Online Marketing Amsterdam

Storytelling creates stories that touch and stick

About storytelling

Good storytelling makes brands human. It gives meaning to what you do and why you are there. There are different definitions of storytelling, depending on the context and purpose with which it is used. Storytelling has probably been around as long as humanity has had access to fire, which emphasizes how fundamental storytelling is to human interaction.

Storytelling is the art of conveying your brand story in a way that touches, captivates and inspires. Storytelling creates connection between brand and target audience, allowing you to not only convey information, but also evoke emotions and build trust. Without emotional engagement, a company’s message remains less effective, which emphasizes the importance of good stories. Good stories are essential here: they ensure that your message sticks and that your target audience feels involved. Not from a commercial message, but from identity, emotion and relevance. Whether it’s a video, podcast, article or presentation: with the right storyline, you create impact and build long-term relationships with your target audience.

What is storytelling?

Storytelling is the strategic use of stories to bring your brand to life. A good story connects, makes your brand relatable and creates emotional engagement. Our brain thinks in scenes and stories, making storytelling more effective than dry facts. Choosing the right perspective in storytelling is essential to make a deeper connection with the reader and convey the message more powerfully. Stories must align with the organization’s core values to be effective. People don’t remember facts; they remember stories. By making storytelling central to your communications, you can engage readers and motivate them to get involved with your brand. Storytelling focuses on appealing to the reader, making readers identify with the story and feel connected to the content. This is how you turn your brand into a source of meaning.

What to expect:

Development of a powerful brand message
Structure, tone and form tailored to your target audience
Narrative formats for video, audio, text or presentation
Creative scripting and editing: an experienced writer provides powerful, varied sentences that convey emotions and make the story come alive.
Creative production and activation support

Sample applications

Brand manifest videos and corporate storytelling
Narrative social formats or mini-documentaries
Podcast series featuring customer or employee stories, focusing on colleagues’ own stories and shared as a valuable intangible legacy
Articles or white papers of a narrative nature, where collecting and presenting one’s own stories from the region or organization enhances cultural value
Story-driven presentations or pitch decks, which focus on captivating listeners and delivering the message effectively
Stories in events or branded content formats, where colleagues collaborate to share their own stories and actively engage listeners

We also use storytelling to increase internal engagement within organizations. Encouraging employees to share their personal experiences and successes creates a stronger connection and a shared sense of pride. This not only fosters team spirit, but also helps keep the company’s mission and values alive.

Storytelling can also be a powerful tool when conveying complex information or changes within an organization. By packaging difficult topics into recognizable stories, they become more accessible and better understood by the audience. This increases the likelihood of support and involvement.

Moreover, our approach focuses on creating authentic stories that stay true to the identity of your brand or organization. We believe that only real and genuine stories have the ability to touch people emotionally and build long-term relationships.

Finally, we are happy to support you in using storytelling in different communication channels. Whether it’s social media, internal newsletters, customer communications or live events, we make sure your story is told consistently and powerfully to achieve maximum impact.

Our approach to storytelling

Intake & brand story – We start with your mission, vision and brand identity and together determine which part of your story is central.
Concept development – We translate this into a narrative format that fits the target audience and purpose. Coming up with the story is an important part of the process at this stage, where we pay attention to the moral and development of the protagonist.
Script & creation – We write scripts or storyboards, possibly with you or your team.
Production & activation – We guide the process all the way to publication and sharing through the right channels. In this phase, we really set the project in motion so that your story reaches and inspires audiences.
Optimization – We help measure and refine to effectively land your story.

Why is storytelling and emotional connection important?

More than a creative technique, storytelling is a fundamental way to give meaning to your brand. By telling stories, you create context, connection and recognition. Storytelling makes people feel connected to the brand by recognizing shared experiences and values. A good presentation ensures that your audience won’t want to be anywhere but with you. In a time when attention is scarce and brands struggle to stand out, a good story is often the difference between being forgotten and being remembered.

A powerful story increases your brand authority, makes your message shareable and strengthens emotional engagement. This is true for both B2C and B2B brands. Storytelling works in content marketing, in sales, in internal communications and even in recruitment. Stories influence the thoughts and emotions of listeners, allowing you to guide their behavior. Stories make abstract propositions tangible, for example by using a metaphor such as “your brand as a compass,” and give your brand a human voice.

