Hester Christmas

A story surpasses statistics and shock-tactic imagery – a story positions your cause in a wider context of purpose and meaning. Compared to alternative marketing techniques, cultivating a compelling narrative goes a long way in resonating with an audience on a far more emotive level. Achieving that emotive trigger remains critical in a media-saturated society where people are inundated with distractions from fierce competitors. What makes stories so effective is the way in which they thread together the facts with a narrative people can engage with. By contextualising your organisation’s purpose and mission within personalised case studies and real, lived experiences, you transform the abstract into the tangible. For an industry that relies so heavily on human compassion, storytelling is an invaluable tool that reaches out to your audience less as reward-seeking consumers, and more as emotionally receptive human beings. Storytelling can be applied across multiple different formats. Depending on your budget and available resources, you can opt to explore storytelling through a variety of mediums and formats. Here are 3 tips to help your organisation employ the tool of storytelling effectively:

1. Step one: set the scene & embed the subject

The scene is almost as important as the main subject of your appeal. Spend time fleshing out the context of the issue before honing in on one specific example. You need to address questions such as Why is this important? What are the conditions that have made this possible? Give your audience an idea of the how and why, before dispelling the issues you’re seeking to rectify. This is a classic case of “show and don’t tell”; instead of fast-forwarding to presenting the issue and instructing your audience to help, first show them how and why your cause warrants their attention. Charity: Water utilises this strategy effectively in their animated campaign Why Water? By first introducing the centrality of water in our lives and how it’s often taken for granted, Charity:Water first sets the scene before demonstrating how problematic a lack of access to clean water can be to those with limited access. Your target audience can then deduce what the issue is from the context to ultimately exercise more engagement with the cause, as opposed to passively absorbing pre-made conclusive statements. By systematically breaking down the problems and their effects, your objectives better come into focus in a more accessible format.

2. Keep it simple

An engaging and effective story doesn’t warrant an excessive amount of detail. Try and avoid bombarding your audience with a plethora of facts and statistics. Some of the most effective stories deliver simple and concise messages. Don’t attempt to pack in multiple accounts and case studies into one story, stick with a narrative and opt for quality over quantity. To immerse your audience into the story you need memorable and concise messages that will stick with them. A good way of avoiding producing text heavy content is by experimenting with info graphics to deliver facts and information. Not only is this a more visually enticing medium, it also diversifies your content to retain interest. Everyones eyes need a rest after a while, and info graphics perfectly serve as both an informative and aesthetically pleasing method to get your message across succinctly. It’s important to avoid too many colours and arrows – keep it simple and engaging.

3. Diversify your media outputs

A great storytelling strategy typically combines different forms of media. Retaining the public’s attention in an environment where the constant bombardment of advertising and marketing messages remain rife, getting creative with multi-media is an essential way to stand out. From info graphics, animation to videos - combining a variety of multi-media is a great way to communicate your message with maximum impact. Deviate from sole written content and embrace other mediums to help inject more of a human presence in your campaigns. Video and audio inevitably help achieve engineering this personal touch most explicitly. A great example of this comes from the Dementia Diaries project. By compiling a series of audio clips of real, authentic personal accounts, Dementia Diaries invites the listener to experience an intimate snippet of what life is like for those suffering with dementia. The intrinsic intimate feel of this experience draws the audience in closer whilst delivering an insight into real life dementia sufferers not just as victims, but people too. The results of which are far more powerful than relaying statistics and percentages.