The Key to Great Corporate Video: Storytelling

You might not think that the hero’s journey, story structure, or MacGuffins have anything to do with your next internal training video. You might, then, be surprised to find out that they most certainly should.

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Corporate video doesn’t seem that creative on a surface level. You aren’t making movies for Hollywood, or introspective personal reflections for YouTube. What you are doing is trying to effectively communicate to your target market, be it internal colleagues, external stakeholders, or a wider audience. 

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How Stories Are Integral To Communication

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Effective communication isn’t exactly a new topic - Socrates and Plato were figuring this stuff out back in the year 300. 

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The best ways to communicate effectively with your audience are, in order; Get your audience to pay attention to what you’re telling them, then get them to remember what you’ve said. 

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The best way to achieve this is with great storytelling. 

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To capture your audience’s attention, you have to craft a compelling narrative around the core information you’re trying to convey. Something as simple as creating a character to follow the process rather than simply explaining the process can have a huge impact on how many people are tweeting while they’re supposed to be watching your video. Even better, is creating a relatable, funny, or heartwarming story, as a wrapper around the meat and potatoes of your video. 

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A great example of this being put into practice is airline safety films. They need people to watch these, but many people simply don’t want to. In order to make the safety information more engaging, they’ll craft a story around the key points they need to get across.

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Why Stories?

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Crafting a captivating story around your key points is a massive leap in the right direction - but what makes it so effective?

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When we watch stories, we’re engaging our imagination! This causes us to subconsciously become participants in the narrative, which in turn, makes the stories orders of magnitude more memorable. 

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Narratives are also, simply put, the lens through which we view the world. We think in stories! Memories are an audio-visual story just like a television show. When we are making decisions, we are theorising about potential outcomes through narratives we create in our minds. Think of it this way: narrative-driven storytelling is the default communication and learning tool humans use.

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How to Use Narrative in Corporate Video

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This may seem basic, but the facts are, some elements of successful storytelling are crucial. 

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All stories have a beginning, middle, and end. That’s obvious! What might not be obvious is the purpose each serves to make the video work effectively. 

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Your beginning should set the scene. Who are we watching, where are they? What do they do, and why do we care? The middle of the story often sets up a conflict, where the characters encounter a problem. The ending of the story will then involve the characters overcoming the challenge, bringing the story to a natural resolution. 

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There are many other narrative devices that can be employed in corporate video to make it more effective. Suspense and mystery are a great tool to keep eyeballs glued to screens for longer. Humour is also a huge help, especially in a corporate setting, as it puts your viewers at ease, and makes staying engaged with the content more rewarding.

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How Corporate Video Can Effectively Communicate Brand Identity

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Through video storytelling, you can shape and establish your brand’s identity in a very effective way. Creating narratives that reinforce your unique characteristics and company values will cement them as real, tangible themes, rather than hard-to-define concepts. 

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Conveying your company’s mission and purpose through the medium of a story is much more effective than simply stating them. Viewers of your corporate video will form a personal attachment to the narrative, creating more impact.

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Ready to create a corporate video that captivates your audience and drives results? Don't wait any longer – reach out to us now for a personalised consultation and let's make it happen.

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