The Psychology of Storytelling: Implications for brands and experiential marketing


Humans are members of the primate family, a large and diverse group of mammals of very ancient lineage. We belong to that subgroup of primates known as the catarrhines, the Old World monkeys and apes. We share with these monkeys and apes a deep sociality that is predicated on relatively (by comparison with other mammals and birds) advanced forms of social cognition. In other words, we have developed complex ways of coping with living in groups and forming intricate social relationships.

Moving forward in time, as humans began to evolve further, we started to live in ever-larger groups, which compounded more stress on social living. As a result, the capacity to exchange information needed to dramatically increase in human beings and it is thought that language was born out of this need.

Consequently, with the emergence of language, so began our long association with story.


Storytelling—from cave paintings, to Greek Mythology, to HBO shows—has been a key feature of human interaction for millennia. Through story humans have been able to pass on information from generation to generation and form complex social bonds that anthropologists have long argued to be a key factor of our evolution into the advanced species we see today.

As a consequence, the human brain is hardwired to relate to story; it has an uncanny knack of trying to see narrative in situations even where none may exist (read about experiment here). It does this because through story our brain attempts to find order within chaos, which we depend upon, rightly or wrongly, to help us better understand the world around us and give meaning to our lives.

Even today, whilst we’re surrounded by technology, story is still the most powerful way to cut through the noise and communicate a message in an interesting and entertaining way. Stories engage our emotions, and this is why they resonate with us and why they deliver information so effectively.

So story is a big deal. And, as a professional working in the field of marketing, you need to fully understand story, how it affects people and behaviour, and how to harness its power to enable you to be more persuasive and move people to action.

Read on to discover how you can begin your journey to become a better brand storyteller.

Yellow page of an old illustrated open book

The book—a tool that transformed the world through storytelling.


Stories are authentic human experiences that allow us to live vicariously through events that we may not otherwise live through. As Media Psychologist, Pamela Rutledge, points out there are several psychological reasons why stories are so powerful. For instance, she states:



In addition, some interesting research studies have even found evidence suggesting that stories are 22 times more memorable than facts alone. Stanford Marketing Professor Jennifer Aaker says:

“When people think of advocating for their ideas, they think of convincing arguments based on data, facts, and figures. However, studies show that if you share a story, people are often more likely to be persuaded. And when data and story are used together, audiences are moved both intellectually and emotionally. When telling a story, you take the listener on a journey, moving them from one perspective to another. In this way, story is a powerful tool for engendering confidence in you and your vision.”

No wonder PowerPoint slides generally bore people to death—well to sleep, at least. Narrative, as well as content, is king when trying to engage people.

Furthermore, Daniel Kahneman, a living psychologist of great renowned, along with others developed two theories called duration neglect and peak-end rule. Essentially both these rules suggest that there is a strange relationship between how we experience things and the associated memories that are subsequently generated.

For instance, to paraphrase an example Kahneman talks about on a TED lecture: in a painful situation, like a medical operation, the duration or time it takes has no effect on a patient’s memory of the total pain felt. So, if identical operations were carried out on two patients, where patient A’s lasted for two hours and ended very painfully, while patient B’s lasted six hours, reached the same pain levels, but ended much less painfully than patient A’s, patient A’s memory of the pain would be much worse than patient B’s—even though patient B’s operation was three times longer.

Thus, the ending of an experience is highly important in the formation of memories as it exerts the most amount of influence on the brain. A holiday can be remembered badly if a bad experience happened at the end, or similarly a customer’s experience can be negative if they had poor post-purchase support.

To the human mind life is a story, and it seeks narrative and follows a structure just like stories do.

Lets now look further into story structure and narrative; how it appears to display a universal quality in human society, and what this means for brands and experiential marketers.


I recently read two inspiring books about storytelling: The Seven Basic Plots, by Christopher Booker, and Into the Woods, by acclaimed screenwriter and founder of the BBC Writers Academy, John Yorke.

They both put forward the argument that there are some basic plot archetypes that all stories appear to fit into and, correspondingly, the human mind instinctually engages with.

But what are archetypes you may be wondering?

As the great psychologist, Carl Jung, explained in his essay,”The Collective Unconscious and Its Archetypes“, an archetype is an unconscious primary form, an original pattern or prototype in the human mind; archetypes are not learned or acquired—they are with us from birth and are as natural and embedded in us as our own DNA. So they are incredibly important to how we process and understand the world around us.

