Why Storytelling Works

Michael Organ: “On this episode of Meaningful Impact, I’m joined by two experts, starting with Professor Jacqueline Babb, a senior lecturer at Northwestern University where she is Director of the full-time Integrated Marketing Communications program. Professor Babb is an expert in purpose-driven brands, consumer trust, and brand effectiveness; a frequent contributor to Adweek and PRSA; and is co-author of Principles of Marketing, an open-license textbook. Professor Babb, let’s set the context. Social impact aside, why does any kind of storytelling work?”

Professor Babb: “If we think back to our ancestors: The way that they communicated history from the past generations to the future generations was through stories. So, we have a long lineage of learning from stories. Our brains are really wired to connect to stories, to understand stories, and to want to share stories.”

Michael Organ: “Okay. So then, why do brands tell stories?”

Professor Babb: “Stories can help us become a part of the brand because we see ourselves in the brand story. Then the brand becomes less of a set of product features, or a price, or a place, and more about this connection between the consumer and the brand.”

The Storytelling Narrative Arc

Michael Organ: “What are the core components of a memorable story?”

Professor Babb: “So if we think about the storytelling arc: We have a protagonist – the protagonist is somebody that we’re really rooting for – and they have a seemingly insurmountable problem. And then all of a sudden there’s a solution, a hopeful future, and our protagonist lives happily ever after. If you think about the stories you’ve read as a child, or if you are reading stories to children at bedtime, they kind of all follow that narrative arc.”

Michael Organ: “How does that narrative arc apply to social impact storytelling?

Professor Babb: “What we often see in the social impact stories is that the protagonist is someone who is affected by the cause. And they have this insurmountable task, and it’s really the audience that can come in and help the protagonist solve for that insurmountable task and be the one that takes action to ultimately create that hopeful future.”

Michael Organ: “So if you support the brand, you can join them in becoming a co-hero of the story.”

Professor Babb: “Imagine how powerful that is. It’s so much more powerful than touting the features of a product. All of the sudden, your audience becomes someone meaningful. We all want to be meaningful.”

Michael Organ: “So, at its core, the story requires three elements:

1. a sympathetic protagonist
2. a problem that initially seems insurmountable
3. a solution effected by the brand, with the help of target stakeholders such as consumers

So, how do we choose the story and determine where to tell it?”

Professor Babb: “The first thing to think about is: ‘Who are your stakeholders?’ and ‘What motivates them?’ Then we want to set really specific objectives for our campaign: ‘What are we trying to achieve? Then we want to start to think about: ‘What are the stories that allow people to connect on that deep emotional level?’ And maybe, more importantly than that: Tells them what to do.”

Michael Organ: “Tells them what to do.”

Professor Babb: “Tell them how to be the hero of the story, how to be the changemaker, and give them the tools to do it. Find out where those people are on various media and meet them there, and then finally measure impact.”

Michael Organ: “What’s a good example?”

The Storytelling Narrative Arc – Example: Vaseline’s ‘See My Skin’ Campaign

Professor Babb: “I really like Vaseline’s ‘See My Skin’ campaign. I think it follows the narrative arc really beautifully. It’s a great example of social impact storytelling that has some tangible results. So let me tell you about it: Millions of people cannot identify skin conditions because their skin tone doesn’t match the photos that are online. So,  if you were to Google ‘eczema,’ what you would probably see is eczema on white skin. But, if you are a black (or) brown person, you would not see your skin tone with eczema. And this led to a 25% higher mortality rate for black and brown people who are experiencing skin conditions. So, this is a big problem. It seems like a really insurmountable task when you think about all the images on Google of skin conditions to create a database of hundreds of skin conditions on thousands of people. But Vaseline decided to take that on. And so, they collaborated with some dermatological partners to create thousands of images of hundreds of skin conditions – on black and brown skin. So, they developed this database, they put it online, and the result was really incredible. Forty-eight percent of people who viewed the images took action, which was a 1,430% increase in people going to a dermatologist. Talk about big numbers, right? And the storytelling is incredibly moving. It shows how barriers were broken down and a tangible solution solved a real health problem.”

Michael Organ: “That’s clearly a ‘win’ for the protagonist. But it’s reasonable to wonder if the brand – the problem solver – also won.

