“There are over half a million Linkedln members with storytelling listed in their profile.” Once upon a time, I collaborated with LinkedIn and GapingVoid Culture Design Studio to explore the art and science of storytelling and inspire marketers to reimagine how they connect with their audiences. That partnership led to an interview, shared below, an ebook, “Once Upon a Digital Time“, and a video conversation, “Can Storytelling Save Marketing?” (video at the end of the post). Please follow this post…
Marketing Land: Breaking through with meaningful content marketing in the age of storytelling
Industry publication Marketing Land recently conducted a long and detailed interview with Brian Solis about the subjects of marketing and storytelling, and where the two meet for modern companies.
Three Brand Storytelling Misconceptions That Are Holding You Back
Guest Post by Ekaterina Walter and Jessica Gioglio In the era of the connected digital consumer, brand storytelling needs to undergo a radical shift. For many companies, brand storytelling has become a buzzword, a way to support marketing campaigns or polished commercials. So much so, that we’ve lost our focus on the heart and soul of brand storytelling. It’s time we took the BS out of brand storytelling and focus on what truly matters: building the meaningful and relevant connections…
Once upon a time, there was a meaningful conversation about the art of storytelling and audience engagement
Storytelling is as magical as it is ancient. While many of us appreciate the power of story, we all could benefit from learning the art and science of storytelling and how it can help every facet of or professional and personal lives. Anyone who knows me, is well aware of my love for Disney. I’ve spent years studying the work of Walt, Imagineering, Pixar, et al. During the development of X: The Experience When Business Meets Design, I partnered with…
How true storytelling can save marketing (and more…)
I recently had the privilege to work on a very special project with my friends at GapingVoid and LinkedIn. We set out on a creative endeavor to explore the intersection of story, art, humor and candor as a means of fostering self-reflection and inspiring personal and professional change. The result is a something I’m very proud of…a new short and sweet but compelling ebook, Once Upon a Digital Time: How to be an amazing storyteller when everyone is a “storyteller.”…
The Art of Storytelling in an Era of Connected Audiences
Once upon a time, brands and agencies set out to tell the most engaging, transparent and shareable stories the world had ever seen. Little did they know, the audience would become storytellers in their own right. That signal, that certain spark to break the fourth wall to connect with audiences had since extinguished. The world moved on. Now, everyone was connected and everyone not only had stories to tell and experiences to share, there were devices, platforms and channels to…
Breaking the Digital Fourth Wall Through Experiential Storytelling
The fourth wall is the space that separates a performer or performance from an audience. A character, actor, author or storyteller “breaks the fourth wall” when they address the audience directly. As an analyst, author, blogger, podcaster and creator, I am by default, in the content business. Dedicating time to produce my work matters not if no one happens upon it. But once someone discovers my work, it must convincingly pierce the fourth wall between the medium and them to…
Designing the Experience: My Ongoing Experiments with Book Trailers and Storytelling
I’ve always been fascinated by Hollywood trailers. So much so, that 10 years ago, I was determined to develop a trailer for my next book at the time, Engage!. Since then, I launched every subsequent book with a trailer. You can see a compilation here. With my latest book X, I broke that tradition. It wasn’t intentional however. I simply got so caught up with the launch and the following book tour that I couldn’t get to it. That didn’t…
A Manifesto for Building Relationships in the Digital Era
Not too long ago, my dear friend Hugh MacLeod (@gapingvoid) and I set out to explore a new world of visual communication that combined an intentional form of written storytelling illustrated through clever yet pithy cartoons. That work was originally brought to life in #WTF (What’s the Future of Business). The engagement around Hugh’s work eventually spilled over from print to online with readers sharing their favorite Hugh cartoons via Tweets, Instagrams, Vines, Pinterest, et al. We were inspired to…
17 Cartoons that Will Change Your Business
When writing my new book, What’s the Future of Business, Changing the way businesses create experiences, I felt that text wasn’t enough. So, I sought the wit and creativity of my good friend from the ole Web 2.0 days Hugh MacLeod aka @gapingvoid to help summarize each chapter in the form of a toon. Then we got to talking, why limit the cartoons to just the book? Hugh MacLeod is not only a dear friend but also one of my…
