Storytelling. Telling a story. This idea has been around business long before the digital era. Whether it was to sell the best pair of boots, or to manipulate public opinion, leading the story or the interpretation of history have always been, and will always be a massive battlefield. In the digital era, the promise for brands is even greater; there could be ways to generate great big movements with consumers, while being always relevant at every bit of their micro-moments of truth.
As Steven Spielberg once claimed, if “technology can be our best friend, (…) technology can also be the biggest party pooper of our lives. It interrupts our own story, interrupts our ability to have a thought or a daydream, to imagine something wonderful, because we’re too busy bridging the walk from the cafeteria back to the office on the cell phone“.
What’s a good story after all?
There are many ways to assess what a ‘good’ story is. Patterns emerge and platforms are supposed to help us in selecting them. Think about Netflix “because you’ve watched” function; or even the ratings on Goodreads.
Stories that matter can be an intimate subject that moves you; and sometimes a subject you want to share, like a simple gift you curate and spread to your precious ones.
The truth is that there’s no absolute truth when it comes to creating these stories. Despite some guidelines like “videos should be very short online” (which is absolutely wrong: if a content is great, you watch it till the end!), the maths beneath a great plot is still unsure. Data feeds scriptwriters but it’s then up to their talent to decipher this data.
The hopes for brands: persuaded audience
For brands, storytelling techniques in the digital era promise a sort of Holy Grail: by tapping into people’s soul and passing through their mouth, the brand spirit would come to life with the words of the end-consumers.
The brand would build-up a consistent and long-term attachment with its consumers.
The consumers would crave for the next episode of the brand story.
The brand would be able to handle this attention by carefully distributing perks, sneak-peaks, while allowing its best consumers to attend the show before anyone else.
All in all, the massive queue of sneakerheads or just simple fans of Kanye West, attempting to buy a pair of Yeezy,
The line to the yeezy pop up store pic.twitter.com/OGLRdB6MsR
— Beard Stroker (@_MissTui) August 19, 2016
or the recent rush for Kenzo x H&M collection are demonstrations that storytelling matters.
The truth is that good storytelling is rare; and it’s very often not enough to generate sales. How many beautiful productions posted on YouTube generate…no view? I think about this recent Zadig & Voltaire ‘This is her!” film, posted a week ago that generates less than 1,000 views, despite a beautiful production
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scV7y6aBSqg
Storytelling is about reciprocity
Christopher Graves, legendary Ogilvy storyteller brings a crucial statement: content therefore stories are about reciprocity.
“you either believe you are more clever than people who buy your products and can manipulate them through undisclosed payments to their trusted heroes to promote your wares (one form of “influencer marketing”); or you believe that the only enduring form of influence is an honest, respectful relationship, based on mutual interests, that ends up earning influence”.
In other words, to make a story successful, it’s not just about designing, creating, crafting or producing…it’s all about finding how people can transform a script, a fantasy into a reality that matters.
Reciprocity: from consumers to users
So what does not work ? Maybe an important element: consumers are first users of the brand. And as users, they are not idiotic audience but clusters who interact with the brand, with the products, which transform them or even destroy them.
In other word, storytelling without narrative games is a missed coup.
Narrative games are as important as the story
What do we mean by “narrative games”?
Well, let’s take the old arcade game Pong.
- Pong does not have a real “plot” except winning a game: everything relies on the player(s), not on a story per se
- Pong does not have any strong emotional scene, however conveys the conditions of a very strong emotional ties within players
- Pong does not have any fancy design; but its minimal look & feel unleashes a very strong freedom for players
- The more users play the game, the more attached they feel
But in “Pong”, users are in charge:
- They play to win, and there’s may be no end: what matters is the flow, the mission they’ve assigned to themselves
- In Arcade games room, users can decide to add one more pound or to stop: they bet on themselves
- They gradually develop some skills as they play along, unlocking new levels
Good storytelling techniques add fantastic “narrative games” traits; Louis XIII with John Malkovich famous film “100 years” played it to the extreme. Ultimately, whatever the quality of the film is, because people made this film important 100 years before its release (!), it’s a story that matters.
Kenzo creates a wide diversity of little digital goodies (like this Google Chrome extension called Kenzo time) which make people play with the brand without a real story beyond.
Uber’s now popular feature to get to know your own rating was part of the “narrative game” to bond users with the brand.
To conclude, brands need to create systems in which story is ‘just’ a general territory, a bit like a country. What’s now crucial is to develop all the activities in which people can come, play with them and eventually get attracted by the story. In other words, you don’t have to speak French to visit France; but you might have a degree of things to do there, partly knowing its history (or not) or a specific place. However, what makes this country attracting is not only its full history: it’s what you can make in its presence. A bit like a timeless novel.