Basic Principles of Storytelling

Storytelling is all about telling stories that touch, connect and move people. A good story not only tells what happens, but makes your audience feel connected to the protagonist and the message. The way you tell a story determines whether it sticks and makes an impact. That is why it is important to develop your own definition of storytelling, tailored to your purpose and audience.

An exciting story always begins with a strong structure: a clear beginning, a compelling middle and a powerful ending. The protagonist – whether a person, brand or product – is the heart of the story. Conflict is an essential element because it sets the story in motion and adds tension. Tension techniques such as cliffhangers keep the audience’s attention. By choosing a character your audience can identify with, you create an emotional connection and your message is delivered much more effectively. Personal stories often work best because they are authentic and evoke emotions that are relatable to the listener.

The use of imagery and metaphors livens up a good story and makes abstract ideas tangible. Think of telling a brand story as a journey full of challenges and victories, or presenting a product as the hero in your customer’s daily life. Telling the story behind dry facts makes information more appealing to consumers. Using metaphors also helps to make data and figures more understandable, allowing your audience to process the message better. In this way, you convey not only facts but also feelings and imagination.

Digital storytelling offers endless opportunities to share stories through video, social media, podcasts or interactive platforms. By applying storytelling in digital content, you can reach a wide audience and create a lasting emotional connection. The trick is to tell your story in such a way that it is not only heard, but also felt.

Want to further develop your skills? A storytelling course will help you discover how to tell a good story, how to structure it and how to get your message across effectively. In practice, storytelling requires practice, creativity and guts. But with the right approach and perseverance, anyone can learn to tell stories that make a difference.

In short: telling a good story is more than a recap of events. It’s an art form you use to create connection, touch people and bring your message to life. Whether you are sharing a brand story, product presentation or personal story – with storytelling, you turn any story into a well-told story worth sharing.

Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is the modern art of storytelling through digital media. Think videos, podcasts, blogs, social media and interactive platforms. Digital storytelling offers another way to tell stories, using innovative means to engage audiences. With digital storytelling, you can tell a story in a way that perfectly matches your audience’s environment. Using images, sound and text creates a powerful mix that creates a strong emotional connection and impact.

A good story tells more than just a series of events. It is about creating an emotional connection between the storyteller and the listener. Digital storytelling also plays an important role in preserving intangible heritage, with storytellers and narrators passing on traditions and cultural stories digitally. Whether sharing an exciting story about cultural heritage, bringing a brand story to life or telling a personal story, digital storytelling makes it possible to really touch and move people. By cleverly using metaphors and imagery, you can make abstract messages tangible and take your audience into a world of imagination.

Coming up with a good story is the foundation. This can be your own story, a story about a product or service, or an inspiring story that matches your organization’s values. For example, think of exciting stories centered on characters, a character the audience can identify with, who must overcome a conflict and thus go through a real development according to the hero’s journey. By adding action and obstacles, you make the story engaging and inspiring. Want to further develop your skills? A storytelling course will help you tell stories that stick and really make a difference. Applying storytelling in digital presentations or content ensures that your message is not only heard, but felt.

Digital storytelling is ideally suited to create connection, whether it’s sharing cultural heritage, reinforcing your brand story or inspiring colleagues and customers. Stories activate the brain, allowing information to be better processed and remembered. Choosing the right word, carefully chosen words and powerful sentences are essential to convincingly convey your message in digital storytelling. By telling stories through digital channels, you increase the impact and reach people in a way that is appropriate to our times. This is how you turn every story into a well-told story worth sharing.

Reviews

Jona Bronkhorst

OMA is scherp en resultaatgericht. Ze combineren strategie, technologie en creativiteit op een no-nonsense manier, waardoor merken écht impact maken. Als freelance creatief heb ik meerdere keren met hen gewerkt aan naamontwikkeling, design, themacampagnes en employer branding. Soepel in de samenwerking en fijne club. Aanrader!

Sonja Meijer

Echt super blij met het resultaat! Ze weten hoe het werkt en het zijn fijne mensen om mee te werken.

Kenzo

Wij hebben via Online Marketing Amsterdam (oma) een grote Campagne opgezet met het oog op de personeelstekorten in de Beton en Bouwsector.
Michael en Jasper denken mee en bedienen hun klanten optimaal. Door hun creativiteit en bevlogenheid starten we binnenkort met een van de grootste online campagnes op het gebied van personeelsvoorziening. Nieuw en met de allernieuwste marketing technieken.