Stories and Storytelling

Storytelling is a communication technique which consists in telling one or more "stories" aimed at attracting the attention of a specific audience, persuading the readers or  the viewer to make a specific action.

Storytelling is an increasingly used tool in institutional public communication, because it allows:

• to convey the content of complex projects from the technical point of view through the story of experiences and concrete case studies
• to promote projects that may be too abstract  or with an unclear strategic objective
• to reach the target by conveying ideas and points of views in a direct and engaging way

To realize the final storytelling videos,  has been used the methodology of "Six steps storytelling", which is used and promoted by DG Regio to support regional macro-strategies and help working groups to focus on the objectives and results of different actions.

This methodology is based on the construction of "stories" through 6 steps:

1. PROBLEM: identification and description of the problem to be solved (e.g. climate change, depopulation of alpine villages, lack of innovation);

2.SPECIFIC: specific issues arising from the main problem (e.g.forest pollution, village depopulation, low economic growth);

3. SOLUTION: description of the strategic objective of the project  or the project activities with a focus on the AGs work;

4. HOW IT WORKS: explanation of the main lines of action though which each AG planned its intervention (e.g. plan to raise awareness of citizens, solutions for smart villages, etc.);

5. PROOF: the description of best practices, concrete examples, interviews in order to prove that the project  achieved the expected objectives (e.g. number of stakeholders involved, innovation prototypes, etc.).

6. BRAND: Identification of the project's brand and contact persons.

This methodology is useful to focus on the results of the activities, by providing all the necessary indications: from the identification of the problem to be solved, to the analysis of the actions developed. Then the story allows, in a suggestive and engaging way, to make people understand what they are talking about.