THE MASTERSOF STORYTELLING

PAGE 5 Forward

PAGE 7 Tips from the masters

PAGE 13How to use storytelling to

craft experiences that engage

PAGE 17Make it stick: video storytelling

for insight impact

PAGE 19 Storytelling in MRX

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CONTENTS

We all love stories. During childhood

we use them to explore, explain and

engage with the world and we continue

to consume them as adults in our daily

lives. Stories are useful because they

create emotional connections. We engage

with characters, joining them emotionally

on their journeys and investing in their

outcomes. We become involved in the

plot and seek resolutions to the dilemmas

that present themselves as developments

unfold.

These high engagement levels mean that

storytelling with information has a high

level of impact; when we’re emotionally

invested we’re more likely to act on

what we’ve heard. When communicating

insights, this is crucial. As market

researchers, we complete research to

discover insights and strategies to help

our clients make better decisions. So, for

your story to have the happy ending you’re

after as a researcher, you need to motivate

audiences to respond.

So far, so good. But in MRX lots of us have

been on storytelling courses or read the

books about storytelling in business and

yet our stories often fail to land in the way

we desire. With this in mind, at IIeX Europe

in 2018, Keen as Mustard ran a session on

storytelling to step back and get guidance

from people outside the industry – and to

get practical advice from one video expert

within the industry. The idea was to get

guidance to turn our stories from ‘meh!’

into ‘marvellous!’.

This white paper is a summary of what

we learned.

FORWARD5

Being from a film, digital and immersive

agency, Matt and James are master

storytellers, with expert knowledge about

engaging audiences. Their presentation

focused on what we can learn from

world-famous story-telling masters and

how we can apply these learnings to the

stories we tell in MRX.

Engaging with your audience is always

easier when you think of your audience as

people with feelings, instead of numbers.

Here are James and Matt’s ways to pique

people’s emotions, with a little help from

some of the greats:

SURPRISE YOUR AUDIENCE

BUT DO IT CLEVERLY

Alfred Hitchcock

Audiences love surprises, but it’s important

that you structure them correctly so that

audiences feel the tension. As Alfred

Hitchcock said, ‘There is no terror in the

bang, only in the anticipation of it.’ Consider

when you reveal certain information so that

it has maximum impact when it comes out.

Always keep your audience one-step ahead

of your characters - by doing this they then

become involved and once they’re involved

they won’t be able to look away.

DON’T FORGET TO TELL

YOUR OWN STORY

Alfred Hitchcock

No one wants to hear your own personal

life story in detail, but it’s important to make

sure your voice is heard. Small amounts

of personalisation will make the audience

connect with your story, because they’ll see

the relevance of your content. Hitchcock did

this by literally putting himself into his stories,

and by doing this, he effectively branded

himself.

TIPS FROM THE MASTERSJames Mansell and Matt Cole, The Moment

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TRANSFORM THE EXPECTED

INTO THE UNEXPECTED

Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick once said, ‘I literally go into

bookstores, close my eyes and take things

off the shelf. If I don’t like the book after a bit,

I don’t finish it, but I like to be surprised.’ Put

the audience on their toes - maintain their

interest by challenging their assumptions

and stir a reaction from them. Subvert

exactly what the audience is expecting - as

soon as they experience something they

didn’t expect you have them in the palm of

your hand to go in any direction you choose.

MAKE THE

AUDIENCE CARE

Andrew Stanton

Find the empathy in whatever you’re

communicating. As Andrew Stanton said,

‘The greatest story commandment is make

me care.’ We tell stories to inspire a reaction

from the audience and nothing is more

important to inspire this response than to

make them emotionally invest. If they care

about what you’re saying they have more

motivation to spend time acting upon it and

your information is therefore more actionable.

Your audiences are people and they want to

be treated like this.

BUILD THE CANVAS BEFORE

YOU PAINT YOUR PICTURE

J.K Rowling

‘I plan a lot and usually in table form.’ This

is an important acknowledgement from

Harry Potter author J.K Rowling. It may feel

easier to just jump straight into the story,

but planning is crucial. Deciding what you

want to say before you say it means you

can figure out the best structure for your

information. This will help your story to be

easily digestible for your audience.

Moreover, if certain formats work for you

and you have a recognisable and reliable

structure and tone already established, don’t

be afraid to use what you know. Within

these structures there is plenty of room

to try something new. So, within your pre-

determined structures, go crazy.

THE POWER OF AUTHENTICITY

Ernest Hemingway

In the words of Ernest Hemingway, ‘There

is nothing to writing. You simply sit down at

a typewriter and bleed.’ Truth and passion

resonate with your audience. Using real life

examples allows your audience to relate

to your content, so maintain their interest

with grounding examples that reflect reality.

Hemingway knew that if he was honest

and true, the audience would know and he

wouldn’t have to prove this in his writing.

