Stories.coop: experiences and outcomes of the first

cooperative digital campaign

Stories can change the world

• The time of one-way communication is over; media, enterprises, authorities, nonprofits have to adapt/are adapting to a two-way communication which is much more “social” because it works only if it creates engagement, participation and even co-creation

• Stories are a very powerful communication tool : they can condition our perceptions, stimulate our thoughts and reflections, awaken our emotions and senses, determine our actions…

• Stories can change the way we think, act, and feel• Stories can engage, motivate, connect, inspire

The Gutenberg Parenthesis

• For 500 years we lived in what the Danish academic Thomas Pettitt calls The Gutenberg Parenthesis where knowledge was contained in the fix printed format

• With the digital revolution we’re returning to pre-Gutenberg state where the knowledge and the information are constantly updated, improved, changed, moved, developed

Storytelling in the Digital age

• “In the broadcast era, access was power. We developed all these bad habits when distribution was in the hands of few. But now storytelling matters again” (Jonah Sachs, author of “Story Wars”)

• 3 golden rules of storytelling that fit all: political messages, products and people

1. Don’t lead with facts.2. The story isn’t about you.3. Forget puffery. Find your voice.

A good story…

• is clear, simple, authentic• tells the truth• has a defined plot• is emotional• goes beyond marketing and positioning policies and

strategies• regenerates the organizational culture in order to

improve the reputation among different stakeholders• creates engagement, participation, identification,

involvement

Great storytellers / Obama

The private sector is learning form nonprofits

• On McKinsey’s website there’s an article about The Dragonfly Effect, Stanford University marketing professor Jennifer Aaker and marketing strategist Andy Smith

• Through the example of Scott Harrison, an American photographer, entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of the non-profit charity: water they explain to the private sector how to achieve engagement, which they define as “truly making people feel emotionally connected to helping you achieve your goals” through storytelling, authenticity, and establishing a personal connection.

Great storytellers / Jobs

Great storytellers / Coca Cola

Great storytellers / Lego

Corporate storytelling• is the art of using stories to communicate and connect with

employees, customers, suppliers, partners, and anyone else involved with the organization.

• is widely employed and for profit enterprises are mastering this technique.

7 simple ways to tell a good story by Dave Kerpen, CEO of Likeable Local:

1. Tell your brand's story.2. Tell your employees' stories.3. Tell your customers' stories.4. Inspire your customers to tell stories.5. Use images often. 6. Use video even more often.7. Be human.

And what about cooperatives?

And Cooperatives?

Ceux qui aiment les lundis / 1

• Les Scop - Sociétés coopératives et participatives (France) decides to change the brand identity, design and communication strategy through emphasizing the worker cooperative values

• 1 photographer Jean-Robert Dantou (coop Picturetank), 1 coop communication agency, 40 cooperatives representing all sectors, regions, dimensions, activities, settings; 80 days of shooting and Ceux qui aiment les lundis was ready to be presented to the world

Ceux qui aiment les lundis / 2

• The book was published with one of the most famous publishers: Hachette - Editions du Chêne

• The campaign also included : itinerant exhibitions (10), website, videos, radio commercials, posters…

• The project had excellent results and media coverage• The book and the campaign were awarded with three

prizes at the 2013 Conference on communication “Corporate Business”

• Example of very good non-digital communication; good communications isn’t only about technology and new media

Stories.coop / outcomes

• Stories.coop is the first global digital campaign to choose the storytelling tradition as a way of communicating the cooperative experience to the general public.

• Stories.coop was imagined as a tool to create authentic cooperative storytelling which would be able to generate a real and not just rhetorical image of the cooperative values.

• Outcomes: 450 stories, 200.000 visits from all five continents, an average of 10.000 views a month

Stories.coop / our experience

Positive:• enthusiastic, surprising,

stimulating, challenging;• impressing vitality, variety

and potential of cooperatives;• coops are treasure trove of

authentic stories but it’s difficult to reach them

• good feedback and reaction to the project: lots of contacts and requests to use the stories database

Negative:• still very strong and “old style”

communication: one-way and top down;

• weak storytelling abilities;• interesting stories and

information often go untold due to slow and bureaucratic procedures;

• Diffidence, disinterest, lack of replies

• Language barrier

Stories.coop / What we need

• Authentic stories that go beyond a mere presentation of what you do and how you do it

• Stories that tell more about workers, members, customers, products

• Don't be too afraid to tell stories that show failure, poor judgment, or mistakes on your part.

• The story should go beyond data, income and turnover, commercial and marketing strategies

• People are at the core of the cooperative business model and should be the protagonist of cooperative storytelling.

Stories.coop /Future

• crowdfunding platform to support, finance and help the creation of new cooperative businesses;

• online and offline platform for the creation of: relations, networks, and supply chains

• authentic and realistic representation of the pluralism of the cooperative movement on one side and experimentation of new forms of collaboration, not only among coops but also between coops and their stakeholders.