Yahoo! Provoke Summit | Internet Week, London 2011

Posted by: Rachel Mepham On Wednesday, November 9th, 2011 - Advertising

| Conference and Expo

| Creative

| Yahoo

I attended ‘Has the Digital Age Forgotten the Art of Storytelling?’ at the aforementioned, Yahoo Provoke Summit, yesterday 8th November at the Hospital Club. It was held as part of Internet Week Europe and offered some useful insight into how the creative industries were engaging within the digital arena.

The presentation was opened by Krane Jeffery, Head of Yahoo Studio, the new creative solution from Yahoo developed to complement their editorial and advertising service and is said to provide effective brand building campaigns.

Andrew Cracknell author of ‘The Real Mad Men’ followed with some great examples of how story telling over the last 50 years has delivered some persuasive advertising campaigns, which would still stand as commercials today. His argument however was that the cleverness of the web and digital advertising platforms has distracted from the art of storytelling. He went on to say that the key to great creative advertising is persuasion. He explained that creatives need to remember it is not about what ‘they’ want to create but what they ‘need’ to create in order to make sales. A great point that often gets lost in the excitement of new technology developments and new ways of interacting with customers.

The panel consisted of Cracknell and Jeffrey joined by Paul Kemp-Robertson, Co-Founder of Contagious Communications, Richard Morris, Deputy MD of Carat and Anrick Bregma, Interactive Director of unit9.

Each of the panellists were asked to showcase their favourite examples of digital storytelling. During this process, a key argument was raised and directed to the panel, “Where is the storytelling in the examples of digital work presented today? It seems that you are offering free stuff in return for interaction, not storytelling”.

This led to an uncomfortable and awkward response from the panel but Kemp-Robertson tried to address the question. It seemed to me that the question was put forward to address the need to engage with users in the digital age. You need to give the customer what they want and often an incentive fulfils that. However Cracknell’s response clearly stated that there was a fundamental error with the approach here. Advertisers should not be asking what the customer wants – they should be using the art of storytelling and creative advertising to persuade, this is how it has always been and perhaps what is missing in digital. People are trying to be too clever with the tools available rather than meeting the objectives.

On a day to day basis I have to understand how search, social and creativity can work together in harmony so though an interesting debate followed, I felt there was no conclusion. I find it hard not to work to the end result of generating more sales or enquiries as everything is so measured and perhaps this is where the crossover falls. Digital marketing could focus on storytelling and persuasion, but if it isn’t generating results then it is time to try something different.