Here’s an extraordinary advertisement that tells one girl’s story: [video]
Do you identify with her story in some way? I did. Struggle, disappointment, rejection, and eventual triumph in spite of great odds are things we can all relate to. There are many times when I’ve felt I lacked the talent, equipment, and experience to make something beautiful happen. I know what it feels like to walk onto a stage, uncertain of the outcome, and experience the joy of having everything turn out okay. (I’ve never had a chance to do the hair-tossing bit though. Not enough hair.)
If a shampoo company finds value in advertising that isn’t directly about shampoo, is it possible that you might find value in telling stories that aren’t about you? I think so.
It’s not enough to just grab any old story and tell it. You need to find a story that resonates with a message you want your brand to be known for. In Pantene’s case, they told a story that shares a message of shining strength in the face of unfriendly circumstances. Is it a bit of a stretch to say that a shampoo might give your hair shining strength in spite of adverse conditions? I don’t think so. It’s a pretty good match, in fact. That’s why the ad works.
Malcolm Gladwell is a great example of an individual who has created tremendous value for his audience by sharing the stories of others. [see Gladwell's TED presentation on The Story Of Spaghetti Sauce] The Spaghetti Sauce story is a bit long but its message is one of innovation, risk-taking, and tenacious creativity. Gladwell’s personal story has a similar message but he can only tell it so many times before it seems stale and uninteresting. So what does he do? Like the shampoo company, he tells stories that contain elements his audience will recognize and associate with his brand.
Let’s take a look at what happens with each example:
Pantene tells us the story of a brilliant and tough little girl who triumphs in spite of hardship – We engage with that story and identify elements that align with what we already know about the Pantene brand. Instead of telling us how to wash our hair, (which we can’t engage with) Pantene tells us a compelling story with a message we recognize and connect with the shampoo. (In so doing, they find a way to get customers to engage with a shampoo. Interesting, no?)
Gladwell tells us about a man who decided to create different types of spaghetti sauce – We engage with that story and identify parts of the message that seem similar to what we already know of Gladwell. Instead of telling us, “You need to be innovative and energetic in your creativity,” Gladwell engages us with a story about a man we can model ourselves after. Telling a story that isn’t about the storyteller allows an audience to focus on a message instead of worrying about being sold to or the overall take-away of a presentation.
How do you put this concept into action? With 3-4-5:
3 Reasons you should tell stories that aren’t just about you
- Because you’re not really that interesting on your own – Even people with lots of money, free time, and a wild past can be boring. In fact, they’re usually quite boring. It’s unlikely that you’re an exception. We’re just too polite to say it to your face.
- Because we don’t want to just talk about you – It’s difficult for us to engage in a conversation that is entirely about you. We worry about offending you if we express disagreement or inflating your ego if we sound out a praise.
- Because we’d like to think you care about us – When you tell stories that aren’t just about you, we get the feeling that you’re interested in something other than your own personal gain. We like that feeling.
4 Places to find stories
- Social media – Twitter, Facebook, and other online social networking sites offer friend-filtered content discovery in real time.
- Traditional media – Newspapers, magazines, books, radio, and television (sometimes) present a less frenetic way to discover content. It’s not as fast as social media but you may find that your retention of the stories you do read is much higher. That’s key if you plan on sharing the story later.
- The people around you – Every time you interact with another person, you have a chance to add another story to your arsenal. Ask thoughtful questions and people will give you answers. Learn to thoughtfully listen and those same people will share stories you never dreamed you’d hear.
- Your imagination – Allegories, parables, and fairy tales have long been used to share a message in an interesting narrative form. If you can’t find a story with a message you like, go ahead and make one up. Just make sure to let your audience know at some point that you concocted the tale!
5 Ways to share stories
- In your conversations – Instead of saying, “Here’s what I think,” try sharing a story that imparts your message and follow it up with, “What do you think?” Your story need not be long–and probably shouldn’t be–in order to make a point. Just give a quick summary and ask for a reply. You might be surprised at the positive responses such an approach will garner.
- On your blog – Take a break from pumping “me-content” for a few posts of “you-content.” Give your readers a break from your opinions and tell them a story that inspires you or caused you to think.
- Through your lifestream – Instead of answering Twitter’s, “what are you doing?” try updating in response to, “what are others doing that inspires you or makes you think?” Take time off from talking about where you are or what photos you just took to share in the world around you. There’s joy to be found in such things.
- In your promotions – Planning a marketing blitz? Take a look at your past campaigns and check to see if you’ve already talked too long about the features of your product or service. It might be time to follow the soap companies’ example and share a story.
- In your presentations - Watch Gladwell’s presentation on spaghetti sauce and give some thought as to how you might go about incorporating stories into your presentations. If you’ve got a bit of time on your hands, take a stroll around the TED site and keep track of the presenters who use stories about others to make a point. It’s interesting to note how those who do tell stories about others often get the best responses from the audience. Coincidence? Unlikely.
I hope you’ll give it a try!
“If a story is not about the hearer, he will not listen. And here I make a rule—a great and interesting story is about everyone or it will not last.” –John Steinbeck
Whose story are you telling?
