Engaging Through Storytelling Overview

Brand Storytelling Engaging consumers and customers through the power of stories Bianca Cawthorne Partner, Butterfly London

“To connect to people at the deepest level, you need stories.” Rob McKee Stories are like viruses. They are ubiquitous – we all ‘get’ stories, no matter where we’re from They are contagious – tell a story to someone, and if it resonates it’ll spread; the most powerful stories demand to be retold, again and again. They stick – through the re-telling, they embed themselves in our own and our shared memory.

Stories are fundamental to our lives Psychologists believe that our brains are hard-wired to tell stories - we innately know how to construct stories Sociologists say that the telling of stories brings communities together Evolutionists think we transfer knowledge and share understanding through stories generation to generation

“We’ve moved from the age of interruption to engagement, from a passive consumer to an active consumer who doesn’t sit back and wait for things to be delivered but whoc goes and seeks things out”c Sir John Hegarty, Chairman BBH

At Butterﬂy, we love stories, and we understand their power Marketing is essentially about telling stories about the products that we make. Although lots of brands talk about their ‘story’, we find it is often simply ‘sprayed on’ – scratch the surface, and it all feels fake, vapid and unconvincing; a weak attempt to create something that will truly stick. Great brands tell great stories, and you’re likely to remember the stories even if you don’t buy the product or service. They’re the ones that stick. Nike, Disney, Dove, Johnnie Walker. Great stories. Great brands. Great businesses.

What are stories about? 1) Stories ask: “What would happen if?” 2) They are about change – how and why things change in life 3) They show human truths – weaknesses, strengths, hopes, fears, desires 4) They show choices – and the consequences of those choices

The elements of storytelling 1) Conflict 2) Plot 3) Character

1) Stories are about conflict • The drama inside a story comes from the conflict it shows. “At their most basic, stories are • All good stories have conflict at their heart – they show about CONFLICT and people resolving challenges, both externally (putting the RESOLUTION – the basic tenets world to rights) and internally (facing up to and overcoming of life: man suffers difficulty and gets through it; we can all relate their weaknesses). to this. We are attracted to the HUMAN STRENGTH TO OVERCOME.” • It is when the hero is challenged the most – when things are the hardest – that we see the most change in him. Rob McKee, Story So What? Brands and businesses need to identify the conflict that they are here to solve. In working through your story with you, we’ll help you identify the tensions and paradoxes in your category, and what your brand can do to resolve these.

3 Act Story Structure Second Major Hero combats fatal Reversal – things Hlaw and completes suddenly change Hinal challenge. l Hla  up al iti Hero w s n e I es to f y face m eng co l er hal  face ruggle ata Ov C ll dua st s his  Gra great t es Inciting Incident  First major reversal Hero’s darkest moment ACT 1 ACT 2 ACT 3

Order, Chaos, Resolution • Joseph Campbell studied myths around the world, and A disruption of the status quo distilled to their most basic elements.  He divided a / an issue to sort story into 3 parts: Order, Chaos, Resolution – Everything is ﬁne in the world of the protagonist, then A struggle / conflict – Something happens to throw things out of kilter, then – After trials and tribulations, things get (relatively) back to normal again. Resolution / return to normality So What? Think about this structure when thinking about your own brand story: What has put things out of balance? What dos the protagonist have to fix? Where is the lowest point? Where does your brand protagonist get challenged the most? What does your brand protagonist have to do to turn things around?

2) There are seven archetypal plots • A critical element of a story is the ‘plot’. The plot captures the activity within the story in a succession of actions and reactions. “How small a quantity of REAL FICTION there is in the world; and that the • If stories are there to teach you, then each plot represents a same images, with little diﬀerent human value and analogously teaches us the variation, have served all consequences of diﬀerent choices and decisions. the authors who have ever written.” • There have been several books and articles published that explore Dr. Samuel Johnson ‘plot’, the premise of many of them being that there are only a limited number of plot types. So What? Knowing which type of story you are telling will help you make the story stronger and more archetypal. Understand what lesson your brand is out there to teach its consumers – what’s the value behind it? Which story is it trying to tell? Then embrace your plot type to make it resonate more deeply.

