Telling the good stories

Last week, children from around New South Wales gathered at the Sydney Opera House for The Festival of Choral Music. Over the four days the event is run, each year over 2,000 kids perform in the choirs, bands and ensembles.

Sitting among the proud parents in the audience on one of the nights, I listened to the positive, enthusiastic and uplifting performances and wondered why we aren’t telling more good news stories.

We all have positive stories about our businesses and in a world dominated by snarling, negative messages like the recent election campaign there’s a real demand for interesting and uplifting stories.

It’s no coincidence two of the most popular internet clips of the year have been the Old Spice commercial and Air New Zealand’s “crazy about rugby” safety video. Both are fun, upbeat and quirky messages.

The Air New Zealand clip also shows how we can make what’s usually a collection of stern warnings into an entertaining topic. It’s also one of the few flight instruction clips that actually shows where the life jackets are, how the oxygen masks work and clearly explains how to share them with children.

We can be using those entertaining stories and ideas in more than just marketing, we can be using them in staff training, recruitment adverts and operations manuals, along with many other uses.

An entertaining and humorous message is worth a thousand dour and negative lectures. Let’s get some light into what we’re telling the world about ourselves.

While we can’t afford to buy the NZ All Blacks or hire actors and former NFL players like Isaiah Mustafa, the star of the Old Spice commercial and following clips taking messages through Twitter, we can be telling our stories through positive and entertaining messages.

With our websites, newsletters, social media feeds and the traditional marketing and communications channels we no shortage of ways to tell the world what we’re doing; let’s get out and do it.

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Paul Wallbank will be teaming up with fellow SmartCompany blogger Lara Solomon and Business Angels’ Michelle Gamble to present Small Business Internet Marketing Secrets in Sydney on September 28. Spaces are filling fast so book quickly for the early bird price.