When we had our Research and Development Day last week here at the agency, digital storytelling popped up while finding digital ideas. Every now and then I find articles about digital storytelling, telling us it is going to be a big thing soon. I have struggled to find many great case studies from brands though.

But what is digital storytelling actually? Digital Storytelling is about telling personal stories through videos, podcasts, pictures, (hyper) texts and animations.

I want to mention two examples of digital storytelling to show how brands can engage with their target group in a different and individual way. The first example is ‘Dear Holly’ by Google Chrome. In the commercial, a father captures the moments of his daughter’s life since she was born. He tells her story by using videos, geotaggings and web photo albums sent by emails to her private email account. The different digital tools allow him to create a ‘digital story’.

 

Another great use of digital storytelling was developed by IKEA. On their Swedish website if you click on the dandelion, you’ll see pods flying around. In each pod a designer is hidden, ready to tell you about their personal story of furniture creation. I think through the personal digital story the consumer has a bigger bond to the design and idea behind the furniture.

Hopefully we’ll see more examples of brands engaging their audiences through storytelling.

 

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