The overload of messages in public places and notifications on our devices leads consumers to pay attention to information that is immediately useful to them. For companies wishing to raise awareness among their audience about their messages, standing out from information overload has become essential but complex to achieve. How can you capture your audience’s attention and encourage them to take action? Here, we will share a communication method that helps address these challenges: storytelling.

————

How can storytelling be defined?

The art of touching your target’s emotions

Storytelling is the art of telling a story with the aim of appealing to the recipient’s imagination in order to encourage them to take action. This narrative technique, inspired by tales and stories, is used by both individuals and communication professionals, in marketing or sales. Its goal is to trigger one (or several) emotion(s) in the consumer: joy, laughter, fear, surprise, anger, disgust, desire, pride, etc. By touching them deeply, the company using this method seeks to stand out. As a result, it is the emotion felt while reading the message that is remembered more than the message itself. Think back to ads that left a mark on you! Was it the product or service offered that you remembered? Or rather the fact that the ad made you laugh, surprised you, stirred nostalgia in you, …? A study carried out by AOL and Iligo in 2016 showed that the emotion felt by viewers when watching an advertisement has a direct impact on purchase intent. Thus, an ad capable of generating great joy in an individual is more likely to be remembered by them.

A sequenced narrative structure

Once your objective has been identified, you need to sequence your story. The most common structure remains chronological form. In storytelling, we find the 5 key stages that make up a narrative:
1- The initial situation, during which various contextual elements are stated (place, date, relationships between characters, lifestyle, …). 2- The disruptive event where a sudden event interrupts the balance of the story. 3- The adventures during which several episodes unfold until the climax (the period when tension is at its peak). 4- The resolution, which provides a solution to the problem raised. 5- The final situation, during which stability returns for the story’s hero.

You can also start your story in the middle of the action, and therefore at the moment of the adventures. In this case, flashbacks featuring the initial situation and/or the disruptive event can be added for finer understanding and to lift the mystery on certain points. As the creator of the message, you can also choose to leave out certain moments, speed up periods considered less useful for your story, or slow down specific moments to create a dramatic effect.

Credible stories

The strength of good storytelling is also a story people believe in. Whether it takes place in the Middle Ages, on a new planet, or in a cave, details alone make it realistic. As a result, the recipient can project themselves more easily, identify with it, feel the characters’ emotions, and wonder about their next adventures. Providing precise information is a storytelling strategy to better convince and engage your audience.

Using the senses

Using storytelling for your business can be done through different formats: text, audio, visuals, videos. While all have different characteristics, each relies on one or more senses. Texts, visuals, and videos, for example, are based on sight. Consumers are sensitive to font size, colors used, text layout, chosen shots (close-up/long shot, high angle/low angle), body language of the protagonists, … Consumers can memorize a message more easily if their sight has been stimulated. Let us remember that visual communication is said to have a 55% impact on others according to Albert Mehrabian, compared with verbal communication at 7% and vocal communication at 38%.

Another sense that is very present in storytelling is hearing. Why do you think parents read nursery rhymes to children? It is not only because they cannot read on their own! It is through listening that they learn words, because children have particularly vivid auditory memory. Only once they can speak—and therefore listen—do they associate what they hear with written words.

With the use of voice in videos, podcasts, background music, or sound effects, two considerable advantages can be observed:

• the impression of having a close relationship because the consumer feels they are the sole recipient of the message,

• and the reminiscence of personal memories, reminding them of good or bad moments.

A hero, a quest, friends, enemies

A story with a hero, a quest, secondary characters, enemies, and one or more twists allows your recipients to identify with the story more easily. Some messages (especially brand messages) can be framed so that the reader or viewer becomes the hero. In the context of a company’s communication, friends and enemies are not necessarily physical people. Imagine you are communicating for a restaurant offering dishes made with organic ingredients from short supply chains—your enemies will be imported products that do not respect the environment.