I thank the great people at D&AD for summarising the two books below via their excellent online course, Brand Storytelling, on the Future Learn MOOC platform. I highly recommend it to anybody looking to improve their storytelling abilities.

Take it away D&AD…

The Seven Basic Plots—Christopher Booker

7 Basic plots

1. Overcoming the Monster


We see this plot popping up over and over again in the advertising world. Think of the ‘monster’ as an obstacle (very rarely an actual monster!), which the hero has to fight to overcome, usually with the help of a brand.”

2. Rags to Riches


In marketing, how could discovering a product/brand be seen to elevate someone, transforming his or her life?”

3. The Quest


In advertising, we might see our hero channelling the values of the brand as they forge to do good and achieve its goals.”

4. Voyage and Return


How could a brand take you to another world? Can you represent the experience of a product through a journey?”

5. Comedy


Comedy in advertising is often used to show the unfortunate alternative situation that your customer might find himself or herself in if they don’t use your brand/product.”

6. Tragedy


Used with caution, we tend to see tragedy most frequently used hand-in-hand with shock tactics in charity advertising.”

7. Rebirth


When applying rebirth to advertising, you might think of ‘the dark spell’ as time away from your brand/product, or maybe your brand can reconnect or re-inspire people?”

Into The Woods—John Yorke

Into the woods

“There are many theories as to why we tell stories, and Yorke (among others) offers excellent analysis, but what is perhaps more useful for any student of storytelling is to understand why all stories share a similar underlying structure. Why is it that, as much as we try to escape archetypal story structure, every tale can be mapped onto it in some way?

The fact that the formula – thesis, antithesis, synthesis – is inescapable in the stories we tell suggests it is in fact a formula for living and learning, hardwired into our brains to serve a far deeper purpose. It isn’t a chicken and egg situation, we haven’t appropriated archetypal story formula into our mental processing, rather at a deep structural level, all stories reflect the natural way our brains work to bring order to the chaos of our worlds.

Here are some of Yorke’s explanations as to why this might be so.”

1. ‘The Societal Reason’

“Yorke suggests that it may be possible for “archetypal stories to carry in their DNA a blueprint for survival”. What does this mean? Well, think about the first time you ever used a cash machine. You approached it with fear and trepidation, thinking at best it would swallow your card, at worst swallow your fingers.

The machine was your antagonist. But you needed to overcome your fear and scepticism to get your money because the bank was closed. So you plucked up courage, did what was required with the machine, and lo and behold you got your money and kept your fingers! And in the process, you came to appreciate the simple ‘out of hours’ service the cash machine offered, and you also learned not to be quite so fearful about technological change in the future.

Inherent in this everyday task then is archetypal story structure – protagonist (you) faces antagonist (cash machine) and overcomes, ‘synthesising’ his or her findings to be born anew (no longer fearful of technological change). The ‘formula’ then is used to get us through life, pure and simple; it helps us to face and overcome challenges big and small every day, helps us to learn and grow, to survive and thrive.”

2. ‘The Rehearsal Reason’

“Archetypal story structure allows us to emotionally connect to characters in stories – characters have to face their antagonist for us to care. We are taken on an emotional journey with that character in a fictional world through which we experience, by proxy, the problems, circumstances, situations, etc., our protagonist faces and overcomes.

Therefore, by learning how to navigate and manage these circumstances in fictional form as the character, it gives us the wherewithal and tools to do the same in real life. Archetypal structure then allows stories to be a rehearsal for real life.”

3. ‘The Information Retrieval Reason’

“Archetypal story structure brings order to chaos, and the mass of information inside our heads is essentially chaos until we give it structure. And structure it we do. In fact, we understand our thoughts, memories, dreams and the ebb and flow of life itself as story. The maxim you learn on day one of every screenwriting course is ‘show, don’t tell’. As soon as we bombard someone with information, as soon as we ‘tell’, they switch off. Wrap that information into story – governed by archetypal structure – and it hits home far more emotionally and effectively. We like people to feel and remember the information we impart, so we deliver it as story.” 

4. ‘The Panacea Reason’

“Life is tough and the only thing that gets us out of bed in the morning is hope. Without hope we wouldn’t survive and hope is inherent in archetypal story structure. Just think about this – boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy gets girl again. Stories reinforce the fact that although we face challenges daily, we can overcome them and grow. They tell us we are right to believe in hope.”

