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Ann Booth-Clibborn And Telling The Brand Story

A story is the most successful form of communication in the world because its easy to consume and effortless to pass on.

Going to Inspiration – Think Again was an enlightening affair with lots of personal power tips including failing your way to the top by Beverly Jackson from Yahoo! in the US.

 

Ann Booth-Clibborn who has her own creative agency has a background as a TV producer for the BBC and channel 4. And it’s through her training of TV producers at the BBC Academy where she discovered the methodology she walked us through on the principles of storytelling.

“I’m very passionate about stories, understanding the nuts and bolts of a story helps you in every part of your communications and helps you get inspired about what you’re talking about. This provides a clear and simple way of talking about yourself and your product.”

 

Her slideshare outlines Seven Story Elements.

  • Main Character
  • Strong Start
  • Jeopardy
  • Inciting Incident
  • Different World
  • Story Question
  • What’s in it for Me?

Ann Booth-Clibborn - Inspiration Slideshare

Ann had us pair up and tell each other a story. She then asked us what was memorable about it the story. This was an excitable way to get us discussing the elements as we got to move seats and meet someone new (part of why you go to events, especially full day ones). Like school children our clatter filled the auditorium. This also got us thinking of storytelling from an audience perspective and our perspectives on the seven story elements.

 

She fleshed out the elements:

  • Main Character

Who are they? Why are they interesting?

  • Strong Start

The way you make people stay to the end is to pose a question at the beginning.

  • Jeopardy

Think about what is the risk for the customer if they go elsewhere, what is at stake? What do you offer that they will lose access to?

  • Inciting Incident

What kicked your business off? What was the start? You may feel your product or business has changed unrecognisably from its inception but in fact, if you hear a founder tell the story, there is a thread that is still there and still exciting to hear.

  • Different World

What does your world feel like? What do you believe in? She advised us to use our senses in the descriptions, to be textural. To invoke the customers visual imagination. Innovative, Reliable, Risky, Fair…

  • Story Question

You can ultimately only answer one question only. What is the story question of Grand Designs? Can they build it? No. The actual question is; Was it worth it? It changes your content.

  • What’s in it for Me?

When you tell a story, you make it feel generous. You give something away.

 

“A story is the most successful form of communication in the world because its easy to consumer and effortless to pass on. We are voracious consumers of stories: movies, novels, Sunday supplements, documentaries, gameshows, they all use the same model.”

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