Great post, Seth.
Life is so richly textured, we should attempt to share it more thoughtfully. Quality matters, and you've synthesized some simple steps each of us storytellers can embrace daily.
Thanks.
David
Hi David!
I think we should all be storytellers. Those with lots of interesting personal stories seem to do best when they set aside those narratives in favor of ones gleaned from others. It turns a teaching experience for one into a learning experience for all.
This was an interesting post. Don't tell stories only of yourself. It's the same concept as playing the same tune over and over again. Spread the word about others and no doubt they will spread the word about you.
Good stuff, Seth.
Along the same lines of the tune on repeat, many of the blogs I once visited regularly ended up feeling like the same party with the same people and the same music mashup with every post.
I’m attempting to avoid that same problem here. I hope to share more stories in the future as I’m pretty sure I’ve run out of ways to explain why the seth simonds shampoo might work for you. =)
Thanks John!
Thanks Seth!
Not everyone's story is easy to tell, even if it's interesteing.
Here are three of my story-telling tips – whether it be about you (directly or indirectly) or someone or something else:
1. Think about possible metaphors. If this doesn't come to you right away, you might consider making a list of things that the person/concept/item reminds you. You can see this a bit in the Pantene ad. The violinist's hair is shining while she's shining while she's playing. You also see the butterfly emerging from the chrysalis. A little more subliminal is the brittle, cracked violin, being made new and whole again.
Questions to ponder:
“What does this remind me of?”
“Are there other situations where myself/my readers might relate to a similar feeling?”
“What senses are stimulated relating to this person/concept/item?” (sense words: fresh, pure, soft, glowing, loud, harmonious)
2. Work those similar metaphoric words into the vocabulary of the article. This paints a word picture that draws the reader in and helps them relate to your layers of points and glues metaphors and underlying concepts together.
3. Use a contrast/compare model : this shows the readers the difference between the person/concept/item and lesser/greater beings. In this commercial, the use of the nemesis, and triumphing over her, illustrated this concept. It gave viewers something to relate to you – and it made viewers feel a sense of triumph over the angry/negative/demeaning person. You also see a comparison between the young violinist and her teacher – both deaf.
Happy storytelling
And to think that you give me crap for using numbered lists and bullets all the time! =P
Great points about pulling things together by referencing the same metaphor in a variety of ways.
Thanks Sarah!
It doesn't matter what the commodity is…a story humanizes, period! It makes it touchable and relatable.
Excellent thoughts here, Seth! Thank you!
We all know That Guy. The guy who asks how your day was simply so he can tell you about his, and how much better it was than yours. The guy who simply can't help telling you the amount of his annual salary, how much more exciting his life is than yours, in essence, how much better he is. Of course, That Guy is dead wrong.
I find, far too often, that bloggers and, in fact, many of the people whom I follow on Twitter spew forth stuff that translates to, “ME! ME! ME! ME! ME!” I can only take so much of that before I tune someone out. Talk about your observations. Tell a story about something that moved you in some way. Did you learn something? Tell me about that.
As an aside, that video is positively exquisite. Goosebumps from a shampoo ad? THAT is good storytelling.
Oh, I know That Guy, too! =)
It’d be cool if storytelling took off. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of effort and a willingness to give up on pursuing traffic, clicks, and links in the interest of value-added communication.
I liked the ad, too.
Thanks!
Seth,
This is quite simply one of the best posts I've read, period (and not just from you). Such a simple message yet such a powerful one as well. Doesn't get much better than that. And isn't all media meant to be about storytelling in one form or another – autobiographies don't always make the bestseller lists for a reason.
I agree with you on most media. Not sure how a narrative would work well for technical documents though. =)
Love the line about autobiographies. On point.
One of my all time favorite pieces I've read on the internet. So much food for thought for me, a personal-story driven blogger. Must have some time to process it all….
I've been trying to move devote more posts to “You” content rather than “Me” content because I was actually getting quite bored of myself
The challenge I'm running into is how to reach a different or perhaps slightly wider audience than I was reaching before– most of my readers originally came to my blog to hear my single mom life turned love story unfold. Now that I'm writing less personal posts and more post directed at being of value to others I'm seeing less interaction/comments from my original readers.
I guess I'm at one of those points in a bloggers journey where s/he is transitioning into being less about quantity of comments and more about quality of comments.
You’ve built up a reader base of people who are very much interested in “you.” Jumping niche is never fun and rarely easy.
I don’t think there’s an either/or when it comes to comments. I’d have to look at your blog and see the background to have a better idea of what you’re dealing with.
I’m glad you enjoyed this!
Wow….looks like someone viewed “Flash Dance” before they wrote and shot this “commercial”. All that's missing is the young girl's blue-collar background working as a welder in a chop stick factory. Come on….at four (long) minutes, this is no commercial. It's a self-indulgent MOVIE by Pantene that taps into every underdog story we've ever heard…..and ends with a dubious play on words (her performance shines, your HAIR can shine) for self-justification. I'm getting tired of “storytelling” as the newest and latest, like MOTH invented it or something, or like a few years ago, there was “no” storytelling in advertising, and now suddenly there is. It's flavor of the season.
