Investing in Good Storytelling

Why Invest in Good Storytelling?

Because going the extra mile pays off.

By Justin Colby

Standing on the Prince Street subway platform in New York City waiting for the right moment, when no trains are screeching by and the crowds have subsided, our director of photography gives our subject the cue. Shemika’s powerful singing voice picks up where she left off, ringing through the subway tunnel—“I believe the children are our future. …”

Our team was at station that day to tell Shemika’s story. She is a spirited New Yorker who previously had a mysterious medical ailment that one of our clients (Northwell Health, New York’s biggest healthcare system) helped identify and resolve. Shemika presented us with an opportunity to ply our trade—to dig in and tell what could have been an anodyne patient story in a deeper, more creative way. Our assignment brief called for us to include the usual detail: her rare condition, the search to have her symptoms taken seriously, medical treatment from the best at a major New York City hospital. What was not in our brief but had come up in friendly banter a week earlier during our initial interview: Shemika’s side hustle singing in the subway. Since we planned to use both print and video for this story, we decided this was the perfect entry point to telling a deeper, more resonant story about Shemika and her health journey.

As a 25-year-old custom media company, Onward Publishing has ample experience telling stories. Like many companies originally built on print, we’ve spent time in the last decade thinking about how our work can pivot and evolve into new forms, even as our clients’ marketing mix has splintered and budgets have remained static. While part of this has involved creating lowercase c “content” for blogs, newsletters, and websites, we’ve never lost touch with our first love: creating immersive print reporting and gorgeous design. And video production, which grew naturally out of these print roots, with both types of reporting relying on face-to-face contact with the people we’re interviewing and photographing. Like all veteran magazine types, we feel strongly that any story worth telling is worth telling right. Increasingly, we’re committed evangelists for old-fashioned, high-quality, well-told stories. But it’s not always easy to make the case for investing more to create this kind of story.

THE SHORTENING OF CONTENT

At the dawn of the Internet, no one really knew if this new platform would prove to be an agile place for business communication, especially direct to consumer. Brands put up what were basically placeholder pages, planting an HTML flag, unsure of how exactly that would reach consumers. Much has changed, and today digital advertising represents more than three-quarters of total ad spending in the U.S., according to Growth-onomics. The cost per impression online is low compared to print advertising, traditional broadcast, and direct mail, and thanks to all the information ad networks are able to gather about their readers, messages can be laser-targeted to consumers.

In this environment, content creators have leaned increasingly in the direction of shorter, less expensive, more quickly produced content. Less long-form magazine journalism, more quick hits. Content quantity is prized over quality. With so many channels to populate and hungry algorithms to serve, it can feel like feeding an insatiable beast. Marketing budgets, already stretched, have gotten thinner as creators spread their resources thin to cover more bases: short- and long-form video, social media, podcasts.

Content quantity is prized over quality. With so many channels to populate and hungry algorithms to serve, it can feel like feeding an insatiable beast.

The rise of Internet search and its power over placement has had an impact, too. Google’s algorithm is the gatekeeper deciding which content makes it to the top. As Will Ferrell’s Ricky Bobby said, in “Talladega Nights,” “If you ain’t first, you’re last,” and it rings true. A recent meta-analysis of Google’s click-through data by FirstPageSage found that more than a third of search traffic goes to the top search result. So not only have marketers been trying to cut content to make it more digestible for users, but we have also been attempting to squeeze in as many key phrases to make sure the bots can find it.

While rushing to put content online, not everyone completely abandoned print, including us. But still, even for our print projects, some clients have lost faith in readers, insisting that shorter is sweeter. Get to the point and spare the long-winded narrative; budgets just don’t cover a lot more than that. For industry veteran writers and editors, many of whom came up through the golden age of magazines, this approach feels like abandoning something essential—storytelling—to get to what is merely “good enough.” Some stories lend themselves well to the just-the-facts approach: Guy needs a new knee, guy gets the surgery, guy is back to life. But for trying, life-altering experiences, like for our subject Shemika and so many others, a quick-hit approach leaves so much story on the table.

HOW WE REACT TO STORIES

Storytelling is fundamental to the human experience. As Joan Didion famously wrote: “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” Much more than a way to pass along history, story is our way to gain shared understanding. We have a unique ability to organize and disseminate concepts, ideas, and even fictions through story.

Storytelling is fundamental to the human experience.

Our stories connect us in the most literal sense—when two people are engaged in storytelling, their brain waves sync up. What’s more, stories can influence action. Much of the work we do for our clients in healthcare involves storytelling for good reason. Turns out, people respond to what might otherwise be dry or confusing or seemingly irrelevant health information when it’s presented via a “character” with whom they can identify. Anecdotes, says University of Buffalo communications professor Melanie Green, bring a sense of immediacy and personal importance to potential patients.

