I was interviewed by the Custom Publishing Council and asked five questions about the implications of Brand Storytelling on the business of content creation.
You can read the full interview here.
CPC: How does the following quote, taken from your Favorite Story Quotes, explain how a unique narrative can help a brand identify with its’ audience: “We all live in suspense, from day to day, from hour to hour; in other words, we are the hero of our own story”? –Mary McCarthy (author)
MM: The greatest freedom of this era is the ability to construct and shape our personal narratives. Just look at the explosion of social media – blogging, the twitterverse, and the emerging semantic web. What a thrill! The future of the Internet is really about making sense and meaning of a world buckling forward at warp speed drive. On the flip side, we’re all suffering from information overload and attention deficit. That’s why we need new, and more sophisticated, filters for processing content. And as much as technology is an enabler, at the end of the day, it’s our human ability to weave stories that brings meaning to our lives. The brands that put the customer at the center of the universe are increasingly the winners. Go a step further, and invite your customers to actually narrate the story (customization, co-creation, user-generated content, etc…). Consumers tend to identify these brands as enablers they couldn’t live without. Imagine for a moment life without Google…
You can read the full interview here, back during my time as the Founder of THIRSTY-FISH.



2 Comments
I’m afraid the link to the full interview didn’t work for me. I’d like to read it if you wouldn’t mind sending me the link?
The question from the preview above made me think of the first line of _David Copperfield_, "Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show." I have sometimes thought about what the internet can do to people’s perceptions of reality and self-image. I think the internet greatly expands what is possible, both for the benefit and detriment of people as individuals and society as a whole. It’s fascinating. I like the response, it seems to reflect idealism tempered with clear perception.
Sorry about that, the link has been fixed.