Recently, one of the most frequently mentioned terms especially in digital marketing world is the “Storytelling” technique. This technique has become widespread gradually as a result of a new search arising from the increasing unproductivity of the traditional and presentation style.
What is Strorytelling?
Today, there is a quite repressive advertisement intensity such that is probably the best to forget the thing you watched for living a healthy life. The other day, I watched the people who travel with their smart phones in their hands while I was taking a bus. They skip from an advertisement to another, a news to another with one move of their hands. The fingers of the people that reach out their phone every other five or ten seconds were doing the common move which throws the item on the screen to the past. However, the substituted item is also not very permanent, its end will not be different from the previous one. During this extremely fast consuming activity, you can see tentative changes in mimes: Yes, she watched a funny thing now, now she seems like feeling a little sad, she must have read bad news.
Whether it is a very beautiful visual or a striking slogan, the destiny of almost all of the advertisements with traditional approach in digital marketing is to be forgotten. Besides, while the little gimmicks that cover the screen and make reading difficult that you do in an ever-increasing competitive environment also bring you nothing, it is possible enough that they lead to plans in the subconscious for avoiding the advertisements or such texts. Maybe this is the reason why the technique called “storytelling” became prominent.
I also have met with many people and have watched a great number of advertisements and presentations like all of you until today. And which of these sticks in my mind? By the way, I think of a short film screened in a meeting of a big logistics company in which I worked that tells the development of the company beginning from the first branch they established years ago. Steve Job’s famous speech which he delivered in the graduation ceremony of Stanford University is also always in my mind. I have visited a company in Kartal. An executive who tells the story of the predecessor company which has been inherited from generation to generation. It is been over 20 years but I remember everything from the couch he sat that day to his wearing.
Well, you understand where I am trying to come. All of them have stuck in my mind because of they are telling stories. Actually, I disremember the visuals, slogans and faces. Only the stories. I don’t know why, the stories stick in mind maybe because of we all grew up with fairy tales or the stories are ravishing for us. We usually remember the story first and then we remember the person who told that. Today, the itemized goals, rules or benefits for having more efficient advertisements, increasing the intercorporate communication, adopting your management strategies and creating a team who trust each other and loyal clients do not work. All of these goes to waste with a friendly greeting as the end of the meeting or a finger move at the end of a presentation. However, you can not forget the stories that make you smile, surprise you and sadden you even if you want to.
This is because today many enterprises choose to telling story in the field of digital marketing instead of ranking first in the search engines, giving advertisements in various mediums and sharing similar posts continually. While they are telling story, they are actually telling the company goals, the commitment of their employees to each other, the confidence of their customers for them or a new product. The decision is yours: You will gain a ground in middle ranks for yourselves by using a method which has thousands of similar ones or you will become prominent by finding interesting stories.
Different storytelling methods
When we materialize that a little more, for example, you are in the health sector and you are advertising an ancillary product for nutrition. Instead of a commercial that repeats the brand tens of times by saying that “good for this” and “good for that”, telling the story of a person who use that product will be a good “storytelling” example. You can tell this story with a text, a video or a song. Now the thing you recommend your friends or share from your social media accounts will not be a product commercial but a story.
Or let’s say that you brought a cleaning machine that is unique in the region where you provide service. Instead of yelling as “This is unexampled”, “Unique” or “One and only in Turkey”, you will tell an interesting story that carries this message inside. The stories -at least, for now- are more convincing and more attractive than the traditional commercials. Your job will be to write surprising, funny, sad, attractive stories that are accordant with your vision. Or you will ask for writing the most beautiful stories for you from your service provider who undertakes this job.
Consider this not as a one-hit gun but a long-term journey: After a while, you will have an identity, a vision, your face seen from the outside, and stories which are told among people or circulate in social media.