Leadership Lab: Master of Storytelling & Influence

As a part of their Leadership Lab series in 2017, the ARF introduced the hands-on course Master of Storytelling & Influence. The objective of the workshop was to talk about why stories matter, how to define them, how to assess audience and situation, and how to better visualize insights so they have an impact during a creative pitch.

The day was split into 3 sections. Scott McDonald, President & CEO of the ARF, opened the workshop with an introduction to the history of storytelling in our society and, particularly, as a marketing tool. He talked about how storytelling can help translate and simplify complex data by giving it Motive, Action and Personification. He also gave examples of the power of storytelling by compering two brands from the same category, for instance, Apple and Microsoft. The first has a compelling brand story and personality while the second is only viewed as a product. Christopher ended his section by sharing some tricks of trade, such as “Set your story up. Don’t assume anything”, “Always have the elevator pitch ready”, “Make them commit in advance. Withhold and surprise”, “Vary your graphics and embrace abnormality”, and most importantly “Don’t let the story become a Frankenstein”.

The second speaker of the day was Christopher Bacon, EVP of Global Research Quality & Innovation at the ARF, he presented guidelines to define, frame and tell influential stories using data. He talked about how marketers are usually very attached to their research and want to present all of it. However, just as important as telling a good story, is to learn how to select the key information among a sea of data. The best way to do this is by building the story around the kind of people you are presenting to. For instance, if you know the audience is risk-averse you could work on a more traditional/safe set-up than you would if they were risk takers. Other types of audience contrasts are Spontaneous vs Contemplative, Visual vs Aural, etc.

The workshop ended with Creative Director and Senior Producer from Kantar Tobias Sturt and Helen Doherty, they are responsible for stunning infographics at www.informationisbeautiful.net. They talked about techniques to visualize the story, giving tips to upgrade data representation from mundane to memorable. They shared hilarious examples of how the wrong type of data representation can ruin the attempts of communicating important information.

The presentation ended with the duo sharing a very practical guide on how to choose the right type of graphic for each type of data. Where you can select your need, such as “I want to compare different variables and the guide presents a set of charts that are ideal to communicate that particular type of information.