Story Building vs. Story Telling

Great branding campaigns are, ultimately, campaigns of great story telling.

Stories are the best way to impart information. People forget facts. They remember stories.

Before the written word, oral storytellers shared history, which was passed to other generations.

Peter Guber writes about the art of storytelling as a persuasion tool in Tell to Win.

Nike, Disney, Coke, Chick-fil-A. Just Do It. Magic. Refreshment. Cows telling us to eat more chicken.

Storytelling.

Now we’re in the age of Story Building.

Your audience contributes to your branding.

She tells her friends about the great experience she had at your hospital.

How your nursing staff calmed her husband’s fears.

How the physicians saved her husband’s life.

She does this on the phone and on-line.

She’s so grateful for the miracle of her husband’s recovery that she takes to Facebook, a modern day Paul Revere, letting everyone know your brand is expertise, compassion, life-saving, life-giving.

Her friends write back: Thank Goodness for that hospital, those nurses, those physicians.

One Facebook post turns into 100 comments.

Friends of friends contribute to your hospital’s story, building onto it, line by line, as if surrounded by a digital campfire.

Now: How do you support this story building? What do you put in place at the launch of your next campaign to encourage story building?

The challenge: Storytelling is in your control. Story building isn’t.

That’s also the opportunity.

What brands do you think do a great job with story building?