Connecting with your audience through Storytelling

Challenge:

In a world were information flows unrestrained in every direction and readers are invaded with  articles, tweets, news, jokes, etc… creating relevant content is key. I work in the internal  communications team, and even though we have a “captive audience” (our employees),  engaging them is not assured just by sending the regular newsletter. So the challenge is how  to engage associates (or your captive audience) and not just bombard them with information:  speaking to them about what they want to hear and doing so the way they want to hear it,  connecting with their emotions.

As Elisa Cool, VP of Brand development at Contently; says in her webinar The art of  Storytelling – “Content is what you offer your audience in exchange of their trust”.

Selection:

I selected the storytelling tool which consists on reaching out to your audience with content that  is engaging in the way of a story. Stories are inherent to the human being; we have been  hearing them since we are kids. So, if we can manage to tell a story that relates to the people  we are talking to, then is much easier that they pay attention to what we are saying. If the story  has an emotional component, it could even start a conversation among your audience, but first  of all, it will give your content or your message a chance to be heard.

Here is the link to the webinar “The Art of Story Telling” from Contently:  https://contently.com/the-art-of- storytelling/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTnpVeE1qQXhOakJqTmpnMiIsInQiOiJzdnFmXC9McmFiM 2hWd0kzdExTVzlmSUlZdE1FVjFhMmFTZDU1U3pmNFBYd3FWVkJhcXJ0WHorcTVXc1R VOXhtT1c1UTR1M0swTHJ4ZGVXOHJiczJCVGJmc2ZxRDJmMFJRV1VtVlQ1V0hqcnM9In 0%3D

Application:

In Mexico (where I come from and live) mother´s day is a very important date and of course is  celebrated around the country. One of the brands (Muebles Jamar) of the company I work for  (Scotiabank), speaks directly to mothers, so the internal communication team partner with the  Muebles Jamar marketing team, to speak to our company´s associates that where mothers  and honor them in this special date. We knew that a congratulations or happy mother’s day  note was not going to be enough. Therefore, we created a special video in which we told the  story of 5 associates (they were mothers of course). We interview the associates and ask them  what was the most fulfilling and challenging role they play in life, all of them mentioned that  being a mother was it. Then we showed them videos of their sons and daughters that we  previously and without them knowing recorded, where their kids mentioned what they like and  admire the most about their moms. Our mothers where tremendously surprised and cried and  laugh when listening what their kids had to say.

The video was deployed on mother’s day through our internal channels to all our associates as  a way to recognize all our employees that where mothers in their special day. Associates really  engaged with this emotional video and also, they felt proud to work for an organization that  takes the time to honor their associates in this way, and they became more in love with the  Muebles Jamar brand, the one responsible for making this possible.

Insight:

In many cases when we deploying content, we want to sell the product or the brand, we want  to mention how great it is or how good is it doing on the market place, particularly to our  employees; our captive audience. But in order to be engaging you need to connect with their  emotions. In this case, we decided to take mother´s day as an opportunity to honor moms  working at the company throughout the true stories and emotions of 5 mothers. Employees  related to this easily and quickly, and we were able to touch the hearts of many in the  company, because at the end, we all come from a mother, and that is the intersection where  the connection was made.

Approach:

For opportunities such as this one, I think I would continue using the same approach with the  story telling tool. But creativity is also very important as well as the surprise factor. Therefore, I  would change how to present the stories. In this case the story was about the most important  role for 5 associates that are also mothers, but for the following mother´s day, the story has to  be different with a different approach, in order to keep surprising associates with our  storytelling.

