The Art of Storytelling: Bringing your Brand to Life

The Art of Storytelling: Bringing your Brand to Life cover

When we hear ‘storytelling,’ we might think about bedtime stories, ghost tales around a campfire, or slightly agonising GCSE drama performances. We wouldn’t necessarily think of brand marketing, strategy, activation, and employee engagement.

Right?

Well, forget your associations. Because good storytelling is vital for every form of brand communication.

If you master the craft, you’ll form stronger connections with stakeholders, reach new audiences, and grow as a business.

Next month we have storyteller Giles Abbott talking to our clients and friends. As he says:

There is a magic in storytelling, an art that in many places and in many peoples’ hearts has been forgotten. Or maybe it’s just shadowed by the business of daily life? There is something beautiful in it, a calmness, an escape, a treasure – a safe return home.

And, as noted in ‘The link between memory and stories,’ psychologist Jerome Bruner found that we’re 22 times more likely to remember a fact when it has been wrapped in a story.

The question is, how do we as communicators capture that magical story and make sure we wrap it up with the best, high-quality wrapping paper?

Let’s dive in.

What is it about storytelling?

A hand pulling a book out of a library shelf to illustrate storytelling.

Some stories are so well received—like Little Red Riding Hood—that they’re told for centuries, in various different iterations, to different groups of people in different settings, across the globe.

But why do we connect with stories?

ENTER: empathy.

Empathy is a key player in how we interpret a story.

And in Jeremy Sutton’s article for Positive Psychology, he looks at the science behind it.

In short, we all have mirror neurones that allow us to understand the actions and behaviours of those around us.

Our mirror neurones form connections with the storyteller and the story being told.

Imagine a friend is telling you about a holiday they just went on.

The food was amazing, they tell you. Hmm, you’re feeling a bit hungry, so you might imagine yourself eating that food too.

But the weather was bad, they tell you. Actually, it was so bad that there was a red alert. And they were out at sea. And they couldn’t get back.

Oh, AND their phone was out of battery!

Oh no, you thinkI wonder what happens next?

A successful story is told in a way in which we can understand, with twists and turns and rising tension, making it more memorable.

Research noted in Brighter Minds shows that ‘during a storytelling session, the listener’s brain patterns and activities start mirroring that of the storyteller’s with negligible delay’.

Stories have the superpower of consolidating memories through emotions. Stories that make us feel emotions, signal to the brain that whatever we are experiencing is crucial. That gets hardwired into memory.

As Mark Hauser, our Applied Behavioural Scientist, notes:

The fact that the listener's brain activity mirrors that of the storyteller is rather profound. It shows us that a competent storyteller has the ability to actively shape the wiring of their audience's brains.

For employees, stories have a much more powerful effect in cementing messages than say a PowerPoint presentation about your corporate strategy.

If you can tell the story of your strategy through real life scenarios and emotive examples, people are more likely to remember it.

What’s the Recipe for a Good Story?

A collage of a checklist to illustrated recipe for a good story.

Let’s go back to your hypothetical friend’s story about them getting stuck at sea.

For us to be truly engaged, a story must feel authentic.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, authenticity is key. If this friend was on a beach holiday in a tropical climate and had on a whim rented a boat and didn’t know that the weather was forecast to be bad, this would be believable.

But if they were in Prague on a work trip for the night, we wouldn’t believe them. We would dismiss this story as a bit of a wind-up (in this context) and as disingenuous.

The key to success is also in the way they tell it.

If this friend tells the story in a monotonous, uninterested tone, we might find it harder to engage (and wonder if they were ok?).

If they said it through fits of laughter, we’d know they were not being honest.

But, if they told it with purpose and integrity, we would be more likely to believe them.

And, it’s the exact same for brands.

Your storytelling must convey the essence of your brand in an honest and relatable way. It must be seated in truth and empathy.

Increasingly, and especially on social media, brands need to humanise themselves. They need to know when to not take themselves too seriously and when to be more grounded. In all instances they must come across as ‘real’ – like you.

And this is where the power of generative AI comes in. The ability to created target communications that use words and images that tell a story using the language and tone of voice that resonates with different people is here, now. It means you can tell the same story to a young Mum and a 50-year-old bloke, but use different words to bring the emotion home.

Because, this friend of yours needs to think about why we would be engaged. And how to keep us interested. And they do that by recognising who we are and playing to what they know we’ll respond positively to.

