Loading...
Why Storytelling Is The Ultimate Weapon and other links
Share
Copy Link
Here’s a curation of media with notes for your consideration. This is my short syllabus for new students of brand storytelling. These resources cover the topic smartly, I think. If you need the history, context and evidence to invest in storytelling for your business, these resources will do. Bravo to these artists who have helped expose the value of creative storytelling for marketers.
The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
The academic root to many of the storytelling methodologies for brand marketing refer to Joseph Campbell’s seminal work. He outlined 17 steps to the Hero’s Journey, which he described as the monomyth. The mechanisms for why stories work are captured in his literary analysis.
The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler
If you’re into the LA script writing scene, you know this modern classic. Vogler’s work helps translate The Hero’s Journey with examples from movies, making it accessible to millions of story creators and brand marketers.
Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide by Henry Jenkins
Storytelling as methodology for marketers could not have appeared with such urgency if not for the demand to deliver superior content through every channel. Jenkins helped document and popularize this movement with his work on transmedia.
Resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences by Nancy Duarte
In her work to show us how to be better presenters, Duarte has helped pave the way for storytelling in the boardroom.
Story Branding: Creating Stand-Out Brands Through the Power of Story by Jim Signorelli
This work offers a great foundation for brand storytelling. Discover useful tools to evolve from story metaphors to tactical plans for executive approval.
Winning the Story Wars: Why those who tell — and live — the best stories will rule the future by Jonah Sachs
Track the brands that are waging a war for your mindshare. Brands are investing heavily to force us into the story trance, where we are more likely to become super fans.
TED TALKS FOR BRAND STORYTELLERS
Morgan Spurlock: The greatest TED Talk ever sold
It’s a great time for artists to connect directly with businesses and to take them as a patron and sponsor, to work together to build communication arts and to build stories that connect. Of course, it helps if you have Spurlock’s extroverted charm and comic timing.
Nancy Duarte: The secret structure of great talks
Duarte’s work appears in video and book on this list, because we all need a little help when it comes to telling a good story. She has taken presentations from masters and analyzed what works to provide a blueprint for designing transformative presentations.
Joe Sabia: The technology of storytelling
Fun story introduction to Lothar Meggendorfer, the man who changed print forever. Sabia uses this metaphor to great effect. “The way that people tell the stories has always evolved with pure, consistent novelty.”
EDITORIAL COVERAGE ON POWER OF STORY
With Feedly and Twitter and various news apps, we can track brand storytelling in the news. I’ve enjoyed the consistency of smart coverage by Fast Company and Harvard Business Review’s Blog Network. They have helped herald the topic with articles like these.
Fast Company stories for brand marketers
Why Storytelling Is The Ultimate Weapon by Jonathan Gottschall
Giving Your Brand Primal Power through Storytelling by Nick Nanton & JW Dicks
For Brands, 2012 Is the Year of the Story. So Who’s Telling It Best? by Kathy Oneto
The Science of Storytelling: How Narrative Cuts through Distraction Like Nothing Else by Teressa Iezzi
Harvard Business Review Blog Network articles on Brand Storytelling
The Irresistible Power of Storytelling as a Strategic Business Tool by Harrison Monarth
Good Companies Are Storytellers. Great Companies Are Storydoers by Ty Montague
How Story Platforms Help Global Brands Go Local by Kirk Cheyfitz
Storytelling Lessons from World Wrestling Entertainment by Sam Ford
QUOTE FOR BRAND STORYTELLERS
Quote from Gottschall’s story in Fast Company:
Until recently we’ve only been able to speculate about story’s persuasive effects. But over the last several decades psychology has begun a serious study of how story affects the human mind. Results repeatedly show that our attitudes, fears, hopes, and values are strongly influenced by story. In fact, fiction seems to be more effective at changing beliefs than writing that is specifically designed to persuade through argument and evidence.
—