Here’s what happened…

Vaseline promoted its ‘See My Skin’ campaign via paid search, media relations, an online video, social media, and a limited-edition Vaseline Petroleum Jelly with customized packaging displaying a QR code that linked to the ‘See My Skin’ database.

The campaign yielded almost 450 earned media placements and nearly one billion impressions across editorial and social media, which led to a 23% increase in ad awareness over previous Vaseline campaigns. Social media sentiment was 99% positive. Among black and Hispanic audiences, Vaseline experienced a 22% increase in brand consideration and a 31% increase in product usage.

Top retailers rewarded Vaseline with improved shelf visibility associated with a 6% increase in dollar share. Vaseline also created a new partnership with CVS to train beauty-aisle sales associates in over 600 stores to identify common conditions on skin of color and to connect potential patients with dermatologists through the ‘See My Skin’ website.”

Michael Organ: “We’ll hear more from Professor Babb soon. But for now, I’d like to introduce my next guest, J T. Ramsay. J T. is a strategic advisor to Fortune 500 companies and previously served as a data-driven digital and social communications leader at Ford, Comcast, and Lockheed Martin.”

Sustainability

Michael Organ: “J T., sustainability seems to be a common theme for social impact stories.”

J T. Ramsay: “From the professional side, I really like a good sustainability story because I’ve gotten to nerd out with really creative engineers who are working on things like bioplastic trials to figure out what can and can’t work inside a car.”

Michael Organ: “Here’s an example, from a Ford ‘Farm to Car’ promo video…

Key Excerpts:

Debbie Mielewski (Ford Motor Company, Senior Technical Leader, Materials Sustainability): “So we started working to replace petroleum-based plastics with plant-based materials which are much greener, much better for the environment.”

Jim Domagalski (United Soybean Board, Director): “Years ago, your oil used to be cheap. Today? It’s not so. Henry Ford himself, in the (19)30s, said: ‘If you can make it from petroleum oil, you can make it with soybean oil’.”

Mielewski: “And in 2007, when oil prices spiked at over $160 a barrel, this became a very, very popular, desirable idea. So, we went from total obscurity to being like nerd rock stars.”

Mielewski at TEDx: “Thank you so much to TEDx for inviting me out of the lab today. One thing you probably don’t know about Ford is that every single North American vehicle now contains soybeans.”

J T. Ramsay: “If people are already customers of yours, it gives them one more thing to be proud of. And while it was harder to measure the brand lift, the earned media around it was such a sign for us where, oh, there is interest not only from our direct customers, but media are interested in how we’re telling these stories. So that means their readers are likely interested in it too. If there is an opportunity to do not just the social impact aspect of the sustainability story, but also highlight the leader of that team, that’s where you get not just the campaign, but maybe, oh, here’s a spokesperson.”

Virtue Signaling

Michael Organ: “I’m curious about why social impact storytelling can be so compelling?”

Professor Babb: “We all want to feel good about ourselves. That’s a core psychological state that we want to be in. When the proceeds of something that we purchase goes to charity – or what we’re wearing or showing tells the world that we’re a generous person, like Product Red, Tom’s shoes, the Bombas socks, the Warby Parker glasses – we can then radiate to the rest of the world that we are a generous and kind person. And I don’t think it’s bad. I think that brands are part of culture and culture is part of who we are. And so it is OK for us as individuals to show who we are through experiences with brands and consumption of those brands.”

J T. Ramsay: “Then it turns into like a shared expression of values. It telegraphs who we are as a person. If you’re a Patagonia shopper, there’s an expression there of what you stand for that’s communicated through that brand.”

Michael Organ: “Patagonia is an outdoor apparel manufacturer and retailer. Their clothes are known for sustainable production and durable wear, which explains their tagline: ‘Buy less. Demand more.’ Patagonia, which makes its money by selling clothes, actually wants you to buy clothes LESS often. They explain in a promotional video called ‘Unfashionable’.

Key Excerpts:

Yvon Chouinard: “Fashionable? Do I look fashionable? Fashion is none of our business… The industry’s goal is to make people feel insecure and to buy things that they don’t need.”

