From Storytelling to Storyliving

The word “storytelling” has become a basic term for many companies when it comes to branding. Of course, there’s also the “storytelling” evangelized by the speakers.

At first we had the early adopters who embraced “storytelling”. They made mistakes, they fell, and they got up and learned from their mistakes. Then we had the trendsetters who gave the tonality and from then on, everyone got on board with storytelling.

But don’t you think that the term has become a cliché lately? Storytelling yada yada….

Some have managed to understand this term, others have even managed to implement it in their branding and others are still struggling to accept it. Well … every brand at its own speed.

But I think that starting with this year we should be talking about a new trend: Storyliving

Why Storyliving?

Let’s take it like this: you’re at a table with a war veteran and a writer of short stories. The war veteran has a scar under his right eye, he’s old and dirty and the sort stories writer is a copy of the Old Spice character, with a Moleskine in his hand and a Faber Castell in the pocket of his Hilfinger shirt. Each has a war story to tell. And now let me ask you one thing: who do you listen to more carefully? The veteran who fought in the war or the writer with a rich imagination?

This strategy has been used by film producers for a long time now. I think that films starting with “Based on a true story” have a deeper impact. Well … I have lived a true story is more powerful than I have a story to tell.

[Tweet “I have lived a true story is more powerful than I have a story to tell by @katairobi”]

And I believe that from this year on we will be able to more easily filter out brands that adopt a theory of storytelling based solely on imagination from brands that adopt the theory of storytelling based on storyliving.

Conclusion

Before you decide to adopt storytelling in your communication strategy see if you’ve had enough storyliving.