Why storytelling is more relevant now than ever.

In 2009, a man, a journalist, Rob Walker went on eBay and bought 200 cheap products for as low as $0.99. He then contacted 200 authors to write a story about them.

After the product stories were written, Rob listed the 200 products on the eBay site with their stories attached. The bidding was on.

Considering Rob had spent $129 to buy the two hundred products, how do you think he made it after attaching a story to each product?

$8,000, You read that right!!

In fact, the $0.99 products sold for $62.25.

This is a 6,225% price increase.

Rob Walker's experiment to determine if truly storytelling is the highest form of marketing was proven.

The science of Storytelling

The need for storytelling in B2B is very important in this age of sameness as default. SaaS businesses cannot compete on pricing, features or ad spend anymore.

You can master human behavior all day long, and understand the neurochemicals that go into storytelling, but without adding art into it, your creativity will flop.

Great stories evoke emotional investment for the listeners.

• Dopamine - is released when we focus or are motivated
• Oxytocin - is released when we feel empathy as a result of trust, generosity, and bonding.
• Endorphins - are released when we laugh and feel happy.

Key Insights

• Great stories have an expected change - always creating a moment of suspense and the threat of change
• Cause and effect when building a story in response to what changes along the way.
• Moral outrage in a story evokes readers, and listeners to act.

Brand storytelling strategy

This is not a shoe fits all scenario, but there exists a formula to storytelling.

In this age of attention economy, the creativity you put out there is really variable for success.

A great brand story has to have these three;

• Grab attention and cut through the noise
• Interact and enable people to engage
• Build a connection.

RedBull Case Study

The bottom line, Redbull nailed its brand story by telling stories about individual athletes in extreme sports.

Nike textbook case study if you think about it.

Two core messages;

• Energy
• Liberation

The giant energy drink company built a media company around its brand " RedBull Media House "

As a B2B SaaS company, the same principles apply.

-Think and execute like a media company

-Put creativity at the center of your storytelling process

-' Your brand is not what you say, but what they say '

Resources on Brand Storytelling

1. The magical science of storytelling | David JP Phillips [ video ]
2. The Science of Storytelling | Will Storr [ video ]
3. Brands that stick [ Past newsletter ]

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Okerosi Davis here,

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