Voiceover: “So what does a quality rain jacket have to do with saving the planet? Building high-quality products means you buy fewer of them… We care so much about the product that we create and we care so much about the people we build it for. How do we not build it to last forever.”

Yvon Chouinard: “We’re in business to save our home planet. Fashion’s got nothing to do with it.”

Michael Organ “So, as J T. said, wearing Patagonia clothes communicates what you stand for.”

Professor Babb: “We are signaling in everything that we do throughout the day. So whether it’s the car we drive or the shoes we wear, we are engaging with brands to tell the story of who we are.”

J T. Ramsay: “I happened to be a Prius owner during the Great Recession. If you recall, gas prices spiked pretty dramatically at that time. And I became one of those very smug Prius owners because not only did it express my values before gas prices spiked, but then it was like, look how smart I am for having purchased this vehicle that can get up to 55 miles per gallon. And while maybe that car itself isn’t saving the universe, that was something where I was able to build a deeper affinity with Toyota and with the Prius specifically.”

Michael Organ: “Next, we’ll talk about how social impact storytelling can highlight product benefits and increase brand affinity – if the cause is authentic to the brand.  We’ll be right back.

Social Impact Storytelling to Highlight Product Benefits

Michael Organ: “How can social impact storytelling be used to highlight product benefits?”

Professor Babb: “If the product has a direct connection to the social impact story, then the product benefits become evident. So, for example, Dawn has a campaign where they show oil spills and there are all these ducks in the water and they’re covered with this terrible grease. They just look so vulnerable and you’re so worried about them. They take these ducks and they wash them with the Dawn Soap that you assume is just for your dishes, but actually is gentle enough to be used on the ducks.”

Dawn Commercial: “To help save wildlife affected by oil spills, rescue workers have opened up a lot of Dawn. They rely on it because it’s tough on grease yet gentle…”

Professor Babb: “They don’t have to say that it’s the best grease fighter because you see it as the most thick grease you’ve ever seen is on the most precious little duck. That’s a great example of how a product benefit could come out of a social impact story.”

Michael Organ: “In this next Dawn promo, talk-show host Jennifer Hudson does a skit where she pretends to be considering content for an upcoming episode of her television show.

Key Excerpts:

Jennifer Hudson: “There you are. How’s tomorrow’s segment looking?”

Assistant: “The segment’s looking good. Turn to Channel 12. I think this could be our lead story.”

Channel 12: “International Bird Rescue has been using Dawn to remove every drop of oil from a bird’s feathers for over 40 years. Dawn is absolutely the safest, most-effective thing that we can use…”

Jennifer Hudson: “That’s what I’m talking about. Stories with heart. Plus, you know I love using Dawn, ‘cause if it’s good enough to save those birds, it is good enough for these greasy dishes.”

Professor Babb: “The consumer sees that Dawn works. There’s a tangibility there that you don’t often get in a commercial. Dawn has this dual benefit.”

Michael Organ: “At Ford, J T. worked on a campaign that provides another excellent example of leveraging social impact to highlight a product benefit.”

J T. Ramsay: “With Ford, we did storytelling around aluminum being part of manufacturing the new F-150. It’s one of those things where – when you’ve got the best-selling vehicle in America – you feel like, oh, we’ve told every story we could possibly tell about this. And then you start to layer in some of the sustainability storytelling which gives the customer a ‘Did you know?’

Ford Commercial: “Forward march… Introducing the all-new Ford F-150, the first and only pickup with a high-strength, military grade aluminum alloy body up to 700 pounds lighter…”

J T. Ramsay: “The truck is 700 pounds lighter. That has material benefit to the consumer. It’s not simply a performative green activity, it was a performance-enhancing maneuver the company undertook at considerable risk because customers were accustomed to steel.”

Michael Organ: “Switching from steel to aluminum is both eco-friendly and performance-enhancing because a truck that is 700 pounds lighter is more fuel efficient, simultaneously reducing use of fossil fuels while saving the customer money.”

J T. Ramsay: “So, suddenly you’re able to pull these threads that not only are something that resonates with the customer but can resonate with other critical audiences across the spectrum of folks you’re trying to influence. Being able to make that pivot and tell that story through a combination of CSR and more conventional product benefit comms: It’s a potent combination.”

Brand Affinity

Michael Organ: “How can social impact storytelling be used to deepen brand affinity?”

