There's been an awful lot written about the power of storytelling lately. Especially in advertising circles where wanky job titles have hit an all-time high with nonsense like Director of Storytelling and Chief Communicator now outranking the Gurus & Evangelists of previous years.
The good news is that with such titles it's now even easier to tell who the idiots are in the room. That'd be great wouldn't it? If you could walk into any given meeting and see people's real job titles: Chief Ass-licker, Senior Whiner, Director of Shit-Stirring or that ad world favourite: Mr I've Seen It All Before.
If Google Glass is ever to become adopted in my world I want it packaged with an app that actually overlays people's performances when I first meet them like booking.com ranks hotels. Give me a star rating and a few reviews before I start talking, just so I know if more than two syllable word groupings are going to go down well or not.
But getting back to Storytelling. Today's ad men & women will try to make you believe that they've recently invented it. Cannes last year was full of news about how Storytelling was back. And we've certainly seen a lot of ads of late with great emotional content. But is it true that we're experiencing more 'narratives' in digital advertising? Has storytelling really regained precedence over technology? Or is it just that HTML5 has meant that if you want to tell a decent story it's either an embedded video or it's one of those fucking scroll down narratives that have reduced serious storytelling to the level of a children's pop-up book?
Sometimes when I look at what passes as 'cutting edge' narratives these days I yearn for the sophistication of paleolithic cave paintings.
Car companies have been some of the worst offenders. Mercedes Benz's recent "interactive website" (as opposed to what, a non-interactive one?) created by Jung von Matt called The Forgotten Roadtrip invites you to "help Ryan recover his lost memory and be part of a journey you'll never forget". While very slickly put together, this parallax scrolling site is about as interesting as watching Christopher Nolan's Memento backwards. You know exactly what is going to happen WAY before your finger scrolls down to reveal the ending (Surprise! He beats the bad guy! He gets the girl!). Is pulling on a tab to find out "what's in Ryan's pocket" really the best money can buy in 2014? I was hoping it was a gun, so I could blow Ryan's stupid fucking head off and put him (and me) out of our misery.
A considerably better version is a French lifejacket campaign Sortie en Mer that valiantly tries to replicate a sense of drowning while on a trip out to sea. It might sound daft but getting you to constantly scroll to keep your point-of-view head above water does make you realise how tired you'd soon get treading water in such conditions. Here the technology does work for the narrative, rather than against it and the immersion (sorry, couldn't resist) does feel quite realistic.
But I still have to ask: are these sorts of sites engaging our minds or just exercising our pointer finger? While I do love having to do something physical while stuff happens on screen (and no, I'm not just talking about porn sites) it's the stuff on screen that (mostly) disappoints me. I want my heart to move & my brain to jump, not just my finger spinning a wheel like some sad little hamster.
At Boondoggle we've been asked to create 6 interlocking stories using Oculus Rift so that Asian shoppers can experience the wonders of a virtual Dutch farm in 360 degrees (Green Grass! Fat Cows! Unbelievably Tall Blonde People!). And it's got me thinking about the possibilities of narrative structure within virtual environments. If you turn your head to look behind/above/around you when Farmer Job is explaining crop rotation to you should he stop mid-sentence, thinking you're being rude, or simply aren't interested? And is there a place for first-person fisting of a cow in the storyline?
I'm looking forward to the challenge of creating a world and relating a story where the viewer gets to move wherever they like. And the real trick (I suspect) will be balancing the desire to explore your own pathways with the desire to be led by a good storyteller.
Yet there's little out there that beats the more traditional ways of telling a story. Sadly, all the following examples are from quite a few years ago.
On paper BBH London's script for The Man Who Walked Around The World for Johnnie Walker probably reads as deadly dull: a series of historical facts linked together that trace the "humble beginnings" to the modern destroyer of livers the world over. But it's the simplicity that is so beguiling about the production. A single shot monologue by actor Robert Carlyle walking through the scenic Scottish Highlands with a few props (literally) thrown in. And believe me, you'll watch it for all of its 6 minutes, 31 seconds (well, those of you above the age of a Gen Y may).
Or watch Creative Artists Agency beautifully crafted animated film for Chipotle's 'Back To The Start' campaign. The combination of wonderfully simple farmyard characters and a great story arc from paradise to hell and back tells of the perils of big farming in a story with real emotional weight - helped in no small part by Willy Nelson's creaking version of Coldplay's The Scientist.
Or, for a masterclass in how to craft a striking character to really sell your brand's message, with a metaphor that's so wonderfully surprising you'll want to watch the ad over again, you can't go past Mr W by Nordpol+Hamburg.
I can imagine an Oculus Rift version of the Johnnie Walker film and a parallax scrolling version of Chipotle's story, but would it improve the story or just add a gimmick? I'm all for technology adding another layer of engagement, but never let it get in the way of a good story. After all, good digital storytelling requires much more than only engaging our scrolling digit.
Finally, here’s my favourite ad that amply demonstrates how a story with a great heart can even sell technology that really sucks.