The 7 diﬀerent plot types acc. Christopher Booker Overcoming the Monster The Quest Voyage & Return Rebirth To succeed, you will need to fight Sometimes you have to put yourself Don’t be lured by false promises - If you lose everything, it isn’t always someone more powerful than in danger to make or find something appreciate what you’ve got now. the end – everyone deserves a you. of value. second chance. Wisdom, Curiosity Strength, Stamina, Bravery Endurance, Determination Zeal, Optimism Rags to Riches Tragedy Comedy Be true to yourself, and you will The punishment with suit the Even complicated situations work be rewarded. crime. out in the end. Integrity, Purity Humility, Tenacity Friendship, Love

Overcoming the Monster ‐ Nike • The Overcoming the Monster story teaches us that, sometimes to succeed, you will need to fight someone more powerful than you, which will require strength, stamina and bravery • Nike has a strong story at its heart of challenging yourself, of striving for your best performance and being committed to the passion for that achievement. • For Nike, the only thing to get in your way of achieving this is yourself – the limits of your condition, of your stamina and ultimately of your confidence in yourself. • What Nike tries to teach us is that there will be times when it will be difficult, it will hurt, you’ll want to give up, but you have to fight through it to win the ultimate battle. • Nike’s story is of ‘overcoming the monster’ (just like Jaws, like most Bond films, like Michael Clayton, who overcomes the corporate system…).  The monster to overcome is the monster inside you.

The Quest ‐ Johnnie Walker • The Quest narrative teaches us that sometimes you have to put yourself in danger to make or find something of value, which will require endurance & determination.  It teaches us that we need to follow our dreams, even if they feel impossible at first. • The Johnnie Walker brand captures this – it is all about following your dreams, and sticking by them, no matter how hard the journey, no matter the challenges you meet on the way, or the people who don’t understand.  This is captured in the image of the ‘striding man’ and is seen clearly in some of their communications. • This idea is now being recreated in a series of adverts in Asia about an Architect, who leaves his job in order to follow his dream of becoming a film‐maker.  There are 7 adverts that follow his journey – through the highs and lows. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tZTojhZJ98

Voyage & Return ‐ Dove • The Voyage and Return story teaches us that sometimes life takes us to places that might seem amazing and perfect, but ultimately are ruled by false Gods. • Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz is mesmerized by the colourful yellow brick road, but realizes that her life is really at home; Andy, the naïve girl in The Devil Wears Prada, ends up rejecting the false world of fashion that had so completely lured her and taken over how she saw the world. • This is Dove’s brand story.  From its Real Beauty platform, Dove tells us to be wary and distrustful of the beauty industry, and that true beauty is owned and deﬁned by you. The same way that Andy had to look inside herself and judge whether she was being true to herself, so Dove persuades its consumers to be true to themselves.

Rebirth ‐ Smirnoff • The Rebirth story shows us that, even if you lose everything, it isn’t always the end, and that everyone deserves a second chance.  It shows people living through the hardest of times to transform their lives with underlying zeal and optimism. • The story behind Smirnoff is of the rebirth of Pierre Smirnoff, who was loved and adored by the Russian elite, but then turned on and imprisoned during the 1917 October Revolution.  He fled Russia to Europe and then to the US, with nothing except his memories of his past. • In the US, he rebuilt his life, and reminiscing about his old homeland, realised that he could bring back a taste of Russia through vodka.  Thus the Smirnoff vodka brand was launched. • This sense of entrepreneurial spirit is captured in the essence of Smirnoff: Being Unique.  Purity is at the heart of the brand, and all its communications show different expressions of transformation and rebirth. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZrReRZPjD8

Jung created Archetypal theory • Carl Jung studies dreams.  He found the some themes recurring in the dreams of people everywhere – they were universal themes and characters that are found in myth and legend. •  He believed that this inward experience was essentially the same in all human beings, sharing the same instincts, the same impulses, the same conﬂicts, the same fears. •  An archetype, therefore, is a universally familiar character or situation that transcends time, place, culture, gender and age. • Archetypes are short‐cuts to eternal truths – and we instinctively understand what they tell us. •  Archetypes recur throughout stories that we tell – we recognise them intuitively, and they travel globally. •  If stories use archetypal characters, brands should align themselves with archetypal personalities. “There are forms or images of a collective nature which occur practically all over the earth as constituents of myths and at the same time as individual products of unconscious. These are imprinted and hardwired into our psyches.”

Jung’s Archetypes Change Outlaw Hero Explorer Magician Sage Jester Self‐ Group knowledge Belonging Innocent Lover Creator Everyman Ruler Caregiver Order So What? Do your brand values and personalities ‘fit’ with the archetypal values outlined? Is there any disparity in communication? What’s your archetype’s vice? What does this say about your brand? What are the other archetypes within the category?

How we use Stories • Brand Development: Building brands that consumers will love, remember and buy into • Insight: Understanding the sources of conflict and tension that could be the source of your brand story. • Strategy Development: Defining the vision and the challenges along the way • Culture Change: Identifying your corporate story and engaging across the business

If you can write a compelling story about your brand, if you can describe where your brand is going, what it stands for and why it will be what it will be… …you will build a brand people connect with, will remember & share

Contact Bianca Cawthorne Butterﬂy London 46 Brook Road St Margaret‘s TW1 1JE M: +44 (0) 7866 806 367 (UK) M: +971 (0) 55 288 7614 (UAE) bianca@butterﬂylondon.com

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Engaging Through Storytelling Overview

by Bianca Cawthorne on May 05, 2009

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