What is Storytelling and Why are Brands So Interested In It?

Discover the world of storytelling with Seguel Claudio and learn what this concept brings to contemporary brands.

In the world of modern advertisement, there are few words more touted around than storytelling. It is intended to define communication strategies that, among other things, engage the audience and help cultivate the brand image or identity. If you ask about the exact meaning of storytelling, however, you'll find very different answers depending on who you talk to.

So we decided to use one of the most reliable sources in the world of branding: Claudio Seguel (@claudioseguel), a publicist, storyteller, and writer who, aside from teaching workshops on storytelling and advise brands on the subject through its consulting company Brandstory, is a founding partner of the Copywriter Festival and a university teacher. Find out what storytelling means and why all brands are interested in this concept.

What is storytelling?

For Claudio, before we can begin to grasp the concept of storytelling, we must first understand the difference between explaining what we do and who we truly are.

When we tell someone who we are, we can give them purely objective facts: our birthplace, where we live, what we do... however, if we really want to express who we are, we will probably prefer to share many other things: what our favorite movie is and why, what parts of our lives have influenced us, what our childhood memories are... with all these details about us, we are building a personal story, which is much more relatable to others than a mere statements of facts.

According to Claudio, this art of storytelling is inherent to the human being: we tell stories to reaffirm ourselves, get closer to others, and influence the behavior of those around us. In other words, when we need to connect with the rest of society, we do it through stories. Stories that can also reduce our anxiety, if they are positive.

Storytelling and brands

Positive stories motivate us to listen, but they also want the listener to engage with them, to make them their own, and to spread them. Knowing this, it's easier to understand the importance of storytelling, which can be defined as the creation of stories, whether fabricated or based on real facts. If we manage to get the listener to identify with our story, find meaning in it, and connect emotionally with it, we will have effective storytelling.

Since the origins of advertising, this technique has gone through different phases in order to achieve the goal of selling products: in the beginning, ads were purely descriptive, telling us just what the products featured were; they evolved to tell the benefits, first, then to generate experiences, and lately to make us identify with the brand or product.

These days what brands are looking for is to inspire, to generate a positive feeling in the consumer that they will share non-stop through social media. Telling a story is one of the best ways to achieve that. That's why brands, nowadays, focus on storytelling and its ability to connect and inspire potential consumers, to create narratives that we identify with and that invite us to share.

Claudio Seguel teaches "Storytelling for brands" in Domestika, a course in which you will learn how to build stories that connect with the audience and convey your brand values while exploring the world of storytelling.

You may also be interested in:

- What is UX?
- What Is a Mood Board and What Is It For?
- What Is an Art Curator?
- What Is Screen-printing and What Materials Do I Need?