In this article find out with us what storytelling is and what it is used for.
Storytelling is one of the trends of recent years in the world of communication. But it is also a fine art that comes from literature and has now expanded to all areas, becoming a popular marketing tool as well.
What Storytelling Means
Story (story) Telling (telling)
Storytelling is theart of storytelling, otherwise called creative writing.
Explained simply: the art of getting an imaginary item from point A to point B. The telling of what lies in between is storytelling. And, as you can imagine, the variability of this in-between path is potentially endless: developments, obstacles, characters, encounters and clashes, choices and doubts. There is no limit to the imagination.
In fact, using words to tell a story is not a trivial activity-it is the new frontier of communication and marketing. This is because people seek and expect quality content, even from entities that are not specifically concerned with entertainment. If before the sphere of “storytelling” was relegated to specific environments, now it can be considered open to all fields.
Persuading, informing, motivating and exciting have also become increasingly complex, in-demand and refined qualities. Important more than ever to approach a demanding audience in a communications-saturated market. For this reason, the figure of the storyteller is now a cornerstone of the content marketing, or content marketing. The phenomenon of storytelling has grown so much that it requires a new professional figure and, consequently, also new paths of study.
In fact, using the principles of storytelling has become fundamental to communicating anything at its best, including corporate values. Storytelling is no longer a stand-alone, purely bookish art. But a way of thinking, interpreting and disseminating any idea.
Storytelling and Marketing
Storytelling, as we said, is now part of the most creative and recent marketing strategies.
Stories, real life or fictional, are now everywhere.
In fact, almost unknowingly the phenomenon of storytelling has spread on a large scale.
Especially in recent decades, people’s everyday lives have been bombarded with stimuli, fascinations and stories.
Turning on the television we find continuous examples of digital storytelling, advertising, television, film. The same goes for billboards and all print communication.
There are stories told even on product labels, in museum rooms, in Facebook posts. Telling and telling stories, especially thanks to social media, has become an everyday attitude for a great many people. Likewise, the primitive desire to hear stories, to be moved by content, seduced and convinced, has been nurtured.
Therefore, companies have also begun to ride the wave of new communication to persuade and bring their audiences and customers closer together. This is not only to spread products and services, but to increase their brand awerness.
That is, to be known and appreciated by one’s audience through the dissemination of a company philosophy, strategy, and vision. This is the value of storytelling: creating sharing e involvement.
It has also become crucial for businesses to create and empower anidentity. As Francis Scott Fitzgerald said, “This is the most beautiful part of all literature: discovering that your desires are universal desires, that you are not alone or isolated from anyone. You belong.” So it is with storytelling, too.
How to do Storytelling
Here we explain the basic principles for learning how to do storytelling.
First, the narrative must have structure.
It is often thought that a writer is simply “enraptured” by an inspirational muse and writes mainly on the spur of the moment. This is not exactly the case. As imaginative as a storyteller can be, much of the work of writing lies in building a solid foundation. What is called story architecture.
In fact, there are several choices that precede the story, these:
- Type of work (video, novel, poster, …)
- Genus
- Consistent time
- Consistent context
- Target
- Viewpoint
- Objective (meaning)
- Characters (roles)/voice
- Tone/register
- Mood (atmosphere)
- Style and rhythm
Having established these criteria, which are far from random, the structure opens up to division into scenes/chapters/parts: that is, the narrative macrostructure.
It is only at the end of this path that the narrative microstructure takes over, dealing with every paragraph and sentence, down to the finishing touches of every smallest word and punctuation mark.
Also, a very important rule of storytelling is showing with words, not simply telling (“Show, don’t tell!”).
Any kind of story, then, is developed with the famous 5 Ws: who, where, when, why, what. In Italian these are the 5 basic questions for creating a story: who (characters), where (the context and its characteristics), when (the setting time of the story), why (the goal, the mission of the story and its protagonists), what (what the character wants, what drives the subject).
But the rules, tricks and structures that can be used are among the most varied. As you are discovering, nothing about storytelling is left to chance or pure improvisation.
What Storytelling is for
What is the purpose of storytelling? Briefly, its main objectives are 3 consequential points:
- Telling
- Thrill
- Persuade
In fact, storytelling must bring emotion. And emotion must lead to some form of involvement, whether intellectual, emotional or commercial.
Types of Storytelling
The phenomenon of storytelling has inflamed all fields of communication. Below we list the most popular types:
- Corporate (business narrative)
- Digital
- Advertiser
- Cinema and video
- Serial
- Theater
- Politician
- Educational/Informational
- Journalistic
- Serial (TV series, comic books, etc.).
Writing has entered the most unthinkable realms: from app development, to creating stories for video games, slogans, TV formats, brand identity, etc.
But to be effective, storytelling and its performers must have certain characteristics.
How to evaluate a Storytelling work
Good storytelling work can be evaluated and summarized by these 3 characteristics:
- Credible
- Exciting
- Relevant
A good storyteller, however, must:
- master the language
- Have a broad and versatile vocabulary
- know the details of grammar
- Knowing how to juggle narratology and rhetoric
- possess a broad general education
- have a special sensitivity
- listening
- and collect details
But above all, a good writer must first be a great reader.
Some examples of Storytelling
Below are some examples of storytelling for three different fields: advertising, film, and corporate/digital.
Example of Advertising Storytelling
An example of advertising storytelling can be found in Apple’s famous“1984” commercial.
The video that introduced the Macintosh to the world in 1984 marked the history of advertising, marking a crucial shift: from presenting the product and its features toentertainment and poetic displacement.
The subject and script of the video no longer represent the object, but an idea: the philosophy with which the company wants to seduce the public. In this case it is a quotation from George Orwell’s novel 1984 and is meant to allude to the power of bad technology, swept away by the powerful arrival of the new computer.
Example of Cinematic Storytelling
Instead, an example of cinematic storytelling can be found in Christopher Nolan’s 2001 film“Memento” (Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay). We mention it because, although it may not seem like it, cinema is also based on a very solid storytelling foundation: the subject and the screenplay.
In this case, the film was written in time segments that were then edited “backwards,” from the last segment to the first. In this way, the story was told exactly as the protagonist, suffering from a severe memory disorder, could perceive it. Only a skillful use of writing and its structures could have succeeded in achieving such a disorienting result relevant to the meaning of the story.
Example of Corporate/Digital Storytelling
An example of corporate/digital storytelling can be found in Pasta Rummo‘s digital and social communication.
Communication – on the website, on TV, and on social – of the family’s story and the company created very strong brand awareness that literally saved the company from bankruptcy during the 2015 plant flood). This was thanks to skillful use of text for slogans, social media, and sections of the website that tell the company’s story. A pivotal example is the slogan that reigned on Facebook during the 2015 flood:“Water has never softened us.”
So people began to share and support the posts and even the social event specifically created to encourage the purchase of all Rummo pasta stocks still distributed nationwide.
Finally, if you are interested in the services of our copywriting agency or want to talk to us about your storytelling project: contact us!