So, start by asking these key questions:

  • Who is your audience?
  • Where do you want to take them? (This could be an emotional state as much as it is an imagined scenario.)
  • Where would they want to go with us? And why?
  • How do we take them there? (There being the intersection of 2 & 3)

Once you have the answers, you can begin to bring your story to life.

Bringing your Story to Life

Collage of two people speaking through a megaphone to illustrate bringing a story to life.

Once you’ve laid the groundwork, you can move into the creative space. So let’s look at some key examples of storytelling done well. In various different facets of a brand.

Brand Strategy

Incorporating storytelling into your strategy ensures that your actions align with your brand narrative. Take Burt’s Bees as an example.

Burt’s Bees consistently refers back to their brand origin story throughout all of their work. Burt and his partner Roxanne began by selling candles and lip balms made from the excess beeswax from Burt’s bee hives. The popularity of these products, and the nature-loving lifestyle of their makers, was the foundation for their successful brand.

Their brand story, and the way in which they reiterate it through their commitment to social responsibility by supporting beekeeping communities or through eco-friendly product packaging, is authentic, endearing, and compelling.

Brand Activation

When creating a brand activation campaign, brands can use the key elements of their brand story or strategy and repurpose them in new, exciting ways.

Take KitKat’s ‘KitKat Breaks Free’ ad. We all know KitKat’s ‘Have a break, have a KitKat’ slogan. I’m almost certain someone has used it in passing when you’ve mentioned needing a break. Am I right? The genius of this advert lies in the repurposing and revitalisation of this iconic slogan within a work context.

With post-pandemic work environments, heavy workloads, and lower job satisfaction in recent years, KitKat’s office-based narrative really hits. We follow a man on his way to have a break, hounded by people asking him questions, humorous sound effects, and special effects. Immediately, we know the feeling. Having a little chocolatey treat on a bench in the fresh air seems very appealing.

KitKat has given their audience a new scenario in which they are encouraged to have a break (for their mental health) and have a KitKat (to soothe their soul).

Internal Brand and Employee Engagement

Let’s look internally too. Storytelling is equally powerful within an organisation to inspire employees and create alignment. If people don’t have faith in their brand’s authenticity, then they’re more likely to tune out. So, staying true to your story is a way to ensure your team is engaged and inspired.

the Team

As various businesses push for their employees to work 5 days a week in the office, our Managing Director Kevin Mackenzie had something to say.

In an open letter, sent to all Teamsters as well as published on social media, Kevin heralded the importance of trust as a key opponent to this movement. In Kevin’s words:

My job is to build a level of trust with you. It’s my job to recruit people we can all trust. And I do trust you. I trust you to get the job done and to help take us forward. If a leader can’t trust their people to do the work and earn us all a crust, then it says more about the leader than it does about you. So, we won’t be changing our flexible working policy.

Receiving this letter made us feel validated and valued. Our company culture and brand identity are based around teamwork (as the name may suggest). And for a team to thrive, it must be based in trust.

bp

After the Gulf of Mexico disaster in 2010 we worked with bp to help them reset their values and behaviours. It was a painful experience for many employees who were all deeply shocked by the deaths of employees.

But, to move from one state to another it was essential for employees to have the time to talk about what had happened, why and how things could be changed. Telling stories became a essential tool for us to better understand what the organising values for the new bp should be.

As our director, Cliff Ettridge said, “storytelling became central to their values and behaviours.”

SBM Offshore

Another example would be our work with SBM Offshore. They approached us to help them create a compelling corporate story that profiled their part in a shifting market landscape.

It was important that they took a responsible role in energy progress whilst simultaneously acknowledging their oil and gas heritage.

The result was their True. Blue. Transition. narrative: a relatable, clear, and concise story that shares who they are and gives their global team a shared focus.​

To help implement this narrative within the business, we created the True. Blue. Transition. Playbook and accompanying cascade tools for their top 150 leadership team to use. ​

Clarity, authenticity, and truthfulness meant that people could get on board and deepen their understanding and connection with the brand they worked for.

Man in yellow hat with green jumper connecting with the story he's reading on his phone.

Final Thoughts

Brands should use storytelling as a strategic tool to elevate their communication, foster authentic connections, and drive meaningful engagement.

Whether it’s shaping brand strategy, creating standout campaigns, or building trust internally, the impact of a well-crafted story is undeniable.