How to Use Storytelling in Marketing: Neuroscience Insights

Our brains are wired to react to stories and storytelling, explains neuroscientist Ali Jennings.

In this, the fifth and final video of the Context Is Everything* series of interviews, Jennings explains how the brain responds to various elements of stories.

For example, when a story establishes stress, our brains release cortisol—attracting us to the story. When the stress is over, the story is resolved; we then exude dopamine—which rewards us. Jennings explains how this powerful combination of hormones is inextricably linked to storytelling—and that marketers can capitalize on it.

What’s just as important about stories is that they are inseparable from the environment that surrounds them. And That fact has important bearing on digital marketing.

If we’re showing video advertising on a website, then that context for the video is as important as the video itself. Our brains cannot, Jennings explains, distinguish between the story and its environment.

Watch the video to find out more details about how storytelling in context affects our brains:

*The Context is Everything series of videos presents highlights of discussions with neuroscientists, linguists, and behavioral psychologists about how people react to video messages in the digital environment. The series is a project of video intelligence platform vi, which connects publishers, content providers, and brands through video storytelling.