Back to the Start. The Role of Brands in Transmedia. 22 #storybasics I've picked up in my time at Pixar. 5 Lessons For Storytellers From The Transmedia World. Forget About Branded Content, Tell a Great Story. Why Storytelling Is The Ultimate Weapon. In business, storytelling is all the rage. Without a compelling story, we are told, our product, idea, or personal brand, is dead on arrival. In his book, Tell to Win, Peter Guber joins writers like Annette Simmons and Stephen Denning in evangelizing for the power of story in human affairs generally, and business in particular. Guber argues that humans simply aren’t moved to action by “data dumps,” dense PowerPoint slides, or spreadsheets packed with figures.
People are moved by emotion. The best way to emotionally connect other people to our agenda begins with “Once upon a time…” Plausible enough. I think it’s a real insight. Until recently we’ve only been able to speculate about story’s persuasive effects. What is going on here? And, in this, there is an important lesson about the molding power of story. This is exactly Guber’s point. Guber tells us that stories can also function as Trojan Horses. Guber’s book is relentlessly optimistic about the power of story to persuade.