Masterclass Storytelling by Roy Grunewald

1. THE POWER OF
strategic
STORYTELLING
in experience events

2. Roy Grünewald
CV:
• Studies: Cultural Management, Academy for drama
directory
• Drama teacher and director
• Creative producer Arjan van Dijk Events
• General manager municipal theatre Gorinchem / Targett
entertainment & events
• Teacher Imagineering & management creative industries
NHTV
• Guest teacher concept development and storytelling
• Column writer
• And…

3. • www.inextensio.eu
commercial and public events
• www.roygrunewald.com
concept development & storytelling
arts, culture and tourism

4. I CREATE
EXPERIENCES
and use
STORYTELLING
What do you do all day long Mr. Grünewald???
Are you rich????

5. Commissions:
• Concept development Virtual Museum
• ‘OPEnRAam’ Concerts
• Innovative concept Dutch Fortified Cities Event
• ‘Operalala’ Brabantstad European Cultural Capital
• Touristic experience discoveries
• Concept innovative museum experience
‘Gorcumpascum Magica’
• Dutch Windmill Experience

6. PROGRAM
• Why storytelling in events?
• What is strategic storytelling -our brain
• Manipulation of the imagination
• Tools
• Practice

7. STORYTELLING
is the most important instrument
to manage and to enrich
the experience of the public

8. Storytelling in events
Narratives provide
the experience and image and so the
VALUE
of the event

9. Storytelling is much more
then just telling a story
People can imagine, dream, create
metamorphoses, they understand (hidden)
messages, they feel emotions

10. Storytelling in events:
It’s telling the event story in a way that the
number of facts trigger the emotions and is a
contribution to the experience
A VERY IMPORTANT
EVENT EXPERIENCE TOOL

11. STORYTELLING
events have a double aim
• Marketing strategy: the strategic message
must be memorable in the consumers brain
(content)
• Experience events: to create maximum
involvement (design)

12. But first:
WHAT IS STORYTELLING?

13. STORYTELLING
The narrative forces

14. From Neaderthal…

15. Till Nokia

16. Storytelling
in daily life
• The first lie…
• Where are you, what are you doing, did something
happened?
• Last night I was with that girl…
• Gossips, jokes, bragging, exaggeration, lies, fraud,
tricks, love declarations
Everything told in another way than
announcements or reports

17. Basicly there are 3 forms of
communication
• Announcement (demand, order, point of
view) > we do, follow or not etc.
• Report (number of facts, journals,
processes) > we accept or not
• Story (imagination, emotion) > let us
believe, experience, let us think, learn)

18. Why we all love stories
more than announcements and reports?
Why we all understand stories
better than announcements and
reports?

19. Because stories activate our
brain
by triggering
imagination
curiosity
Our brain will puzzle

20. • It’s within our DNA
• The gene FOXP2
• Fysical and neurological skills

21. Example
• My uncle died at the age of 49. One year
later, his butler died
• Harley Davidson is the best motorbike in
the world.

22. Just add…
• My uncle died at the age of 49. One year
later, his butler died of grief.
> plot, emotion, we wonder, want to know…
• Harley Davidson brings you forward and
behind…
> Interpretation of facts, insinuation, promise

23. Strategic words
listen

24. Brain acitivity
• Keys
• Chair
• Coffee
• Perfume
• Secret
• Running away
• Love
• Neutral
• Neutral
• Taste
• Fragrance
• Curiosity
• Movements
• Emotions

25. Narratives and metaphores,
sensorial words, words with secrets,
movements, emotions
• Activate our brain in its search (puzzle) for
signification, solution
• Trigger our curiosity

26. How do we recognise
a good story?
• We have to understand the facts
• We are involved by the sequence of events
• We feel emotions (laughter, sadness etc.)
• There is a message or morality (what do we
learn?)