5. ‘The Procreation Reason’

“If we look at the Darwinian reasons we humans exist – to be the best versions of ourselves and procreate – then archetypal story structure leads us right there. It’s no great surprise that a lot of stories end with the two leads kissing and we all know that one thing leads to another. Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy gets girl and procreates. Archetypal story structure then suggests that by achieving “balance and harmony as an individual” we earn sexual union.”

6. ‘The Psychological Reason’

“We have constant struggles as humans between our desires and needs, both conscious and unconscious, and also between our internal and external worlds. Thus, stories are a manifestation of inner psychological conflict and all external antagonists are really projections of the inner divisions of the mind. Archetypal story structure – thesis, antithesis, synthesis – ultimately helps us find balance, be healed. The ‘formula’, therefore, helps us to find where sanity lies.”


Traditional storytelling, whether this is a film, a game, or a novel, generally follows a three act structure—beginning, middle and end—and feature common story elements such as character, conflict, resolution, and plot.

Characters, in particular, are very important, as they’re shortcuts to emotional engagement—they are very effective at delivering a message or point of view to the audience.

The story arc

The classic story arc

So we can create a story following a very simplistic formula.

Beginning of a story: Introduces the protagonist and the first crisis. For brands, we need a character with a problem that our product or service is going to help solve.

Middle of a story: A series of additional crises must be confronted, each building on the last add to the dramatic tension and keep the audience engaged. For brands, we should involve a character adopting a solution the brand is offering.

End of a story: One final crises leads to a triumphant climax; the denouement. For brands, we should show the character benefiting from using the solution.


It should be apparent now how important story is to both brands and experiential marketers even in a twenty-first century full of technological innovation.

A brand needs to continually carve an identity for itself so it needs to make clear to its audience exactly what it stands for. Storytelling does this in a memorable way that engages customers’ minds.

But it’s not just about the mind; it’s also about emotional connections. If a brand follows through sincerely on its promise of what it stands for, the customer believes in it, and becomes loyal. The brand builds a relationship—one with potential to last.

Below is a great talk about brand storytelling in the digital space (beware of the colourful language, however).

As Gary Vaynerchuk mentions in the above YouTube video to be effective brand storytellers in marketing we need to pay particular heed to where individuals’ attentions are at any given moment. Invariably this is more on their smartphones and social networks, and less watching TV or noticing billboard ads whilst they walk down the street.

Particularly interesting is how he says we need to focus on the psychology of each social network and change our content, tone and storytelling to best suit the platform—whether on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, our expectations, actions and how we share across the various social media platforms differs.

Consequently, if done well, experiential marketing offers a unique way for great brand storytelling that connects with modern consumers. Not only can it create opportunities for more intimate, emotive and attention-grabbing brand experiences via live events, but it can also generate high-quality, sharable content that people want to engage with.

So experiential marketers need to start thinking more like storytellers.

The advertising industry, for instance, has long known the power of a good yarn to create captivating TV ads. Just think of any John Lewis Christmas ad for compelling storytelling in a bite-size timeframe.

Celebrated storytelling in experiential marketing is arguably more difficult, however, due to the challenging environments we work across—festivals, streets, parks, shopping centres, train stations, etc.—then say a cosy film studio. Nonetheless, as we have seen in this article, there is a basic story structure and narrative that our brains are wired for and, subsequently, we can tap into.

As a result:

  • We need to pick plot archetypes that best fits a brand’s identity and objectives
  • We need to make sure we use strong characters to effectively get across a brand’s message;
  • We need both antagonists and protagonists—these can be obvious or more abstract concepts
  • We need inciting incidents to create tension and suspense
  • We need resolutions so we can learn vicariously
  • And we need find creative ways of delivering the story in a compelling and engaging way across face-to-face and digital touch-points drawing guidance from the story arc

A great example of storytelling through brand activation was by AirBnB at Sundance Festival. They not only told an interesting story at the experiential event, but also allowed people to become storytellers themselves by sharing content across social media. This is what Airbnb had to say about the activation.

“Beyond homes, Airbnb connects travelers and storytellers with locals and their neighborhoods. By showcasing local characters, we not only included the Airbnb community as creative partners, but put the Sundance spotlight on their stories. In addition to our community storytelling, we partnered with other respected creative storytellers to reach an even broader audience. Our partners included Adobe, Shared Studios, Local Murmurs and Vimeo.

