Oct 9, 2012

TELL A STORY


Hi!

I'm not writing today, just sharing a very interesting article! Here it goes...

So, telling as story....


"It's the reason Steve Jobs sold millions of iPods by skipping the technical specifications and simply stating that one thousand songs could now fit in your pocket. It's the reason trial lawyers appeal to a jury's humanity as much as the letter of the law. It's the reason political candidates fight to define each other's narrative. When human beings need to persuade people about ideas, we tell stories. 

In 2007, the American Association of Advertising Agencies published the results of a two-and-a-half year study that charted the effectiveness of two types of ads: ads that told a story and ads that appealed to rational reasoning. The result?

"For the most part, ads that tell stories and engage and involve consumers create stronger emotional relevance than product-centric ads," the study concluded.

We all remember the "Wassup" ad from Budweiser that told the story of a group of close friends with their own inside jokes. But do you remember the Miller Lite ad that touted the brand's low-carb recipe? Probably not.


"Wassup" ad from Budweiser

In his book The Storytelling Animal, Jonathan Gottschall points to research by Italian neuroscientists as evidence for the effectiveness of stories. By implanting electrodes in a monkey's brain, researchers discovered that certain parts of the brain were activated both when the monkeys performed an action and when they witnessed other monkeys performing that same action.

In other words, we live vicariously through the actions and stories of others. It's the reason we wince when we hear a disgusting story or feel our heart race while watching an action movie. It's also the reason that ideas that evoke a specific narrative are more memorable -- they invite empathy, which increases the likelihood that they will be accepted and adopted.

"If you don't know how a principle came to exist you'll never adopt it as your own," says Jonathan Harris, an artist and co-founder of the online storytelling repositoryCowbird. Without a good story to back it up, ideas are easily dislodged and replaced in our memories.


Click here to read more!

PS: empathy is a powerful thing; use it for good!
V.

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