“Audiobook sales revenue has been on a steep rise since 2018, reaching 1.3 billion USD in 2020”- Statista
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“[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
“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
“83% of Millennials would be more loyal to a company that allows them to contribute to social and environmental issues”- Cone Communications
“[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
“Online audio (podcasts, radio shows, music and audiobooks) has become more popular than ever before”- Publishing Research Quarterly
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“There are currently about 1000% more titles published since 2011”- Audio Publishers Association
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“Three uses for storytelling in organizations: (1) to motivate employees, (2) for education and (3) to consolidate corporate culture”- Journal of Marketing
“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
“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
“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
“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 audiobook market share shifted from 42% digital copy sales in 2009 to 87% digital copy sales in 2017”- Audio Publishers Association
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“Over 71 thousand audiobook titles (were) published in 2020, a 39% growth between previous years”- Statista
“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
“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
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We are very proud of our recent accomplishment with our new, theatrically performed business audiobook, The Barefoot Spirit. It is a real example and demonstration of the power of story performed, not just narrated, to convey business principles in a new way.
It’s not “the 3 things you got to do, the 4 things to never do, and the 5 things your customer wants from you.” No! It’s more like a movie in your mind where you experience the action and outcomes with characters in scenes complete with sound effects and music.
The Barefoot Spirit was recognized by the Audiobook Publisher’s Association as one of the top 5 business audiobooks of 2020. Forbes says of this new theatrical format for business audiobooks, “Transformational!”
And we believe it can transform your training process by making it more engaging, effective, and efficient. Instead of having to train each new individual about your culture, the reasons for your policies and procedures, and the nuances behind customer relations, you can now do it once and for all!
Now you can preserve your story, legacy, and rationale, in your own Business Audio Theatre (BAT) audiobook. Now you can give that audio performance to each new hire so they can listen on their own time. While they are multitasking, they will be transported to seminal scenes from your company’s history where the founder discovered what works and what doesn’t.
Because it is in story form, it will make more of an impression than prescriptive text, manuals, or even video. Because it is performed, they will experience the discovery process and benefits in 3-D audio, “the movie in their mind.” These principles will be much easier to remember, identify with, and apply. And you will not have to do the repetitive training with each new person. You do it once and play it forever!
What is the savings and value in that kind of efficiency? We think its substantial having done it the hard way for decades. In fact, that was the inspiration for BAT: training on a deeper level to communicate not just what, but why.
By witnessing the action and outcomes, the reasons become apparent, especially when it comes to how to treat your customers, vendors, and associates. We are talking about the philosophy behind the policies and procedures. It’s not just the “law’” it’s the “Spirit behind the law!”
Our experienced team is ready to take your story and develop it into an entertaining and memorable audio play to give your people on day one. You will be rewarded in all the days that follow. They will know the “whys” and that will significantly reduce the training time, and significantly increase their performance and engagement.
Today, when you hire someone, you are hiring a person who has already been trained by their former employers. This person absorbed their former employer’s company culture – the way they look at your business, the way they regard your customers, and the rationale behind important decisions.
That may be OK for certain skillsets, but it may be counterproductive from a cultural or business style perspective. How do you change that?
You can try to explain over and over again to each new hire with only limited success.
Or, you can make a one-time investment in BAT that pays off forever, resulting in new hires being more likely to understand and apply the culture that built your business. Check out Business Audio Theatre and see if it is right for you! Oh, and it can all be done remotely!
