“Brands can bring their CSR (corporate social responsibility) efforts to life through authentic storytelling [and] Millennials want to know what companies are doing to make the world a better place”- Center for Social Impact Communication at Georgetown University
“83% of Millennials would be more loyal to a company that allows them to contribute to social and environmental issues”- Cone Communications
“Storytelling that starts with the persona allows us to tap into these deeper recesses, where the influence of attitudes and emotions is greater… loyalty and trust are found there”- Journal of Business Strategy
“116% growth in spoken word listeners 13-34 years old in the past even years, with 18% growth in the last year”- National Public Radio Organization
“[the way employees are on-boarded] sets the tone for the culture of a place, the people, and the values of a new institution and can have a significant impact on employees’ sense of belonging”- Journal of Research, Assessment, and Practice in Higher Education
“Corporate storytelling is suggested to help demonstrate the importance of the corporate brand to internal and external stakeholders… as well as help a firm to bond with its employees”- Product & Brand Management
“There is value in a story that is, designed to drive the simulation and to elicit the [employee’s] best performance”- Society for Human Resource Management
“The majority (79%) of Millennials want to work for a company that cares about how it contributes to society and 69% would refuse to work for a company that is not socially responsible”- Journal of Education For Business
“Story-telling is an important element… involving the sharing of experiences and creation of mental-maps of the environment in which people are motivated to perform to their full potential”- Leadership and Organization Development Journal
“The most recent era in audio entertainment… users are asserting power over the medium to select particular content at particular times”- Mass Communication and Society Journal
“Audiobooks have had a big shift in popularity in 2018 where for the first time, “a full half of all Americans ages 12 and older have listened to an audiobook, up from 44% last year”- Forbes
“A focus on social responsibility is particularly important to attract, retain, and increase the commitment and engagement of Millennial employees and talented women”- Center for Creative Leadership
“The audiobook market share shifted from 42% digital copy sales in 2009 to 87% digital copy sales in 2017”- Audio Publishers Association
“The storytelling process yields positive impacts on internal and external stakeholder outcomes including increasing employees’ thriving and meaningful work, as well as the attitudes and trust of multiple external stakeholders”- Journal of Strategic Marketing
“Audiobook sales revenue has been on a steep rise since 2018, reaching 1.3 billion USD in 2020”- Statista
“When it comes to digital storytelling for branding, there is, a more positive attitude towards the company when the employer branding message is using digital storytelling”- Management Dynamic in the Knowledge Economy Journal
“Over 71 thousand audiobook titles (were) published in 2020, a 39% growth between previous years”- Statista
“Narrative presentation of corporate strategy, comparative advantage, is more effective at producing a consistent and confident choice of competitive advantage among an audience than a presentation of corporate strategy using a PowerPoint style, bulleted list approach”- Journal of Strategy and Management
“Employees have a deeper affiliation with the message through organizational storytelling due to aligning stories with their own experiences and understanding”- International Journal of Business and Social Science
“Stories are a device… [that] provide managers with a form of social and intersubjective interaction that reflects belief systems, role expectations, interpersonal norms and conditions for work behavior”- International Journal of Management
“Audio platform superiority was about the desire to use an audio platform that is perceived to be superior to other audio alternatives, including on-demand convenience (time and place) and content (vari- ety and uniqueness)”- New Media and Society Journal
“19% [of Millennials] say they have paid in the last year for a subscription service for eBooks or audiobooks such as Kindle Unlimited or Audible”- American Press Institute
“A poor cultural fit is frequently cited as one of the main reasons [an employee] decides to leave an organization… defining the organization's culture through storytelling should start with branding of the organization and continue through the interview and onboarding process”- Physician Executive Communication Journal
“Maximizing success through onboarding by storytelling during orientations, [helps employees understand] the company's culture and values [and] its goals and history”- Society for Human Resource Management
“Should produce positive effects on key audiences, such as increasingly positive attitudes toward the company and eventually behavioral intentions to support this company”- Public Relations Review
“Spoken word audio listening is up 40% in the past seven years, and up 8% year over year”- National Public Radio Organization and Edison Research
“[onboarding] can also aid employees in identifying values congruence which is critical to career contentment and commitment which can significantly impact retention to both the field and the institution long-term” - Journal of Research, Assessment, and Practice in Higher Education
“Millennials are more technologically advanced than any previous generation [and] survey data has shown a correlation between age and reading preferences [where] younger people listen to more audiobooks than older Americans”- State University of New York
“64% of Millennials consider a company’s social commitments when taking jobs and will not work for a company if they do not have strong corporate social responsibility (CSR) values”- Cone Communications
“Audio narrative has recently benefited from profound cultural shifts in media consumption associated with on-demand television’s binge watching revolution and the advent of digital longform storytelling”- Journal of Radio & Audio Media
“Three uses for storytelling in organizations: (1) to motivate employees, (2) for education and (3) to consolidate corporate culture”- Journal of Marketing
