The Narrative Manifesto

They’re the five words every communications team dreads: “We need a new narrative.”

Translation: Whatever is broken can be fixed simply by telling a new story – or, more likely, telling an old story in a new way. And while ‘telling a story’ is every communicator’s job, the trick is to do it without drawing attention to the storytelling act itself but rather focusing on the message that needs to get across.

In the EU, where European Parliament elections and a new Commission will dominate attention spans next year, it’s about to be Manifesto Season. That means communications teams will be redecorating their key messages and policy recommendations with a lot of flashy design-agency glitter aimed at capturing the attention of a few hundred new arrivals to the Brussels Bubble.

For better or worse, these manifestos will almost all contain some form of narrative. But what is a ‘narrative’ exactly?

In the comms/PR world, a narrative is often a cocktail that includes one shot of mission statement, two shots of policy agenda and an assortment of infographic garnishes. It’s supposed to intoxicate an audience while delivering a message.

But use it in moderation, because ‘narrative’ has become one of those words that sets off alarm bells with journalists and other professional skeptics as a euphemism for, essentially, bullshit. If you call something a narrative you label it as a story line that may or may be true – rather than factual information backed with data.

'narrative’ has become one of those words that sets off alarm bells as a euphemism for bullshit

Of course, the importance of having a story line shouldn’t be dismissed. It should just be used more as an internal tool for aligning and refining external communications rather than as a public image in itself.

Here’s a practical guide for how to craft and use an internal narrative (or a manifesto, if you insist) to guide your external communications.

• Align: Make sure your colleagues/members/associations/allies agree on a main objective, key positioning messages and supporting arguments. This is not as easy as it sounds, but it is absolutely crucial to making sure that, once you have your story straight, you can tell it quickly and without hesitation.
• Organize: Put those messages into a logical order that has a narrative flow. Just as with any report or article or story line, you need to catch the reader’s attention immediately, briefly summarize what you will say, and then get into the details. I use this basic and easily adaptable structure: a short ‘elevator pitch’ intro, followed by a series of key arguments, and then a list of policy recommendations. It flows nicely and delivers a message even if a reader doesn’t make it past the first few paragraphs.
• Compose: Whatever you are writing – text or video script or infographic – make sure it is clear and readable to almost anyone. You may be an expert in technical detail and jargon, but most of the people you are trying to reach – MEPs, Commissioners, other policymakers – are usually not. And even if they are, they don’t want to be bored.
• Share: Congratulations, you have a new ‘narrative’. But sharing it as such would be like serving the whole bar as one drink. It’s more effective to pick and choose from your approved messages and proof points and disseminate them as needed: a series of arguments can form part of a speech; an infographic can be animated into a video; individual proof points can make snappy social media posts. You have a master document that you can use proactively or reactively as circumstances warrant.

So the next time there’s an urgent call for you to “change the narrative”, go for it, but remember that the most effective way to use it might be to keep it to yourself.?