We leveraged these partnerships by having them create content along with us including programs like Pillow Talk, Portals, and Pocket Stories. Through the power of social media, we communicated the magic of these partnerships with those who were at Sundance and those who were following along from afar. Each channel was used to share the kinds of stories we felt would make the most sense for the audience. When showcasing the experience of Shared Studio’s Portals and Adobe’s Pillow Talk, we used Periscope to capture real-time moments and pushed additionally messaging through Twitter to invite all those who couldn’t make it to watch along with us.

The result was a campaign that was driven, created, experienced, and shared by our creative community in Park City and around the world.”


Airbnb Haus—brand activation at Sundance Festival

I shall leave you with some final words of wisdom from John Yorke to help us remember the simple formula needed to construct stories that evolution has wired the human brain to engage with.

“The protagonists’ battles against their antagonists, their journey to victory through crisis, climax and resolution; these are the building blocks of every story.” 

Get involved by leaving a comment below, or by following me on Twitter. You can find me @EventPsychology.


UX Design: A Powerful Weapon for Experiential Marketing

“Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely”—Auguste Rodin

In essence, experiential marketing is all about taking a client’s brief, coming up with a creative idea and, by using both live and digital communication platforms, delivering a campaign that achieves whatever the desired results may be.

This may be led by a clever idea or by the use of technology. I wonder, however, how many times the user experience has been fully considered or the idea has been rigorously tested?

Certainly in my experience these are aspects that are sometimes left on the back-burner due to limited time, shortage of human resource, work over-load, or simply down to a lack of the required skill-set.

I also feel that the complexity of truly great work in experiential marketing is sometimes overlooked. For instance, it has to be integrated across digital and real-world landscapes, which are user-friendly, fun, memorable, and always communicates the brand’s message effectively and delivers ROI. To do this in a consistent and innovative way is extremely challenging.

Nevertheless, when campaigns go live individuals are going to experience them either way. Consequently, it seems to make much more sense to scrupulously plan for a fantastic user experience rather than leave it to chance.

This is where borrowing principles and practices from UX Design might assist us to better design and deliver great experiential marketing campaigns.

What is User Experience Design?

According to a study from the Oxford Journal, Interacting With Computers, the goal of UX Design in business is to “improve customer satisfaction and loyalty through the utility, ease of use, and pleasure provided in the interaction with a product.”

In other words, UX is all about how people feel and engage with products and services across all touch points; whether these experiences are memorable and shareable, positive or negative, can be down to good or bad design.

A great blog on UX Design is by Joel Marsh. He goes further and states: “UX Design involves a process very similar to doing science: we do research to understand the users, we develop ideas to solve the users’ needs — and the needs of the business — and we build and measure those solutions in the real world to see if they work.”

As a result, we can think of three fundamental pillars in a UX approach to design:

  1. Research to understand the user and their behaviour.
  2. Create and design ideas with empathy.
  3. A discipline of prototyping and testing.

Lets discuss these further below.

Pillars of UX Design

(1) Research to understand the user and their behaviour

Immerse yourself in your users’ world to understand what they do and why they do it. This will help decipher what exactly users’ needs and wants are, which in turn, inspires the creation of ideas.

You need get to know your audience—really know them. So go beyond demographics like average age, income and media habits to find out what makes them tick. What gets them excited? What worries them? What do they talk to others about? Why and how do they use your brand, and what do they love about it already?

You can do this by utilising market research techniques, such as interviews, focus groups, observations, surveys, or analyzing quantitative data for insights.

This is common practice in the other parts marketing mix, but I would argue that it is far from ubiquitous within experiential marketing agencies. In your experience, would you agree?

(2) Create and design ideas with empathy

In UX, empathy is a key ingredient in order to build effective user experiences. Getting inside the heads of individuals and having to ability to really walk in their shoes puts UX Designers at the forefront of a cultural change in business to a more customer-centric world.

As a result, coming up with ideas gathered from insights in the research stage that are fully in line with the target consumers needs, as well as the objectives of your client, is crucial.

Customer journey mapping can also be a very useful tool to help in maintaining your focus on empathy with costumers as they interact with your campaign across all the suitable touch points.

(3) A discipline of prototyping and testing

Next, you need to prototype the most promising ideas that come out of stage two of the process and evaluate them more accurately to see which offer true potential.