Professor Babb: “Social impact storytelling can affect brand affinity by tying the brand to something that people care about.”

J T. Ramsay: “When you have a story that ties into shared values… GM Chevy have had some really great campaigns that tap into things like memory care around the holidays. They really pull in not just the issue but that aspect of family at a time when we’re all gathered together.”

Key Excerpts:

Laura (adult daughter): “How is she?”

Bill (great-grandfather): “Good days and bad, Laura, but the love is always there.”

Laura: “More bad days than good?”

Bill: “(There are) some days when she doesn’t even recognize me.”

Laura: “I’m so sorry Daddy.”

Tracy (adult granddaughter): “Let’s make today a good day.”

<Tracy, an adult granddaughter, heads to the garage where she uncovers a 1972 Chevy Suburban. The engine starts on the first try.”>

Tracy: “Woo! Ya!”

<Tracy takes her grandmother for a drive, hoping that reminiscence therapy will help her to be more responsive.>

Song: “Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy…sunshine all the while.”

Great-Grandmother: “We put a whole lot of you in the back of this thing.”

Tracy: “Ya, that’s right. Me, Chris, Jeff, Phil.”

Great-Grandmother: “Jeff is a troublemaker. <laughs heartily>”

<After jogging more memories, Tracy and her grandmother return home.”

Great-Grandmother: “You’ve always been the clever one.”

Tracy: “Merry Christmas, Gramps.”

Great-Grandmother: “Merry Christmas.”

Song: “If I had a day that I could give you…”

Michael Organ: “This commercial was the third installment of a nostalgic series that Chevy calls ‘Annual Holiday Cards to America.’ These short films center Chevy vehicles at the heart of family connectedness.”

J T. Ramsay: “That’s profound when you’re able to get into that emotional place by tying it into a deeper conversation about the people we care for in our lives and love in our lives. It’s something where when it lands it, it just sticks with someone and leaves you with something to think about, to dwell on, to come back to, in a way that so much creative doesn’t.”

Brand Affinity with Emotional Resonance

Professor Babb: “Anytime you use emotional resonance, you are going to have a deeper connection. People will remember that more than if you talk about ten features of your product.”

J T. Ramsay: “There are times where specs and features are really critical to the consumer. You’ve got to know the audience. But having that emotional resonance: It’s a powerful differentiator.”

Brand Affinity with Emotional Resonance – Dove

J T. Ramsay: “You know, I’m always coming back to Dove’s real beauty. Out of nowhere, this authentic connection to that purpose, that meaning. They were able to make their product, their brand, something about more than just being soap.”

Dove Real Beauty Commercial: “Your true colors. Your true colors are beautiful like a rainbow.”

Michael Organ: “For more than 20 years, Dove has been successful at creating affinity with their consumers by using emotional resonance to align their brand with self-acceptance and empowerment. But it wasn’t always that way. Before the social impact of Dove’s Real Beauty messaging, their creative was focused on the differentiating advantage of a feature.”

Dove 7-Day Test Commercial – Transcript:

Male Voiceover: “Dove is one-quarter moisturizing cream.”

Female Dove User: “After using Dove (for) 7 days, my face didn’t feel dry or tight. It wasn’t flaky.”

Male Voiceover: “For softer, smoother skin, try the Dove 7-Day Test.”

Female Dove User: “Even my husband noticed. He touched my face and said it is softer.”

Michael Organ: When we return, Professor Babb and J T. will offer practical advice on how to break-through with social impact storytelling.”

Authenticity

Professor Babb: “My advice to any company that’s thinking about taking on social impact is ask yourself: ‘Is this really core to who we are?’ Because if it is, it will be easy to defend and people will see it as authentic. But if it’s just the thing you’re doing to celebrate a holiday, or a month, or to gain some attention, I think you will have criticism. And that criticism will be deserved.”

J T. Ramsay: “Where I think it gets challenging for brands is those that are like, ‘We need some of that brand purpose.’ And (yet) they haven’t done the work of figuring out what their genuine brand expression is. And as a result, they just try to bolt it on. Consumers are really smart. They can see through that sort of thing, no matter what their political orientation is.”

