Page 199 - Electronic Commerce

Chapter 4

Best known for The Moth Radio Hour, a weekly live program that airs on National Public Radio

stations, The Moth has generated a broad interest in the art and craft of storytelling. Although most

of the organization’s activities are directed at storytelling as entertainment, in 2010, Moth Senior Pro-
174
ducer Kate Tellers began working with MSLGroup (now MS&L Worldwide), a division of Publicis

Groupe, a global advertising and marketing firm based in France.

Tellers developed and delivered workshops to MS&L clients who were looking for an effective

way to tell their stories to customers. Although Tellers’ workshops include technical storytelling tools

such as developing a story arc and reinforcing a theme, they also provide corporate marketers with

an appreciation for the importance of authenticity and being specific with a message. A key element

in a story’s success is its ability to convey an underlying, deep lesson to the listener.

Since The Moth began offering its corporate training programs, it has worked with a wide range

of major companies, including Kraft, Google, McDonalds, and Organic, Inc. Its corporate programs

include elements such as “Perfecting the Pitch,” developing a “Brand Story,” and building a “Company

Identity” that adapt classic storytelling techniques to a company’s marketing mission.

In the world of online marketing, a company has a limited window through which to communicate.
Customers and prospects must see common themes in blog posts, tweets, YouTube videos, and other

social media tools. These themes must be coordinated and consistent with its Web presence, e-mail strat-
egies, and branding approaches across all available communication channels and physical locations (if the

company has them). The Moth’s training programs help companies create stories that can be told in vari-
ous forms in each of those channels. Storytelling skills are especially important online because the short

form of writing online (on Web pages, in e-mails and tweets) makes concise messaging critical. Concise
messaging can be accomplished by repeating story themes in multiple, repeated, short communications.

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