversation is

PARAMOUNT

©2011 Daniel J. Edelman, Inc. All rights reserved.

Old storytelling rules..

1. It’s the audience that matters

2. You won’t see the story until you get to the finish

3. Structure and signposting

4. Simplify, focus, and mix it up. Avoid overcomplicating

5. Challenge your ‘characters’ with polar opposites

6. When stuck, figure out what wouldn’t happen next

7. Pull apart stories you like and figure out why

8. Give your characters opinions

9. Give the reader a reason to root for you/them

10.What is the story essence, or central truth?

..that apply in the silicon age

©2011 Daniel J. Edelman, Inc. All rights reserved.

Silicon stories: emotion

Plan an emotive narrative – just like Who Shot JR? back in 1980.

©2011 Daniel J. Edelman, Inc. All rights reserved.

Silicon stories: narrate

Tell it well – make it spellbinding. We need not only a strong narrative but strong narrators.

©2011 Daniel J. Edelman, Inc. All rights reserved.

Silicon stories: components

Work out how content pieces stand alone and fit together. Words and

pictures.

©2011 Daniel J. Edelman, Inc. All rights reserved.

Silicon stories: shock

Surprise and shock. It will encourage people to share.

©2011 Daniel J. Edelman, Inc. All rights reserved.

Silicon stories: audience

Understand your audience – even if it is niche or extremely special interest..

Steve Earl

@mynameisearl

steveearl G+