Lights, Camera, Captivate! Storytelling Secrets from Hollywood
10:59am and the door swung open. A steady stream of cheerful IoIC delegates filed into the room and found their seats at the eight tables that Sally Nettleton and I had been rehearsing in front of just moments before.
We were expecting 15 maybe 20 at a push….but at the final count before we got going, we had 77.
Deep breaths. We have 40 minutes to workshop ways to use Hollywood’s hacks to help these communications people find better ways to deliver stories to their internal audiences.
No pressure.
Sally opened the session with a typically warm intro to Toucan, and set the tone for the session. And before long the audience was hooked. Quite literally. Because that’s where we started the session.
Hit em’ with your best Hook
After giving out some hypothetical internal comms briefs for the attendees to work from, we tasked them with creating a communications ‘Hook’ in just 10 mins. Hollywood uses Hooks on things like trailers and movie posters to attract attention and pull in the crowds. They are purposefully sharp to get people intrigued and talking.
A classic example - “Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…”
Hooks need to be sharp and to the point to reel people in.
Hook’s done, onto a bit of ‘Conflict & Tension’.
Conflict is King (or Queen)
Stories without conflict are like popcorn without butter – a little bland. In internal communications, conflict can take the form of challenges your company is facing, competing priorities within departments, or even the quest to achieve a specific goal. Highlighting these conflicts keeps your audience invested and eager to see how they'll be resolved. So as part of the brief, we got them to find the conflict and then create some kind of tension within their communication to drive engagement and action.
10 minutes flew by and before we knew it we were onto the next bit.
Show, Don't Tell
Vivid imagery and sensory details bring stories to life. Instead of simply stating facts, paint a picture with your words. So in the last 10 minutes we get the attendees to think visually. What image sums up what you’re trying to say in the fastest and most arresting way possible? We used classic Hollywood movie posters as our inspiration here and it really helped everyone bring their hooks, conflicts, tensions to life.
Fast and Furious
40 minutes was an ambitious pace to take 77 people through a workshop, but by the end, what our delegates had grasped was how by taking some Hollywood tips and tricks, they could very quickly distil everything they needed to say on one page…and effectively create a movie poster-inspired piece of communication.
End on a High Note
Leave your audience feeling motivated and optimistic. Conclude your communication with a clear call to action, a roadmap for success, or an inspiring vision of the future state.
By incorporating these Hollywood storytelling tips into your internal communications strategy, you can transform dry information into captivating narratives that resonate with your employees and drive real change within your organisation.
The Outtakes
One of the recurring themes in the room was how ‘Tight’ people were with their thinking. It’s not easy to think freely as an internal comms director or manager. There are often a lot of stakeholders and brand teams to keep happy. But, we need to remember who the communications are for…it’s not for them, it’s for your audience. So we have to make it engaging, memorable and point the stories you need to tell towards them.
To get braver ideas chosen, you have to present them. So my recommendation is not squashing your ambition or thinking, but to boldly show what you genuinely think would work. However, you need to have a ‘Plan-B and Plan-C’ just in case the ideas don’t fly. So structure the ideas you present as follows:
Idea 1 = Something they’ll comfortably buy.
Idea 2 = Something that pushes the brand and challenges perceptions.
Idea 3 = Something unexpected that if it was approved, would be a game changing piece of work.
Workshop with us
If you want to change up your communications and push the stories you need to tell further, we have lots of creative and strategic workshops that can help. Get in touch and we’ll help you get your stories straight.
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