27. A good storyteller is able
To manipulate the brain of his
audience
(customer, consumer, public, visitor)
etc.

28. So to tell a brilliant story,
(s)he has to:
• Tease the audience (creating curiosity)
• Play with emotions and feelings
• Involve his audience
• Create suspense
• Trigger the imagination of the audience by
manipulating the facts

29. THE TOWER OF LONDON
A BLOODY VISIT

30. A GOOD STORY:
Facts and knowledge trigger the
IMAGINATION
A good story is NOT
an announcement or report

32. What works?
basics
• To trigger curiosity
• Step by step building up the imagination
• Activation of the brain
• Result: memory

33. Storytelling as tool in
experience events
basics PLUS
• Insinuations and promises
• Translation of the message in a narrative
• Stimulation of imagination
• Wrap the audience, guests in positive
emotions
• And they will neeeeeever forget

34. Practice of storytelling in events
• Concept development (creative proces >
storyboard)
• Selling the event (to convince the client)
• Directory and design of the event (to use
experience tools > scenario)

35. So the storyteller
(as a concept developer):
• Has to translate the strategic message into a
brilliant story
• Has to wrap the message in a way the
audience feel positive emotions in their
minds.

36. So the storyteller
(as a salesman):
• Has to trigger the curiosity of the client by
pulling him into the story
• Has to take the client step by step into the
narrative of the event
• Manipulates the client with emotional
promises and insinuations
• Bombard him with experiences (emotions,
senses, secrets and movements)
Then imagination works!

37. So the storyteller
(as event director):
• Has to trigger the curiosity of the guests by
pulling them into the story
• Has to take the guests step by step into the
narrative of the event
• Manipulates the public with emotional
promises and insinuations
• Bombard them with experiences (emotions,
senses, secrets and movements)
Then imagination works!

38. EXPERIENCES!
Romance, suspence, adventure,
discovery, sensations, thrills

39. The manipulation of the
imagination
How to activate the brain?
How to trigger curiosity?
How to create emotions?

40. STORYTELLING
THE TOOLS

41. YOU CAN HAVE THE MOST
BRILLIANT IDEAS…
IF YOU CANNOT TELL THEM
WITH IMAGINATION AND POWER
THE IDEA SHALL NOT BE
ACCEPTED

42. LOGIC THINKING BRINGS US
FROM A TO B
BUT
IMAGINATION BRINGS US
EVERYWHERE
(Einstein)

43. The first theatrelaw:
‘your audience is willing to
believe what you are and what
you tell, if you as an actor
(storyteller) are able to convince
what you play’
Aristoteles (350 b.C.)

45. THE KISS OF
DEATH!

46. To convince:
• I believe in what I play (gestures)
• I believe what I’m telling you (language)
• I refer to common knowledge (facts)
• I change reality (manipulating the facts)
• I tease and trigger (manipulating
imagination)
• I’m building up suspense (from horror to
terror)
• I create a happy end

47. 3 powerfull instruments to tell
idea and message of an event
1. Story structure (creates cohesion and
suspense) > 6 steps
2. Stratification (using dimensions make
stories fascinating) > 3 dimensions
3. Story energy (make stories convincing) > 5
elements

48. The incredible story
of
Little Red Riding Hood
and the big bad wolf

49. 1. STRUCTURE
6 steps

50. PROLOGUE
• introduction
• dramatis personae
• environment
• time and place/location

51. THE TRIGGER
• The mission
• The warnings
• The journey from A to B

52. TEASERS
• building up suspense
• (sub) climaxes and plateaus
• Following trails and false routings

53. SUSPENSE:
• the audience have information that the
characters don’t have
• dosage
• timing

54. CATASTROPHE
• ultimate climax
• everything seems lost
• and then?

55. PURIFICATION
• release
• liberation
• salvation
• deus ex machina
• hope

56. EPILOGUE
• message
• morality
• warning
• (open) ending

57. STORYTELLING CURVE
(structure)
suspense
prologue
introduction
trigger
subclimaxes
& teasers
climax
purification
time
epilogue
the end

58. USING THE NARRATIVE OR
DRAMATIC CONCEPT OF LITTLE
RED RIDING HOOD
ALLWAYS WORK!

59. Endless
combinations and variations are possible!
But never start with the ultimate climax

60. Storytelling structure in events
The storyboard:
Step by step description of the
number of ‘things what happen’

61. Storyboard
imagine the event ‘movie’
• Pre exposure…(invitation, promises)
• …You enter the scene and then…
• …and then…and next…meanwhile…
• …A path of magical moments
• …up to a peak, a climax…
• …pffff…the end and going home…
• …post experience (what is the memory?)

