Storytelling
for Special Olympics
Training
June 2012 / Ryan Eades
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Special Olympics
The Power is in the Story
Special Olympics has a very powerful story to tell. People want to hear our story. They want to
engage with our stories. They want to be driven to action by our stories.
It’s our job to tell our stories to meet this need. With consistency. This training will provide an indepth look at how we can do this, why it is important and incorporate some hands on training and
examples of stories.
Traditionally we tell people “WHAT” we do. We are good at sharing facts and figures - the
informational.
What we want to do is shift to a model of telling stories that are character driven, customized, that
talk to someone about someone – the emotional.
As we get started, we’d like to offer these quick tips for you to keep in mind throughout your
storytelling process:
* Don’t Tell. Show.
* Talk to someone, about someone.
* Let characters speak.
* Stir emotion.
* Have a moment of truth.
* Have a clear meaning.
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Special Olympics
Introduction
The Lemonade Stand Theory of Storytelling*
Whenever I’m driving through a neighborhood and I see a
lemonade stand with children making and selling their lemonade
I’m compelled to stop. Not because I’m craving lemonade, or
whatever the product that day might be that I can probably get at
any number of convenience stores along my trip, I stop because
there’s a story behind the lemonade stand. I may not know the
details, but I know it’s there, and I have an idea of what it might
be. When I get home, I can mention to my wife that I stopped at
a lemonade stand and tell her all the cute things the child did as
she made the sale.
One girl’s lemonade stand is no different from (or less important
than) any business’ product, service, app, or in Special Olympics’
case, supporting the mission. I’m going to
stop/purchase/download/volunteer/coach/donate only if I have a
reason to care. Maybe I care about Special Olympics, or maybe I
just care about me (which is usually the case for most people).
The point is, I’m busy and something in Special Olympics’ story
has to resonate with me. If I’m bombarded by nothing but a
bunch of facts, jargon and stats, I’ll just keep on going, because I
can’t be late for that super important thing down the road.
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Special Olympics
Introduction
The Lemonade Stand Theory of Storytelling*
This isn’t insignificant. Audiences don’t think of the world from
our brand’s point of view. They don’t care about the fact that our
new campaign launched today and we really need to double our
revenue this year. What our marketing leaders and all brand
ambassadors in the Special Olympics Movement need to be
asking ourselves is a question posed by industry leader Seth
Godin:
“Are you going to build something that’s as interesting as the
Leaning Tower of Pisa? Are you going to make a product or
service that when people are done using it, they can’t help but
tell their friends about? The story is all that’s going to spread. Not
the facts, but the story.”
It’s important to look at our brand’s content-marketing efforts
from an outsider’s perspective. Are we giving our audience
reasons to care about us? Are we giving our audience content
that they not only want but also want to share?
When they drive by our version of a lemonade stand, will they
feel compelled to stop?
*Adapted from a blog post by Jon Thomas on PostAdvertising.com.
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Special Olympics
Storytelling for Business Goals
Stories are how we learn best.
We absorb numbers and facts and details, but we keep
them all glued into our heads with stories. Stories let us
convey wisdom, and/or explain information in an
entertaining way.
Right off the bat, let’s accept that press releases aren’t
stories (at least not necessarily). They’re just information
formatted to be absorbed by a news organization. That’s
okay. They’re not meant to be stories.
Stories come out of a narrative that usually involves
experiences, actions, and discernable change. They take
place in a setting, have characters, and often have a theme
about them.
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Special Olympics
Storytelling for Business Goals
What’s the secret to telling a great story? Step out from the background, get ahead of the
numbers, and put a name, face, and some personality behind your effort and you will see
increased engagement. Harness the power of the personal. People forget facts, but they never
forget a great story.
Advertising knows this. They do it often. Take for instance this campaign Levi's ran not too long
ago. It works perfectly as a story. It might even get you interested in buying more Levi’s
products, because you see yourself as part of the story.
URL: http://youtu.be/p63BwVm_ojw
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Special Olympics
Storytelling for Business Goals
The message the girl narrating conveys even resonates with our work in Special Olympics "People think there aren't frontiers anymore. They can't see how frontiers are all around us."
While this great ad/story stands on it's own, Levi's knows that people will want more, so now
that they've got you hooked, they bring you in and tell you the deeper story.
URL: http://youtu.be/kMgRkYjxP5s
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Special Olympics
Storytelling for Business Goals
So, how do WE do this? Let’s start with some very basic questions and then get into some
specifics of how we want to tell our stories. Take a step back before crafting your story and
ask:



What do I want the audience to feel?
