What is storytelling in simple words?

In 2023, storytelling became an indispensable and effective tool for sale. Regardless of the application’s specifics and the advertised product, such content meets expectations. The secret of his success lies in human psychology — we always like to listen to stories and make decisions based on our emotions. The brain considers almost 99% of the information received unnecessary, focusing the attention of consciousness on the remaining 1%.

What is storytelling?

“Storytelling” is an English word, translated as “storytelling”. This effective marketing method helps quickly convey information to the reader through an exciting story. Storytelling is often used for blogs, social media, and commercial advertising.

Every day, people tell and listen to different stories. Marketers successfully use this fact because they want to finish reading and listening to a good, exciting story. If the story touches on the problem and describes its solution through purchasing a product or service, it becomes an effective tool for sale.

Well-thought-out and compiled by professionals, stories help businesses:

Tell the audience about the company’s goals, values, and primary mission.

To sell a service or product. Unlike classic selling texts, storytelling inspires 100% reader confidence.

To demonstrate effective ways to solve an urgent problem to the consumer.

Tell us how the product is created from the inside or how a simple employee achieved the status of a boss. This helps to promote the brand and makes the company recognizable.

To evoke emotions in the reader. Storytelling is actively used in social advertising. Thanks to the thoughtful content, Central Asia focuses on pressing problems and ways to solve them.

Storytelling is used to solve a variety of tasks in modern business. The most important thing is to formulate the goal correctly and understand the audience’s needs.

Types and formats of storytelling

Storytelling is divided into several varieties. They differ in the purposes and features of use:

Family. Content is created that is intertwined with the past. It shows the value of family ties.

Social. Such stories are spread through word of mouth. When reading them, people draw their conclusions based on the emotions they have experienced.

Inexplicable. Information is from sources associated with something puzzling, mystical, or unique. Their goal is to immerse the reader in something forbidden and unknown. Such storytelling is inspiring and popular with the audience.

Cultural. The text is aimed at addressing issues of the soul, faith, inner values, and morality.

Storytelling formats

Video

it helps to convey the intended idea to the audience more quickly and effectively, clearly demonstrates emotions, connects music, enhances the effect of

video content-storytelling is most often used to advertise drinks and food

The text

helps to describe the stories in more detail, conveying the entire emotional range of emotions to the audience

in the most popular format

Banners

a series of images (like comics) is being developed, with the help of which a story

is told. The primary purpose of storytelling in this format is to attract the listener’s attention.

Storytelling techniques and technologies

Any story can be told in different ways. Skillfully using the methods of presenting information, the creator of storytelling can completely capture the client’s attention and captivate him with a narrative.

Here are the most popular storytelling technologies and their examples from advertising:

Comparison. It shows a clear picture – BEFORE (it was terrible) and AFTER (it became good). For example, there is a commercial detergent in Villabajo and Villaribo villages.

Monomif. It tells about the life of a particular character in chronological order. The listener learns how the hero learns to overcome troubles and difficulties. This technique is used to promote your own (personal) brand. A classic example is the fairy tale “Cinderella.”

The petals. Imagine a flower in which the idea of the story is in the middle, and the petals become plots that help to reveal it. This technique allows you to identify triggers for the audience and strengthen the leading idea. Example: a video about a chocolate factory for the production of a Twix bar (about the right and left sticks).

Frame. A single storyline is used, which includes separate (independent) stories. 

The beginning is from the middle. The viewer first learns the culmination of the planned event. This provokes a desire to watch the plot to the end (I want to know how it all started and how it will end). Example: Beeline advertising, where the characters talk about important things to their loved ones and children (always in touch with relatives).

Any techniques are used for storytelling. Such plots are written by screenwriters for commercials and TV series, stories, anthologies, sitcoms, and feature films.

To create successful storytelling, screenwriters advise demonstrating not the main characters’ successes but their efforts. Such a storyline arouses much more consumer confidence.

Effective storytelling examples

Any story, even the most boring and unpretentious, can be presented to the viewer brilliantly and intriguingly. Skillfully using storytelling methods, the authors create effective advertising for businesses, online courses, and online stores. Here are some vivid and memorable examples of successful storytelling.

Coca-Cola Brand

The legendary brand skillfully uses a variety of stories for its advertising. From the commercials, you can learn the entire history of the company’s creation, which has been counting down since 1886. Coca-Cola has compiled a vast timeline, which includes stories about the essential brand events, characters, and people. Santa Claus, polar bears, penguins, a Merry Christmas train, football — all this is strongly associated with the famous drink by the target audience.

Prostokvashino brand

Having decided to use famous characters from your favorite cartoon to advertise dairy products, the Unimilk company did not lose. The distinctive association of Matroskin’s cat and fresh milk became the basis of storytelling. Moreover, after the successful display of Prostokvashino advertising, new episodes of the cartoon beloved by many began to appear on the screens.

Social network Facebook

Facebook also actively uses storytelling in its PR concept. From the beginning of the company’s foundation (2004), the world has been watching the history of its creation. Zuckerberg skillfully creates stories about himself. Many people enthusiastically watched an interesting series dedicated to designing and developing the famous social network, the “Social Network.”

IKEA brand

The company’s founder, Ingvar Kamprad, began his business career by selling ordinary matches. Then came the turn of other products: pens, pencils, small stationery, Christmas toys. Ingvar bought goods at a small wholesale and delivered them to potential consumers on his bicycle. Then he found out where the most inexpensive furniture was sold (in Sweden, furniture was considered one of the most expensive interior items). With the help of word of mouth, the Kamprada company gained popularity, and soon, the first factory for producing affordable furniture was opened.

Storytelling Prospects

Modern storytelling is an effective and efficient method of promoting any brand. Such techniques help increase brand awareness and quickly promote a service or product on the market.

Storytelling is actively used in various fields:

Education to get students interested in the subject;

TV to attract and expand the TV audience through series and sitcoms;

business for advertising and promotion of goods and services;

recruiting to attract and select the most promising specialists.

Storytelling is actively developing and used in advertising, the film industry, psychotherapy, tourism, journalism, and other spheres of human activity. Large corporations increasingly put storytelling techniques into practice to expand their target audience and familiarize customers with the brand’s history.