62. Magical moments
• ‘this is us’…
• Surprise the visitor/guest
• Sub climaxes
• Peaks and easy moments, action and chill

63. Peak-end rule
• Make the climax memorable
• Timing of the climax moment
• People need time to understand the climax
• The end is ALLWAYS positive (messsage)
• The last experience must be memorable
• > is of great influence of the total
experience

64. storytelling event curve
(structure)
suspense
Pre
exposure
trigger
Mag. mom
& teasers
Climax,
peak
chilling
time
Memory post
experience

65. Structure
STORY
1. Prologue
2. Trigger
3. Teasers, building up sub
climaxes and suspense
4. Climax
5. Purification
6. Epilogue
STORYBOARD EVENTS
1. Pre exposure
2. Entree, start and then…
3. further…next…then…
(magical moments)
4. Peak, finale
5. Landing/chilling
6. Post experience

66. 2. Dimensions
3 Stratifications
Secret codes, symbolism, insinuations
and interpretations
Activate our mind…we wonder

67. DIMENSIONS
• For children and adults
• Wrapped metafores
• Hidden messsages and symbols
• Suggestive codes
• Insinuations
>
• Triggering the subconscious

68. 1st dimension:
physic observations
• Girl: wearing a red riding hood
• Forest: trees, path, grandmothers house
• Wolf: predator who speak human language

69. 2nd dimension:
symbolism, insinuations, promise
• Girl: Why she wears a red hood? How old is
she? Naive, initiation rite from child to
adult, simple-minded
• Forest: unknown area full of potential
danger, slums, the Bronx etc.
• Wolf: hunting for victims, lover boy,
gangster, demon

70. 3rd dimension:
judgement and morality
• Girl: Lost her innocence, was saved
(learned for the rest of her life: don’t be
naive)
• Forest: Darkness, hell of life (be prepared
for mischief and disaster)
• Wolf: Human criminal mind, evil (warning)

71. Her innocence
…..

73. Brutal reality
…..

75. Dimensions in events
The railway museum event

76. 1st dimension:
physic observations
• Trains: transportation machines
• Different worlds: transportation concepts
• Travellers: people, moving from A to B
• Technics: machinery

77. 2nd dimension:
symbolism, insinuations, promise
• Trains: economic progress
• Different worlds: people, discovering the
world
• Travellers: connecting people
• Technics: inventions

78. 3rd dimension:
value and morality
• Trains: prosperity
• Different worlds: globalisation
• Travellers: understanding
• Technics: innovations

79. 3. Story energy
5 elements

80. FIVE ELEMENTS:
• PASSION
• HERO
• OBSTACLE
• INSIGHT
• TRANSFORMATION

81. MASTERCLASS
pitching
Convince your client with your
STORY

82. USE NARRATIVE TOOLS
• Start with a promise (make him curious)
• Use the LRR structure
• Magical moments
• Secret codes and dimensions
• Peak end rule

83. USE NARRATIVE
LANGUAGE
• Use strategic words, but don’t exaggerate!
• Triggering senses
• Emotions
• Atmosphere
• Movements

84. THE CASE
• A Sylvester party
• 100 guests
• Message: it was a bad year because of the
crisis, but we believe in a better future
• Special location
• Good catering and entertainment
• From 10 pm till 2 am

85. PRESENTATION
• Sell your idea of the ‘voyage’ of the guests from A
to B in a brilliant story
• Convince in 7 minutes
• Use the ‘experience’ curve
• Use a theme
• Remember: tell a STORY, not serial
announcements or a report

86. 22.00 23.00 00.00 01.00 02.00 hours
A B

87. Blue = pre exposure/prologue and trigger
Yellow = step by step program
Star = climax/peak
Green = peak end rule and post exposure

88. QUESTIONS?

89. EVALUATION

90. TOI TOI TOI
ROY

91. This ppt presentation owns to
Roy Grünewald Special Concepts.
You may only use this for study purposes.
Publication and/or presentation for other
purposes is not allowed without written
permission of the author:
Roy Grünewald, Haarstraat 3,
4201 JA Gorinchem
+31183-632742 / +316-53781356
roygrunewald@hotmail.com