What do I want the audience to remember?
What is the critical moment in the story?
Make sure you know what message you want your audience to come away with, so that the
story you’ve told is one your audience can retell, too.
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Special Olympics
How We Want To Tell Our Story
Start with a character and a point of view.
We must tell a story about someone to someone. Harry Potter
is the story of a young boy who feels he’s very different and
very left out, discovering that he’s not where he was meant to
be, and then it grows into this larger epic about defeating evil.
We have these stories around every corner in Special
Olympics about athletes, coaches, volunteers, doctors,
officials, etc.
We can, for example, tell a story about Jessie, a high school
junior who chose to volunteer with Special Olympics to fulfill
her community service requirement in order to graduate high
school and we can tell the story of how surprised she was to
get more out of the experience then she felt like she gave.
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Special Olympics
How We Want To Tell Our Story
Have a point to the story.
Jessie can no doubt give us an interview, but just asking her
questions and getting the answers isn’t a story. It’s an
interview.
The point might come out from the interview, or the point
might be to gear the questions so that Jessie tells the story of
why her experience volunteering with Special Olympics was
so fulfilling and how her attitude has changed about people
with intellectual disabilities because of Special Olympics.
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How We Want To Tell Our Story
Make the story useful, provide value.
We know Special Olympics makes people feel good. But
once Jessie leaves the local Summer Games where she
volunteered, what value has been added to her life?
Feeling good is great, but what if Jessie was able to share that
after her experience with Special Olympics she reflected on
her own life and was inspired by the determination of our
athletes to work harder going into her senior year and she
rose her GPA from a 2.7 to a 3.5 which helped her get into a
college that she never would have otherwise.
That’s valuable.
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How We Want To Tell Our Story
End with a “call to action.”
Unlike Harry Potter, our stories don’t wrap up with “the end” or
a “happily ever after.”
Our purpose in storytelling is to raise awareness, raise
engagement and raise funds.
We need a call to action. These can vary based on audience,
medium, and current events relevant to our work, but the
critical part is to clearly leave the “reader” (who becomes a
character of another kind) with an idea of what they can do
with what they learned in the story.
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Different Media
Telling a story on YouTube is different than telling a story on
Facebook is different than telling a story on Twitter is different
than telling a story on a blog.
It’s all different than an e-book, and a paper book, etc. The
different types of media make the storytelling a different
experience.
Think of how you’d do an audio interview versus a video
interview. Think of what comes from writing clear and useful
prose versus having a video experience.
See how it’s all different?
Be sure to pick the right medium for the job:
 Audio is intimate.
 Video is expressive and illustrative.
 Text is faster to read than audio or video is to
consume, easier to transfer, and simpler to produce.
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Experiment
The best way to start learning about storytelling is to
practice.
Think up storylines.
Think of the experiences you’ve had and the people
you know and look at them in the framework above to
see what resonates with you.
Think about your experience and what value you
could provide to someone outside the Movement that
would lead them to engage with Special Olympics
and want to share your story with their friends, family,
networks.
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The Elevator Pitch
One theory of communication says everyone in a business,
or Movement in our case, should have the same elevator
pitch about what we do so we can all memorize it and
communicate a similar message about what we do.
But that’s not very fun, it’s rarely authentic and it probably
just doesn’t make a good story.
Stories are engaging because they are personal and they
resonate with you emotionally. The logic of human nature
would suggest that a wide range of experiences lead to a
wide range of emotionally resonant stories and it’s better to
embrace the individuality of hundreds of stories that all speak
to the power of our Movement.
These stories make the best elevator pitches about Special
Olympics.
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The Elevator Pitch
No doubt you’ve had some experience with Special Olympics
that you find yourself sharing with others regularly or that you
find you can’t help but laugh, smile, cry or cheer about.
Turning them into an elevator pitch is easy, just think through
the what, where, when something happened, who the key
players were, why it impacted you and how it impacted your
work and life.
Measure your story against our brand promise and attributes
to make sure it aligns.
Tweak your story, or choose the right one from a reserve of a
few stories, based on who is in the elevator with you.
Hit the “UP” button.
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Sample Stories
It’s easy to talk about stories, but what do good ones look like? In the next few slides
we’d like to simply provide some examples of good storytelling around Special
Olympics.
As you consume the stories, think about what you are seeing from the standpoint of a
storyteller. Remember our early slide quick tips?
* Does the story tell? Or show?
* Does it talk to someone, about someone?
* Do the characters speak?
* Does the story stir your emotions?
* Does it have a moment of truth?