By prototyping, I mean a process where an initial version of an idea, product or service is tested to make sure it is fit for the audience and purpose. If there are any errors or problems, the prototype is improved and tested again. This goes on until the product or service is considered to be fully functional and suitable.

The MIT Media Lab, for instance, lives by the motto, “Demo or die,” which recognises that only the act of prototyping can transform an idea into something truly valuable—on their own, ideas are ten-a-penny.

For example, the user experience across all aspects of an experiential campaign—from technology, to digital, to social media, to on-site production, to media buying, or whatever other touch points are used—need to be tested. Ask questions like:

  • Does every interaction work smoothly for the user?
  • Does it look visually pleasing?
  • Does it engage emotionally?
  • Does it stimulate the senses?
  • Does it enhances the overall experience for the user?
  • Does it add real value to the user?
  • Does it effectively communicate the brand’s message?

I feel this is a really important aspect of design that we need to start incorporating into experiential marketing. Otherwise, how can we keep innovating and evolve beyond a stab-in-the-dark, hit-and-miss, type approach?

I wonder do any agencies out there already have a system of prototyping ideas for their campaigns? Do brand managers feel this would offer more value to experiential campaigns for their brands?

Problems with Implementing a UX Approach in Experiential Marketing

I know what some of you must be saying: “Yes, this sounds great, but how can we fit this in when we are already under so much pressure with limited time and budget?”

Well, valid point. However, my argument is this: By creating a design process that can be drawn upon when approaching every experiential campaign it will actually produce faster, more predicable results. For instance:

On agency-side, it can be used to better flush out great ideas that are fully focused on the end user and stand up after being tested—increasing the chances for more effective campaigns. On client-side, they can have full confidence in the rigorous approach your agency has to every project—increasing the chances of new account wins and improving relationships with existing accounts.

Concluding remarks…

UX is about two things only – the User and the Experience. Give your users a positive experience and they will reward you with their trust and their business.

In the context of experiential marketing, this means that you have to ensure live brand experiences don’t waste individuals’ time, with gimmicky, hollow, unemotional campaigns and activations. Instead, they need to be engaging and memorable user experiences where consumers are captivated and enthralled across all relevant touch points.

This is especially true when you consider that, over the coming years, the volume of experiential activity is going to increase at an even faster pace compared with what we’ve seen in 2015. As a result, the possibility of consumers getting bored and weary of substandard, mediocre experiential marketing campaigns become evermore likely.

Subsequently, the best way to ensure your future experiential campaigns are innovative, unforgettable and enjoyable experiences, are perfectly aligned with both consumers’ and brands’ needs, and produce more consistent results, is to incorporate design thinking into the heart of how you approach experiential marketing.




Immersive Experiences: The Future of Compelling Storytelling for Experiential Marketing




Are live music events immersive?

Are live music events immersive?



Immersive experiences across a “Mixed Reality” universe

The term “Mixed Reality” encompasses five spaces:

  1. Real-Life Environment;
  2. Augmented Reality;
  3. Virtual Reality;
  4. Alternate Reality;
  5. Digital Environment.


Real-Life Environment




Augmented Reality



Virtual Reality





Alternate Reality




Digital Environment


Creating the universe

Now lets put it all together with an imaginary case study…

Tesla Motors Campaign: “The Future City Is Now”





To sum up…



Psychology of Persuasion: Experiential Marketing and The Reciprocation Rule





The “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” scenario














  1. The event was free;
  3. it had wine priced very reasonably;
  5. it had free wine blending classes;


How the rule can directly benefit your next experiential campaign:

  • Generate better brand loyalty
  • Improve amplification through media channels
  • Influence the future decision process
  • Encourage behavioural change
  • Get people to give you £5 (Only joking)










Neuromarketing Technologies



EEG Sensor Cap

EEG Sensor Cap



FMRI Machine

FMRI Machine



Eye Tracking Technology

Eye Tracking Technology


Interesting research studies






The Verdict



Neuromarketing Agencies




The Sensory Experience



Street vendors alongside the River Thames.

Street vendors alongside the River Thames.





Street food

Street food







The hustle and bustle of market street.

The hustle and bustle of market street.





The Soundscape Experience

Inside the Soundscape Experiment room.

Inside the Soundscape Experiment room.





Quiero todo el vino por favor

Final Thoughts…





