Storytelling and marking milestones: a business communications must
Thursday, 17th July 2025Author – Jon Clements: Chartered PR consultant, Metamorphic PR
Oh my, how much does the media love a milestone?
A lot, based on the current crop of reasons to mark time passed since a significant happening in the UK’s collective memory.
Milestones mine a rich seam for the media, whether it involves politics (the first anniversary of the Labour government’s landslide win in 2024), terrorism (20 years since the London 7/7 bombings), entertainment (possibly the final Black Sabbath concert ever and the reuniting of Oasis, God help us) or a combination of several genres (Live Aid at 40 – fusing news, politics, entertainment, music and pop stars becoming global activitsts).
But milestones also demonstrate the eternal attraction of effective storytelling and – particularly in one of the cases mentioned above – make the case for better storytelling.
Making stories from milestones
For example, several television and streaming channels are currently screening their own programmes revisiting the London 7/7 bombings of 2005. As the first time suicide bombers brought this singularly gruesome and terrifying method of killing to the country, the event’s grim superlative lends itself to a full retrospective.
However, the difference between the contemporary news coverage of 7/7 – focused on what was happening in real time – and what’s possible 20 years later is the ability to have perspective on what event and the chance to frame a deeper narrative grounded by the experiences of those directly involved. The explorations of that milestone today can elaborate more on the “why” and “how”, not just the “what” and “when”.
And though even the most avid news hound may think they already know about a historical event such as 7/7, the stories recounted by survivors and the emergency service staff who were on duty – whose lives are forever changed by that day – offer new and arresting insights.
The stories they tell – along with being deeply personal and often harrowing – will likely follow one of several classic story arcs: for example, from tragedy to recovery in the face of adversity, or a tragedy from which there is no recovery. Some might consider this a crude generalisation but the common patterns in stories – and the human need for them – is within us from childhood.
The natural need for stories and storytelling
An article in the Scientific American notes that “It is in our nature to need stories…their logic is how we naturally think. They configure our biology and how we feel in ways long essential for our survival”.
It continues: “A story drive – an inborn hunger for story hearing and story making – emerges untutored universally in healthy children” and “the human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor” (my underlining).
That last quote is highly pertinent in the case of the UK Labour government first year performance, but also for any business trying to build its brand or sell a product or service through deploying communications activity.
The lack of a story: Labour’s year in power
Commentators on Labour’s first year in office – certainly those more on the left than the right wing of politics – do not struggle to list the good things the government has done in difficult circumstances. However, they also highlight that this list of achievements adds up to less than the sum of its parts.
Why has a list of things actually delivered in its first year not helped to avoid the UK government and its Prime Minister being among the most unpopular in UK history?
One consensus on this is the lack of a story.
“What’s needed”, Jonathan Freedland writes in The Guardian, “is a story, a narrative of where the country has been and where it could go next, that the public can follow.”
The same media outlet’s leader column adds: “In a moment of rupture what cuts through isn’t often competence but conviction and the ability to summon belief, not just manage process,” which points to a need to go beyond the transactional and given elements of governing to something more visionary and inspirational.
This is underlined by (yes, again in the Guardian) Martin Kettle’s comment that “the need for Starmer to tell an uplifting story to Britons about Britain is at least as important as his need to solve some of his more specific policy problems”. So, substance is necessary – but so is story.
Why stories matter – whatever you do
People running businesses – launching and marketing their products and services – may wonder what all of that has got to do with them. But though they may have little or no interest in how the media works, the power of milestones and storytelling in politics or any other field, it still matters to them.
If we can agree that stories matter, then the literal features and benefits of a new or existing product or service – much like the government’s individual policy initiatives – are not, of themselves, stories. Similarly, a new appointment to a company, a merger or acquisition, the latest software release, a relocation to a new building, etc., are not – of themselves – stories.
Ultimately, the key question that companies need to answer in each of these cases and any others they might think newsworthy is “what does it mean?”
Of course, companies can be forgiven for becoming fixated on the importance of what they’ve invented or believe they offer to the world at large that’s different to their competitors. If they didn’t, probably nothing new would be created.
But the work to bring a brand or product/service to life – and make people care about it – doesn’t stop when the engineer writes the product’s technical specification and user guide.
Call me lazy for quoting the late Steve Jobs of Apple, who said: “We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise, why else be here?”. Your company or product’s “dent” may not be as deep as the iPhone or iPad, but without a compelling story, it may only ever be a scratch.
Are you a B2B business that needs to improve its storytelling? Contact Metamorphic PR.
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