Content Strategists must cultivate the ability to serve as story engineers in a restructured organization designed to support strategic Programmatic Storytelling.
3. THE STORYTELLING
ORGANIZATION
What is Programmatic Storytelling
A strategic storytelling approach to content strategy
Key functions, roles and responsibilities in a Storytelling
organization
Content strategists must cultivate the ability to serve as story engineers
The Central Narrative
The hook that moves your audience with intentional design across your media
ecosystem
5. PROGRAMMATIC
STORYTELLING
A method of architecting
stories by evaluating user
behavior, constructing a program
plan, and developing story
elements to distribute over time,
across owned, earned, and paid
media.
7. ESSENTIAL
UNDERSTANDING
Audience
Motivation, needs, and preferred touch points
Language
SEO, taxonomy, messaging, positioning, common language for
translation
Design and Development
User-centered design applied to narrative design, creative direction, and
multimedia production
Emerging Trends
Evolving social media patterns and media types such as Virtual Reality,
Augmented Reality, 3D and other visual storytelling methods
Analytics
Use cases based on data from both quantitative and qualitative sources
of content metrics
At the heart of your programmatic storytelling strategy is
a leader, passionate about moving beyond connect-the-
dots content mapping to a focus on larger stories,
designed with intention to move your audience across
your media ecosystem.
In this age of omnichannel customization, you must
provide context and perspective at the speed of swipe.
The storytelling visionary will be required to direct a
range of disciplines that come together in order to
provide a balance between storytelling and real-time
reporting.
Storytelling Vision
Responsibilities
8. STORYTELLING ORG
CHART
Storytelling Visionary
Leads Story Development
and Production
SEO
taxonomy + metadata
Narrative Design
story architecture
Creative Direction
tone, voice, style
Distribution Mgmt
touchpoint publishing
Showrunner
writers and editors
Promotions
social including USG
Production Mgmt
schedules and budgets
Analytics
audience metrics
Product
Management
Liaison
10. INTENTIONAL STORY
DESIGN ACROSS MEDIA
The best ideas are given form, tested,
and reconfigured based on data
analysis
Production
Content is optimized for and
published across touch
points where your audience
congregates
Distribution
Architected as part of a greater
whole, story elements are shaped
into a format suitable for each
media channel and target audience
preferences
Design
A central narrative
keeps the focus on the
subject and ties
together story
elements across your
media ecosystem
Ideation
11. THANK YOU!
For help designing your
storytelling strategy and
programs, contact:
Linda Henry
Found Story Farm
Editor's Notes
Creative Direction: Within a Storytelling team, this role directs multimedia voice, tone, and style, optimized for specific media. This is different from the traditional brand creative director responsible for a brand’s visual language and overall look and feel.
Showrunner: A concept borrowed from TV production, the showrunner leads writers and editors of all content elements to be distributed across your media ecosystem, including new formats as they emerge. Close collaboration with SEO, Narrative Design, and Creative Direction is essential.