There’s a great quote by author Philip Pullman that reads ‘“After  nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need  most in the world.” 

Funnily enough, many of the studies around the effect of storytelling on our wellbeing back this up. A study in Science magazine  found that reading literature helps us become more emphatic and better  equipped to understand and support the thoughts of others. A storytelling programme used within a hospice environment  also found many benefits for patients and their families, including an  increased sense of wellbeing, reduced depression and  improved/preserved  self-identity.

In modern day storytelling, digital screens have become the new  campfires that we once sat around to share stories. How often do you go  out for dinner and everyone is fixated on their phones. Or you sit in an  office, huddled around a desk, checking out something funny on a  colleague’s screen? 

Digital signage screens have the same purpose as campfires, they just  provide a new medium through which to tell stories. Both in  physicality, given that they’re often located in the focal point of the  room where everyone can see them and also in the way we use them. In  shop advertising displays, offices, lobbies, restaurants and bars, we’re  used to gathering round the screen. Whether this is to catch a game,  check out the news or read more about a product or company. 

So how can you use your digital screen ‘campfire’ and the power of storytelling, to make better connections with your audience?

When we tell a story to our friends, or even give a presentation, we  build it up into a journey. You don’t say ‘I went here and X happened’.  You say, ‘I woke up, I felt like this, I was thinking about this and  about to do that’. Put simply, you build the event into a story and the  story into a journey. This helps to bring your listener in and make them  invested in the outcome. In digital signage (and any marketing) the  same applies.

One way to do this is to plan your digital signage content by using one of the many popular storytelling techniques  often used in brand content and presentations. One of these is the term  coined by Nancy Duarte, called ‘Sparklines’. This is where the ‘ideal’  reality and the current reality are created as one narrative, in order  to compare what is, to what could be. 

By showing your audience what the current situation is, compared to  what your product, service or idea could make the situation, is a great  way to add a firm narrative to the thing you are trying to sell. For  another great example of how to do this in presentation form (which can  be added to your screen using our Google Slides app) check this article out. 

Often in digital signage we hit a ‘set it and forget it’ mindset.  This is where content is added to the screen but with no real strategy  or structure. When this happens, there is no clear content path or story  and it can be difficult for viewers to really ‘get’ what’s going on.

As easy as it is to add new content to a digital signage CMS like ScreenCloud, it also means that content can be added without much thought.

Say your boss asks you to put your latest price list live and you add  it to your playlist. All of a sudden, the price list is sandwiched  between an Instagram gallery and an advertising video. Where’s the  consistency there?

Much better to map the content path, decide on what goes where and  then get it organized so that the screen content is consistent, whether  the viewer is watching for 10 seconds or 10 minutes.

One way to do this is through a tool like Trello. By adding content  and splitting it into sections, either by time or theme, you’ll be able  to get a clear view of your story and how it will pan out. 

One of the beauties of digital signage is that you can mix mediums. As you can see from our App Store, there are ways to add images, video, social media feeds, presentations, dashboards, news feeds, videos, RSS and more. 

However, there still needs to be a clear or consistent pattern which  anchors all of your individual stories together. Humans are designed to  see patterns - we find them even when there aren’t any. A study by psychologists  found that when students were asked to search for images in television  static they found stock patterns again and again - even though there  weren’t any. 

In your content, people are going to look for patterns. If you can  help them to find them, this will ensure that your content makes sense  and that your audience feels good while watching it. 

One way you can do this is to ‘anchor’ each piece of content with an  introductory image or slide, just like you would a series of blogposts. 

We did this recently in an event setting and it worked great! The  bright yellow background helped our key slides to stand out, so that the  rest of the content was anchored to our core message and the story we  were trying to tell. 

FYI - these slides were created in PicMonkey and took less than a minute each once we’d fixed the template. Super simple and yet seriously effective. 

Surprisingly, the stories you tell may not be your own. Or even your brand’s for that matter.

As we’ve discussed in the past, user-generated-content through the form of customer stories, testimonials and videos are powerful ways to collate authentic content. 

Allowing your customers to craft your story helps in a few key ways:

Content is more effective as it is customer-led, rather than brand-led

The stories shown can change rapidly and this makes it easy for the viewer to find ones they resonate with

Customer stories are likely to use everyday language, not marketing jargon or business language, making them more relatable

It’s automated - using social media apps means you get a steady stream of relevant content without you doing a thing

It offers feedback and helps you to refine future messaging and ideas

Just take the food companies who are always giving their customers  chances to vote and become part of the decision-making experience on new  flavors and products. This is a story of what their customers want -  not what their brand has decided. This gives the power to the customer  and helps them craft their own story with the brand through the flavor  they choose and their reason for choosing it. 

UK fashion-brand Missguided uses the ‘#babesofmissguided’ hashtag so  that brand fans can send in images of the clothes from wherever they are  and whatever they’re doing, making them a part of the story rather than  passive shoppers.

Our customer North Valley Baptist Schools  lets its students get involved with the digital signage content  creation process. Students from media and graphic classes are tasked  with deciding on the content that gets shown on screen and with  designing it too. Now isn’t that a much nicer story to tell?

Hopefully you’re now brimming with ideas, ready to tell your story to  the world. To get your stories setup on the digital signage screens you  have or might be wanting to invest in, try out our 14-day free trial. 

A guide to telling powerful stories through digital signage content including the use of apps, social media, storyboarding and narrative techniques.

Storytelling is the gateway to better digital signage content. Here’s how to design the stories that work.

How To Tell Stories Using Digital Signage