Make sure your audience know you’re being

true with your work.

MAKE YOUR AUDIENCE REALISE

THE STORY IS ABOUT THEM

Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad famously said, ‘Our lives

evoke our character and you find out more

about yourself as you go on.’ Your audience

needs to recognise the story’s relevance to

their lives to be encouraged to take actions

based around it. Involve the audience in

your story and make them realise that they

need the information you’re giving them.

As soon as they realise the story is about

them, it then becomes important, and if it’s

important, it’ll never be forgotten.

IF THE RIGHT LANGUAGE

DOESN’T EXIST, INVENT IT

William Shakespeare

It’s easy to feel restricted by language when

you’re trying to portray a specific point.

So, if the right words don’t exist, why not

make them up? Shakespeare added 1700

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words to the English language including

‘amazement’, so although you may not

be one of the greatest playwrights of all

time, it’s still important to be fluid with your

language so that you’re not confined by

words that don’t express what you mean.

PACE AND TIMING

Shigeru Miyamoto

When creating ideas, take your time. In the

heat of the moment it’s easy to get started

on ideas that you think are brilliant, but

they may not seem that great once the

initial excitement has worn off. So, rather

than rushing into things, prepare to let

ideas develop over time so you can gain a

rounded judgement on them. As Shigeru

Miyamoto once said, ‘A delayed game

is eventually good, but a rushed game is

forever bad’.

REMEMBER YOUR CO-STORYTELLERS

Stephen Spielberg

Stephen Spielberg said that ‘filmmaking is

all about appreciating the talents of the

people you surround yourself with and

knowing you could never have made any of

these films by yourself.’

You don’t have to work alone when

telling stories – in fact, the reality is that

collaboration often leads to positive results

for creative processes. So, surround yourself

with talented people who will help you in

order to get the best results.

Following this advice will help you engage

with your audience as people. Using

surprises, being authentic and inputting

yourself and your audience into the story will

grab their attention and encourage

them to care, increasing the likelihood that

they will take actions based on what you’ve

told them.

Likewise, using a planned structure and

managing your pace and time helps your

audience navigate your content effectively,

helping them to understand it and digest it.

However, being coherent doesn’t necessarily

mean you have to be boring. Think inside

the box and experiment within a defined

structure and be fluid with language rather

than confined by it.

HOW TO USE STORYTELLING TO CRAFT EXPERIENCES THAT ENGAGEAnna Dahlstrom, UX FIKA

As an experienced User Experience

Designer and founder of UX school,

UX Fika, Anna Dahlstrom is a skilled

storyteller, using narratives to understand

experiences of using products and

services. Anna explained that although

data has the ability to tell us everything,

it also has the ability to tell us nothing

at all. This is why it needs to be

contextualised and this context can be

provided through a story.

Anna used one of the oldest storytellers of

them all, Aristotle, to help portray her point.

According to Aristotle’s essay ‘Poetics’, there

are seven elements of good storytelling.

These are: character, plot, idea, speech,

décor, chorus and spectacle. Character,

plot and décor can especially be applied to

customer experience to ensure that those on

the journey are engaged along the way.

PLOT

Defining and visualising the plot is an often

overlooked step. Although there can be

multiple variations, a conventional plot

contains three acts. This structure helps the

audience receive information in a logical

way; a problem will arise in the first act, there

will be an attempt to solve it in the second,

and there will be a climax and resolution

offered in the third.

It’s important to map out your users’

experience to decipher how their actions

span across these acts. The experience of

buying a product or service, for example,

can be mapped out according to this. The

user will become aware of your product (act

1), consider their options (act 2) and decide

to take action/no action (act 3).

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We create stories with the hope that they will

inspire people to feel a certain way and take

actions based on these inspired emotions.

Actions and events change our perceptions

of people and the world, so it’s important

to reveal information at the right time, to

influence the responses you want from

people. An example of this is the Disney

Pixar film, Finding Nemo. When the film

makers showed the death of Nemo’s mother

towards the end of the film, audiences felt

hostile towards Marlin, Nemo’s father, but

moving this event to the start of the film

allowed the audience to sympathise with

him, consequently making him more likeable.

CHARACTER

When thinking about characters, we

traditionally think of the people involved in a

story. However, when looking at a customer

experience, such as a purchasing journey,

discussing the characters means looking at

the devices and products that play a role in

the process, as well as the brand and real

people. Like the characters in a story, these

technical elements mould the plot by their

presence and use at certain points along the

way. So, it’s important to understand which

parts of the story involve which devices

and what roles they play. Stories need to

be compatible across multiple devices, so

consider the mediums that users may use to

engage with your narrative. Moreover, with

advances in AI, devices are becoming even

more prevalent characters in our lives with

increasingly human characteristics.