4 tips to make a lasting impression with storytelling

1. Take care of the beginning

The average attention span of an internet user is 8 seconds. The whole challenge is therefore to capture consumers from the very first moments so they are receptive to discovering the rest of the message. Take the example of YouTube ads, which generally last 30 seconds and are unavoidable for 5 seconds. Brands have just a few seconds here to capture attention and make users want not to click “skip ad.” Also look at newsletters sent by brands: if the email subject line and header appeal to internet users, that is when they decide to open the email.

At Seven, we place great importance on our introductions because we know everything happens at the beginning. In this regard, we offer storytelling training and would be delighted to support you in standing out.

To continue with examples, see how the back cover of a book, which briefly presents the initial situation, the disruptive event, and the first adventures, can make you want to read it—or not. Whatever the medium, a compelling message encourages the reader to discover the content. Once drawn into a storytelling-based message, the consumer—feeling involved and attached to the context and characters—will want to know what happens next. This is where the principle of commitment and consistency, mentioned by Robert Cialdini in his book Influence and Manipulation, makes sense. In the book, Cialdini explains that once we are engaged in an action, we are more likely to continue our involvement.

2. Use contrast

Let us now cite the example of a road safety advertisement released in December 2020, which used contrast to leave a strong impression: “Life is too sweet to run a stop sign.” It contrasts with most campaigns on the subject, which usually emphasize fear, sadness, or death. Used to darker emotions felt while watching those campaigns, this latest ad presents us with a very different atmosphere: light and joyful.

Because of the end of the second lockdown and the desire to enjoy life, communication around joyful moments became more noticeable. In the video, we see a man enjoying his bubble bath and humming a cheerful tune. It is, in fact, a simple moment of life at home that is shown. The contrast comes at the end of the ad, when a written message, accompanied by a solemn voice-over, is shared with us: “On the road, let’s not forget what really matters to us.” At that point, the viewer understands that this is a message from road safety authorities. Here, the driving rules to be followed are not explicitly stated, but they are subtly suggested by the message inviting us to enjoy the moments that matter while we are alive.

If you look around you, capturing attention through the surprise of the final message is not an isolated practice. This time, let us take a billboard released during the 2018 Football World Cup. On it, we see Kylian Mbappé, accompanied by the following sentence: “98 was a great year for French Football. Kylian was born.” While, from the first sentence and the blue-white-red background, one would expect a reference to France’s World Cup victory, it is instead the birth of one of the most gifted forwards of the French national football team that is highlighted. Older football fans may recognize an earlier Nike campaign released in 1994 with “66 was a great year for English Football. Eric was born,” referring to Eric Cantona.

3. Use shared memories

To reach a broad set of consumers, the reminiscence of shared memories can be an effective solution. Talking about past moments specific to a particular generation or recalling a period of major change can awaken strong emotions and foster a sense of belonging to a community. In the previous example, we analyzed Nike advertisements, which relied in part on an element of joy shared by an entire nation. While sport has the advantage of bringing many people together, examples of shared memories can be seen in several fields: communication through postal letters, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the release of the first iPhone, the desire to start cooking during the first lockdown, etc.

4. Build suspense

Another strategy to capture attention is to introduce suspense into your narrative. You can first tell a story without finishing it, thus creating anticipation in the reader. This was, moreover, Scheherazade’s strategy in the tales of One Thousand and One Nights. You can also observe this tactic in TV series episodes, which most often end with new information revealed, a new problem raised, or a plot twist, leading viewers to ask themselves, “what will happen next?”

A second way to encourage suspense is to insert a race against the clock. During this, the hero must solve a problem before a specific date, usually within a fairly short time. Stories in which a ransom demand must be met within 72 hours force the protagonists to act quickly.

Finally, you can build suspense by sprinkling your storytelling with subtle clues (and red herrings) left at different moments, prompting viewers/internet users to play detective.

Finally, if you want to know the rest of our storytelling advice, see you in the next episode! See how we build suspense ;)