Event Storytelling Playbook

Creating stories to market a product or service can help you connect with customers more easily. But how does this storytelling approach work?

About the article

Already the article’s title “Event Storytelling Playbook” is very inviting. The use of the word “playbook” made me think of easy and playful step-by-step guidelines instead of just “another article”, which is a huge relief especially for impatient readers like me! 😉

The most important points:

• Stories should be simple and focus on the essential (brand promise, value, identity, USP)
• Possibility to use already existing stories, because it is nearly impossible to create something that has never been there before (customers are likely to recognise the story, which catches their attention)
• Identifying the attendee journey (I will talk about that a bit later!)
• Make customers the heroes of your story
• Create relatable scenarios for them to connect with your story emotionally

What to learn from it

As we are learning in this Marketing course, storytelling is an important and useful marketing element, especially in the digital world. It catches people’s attention, attracts a lot of new customers as well as it deepens existing customer relationships.

I personally have been interested in creating stories, mostly in form of videos, myself, therefore I am really curious about this specific marketing tool. I like becoming creative in this way and I am sure that I will come back to this article in the future for my own use.

What caught my interest:

1. The 6-point plan for Resonating with the Audience

One: Creating demand for the product/service

Two: Creating value with a backstory
An organisation that came to my mind is 4Ocean. They are the perfect example by creating value with their mission to keep our oceans clean; people with a similar vision or values are ready to become customers for this story.

Three: Creating trust with brand promise

Four: Branding identity within an event

Five: Creating relatability by keeping it simple
This point made me think how advertising a story of someone most people cannot relate to at all (like a superhero) might be entertaining, but they won’t feel like the brand speaks to them directly. Instead, imagine you are a family father, who often suffers from migraine. One evening you’re sitting on the sofa and come across the following TV advertisement:

The man in the video is neither perfect, nor does he have any superpowers that make him the perfect main character of the next Hollywood blockbuster. However, he catches your attention, because you can perfectly relate to his struggle of dealing with migraine and children at the same time, so you build an emotional connection with him.

Six: Making your story the start of the customer’s journey
We all are getting loads of video advertisements daily, and from own experience I can say that there often is an “open ending” in a story and it is up to the audience to complete it. University advertisements like the one below are a great example for that. Their video is the product introduction and the next chapter is your own one, with their help: “Start your journey”.

 

2. Defining the Attendee Journey

This point was very interesting to me, because it made me realise how often we can find ourselves in such a situation without even noticing the concept behind it.

Let’s say you are planning to go to a concert. Already weeks before the concert you would get emails or videos, which boost your excitement, during the event you enjoy the music and the show, afterwards you get asked for your feedback and get access to pictures or videos for example on social media, which will make you remember the concert even years after it had happened.

 

3. You are NOT the hero of your story

The customer is the hero of your story! And you are the one who has a solution for their struggles. Heroes are usually not perfect; that way it is easier to relate to them. This is a very interesting factor as well, and once again I was surprised how often I had faced those situations without noticing.

Let’s say you have a skincare product like in the video below. Create a story for someone who struggles with skincare. You should clearly show that you understand their struggle and need for something else, which is why you are offering them your product.

While doing that you are creating small emotional hooks, which make them care about your product. Your goal is to overcome their struggles with your help! Showing positive emotions after the problem has been solved increases your believability and that you can actually help them.

What should be improved?

Even though I liked the article a lot, I would improve the point “keeping it simple and relatable”.

Having something that is easy to follow is important, but for my own taste those stories are not always the most attractive ones. In fact, the crazier and absurd the story, the more attention I give to a brand’s advertisement, whether I can relate to the situation or not.

A perfect example for my point are the Snickers advertisements. You will probably never find yourself in the situation of jumping from roof to roof or changing personality after a snickers, however the story is funny and entertains you, so next time you see a snickers in the supermarket, it will remind you of the advertisement and the positive emotions it gave you and you will consider buying it.

Check out the Snickers advert with Mr Bean!

 

Bibliography

EventMB Studio Team 2019. Event Storytelling Playbook, page 24 – 43.

Panadol ANZ 2018. Panadol Extra Migraine Headache 2018 TVC. Accessed 21 May 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2NgP8EQRBM.

Snickers UK 2014. Snickers Mr Bean TV advert – Subitled. Accessed 22 March 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIVDxL2lgN4.

Curology 2020. That Feeling When Skincare Finally Makes Sense. Accessed 22 March 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzOrf8Y-qAw.

University of Kent 2021. Start your journey | University of Kent. Accessed 22 March 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nPQeflFd0A.