* Does it have a clear meaning?
It might even help to watch or read them a couple of times to focus on different aspects
of storytelling. Think about it from an audience perspective.
* What did I feel?
* What do I remember?
* What was the critical moment in the story?
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Sample Stories
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Sample Stories
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Sample Stories
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Sample Stories
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Sample Stories
While these were all examples of video storytelling, do you think they all met the
standards of great, powerful storytelling for Special Olympics? Why or why not?
We chose these three videos because despite using the same medium, they all provide
different examples of ways to tell a great story under various circumstances.
The “Speechless” PSA was a professionally produced piece of work with a Program
working in conjunction with a supportive production company.
Loretta’s story was simply a Flip Cam “interview” that was much more than a Q&A, it
very clearly told her story highlighting the impact and role of Special Olympics in her
life’s story.
The Attitude Pictures story on Kwon Bong Chun is a great example of telling a story
when working with a media partner as well as leveraging a major event in order to tell
the story of our athletes.
Molly’s P&G ad was a great example of how to work with a partner in telling our story.
Though in a perfect world, we’d have liked to see a strong call to action at the end.
Nonetheless the power of the story is evident.
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An Exercise in Visual Storytelling
Now let’s conduct an exercise. Many of our Programs use social media to engage
and activate our constituents. It’s a great vehicle for storytelling.
We believe that social media is the easiest way to tell our story to the most number of
people at the least amount of cost.
Using pictures with a few words of captioning is the most powerful way to help tell our
story quickly to the most number of people. So here’s the exercise.
While applying all of our storytelling filters and knowledge to this point, our goal is to
choose compelling pictures for Facebook that are athlete centric and demonstrate a
core attributes like fun, courage, determination or skill.
In the following slides, simply answer A or B according to which picture and caption
best accomplishes this goal while conveying the story of Special Olympics that we
want the public to consume.
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Picking the Right Content
Need a little inspiration today? Be a fan and
join us in cheering on Terrance!
When is the last time you had that look of
determination in striving to be your best?
We see it in our athletes every day. Great
job Joey!
A
B
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Messaging is Critical
It is critical that the messaging that accompanies a picture is on target to most
effectively tell the Special Olympics story. Which picture and caption below best
conveys our story?
At our State Games today we awarded 35 gold
medals! Check out this great picture of Rhonda
Johnson earning hers in the triple jump!
A
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When Rhonda Johnson was born, the doctor told her
parents she’d never walk or run. Today, she’s a gold
medalist in the triple jump!
B
Engage the Fans
While much of our content is athlete centric, we also like to regularly engage our
fans to help tell the Special Olympics story as they live it every day. Which picture
and caption below best conveys our story through fan engagement?
Fill in the blank: “The last time I volunteered at
Special Olympics I felt ______________”
The biggest surprise of volunteering at Special
Olympics is you feel like you got more than you
gave. LIKE if you agree!
A
B
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Visual Storytelling Exercise ANSWERS
In the first exercise, “Picking the Right Content” our choice was “B”.
While the messaging was fine in “A,” it was a little passive but we can live with that. The larger issue for us
with “A” was that it would be easy to come across a bit condescending to our athletes with the cheering on
the track itself, not to mention our sports folks would go nuts if the athlete wasn’t DQ’d! So all in all,
probably not our ideal story to tell the public.
Where in “B” the messaging directly engages the reader by asking about them, and it also uses the
athlete’s name (Joey), to tell the story about someone, to someone. Plus, what a great photo!
In the second exercise, “Messaging is Critical” our choice was “B”.
Neither option here is bad. Our preference is “B” because it tells the broader story of the impact of Special
Olympics in Rhonda’s life. That’s a story that transcends the time and place mentioned in “A” of a singular
State Games. So “A” is good, but we feel “B” is better.
In the third exercise, “Engage the Fan” we chose “A”.
Once again an instance where both options are good. But with the goal being engagement we felt that
having our fans fill in the blank connects their emotions to the picture and it also tells us in a straw poll how
people feel about Special Olympics, in their own words. That’s valuable information to have. The one
good thing about “B” is that it is a very easy ask to just “like” something so a lot of people would engage
with that action. But still, we feel the best option is the deeper emotional connection of sharing a feeling by
“filling in the blank.”
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Thank You!
We hope this Storytelling for Special Olympics Training proves to be a helpful resource.
We’d love to hear your feedback, suggestions, comments, thoughts or anything else you’d
like to share with regard to the training.
Please feel free to reach out to us and send those directly to Ryan Eades at
reades@specialolympics.org.
THANKS!
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