So, when we think of characters we need to

be identifying all the elements that contribute

to an experience of a story, analysing the

roles they play and when and where they do

this. How we use the characters along the

journey can vastly impact the characters.

DÉCOR

After structure and character comes the

‘décor’, where you should define and

design the environment in which the story

and experience takes place. Despite

mapping, and weaving a red thread

throughout the narrative, it’s still difficult to

control the journey that a user experiences

when there are many characters involved.

Often many stories happen simultaneously.

Linear experiences are unusual these

days; users take increasingly varied paths

to get from A to B, with Google, search

engines and social media providing

different routes and even more convoluted

paths in user experience. So, in order to

deliver a narrated experience, you need to

understand how the set fits together and

to present it so its memorable. Mapping is

more important than ever.

Although all seven elements of Aristotle’s

‘poetics’ form a solid basis for effective

storytelling, plot, character and décor are

especially important for understanding and

defining how best to engage an audience

on a customer experience journey. They

are also the most relevant to us as market

researchers when communicating insights.

Use plot to inspire specific reactions

at certain times to create emotional

involvement towards your topic; use

characters to make the most of the elements

involved in both the story directly and the

elements used to tell it; and décor to find

a wider setting appropriate for your story -

make sure it’s mapped out and fits together

so your story makes sense. These points

will help you communicate effectively,

giving your story the happy ending you

were hoping for by engaging and ultimately

inspiring your audience.

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MAKE IT STICK: VIDEO STORYTELLING FOR INSIGHT IMPACT Zoe Dowling, FocusVision

Finally, we heard from Zoe Dowling, the lead

research strategist at FocusVision. Zoe has

vast experience in using stories to deliver

actionable insights to clients. In particular,

she is experienced with storytelling using

video, a communication method that has

become increasingly popular within the

insights industry in recent years because it

adds to the richness and impact of research.

Zoe pointed out that stories are enhanced by

using a variety of types of ‘small’ data which

create relatable examples that the audience

recognises and empathises with. Big data,

on the other hand, can feel unapproachable

and abstract. There are multiple ways of

integrating small data in presentations,

including text and images, but video is

really powerful and effective for this. Just as

James and Matt encouraged authenticity

and the involvement of both storyteller and

the audience to make stories more relatable,

when used well, video can help researchers

to humanise the data. It allows audiences

to make strong emotional connections with

research findings and makes our insights

more actionable. As Dr Brené Brown said,

‘Stories are just data with a soul.’

Stories must be authentic, and video is

a fantastic way to covey the truth when

communicating. Instead of struggling to

bring a respondent to life with language and

images, video allows presenters to bring

their subjects into the room with them, so

audiences can see, hear and understand

the data for themselves first hand. This

creates a ‘sticky’ memory that grounds

your presentation with solid evidence. It’s

important to be clear that it does not need

to be polished. A gritty home video is the

ultimate authentic portrayal of the consumer

in their natural habitat, which also produces

many extra levels of information about them,

in addition to the core research question.

What are they wearing? What are their

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homes like? How do they speak? All this

adds to the human nuance and insight.

There are certain things to consider to

ensure you’re using video in your stories

properly. Zoe ended by giving some useful

tips to consider:

• Consider your story’s structure. This

could simply be a beginning, middle

and end, or a three act structure as

suggested by Anna, but likewise could

take on a variety of different paths.

• Think about how video fits within the

overarching story.

• Consider the balance between video

and the rest of the story. Is it better to

use multiple short video clips or just one

long one? Remember, if it’s too long the

audience will lose concentration – there is

a sharp drop off rate after 2 minutes.

• If the video is intended to be shareable,

make sure it is contextualised and stands

alone without the need for explanation.

So, when used correctly and thoughtfully,

video provides breakthrough moments.

When the video delivers the right

combination of engagement with imagination

and emotion, you will communicate with

the audience in a way that is authentic,

easily digestible and empathetic through an

innovative connection.

STORYTELLING IN MRX.

As market researchers, our goal is to create actionable insights

for clients. Communicating research findings through stories

is a great way to make sure they understand and relate to the

information you give them, so it can be used effectively. As we

have seen, engaging your audience is the key to this and can

be achieved in a number of ways. Ultimately, however, using

relevant, easily digestible information in formats that entertain

is key. As researchers, we often deal with large amounts of data

that can be confusing. So, reduce the clutter, input small data

and carefully curate a plot and experience that captivates your

audience, cultivating what could be a mess of numbers and

figures into bitesize chunks ready for consumption.

MUSTARDMARKETING.COM

Lucy Davison

lucy@mustardmarketing.com

WEARETHEMOMENT.COM

James Mansell & Matt Cole

james.mansell@wearethemoment.com

matt.cole@wearethemoment.com

UXFIKA.CO

Anna Dahlstrom

anna.dahlstrom@gmail.com

FOCUSVISION.COM

Zoe Dowling

zdowling@focusvision.com

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