The Writer’s Room for Marketers

For a long time, the idea of a three-act structure was thought of as the gold standard of storytelling even in marketing. But now with the rise in digital stories and multichannel marketing, we must ask ourselves should this change the way we structure our stories?

Often, I find clients want to cram all five pillar messages into a short social asset and wrap it all up in a three-act structure bow, but let’s stop for a moment and unpack this idea. Why are we trying to apply a three-act structure to every marketing asset or to an entire campaign in that matter? What if we thought of story differently? What if we thought of story in terms of network television. Yes, I’m suggesting digital marketing could learn a lesson or two from how network television structures and breaks story. Typically, you have a teaser, which is your hook followed by 4 or 5 acts. This type of structure forces you to create almost mini stories or segments that end on a cliffhanger or a call to action adding up to an entire episode.

Okay, so this is where it gets interesting for marketers. Think about your favorite network show, the intricacies of specific storylines and how they are woven throughout an episode, a season or beyond. Now, what if you created marketing stories using this format? What if you took a page right out of a Hollywood writers’ room and used their method of breaking story to create compelling, narrative driven storylines that keep your audiences engaged in your campaigns and ultimately coming back for more.

When writing for TV, before a word is ever written on the page, you must first break the story. Breaking a story is where all the staff writers and their assistants get into a room and take an episode or sometimes an entire season and literally pick the story apart beat by beat asking themselves if this…then what? Uncovering character arcs and sometimes even key pieces of dialogue and at the end of this grueling process they have constructed a story blueprint or an outline of sorts.

Honestly, most writers will tell you this is the hardest part of the process because you have to take all the elements of a story — stakes, voice, character, structure and start to craft believable, intricate, and compelling storylines that will resonate with your audience.

Let’s look at this idea in action. I’m obsessed with NBC’s hit show THIS IS US! These masterful storytellers have created a really interesting parallel story structure where they follow one family in the 1970’s-80’s and also in present day; skillfully cutting back and forth in time, to reveal each character’s backstory. incredibly without losing the audience.

Can you imagine sitting in that writers’ room? You must track two parallel stories in time and figure out what to reveal when. How many episodes should it take for Randall’s fathers’ storyline to end? Does Kevin’s love interest resolve in an episode, or do they carry it through multiple seasons? Does Kate ever overcome her struggle with weight? Oh, the drama it’s so good because of the pace — the story structure.

They don’t cram everything into one episode, it’s more like each episode is strategically peppered with little breadcrumbs leaving a trail behind and the viewer wanting more. Isn’t that exactly how we want to structure our marketing campaigns? Imagine, your audience so engaged in your story they want more regardless of what channel they are on or what medium they are experiencing your story through — video, infographics etc.

Here is where my notion gets a little wild. What if you created a writers’ room with your marketing team or agency partner and broke a story. Start by putting your key marketing messages or “storylines” up on a white board or on index cards and talk through which ones need a single “asset” or episode to resolve and which ones need to carry throughout an entire campaign or two. What is your hook or your teaser and what does each mini story look like? Would your audience want to click your CTA? Your campaign should just feel like one connected story that spans across the buyer’s journey regardless of asset type or channel.

Remember, your story is not positioning, messaging or value props. You can weave all of that into your stories, but don’t try to cram it into one asset or for that matter every asset! Think about messaging as your foundation or compass, not your story.

Once you’ve created your writers’ room and produced a story blueprint for your campaign you can easily map out which tactics and channels to use to tell your story in the most effective way. I love this approach because it fosters thoughtful holistic storytelling and campaign planning, but most importantly it gives teams permission to be creative and collaborative in their own writers’ room where the sentiment is, yes and…

Want to know more about the power of storytelling and narrative? Reach out to me on IG @hannahhamzacreative or grab my free guide below to help you cultivate your creativity!