That’s why our patient story about Shemika had so much power. When one of our writers first interviewed Shemika for the print version of our story, the details just leapt from the page. What Shemika thought might be a persistent runny nose—and what the initially consulted doctors thought were allergies—turned out to be a slow leak of fluid from her brain. The medical mystery story is a surefire way to pull a reader in, ensuring they’ll keep reading long enough to get to the resolution—in this case, a minimally invasive surgery that corrected the problem, performed by rock-star neurosurgeons at one of our client’s flagship New York City hospitals. When our photographer and I met Shemika in person, I was able to add color to the story that our writer initially reported on via phone. All the pieces came together to make it an impactful story that resonated with readers.

If we can pull out the story, make it more vivid and relatable through good reporting, as well as through a beautifully photographed print piece and compelling video (watch Shemika’s story), we’re doing our clients a service while also nurturing our own creative impulses.

WHY AUTHORITY MATTERS

Even our automated overlords are getting wiser. Google is working to improve its search results, looking for deep, consistently authoritative content from creators over time. The new mantra is E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). Rather than simply looking at how many appropriate words are in an article, search engines are looking at the source. Content creators’ imperative to build a reputation for quality, accuracy, and depth is stronger than ever.

Generative artificial intelligence large-language models like ChatGPT have changed the way people interact with information online. Many users, especially younger ones, are turning to Chatbots or AI features before Googling for answers to simple questions. Many readers never even have to click through to a primary source for the information they’re seeking. As a brand, becoming a first-rate source of specific, well-researched, unique, and interesting content will help you earn a reputation for your expertise.

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE YOUR AUDIENCE

There’s so much talk about people wanting things short, sweet, and simple; it almost seems like it’s received wisdom at this point. But is it? The New Yorker and its 10,000-word features still exists. Stories like Shemika’s stick with readers. I recently got a call from a client I hadn’t collaborated with in years. When I brought up the publication, Frontiers, in which we featured Shemika, she had read it and remembered it (and remarked that for a week she was convinced her runny nose might also be a brain leak).

We can write at an accessible level without assuming the worst about our audience. It may seem short-form video reels from TikTok and Instagram are eroding attention at the low end. But on the other hand, 100 million Americans are listening to at least one podcast weekly, and new bookstores are opening all over the country. After what seemed like an unending downward spiral in television during the peak of reality TV, hang out at any office water cooler for just five minutes and you’ll see evidence that we’re riding the greatest run of smart television offerings in history.

Consumers are more sophisticated than they once were. Even television commercials have edge. Many are produced like short movies, with comedy and irony and recurring characters. Insurance is boring; insurance commercials are not. And it’s not solely that they’re slick or funny; it’s that their creators are taking the viewing audience seriously, presuming they’ll get the joke and appreciate the irony. It’s a story. And people respond to story.

APPLYING DEEP STORYTELLING

Recently, we were writing about the unique corporate culture of a large local construction company, and during an initial telephone interview, we heard the same tired tropes about the company being like family and everyone looking forward to coming to work. Sure, that’s what everyone says when they’re trying to put their company in a good light, right? But weeks later, when we arrived early to film at their headquarters and walked into a well-stocked break room where the CEO tossed our sleepy crew hot breakfast sandwiches and sat and talked with us before any cameras rolled, we experienced that culture firsthand. We knew what they said was true, and we could write about it authentically. In the end, we helped the company’s recruitment efforts with a powerful video that showed their culture in action, and once more, that in-person experience informed the writer in a way that a brief phone conversation could not have. Our discussions after that were focused on unique, targeted materials that reflected that culture instead of a generic-feeling corporate brochure.

We are applying that same principle across the board: Offering stories that take slightly longer to digest, with more reporting, more context, sometimes more drama, always more detail—because we assume the best of our audience, that they have the time and the interest to stay invested.

Let’s return to our friend Shemika. She and I are friends now, and when I see that she’s streaming a public performance, I’m usually one of the first to join. She’s one of a handful of people we stay in touch with because we just clicked. We could have told Shemika’s story in the old way—here’s a patient, this is the problem she had, this is the amazing doctor and hospital who cared for her. But telling it the way we did, taking the time to interview her and her care providers, get context, explain, and show what happened was a better choice for everyone. Because it has impact.

Justin Colby is managing director at Onward Publishing. Once he learned to operate the printing press for the school newspaper, he was granted an irrevocable hall pass and never looked back. Connect at tinyurl.com/linkedin-jcolby.