2 Story Fundamentals for Your Media Campaigns

As a media attorney, talent agent, and USC professor of media and law, I have been researching and tracking effective storytelling and media. And I’ve practiced storytelling for years as a leader in digital marketing, plus with an arts and entertainment company when I headed their marketing and talent teams.

While at the company, I also picked up tips from master class storytellers like Matthew Luhn, one of the first Pixar animators who worked on Toy Story, Omar Johnson, formerly of Nike and Beats by Dre, Peter Guber, Peter Davis, Sean Connery, and many others.

Here are two main things I teach my students about storytelling, whether you’re writing a screenplay or running a media campaign.

1. Follow Story Conventions

Start with storytelling conventions.

Consumers have archetypes in their heads. They have seen all the movies, heard all the bedtime stories, and love to be problem solvers. That means they want to be able to predict what happens next in the story.

It all goes back to rewards. In our elementary school days, we were programmed that if we said two plus two was four, we got a verbal affirmation of “good job.” Now, solving problems leads to a feeling of satisfaction.

It’s the same thing with your media messaging. People want to be able to predict what’s happening. 

One standard convention in Western society is happy endings. We want underdogs to win the big game, people to fall in love, and sick people to be cured. 

So, in the commercial, when you see the small kid at bat in the championship game, you want her to win. Then, when she swings and the ball goes up in the air, you root for the home run. And when it happens, you feel satisfied.

People also love to solve problems. Taylor Swift and her team are masters of using riddles and Easter eggs in media campaigns. In her videos, Taylor leaves clues in her messages about the names of new albums or who the song is really about. So fans pore over her work, debating and deciphering, and keeping Taylor in the news and her music selling.

2. Know When to Break Conventions

Just as much as we love to be able to predict things, we also love to have conventions broken. Breaking conventions (intentionally and well) surprises us and can leave a lasting impression. 

Comedians do this as the basis of jokes, setting up expectations and then dashing them. And so do master filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, who upset the linear time in movies like Pulp Fiction or changed the course of history in films like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Breaking a convention or combining genres (e.g., science fiction and westerns or spy thrillers and romance) leaves a lasting impression because it creates cognitive dissonance. And it sparks conversation among media consumers.

Think of how Southwest Airlines broke conventions when it showed people in embarrassing situations. In one commercial, it showed a first date where the man had to pass gas, and his date returned to pick up her forgotten phone. The breaking of the romantic convention was unexpected but tied into the tag line “Wanna get away.”

Or think about the Geico campaign that combined cavemen with insurance. It was an unexpected genre combination that also supported the tag line “So easy, a caveman can do it.”

When you create something that breaks a convention, it makes people think and talk more. Similarly, when you follow conventions and have people problem-solve, it makes them feel satisfied.

It doesn’t matter which way you go–following conventions or breaking conventions. Both strategies work. Because people love to predict the endings just as much as they love being surprised.

Try these tips out, and let me know how it goes.