Professor Babb: “If you don’t want to be critiqued, be authentic. The brands that we’re seeing come under fire – Target’s a really good example of one happening now in Spring of 2025 – they clearly were not authentic in their commitment to DEI because they backed down on it pretty quickly, when a little bit of outside pressure came.”

J T. Ramsay: “The fact is very few brands have permission to play in some of these spaces. It doesn’t work for everyone and sometimes with disastrous results. One of the hardest circles to square in communications is explaining to internal audiences the disconnect between the cause they’re passionate about and how those brand messages are received.  Consumers are smart enough to connect the dots between your government affairs team and marketing stunts. And so why risk getting pilloried for something you’re not genuinely committed to?”

Professor Babb: “On the flip side, an organization like the Tory Burch Foundation, which represents empowering women entrepreneurs, stays the course – day in and day out. It’s not just about giving money, but it’s about creating community, developing education, and having impactful outcomes for women entrepreneurs. No amount of pressure coming from the outside has deterred Tory Burch from her mission. An activated purpose is more than just a: ‘We say that we stand for X, Y and Z,’ but when the rubber meets the road, we’re not actually doing it. An activated purpose is that day in and day out commitment to a purpose that is visible and impactful.”

J T. Ramsay: “You need to do hard work to know what your brand truths are, and as a marketer or communicator, live with that. Your personal ambition as a communicator or marketer can’t outstrip the limitations of the brand you’re working for. And it’s your job in those roles to know what those limits are – and then figure out how to color within those lines as creatively as possible. You also have to ask yourself what your channel strategy is. Is this something that needs to go everywhere? Is this going to be on TV, on digital, on social? Or is this something that’s reserved for an event where it’s a discrete audience and the power is in aggregating those folks in that room.”

Bolstering Reputation

Michael Organ: “When an organization actually embraces an activated purpose, how can social impact storytelling be used to strengthen that company’s reputation?”

Professor Babb: “As we think about reputation, the cornerstone of it is trust. And trust is at an all-time low. Edelman does a report every year on the state of trust, and we know that trust is really suffering.”

Michael Organ: “Here’s an except from a briefing by Richard Edelman, CEO of the largest PR firm in the world.”

Richard Edelman: “The Edelman Trust Barometer 2025 finds a descent into grievance. It’s been a progression from fears to polarization and now into grievance.”

Michael Organ: “So, can social impact storytelling be an antidote to cynicism?”

Professor Babb: “Having authentic stories about ways that we provide impact to the communities around us will bolster people’s trust in our brands. What a lot of brands are doing is using influencers and creators. People don’t want to see a commercial anymore. By using a creator or an influencer, brands are relying on the trust and the relationship that consumers have with those creators and influencers.”

Attracting (and Retaining) New Customers

Michael Organ: “What about using social impact storytelling to attract new customers?”

J T. Ramsay: “Tying things into culture and causes makes a brand more accessible to a wider audience – and it taps into some of the truths that are relatable beyond the product itself. So, you’re able to pull more people into the conversation with that social impact element.

Michael Organ: “And once they become a new customer, what about retention?”

Professor Babb: “Customer loyalty often has to do with habit. We buy something and to reduce our cognitive load, we buy it again. If, for example, we bought Tide because we saw they did ‘Loads of Hope’ when there are disasters. We bought it one time because we thought Tide did a great thing. We probably are not going to switch from Tide unless there is some force acted upon us.”

Tide Commercial: “After a disaster, you don’t just want something new. You want what’s yours. That’s why Tide Loads of Hope is expanding to provide clean clothes to more people in crisis. With every purchase of Tide Hygienic Clean, you can help too.”

Professor Babb: “So, building that habit is really essential. And if we can encourage people to make that first purchase – and (if) our product delivers on its promise, solves the customers need – they will probably continue to be our customer.”

Recruiting

Michael Organ: “We’ve talked a lot about using social impact to support sales. Yet there’s another important audience: prospective employees.”

J T. Ramsay: “I’ve worked on employer brand in every company I’ve been a part of. In its earliest days, it was really fun to tap into not only the kinds of stories we’re talking about, but then also the people who really bring them to life. I think more recently, some of those efforts have been derailed a bit, certainly by viral TikToks about people getting laid off. But it doesn’t mean that companies ought to abandon this as a tool in the toolkit because otherwise all you’ve got to offer is the salary and benefits – which isn’t nothing. But, if there are other dimensions you can tap into to attract talent (and) retain talent: That I think has real value. It improves recruiting and retention because younger generations, more than their parents certainly, care about what companies stand for.”

