Make people the heroes of your stories

At the heart of every good story should be a clear and tangible news hook that immediately connects with the reader. 

Grabbing and holding attention in an increasingly crowded market space is challenging and the key to engagement is quality, relevant content that adds value to your audience. 

This is best achieved via the art of authentic, quality storytelling and data demonstrates stories about people achieve higher engagement than general content. Making people the heroes of your stories can form a key tactic in delivering a communications strategy. 

It can be used to communicate key messages, company values and culture and support achieving business objectives. 

Storytelling

If you think about it, most films, books or daily news stories have a hero or villain. Someone you can relate to, or someone you root for. And those stories stick in your mind. People like feel-good stories and tales of overcoming adversity, which inevitably require a central person to communicate it.

Storytelling is a skill, and understanding what makes a good story and how it should be presented to the public is why PR acts as an invaluable tool to those who use it. 

Positive, or emotive, storytelling enhances reputation, builds brand awareness, can change public perception, drive footfall, increase engagement and significantly contribute to better outcomes for charities. 

In our latest insight, we consider how placing people at the heart of a story can achieve the above. 

The fundamentals

PR and positive storytelling today is near unrecognisable to a decade ago. 

And yet the fundamentals of a good story remain the same – establish an engaging hook, get straight to the point and present your story in a way which connects the audience. 

In a generation where demand for content is perhaps higher than ever, but attention spans are lower and competition for audience is fierce, ensuring the above applies to your story and media pitch is key. 

In 2023, it was estimated the average person in the UK spent SIX hours each day consuming digital media. So, it is important to stress test your communications plans and content and ask yourself what makes your story stand out in an increasingly saturated online pool of content. Examine data to understand what your audience likes and adjust your tactics. 

Strategy first

Before generating stories make sure you have done your research and produced a robust communications strategy. How do you want your business or charity to be perceived, who are you trying to communicate with, what are your key messages and what subtleties of language apply? You should also consider how communications can support your business objectives.

Once you have a strategy in place the fun bit can begin — storytelling.

Establishing your hook

Build a relationship with any individual and you’ll likely find they have an engaging story to tell. 

Conversation is what sparks story hooks, and good PR advisors take ideas forward from discussions to generate headlines that are strategic and engage audiences. Placing people, or an individual, at the heart of a story is a good way to win hearts and minds. People provide character, an emotional connection and serve as good communicators when you need to translate a key message. 

Good examples of positive people stories – and how it can generate good PR — include:

• Anniversaries or personal milestones

This tactic can be utilised to demonstrate an organisation as a positive and supportive place to work and as an opportunity to re-tell your story and remind people of what you do, your achievements and culture. 

Remember to focus on people and make someone the hero of the anniversary. Whether it is the founder of the business reaches a key milestone, or an apprentice qualifying, or a member of staff reaching a service anniversary. 

For example, we produced and placed a press release to highlight Planet IT’s 20 year anniversary and told the backdrop story of the founders to personalise the business. 

• Overcoming adversity

This is a classic narrative for a hero story. You could tell a colleague’s personal story of how they have overcome a challenge in their life or career and found their calling. It can help communicate a particular service or commitment an organisation provides and is a useful way of highlighting company culture and values. 

An example can be found here via the story we told of Ryan Hairsine, who despite failing some of his exams went onto to become the alternate provision manager at Velocity Football. 

• Challenging stereotypes

Helps to change public perception and provides an opportunity to relay key messages while subtly reminding people of its core services within the story. Telling personal stories that demonstrate a certain perception is false is a powerful way of achieving this. 

We regularly make people the hero of our stories to help national apprenticeship training provider Ignite Training overcome the misconception that apprenticeships are for school leavers. 

Here is an example where we told the story of 60-year-old Paul Virgo, a Skills and Training Manager at Birmingham City FC’s charitable trust, who enrolled on an apprenticeship programme to study with one of his former students. 

• Charitable efforts

Everyone loves a feel-good charity story and often the best way to tell them is via a person. Tell the story of why a person or company is backing a charity and the difference their support will make. In many cases the company will provide support to a colleague who is doing something for charity and so it is an opportunity to raise awareness of the cause while demonstrating the firm has good values. 

Patrick Kavanagh, an installer at Amazing Lofts ran the London Marathon for Oxford Hospital’s Charity and received help from his employer. We told this story and helped raised awareness via the local media.

• Promotions and/or workplace achievements

Stories in this category provide an opportunity to showcase a group’s commitment to staff and personal development. This is a good way of showing investment in people and service and helps attract talent. 

An example of a story of this nature told via a person is when we placed a press release on Pawel Polewski’s promotion to Operations Manager at Carousel Buses and Thames Travel, three years after joining the Go-Ahead-Group subsidiaries as a planning officer. 

Furthermore we used people stories to help boost a Thames Travel recruitment campaign. One was that of bus driver Claire Kelly-Parkin who served in the British Army for more than two decades before making a career change with the company’s support. Our team interviewed Claire and produced a human interest story that gained huge traction for Thames Travel, in a way a corporate press release would likely not achieve. 

Engagement

Done professionally, a well-written press release and pitch can turn into much more than a good haul of media coverage. 

Our client Oxford Bus Company experienced this when eight-year-old bus enthusiast Vincent and his parents contacted the company requesting a local timetable to complete a collection. What could’ve been a simple task was transformed into a day Vincent would never forget. He received an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of Oxford Bus Company’s Cowley depot, and even had his name emblazoned on a bus as it departed to serve passengers. 

The experience was captured by BBC Oxford and watched by tens of thousands of adoring viewers that evening. Vincent’s story underlines the power people have when positioned as a hero of a story. 

Charity

Within the team at Fortitude Communications, we experienced first-hand the impact storytelling can have on a charitable campaign when an individual is at the heart of a hook. 

Shaun Reynolds – one of our account managers — set himself the task of raising £10,000 for the Alabama Rot Research Fund after losing his whippet, Willow, to the rare disease in March. Shaun documented Willow’s story from day one, and following her death was inundated with media requests from journalists asking if he could tell his story. It was broadcast on ITV News at Six, BBC News Online, national newspapers, BBC regional radio stations and more. 

It contributed more than £5,000 to his present fundraising total and is a shining example of how PR can be used to create positive outcomes even in tragic circumstances. 

Maximise your reach

Seeking exposure in third party media should form one part of a multipronged approach to telling your people stories. Alongside newspaper, magazine and broadcast opportunities make sure you re-purpose your content effectively to gain maximise value from it.

This could include publishing a blog, adding it to an internal magazine and or a stakeholder newsletter, creating a video and posting on social media.

A quality photograph is also key to success and can make a big difference to how well your output performs. Make sure you have a well-lit uncluttered photograph in a landscape format that is of the person at the heart of the story. 

Get in touch

At Fortitude Communications, our team is made up of expert storytellers who can identify news hooks which appeal to media relevant to you and your target audiences.

We can develop and action communications strategies which enhance your public profile, drive visitors to your website, develop awareness and maximise social media, photography and videography output.

We’re Oxford-based, but operate nationally with clients across the UK including in London, Berkshire, Kent, Birmingham and the north-east. Contact our team here to learn more.