I agree totally! Nice analogy!
People aren't interested in you but they are interested in themselves. You just need to create a story which resonates.
Perhaps it's a cinema ad – they can clock in quite a bit. As for storytelling, you're right, it's nothing new. But it is something that's been forgotten for a while by huckster agencies and companies – nice to see it coming back.
Think of the technical plans for the Death Star, and how the nice diagrams told the story of how to blow the sucker up
Paul – Flash Dance was a generation ago.
Great storytelling isn't a flavor except among those who never truly grasp how to go about using it to connect, create, and market effectively.
Danny – I think we'll see more attempts at storytelling. Most will never get it right and end up shrugging the concept off and running away with Twitter or some other fad.
Nike has some great commercials that don't go into the same depth as this video, but definitely share a narrative with a specific message.
Media is being mixed up and the rules changed on a daily basis. The only thread that holds them all together and keeps getting stronger is stories: narrative rules. So, we have to come up with stories about other people too, not just ourselves? I always had a nagging feeling that I wasn't very interesting and now you've confirmed it. No wait, that wasn't me, that was a friend of mine. She's trying to stop talking about herself so much now and come up with some killer stories about other people. Wish her luck!
Always glad to be of some help! =)
Oddly enough, I’m actually considering publishing a few posts that have more to do with me. I haven’t really done that at all and sometimes it can be nice to get a look at what an author is about. We’ll see.
Thanks and good luck!
Great post, Seth. I'm going to come back and re-read it again tomorrow.
Sorry Seth….I don't think that really matters (“Flashdance is a generation ago”). Are you telling me the underdog triumphs is a new story? Come on. From “Karate Kid” to “Revenge of the Nerds” (I know, I know, those are older, too), to pretty much any Disney movie ever made (not to mention, every story in the children's magazine “Highlights”) this is a well-worn theme.
But most significantly, think of the STORY (ie, not the nice job at filming it, which I grant, was well done). If someone were TELLING you that story, after about 30 seconds, you'd probably stop them and say “I've heard this already”. And then 3:30 later, when the predictable ending rolled around (complete with bitchy-girl rival losing), you'd say: Yeah, I was right, I had heard that story a million times before, starting with Horatio Alger.
To me, the magic of advertising is the twist, the quirk, the unexpected ending that, upon reflection, is even better and more fitting than what was anticipated.
Damn—even the music is a giant cliche: the tired ol' Pachelbel's Canon, which people only know because it was the sound track for that divorce movie.
In short, the Pantene ad is like a Thomas Kinkaid painting: sacharine sweet, completely unoriginal, and quietly pretentious.
You had me at the Kinkaid comment. =)
The video is much like other productions put on by soap companies. Daytime TV didn’t get it’s nickname just for fun.
That said…I think the video still holds true for this post. They didn’t tell a story about soap and that, at a very basic level, is something many could learn from.
Is it possible to do a better job of telling a story? Absolutely. I haven’t seen it done much lately though. I like to see a bit more.
Thanks!
Aw Seth! Great post! I often get discouraged when I hear people talking about marketing as something that is controlled by the brand (Pantene in this case) creating sales. I feel that successful marketing is about relationships and relationships are all about learning about the other person and sharing it…That is storytelling. My favorite advertising has nothing to do with the product but rather touches me in a deeper, personal way.
But I really love your section on ways to share stories. Even when we do well at finding them and passionately listening, we often forget that we can share them with others. I know that this is something that I need to do more of. You always make me think of ways that I can be a better person…(as I sit here thinking my response is too much about me!) =)
Sharing them can be an awful lot of work, too. Bullets and lists are much easier to scan than narratives so it takes a lot of effort to have a story flow easily in a web format.
A challenge for us both? Let’s do it, Amy!
Seth:
Can't say I personally love the Pantene spot; a little too sentimental for me, especially the butterfly, but the post and its points are brilliant. The reasons to tell others' stories, the Steinbeck quote and the Gladwell Ted video, which I'd never seen despite being a huge fan of Malcolm, are spot on. Not to mention the post in and of itself is a mini-lesson in how to write an advice column. Impressive,
Edward
Edward,
Thanks. I’m a big fan of Steinbeck & Gladwell (He’d be thrilled at the association) and the post format is just one of a few I’ve been playing with lately. Seems to be a winner and I’m really glad you enjoyed it.
Now I have to surprise you with future posts and that gets more difficult with time.
Have a great weekend!
Seth,
Wow brother, you rocked it again and really inspired me to relate to my blog differently. I appreciate that you challenge the status quo marketing program. Thank you, thank you.
Jayson
Perhaps I’m just not familiar enough with traditional marketing to know any
better? =)
Always glad to bring up questions…they’re always ones I’m working through
as I write a post and especially as I process reader comments.
Sending multiple thanks right back at you. Have a fulfilling weekend, Jay!
I’ve long argued (much to my expected disdain) that a requirement of death should be to write a memoir of one’s life.