Professor Babb: “When we look at Generation Z, it’s really important to them to work for a company that aligns with their values. Much more so than our generation that was maybe more concerned with job security and benefits and salary. And so, I think it is really a benefit to companies to have a social impact story to tell from a recruiting standpoint.”

Managing Risk

Michael Organ: “That all sounds great. Is there a “but”?  Though there are many potential benefits, is the potential upside of social impact storytelling worth risking a backlash?”

J T. Ramsay: “The key to reducing the risk of critique is not to take no risk at all. But it’s to take calculated risk. Everything can be risky. You’ve got to evaluate that risk as you’re developing the story, in conversation with all of your stakeholders, and ask yourselves: ‘Do we feel like we can tell this story credibly and, much like a doctor, first do no harm?’ It really comes back to where you are from a reputational standpoint to start with. You can be in an organization that doesn’t have a great reputation. And that’s actually freeing in some important ways.”

Michael Organ: “You said, ‘Freeing.’ How so?”

J T. Ramsay: “Because it gives you more leeway to give people a different reason to like you. Maybe they don’t like your brand identity, but it’s like, oh, hey, I didn’t know that company stood for this, that, or the other thing. It’s trickier when there’s considerable downside risk in trying to attract new audiences. If a brand leans into something that’s going to turn off their core audience, then they’ve really got to have that communicator sensibility. What could go wrong here? If it’s not something a brand has permission to do, that’s where they can get themselves into a lot of trouble. Obviously, Bud Light, but they’re not alone. It doesn’t always have to blow-up like that to be a failure. It can be something that just seems really superficial to a brand.”

Michael Organ: “Putting marketers in the position of being ‘Brand Cops’?”

J T. Ramsay: “Part of being a good communicator, a good marketer, is being comfortable with the kind of internal conflict that arises around some of these topics and being able to set aside what your personal views are and really understand: ‘OK, in this role, my job is to protect the reputation of the company. And while my strong preference is to be on offense and do cool things, there are times where, if it’s not appropriate, you have to be willing to raise your hand and say: ‘Hey, I think this is going to make the company look bad. This may put some of our employees at risk by putting them front and center in some of these campaigns’ – protecting the reputation of the organization you’re working for.”

Michael Organ: “When we return, I’ll ask our guests the Big Question.”

The Big Question

Michael Organ: “Why not err on the side of caution by just describing a product’s features and benefits without addressing social impact?”

Professor Babb: “When you boil your product down to features, what you’re doing is you’re putting the emphasis on the product. You’re not putting the emphasis on the product as a solution to somebody’s needs. So, if we layer on the idea of social impact, we can start to say: ‘OK, who’s my consumer? What do they want? What do they need?’ and ‘How does this brand achieve that?’ Sometimes it’s through something like convenience: Your toaster toasts a waffle for you and you have breakfast in 90 seconds. And that solves a need. But sometimes we need to tell the world that we stand for something and  things matter to us. So social impact storytelling really allows us to be a part of that change.”

J T. Ramsay: “Being able to pull these threads gives you new and interesting ways to talk about these products that go beyond the features. I’m a nerd for this stuff. It’s why I’m so thrilled to have this conversation with you. I’ve always been drawn to CSR storytelling, you know, ESG, DEI. I love those people stories. I like finding unexpected things at companies that go beyond the products themselves. It’s just so refreshing when your work goes out into the world and then is reflected back to you with friends and family, and you can say: ‘Oh, I worked on that.’  That’s very rewarding for me personally.”

Michael Organ: “Rewarding, indeed. Inspiring too. So, I’d like to thank my guests, J T. Ramsay and Professor Jacqueline Baab, for their compelling insights and practical advice. Let’s also recognize the production team: Voiceovers by Erika Calvert and Tamera Lay. Audio engineering by Prashant Verma, Andrei Zagarian, and Bryan Becker. Digital and web production by Rasel Miah, Kaysar Ali, and Haris Khan.”