“Storytelling is essential to successful branding, since your brand is the sum of all your corporate behaviors and communications that inform your customers’ experiences with your product or company”- The Journal of Business Strategy
“As technology evolves, people have more options available to them, which may explain why [reports] found younger adults to be more likely to opt for audiobooks and the multi-tasking they enable”- Forbes
“Researchers have shown that storytelling strengthens the connections consumers have to brands, so that to a great extent what a brand means to a consumer is based . . . on the narratives he or she has constructed that incorporate the brand.”- Journal of Business Strategy
“Storytelling that integrates a moral and spiritual component can transform an organizational culture so members of the organization begin to feel connected to a larger community and a higher purpose”- Journal of Business Ethics
“73% of the U.S. 12+ population (an estimated 209 million people) have listened to online audio in the last month, up from 68% in 2021”- Edison Research
“There are currently about 1000% more titles published since 2011”- Audio Publishers Association
“Online audio (podcasts, radio shows, music and audiobooks) has become more popular than ever before”- Publishing Research Quarterly
“The corporate world cannot ignore the demands and expectations of Millennials, who are devout in their desire to associate with companies aligned with their values”- Center for Social Impact Communication at Georgetown University
“Employees have a deeper affiliation with the message through organizational storytelling due to aligning stories with their own experiences and understanding”- International Journal of Business and Social Science
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Congratulations! You’ve successfully built your business through the 4 stages of growth, each with its own challenges and opportunities. You have survived the iffy startup phase where you faced bankruptcy on a daily basis. You then attracted a few key customers to keep the lights on and achieve cash flow in the build-up stage. You effectively navigated all the growth pains to establish a wide market in the build-out stage. And you have finally achieved stability in the enterprise stage.
Through all those challenges you held steadfast to the guiding principles that kept you on course and saw your company through the tough times. But now, with specialization, loss of the big picture, and fading history, you begin to wonder what is the best way to keep your founding spirit alive and in practice. You begin to wonder if your principals and culture will be lost. You begin to wonder if your company will get “corporatized” to the point that it becomes “just another place to work”? Or, is there some way to keep it special, compelling, and relevant to the new generations?
Now, while the economy is basically on “hold”, is an opportune time to preserve your legacy with the entertaining and educational Business Audio Theatre format. Here’s 5 good reasons why now is a good time:
- Impermanence
As much as we would like to think that we will always be there to guide our business, we won’t. The stark fact that nobody lives forever is becoming even more obvious with the pandemic. How much of your culture is a result of you being the watchdog? What happens when you are gone? Or better yet, what can you do now that will preserve your history and the essential principles you want your people to practice in the future? How can you create a permanent record and message that will outlast you?
- Recollection
Why not get it down while it’s still fresh in your memory? It will never be fresher. You can still remember the seminal scenes that made the difference in your business, those watershed, and “Ah-Ha!” moments that were insightful, decisive, and oh so telling. Your memory is still sharp and you can still easily put names to faces and places to events. You have no difficulty recalling the dialogue, the setting, the actions and outcomes. And with Business Audio Theatre, you will have a professional guide to capture it all.
- Collaboration
Others who are key to your story are still with us. They are ready to collaborate the details and add validation to your story. Our script writer will interview the key people in your story to bring the dialogue to life. The nuisances, accents, and intonation of these characters will give your story the credibility it needs to be taken seriously, the local color to be engaging, and character development to be entertaining. Now, while they still remember their past, they can be interviewed by our playwright who will round out the dialogue to make it all the more authentic.
- Re-Messaging
Whether your people will continue to work from home or whether you intend to lure them back to the office, you will need to solve new problems that have emerged as a result of this pandemic. Many of these challenges will continue far beyond the pandemic. What are they? Simply, they revolve around your company’s culture and message. Who are you? Where did you come from? How did you get into this business? Why should I work for you? If at home, how do I know your story, principles, and values? How do you want me to treat vendors, co-workers, and customers, and why? Why should I continue to work for you? How can I identify with what you stand for and justify going back to work for your company?
- Recruitment
Attract and retain the kind of folks you want to work with, the folks who share your values, the people who are motivated by your story and want to be a part of the next chapter. Get your story out there ahead of time. Make it a download on your website. Make it a required listen for all applicants. Make a big part of the interview about that story and its implications to your company’s mission, vision, values, and culture. Reduce your training time by attracting the folks who identify with your story and appreciate the history of the company you have built – before they even apply!
Save Your Story Now!
Business Audio Theatre gives your company a lasting and effective tool that is entertaining, engaging, and educational. Seize the opportunity to have it in place and ready for your employees, old and new. And seize the opportunity at this pivotal moment when we are all wondering how we are going to keep and engage remote workers and prepare to welcome them back to an improved company culture. There’s never been a better time to preserve your legacy than right now!
