With brands increasingly needing to be driven by an environmental and social purpose, short videos are helping leaders better promote their purpose and sustainable story.
Beyond the filming process itself, (see our post How To Make Your Boss Look Great) what’s the best way to create a great compelling story?
Unilever CEO Paul Polman talks about the company’s purpose at every opportunity. It appears everywhere – we even made a 60 second film about Purpose to launch the their Annual Report
In a recent article on story telling, John Coleman outlines a narrative structure that leaders have used to inspire audiences to get behind their business.*
Self, Us and Now!
- Start with the “self”. By sharing their own experiences and the values that these have informed, leaders can link their personal values to those of the business.
Steve Jobs’s address to the Stanford graduation class in 2005 is cited as an example of a great, real story of self. By sharing his personal history and how his experiences instilled within him a love of design, a desire to live passionately and authentically, graduates were able to understand more intimately his personal values and how these had guided his work at Apple.
- “Us” then connects these personal values, experience and aspirations to those shared by employees, customers or wider stakeholders. In this way, common shared values for the oganisation are developed.
Burt’s Bees – the America ‘all natural’ beauty products company – is cited a good example of how a business has applied this technique of story telling, where the story of Burt becomes the story of the company made into a compelling video that they show on their home page.
- “Now” refers to the close – a call to action for audiences to get behind the organisation’s purpose be it donating to a charity, responding to a job vacancy or recruitment drive.
Coleman cites St Jude Children Research Hospital whose purpose is ‘Finding Cures. Saving Children” Using simple direct and compelling videos and material, the charity tells the emotive stories of the children they serve to encourage empathy and new donations.
At Gripped we understand that being easy to view and share, video lends itself to telling a brand’s story. Also, with video increasingly taking the ‘lions share’ of all internet traffic, we help leading brands including Shell, Mars and Coca-Cola produce films that better connect their audiences with why they are in the business they are in and what they are trying to achieve.
To understand how we can help your leaders better tell their business story call Peter on 020 3285 8764 or email him [email protected]
*Harvard Business Review November, 2015, Motivate People
