Companies Are Increasingly Looking to Hire Storytellers

They are after people who can tell a brand’s narrative across a variety of mediums in order to better engage with customers.

Can you spin a good yarn?

In this new era of artificial intelligence, corporations are coming to the conclusion that they need to tap into one of humanity's oldest and most powerful skills in order to engage with their customers - spinning a good yarn. Not so long ago, corporate America could rely on a healthy, and reasonably narrow, media ecosystem for publicity, but today everything is fragmenting. Website visits to the largest 100 news publishers have shrunk by a whopping 40 percent over the past five years, as our eyes have so many other sources of news.

Corporate America has found its hot new buzzword, according to The Wall Street Journal, and gives several instances to demonstrate this: Google is building a storytelling team for its Cloud division that will “play an integral role in driving customer acquisition and long-term growth;” Microsoft’s cybersecurity division is looking to hire a senior director overseeing narrative and storytelling; Fintech brand Chime is seeking a director of corporate editorial and storytelling; Notion a popular, multi-billion dollar productivity software company is combining its communications, social media, and influencer divisions into one storytelling team.

The good news for some is that these new roles are very well paid. For example, Vanta, the compliance company, is offering a salary of $274,000 for its head of storytelling.

Apple's 1984 commercial is a classic example

The idea of telling interesting and engaging stories that aim to resonate with current and future customers is nothing new - it has been used since the dawn of commerce. However, a widely cited early example of modern, impactful brand storytelling is the 1984 Apple Super Bowl commercial that introduced the Macintosh computer. It didn't focus on product features but on the brand's vision and values: being revolutionary and thinking differently.

Nowadays, Corporate America seems to want a piece of this concept and is keen on making sure that their shareholders are aware that they’re all in on storytelling, mentioning “storytelling” or “storyteller” on earnings calls and investor days 469 times this year.

Meanwhile, if heading up a division of Google is beyond your reach, the number of job postings on LinkedIn that included “storyteller” doubled this year to about 70,000. These roles typically combine skill sets across copywriting, editorial, and publicity.

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