Advice For
HUMANITARIAN AND HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS
You may save even more lives, and gain more public support in fighting dictators, sexual predators, abusers, human traffickers, torturers, corruption, economic exploitation, government neglect, and compassion fatigue … with a powerful non-violent weapon that works.
SERIAL STORYTELLING VIDEOS
The Missing Tool Of Humanitarian Work
I am former ABC News Correspondent Mike Lee. I have 46 years experience in telling human interest video stories. I offer the following thoughts and suggestions for human rights groups, NGOs, and other charities who want to increase their profiles, earn more public attention for their causes, or raise more donations for their work. I am not here to try to tell you how to do your jobs. Instead, I offer my expertise in the highly specialised field of best presenting your work to the world.
What IS a Storytelling Video? It tells your story in three acts.
What are SERIAL Storytelling Videos? They are a series of daily or weekly storytelling videos which give your online or TV audience episodes in ongoing real life dramas to follow and become emotionally attached. It is the same highly successful storytelling principle behind most hit TV serial dramas and sit-coms.
Don’t Most Online Videos Already Tell A Story? No. Most ordinary videos, including news videos, lay out the basic facts and show some highlights and a few sound bites. News organisations call them ‘stories,’ but in fact they usually barely cram in the headline of a story, along with the Who, What, Where, When, and Why. They show us shocking scenes, and lay out some grim facts. But they can also add yet another numbing layer to the public’s anti-alarm amor. There is only so much bad news people can process, and after a while one human rights or humanitarian crisis begins to look like another. Victims faces are forgotten. Quick sound bites fade. It is difficult for people to retain their emotional involvement long enough to actually take action on a prolonged basis.
How Does Serial Storytelling Video Overcome That? Storytelling videos go deep, creating a narrative that focuses on one person or one group of people, whose personal crisis sweeps us along in a classic dramatic arc: (Part 1) The situation or crisis is revealed, (Part two) Action or struggle occurs, (Part three) A result, good or bad, is revealed. Lessons are drawn, and the future is pondered. Look at it this way. If a humanitarian crisis or issue directly affected someone you know, you would not be more likely to become emotionally involved, and take supportive action? Storytelling videos help you get to know individuals affected, and Serial Storytelling videos deepen that process by offering daily or weekly updates, and a tease forward to the next episode.
What Storytelling Might Work With Your Specific Project? I’ll tell you. Email or call me. There is no charge or obligation. My approach is to offer free advice. If that leads you to employ my services at some point, that’s great. If not, I will gladly help you anyway. It is a good way to spread the word that Mike Lee is available. You can also click here to see a partial list of humanitarian and human rights issues which lend themselves to Serial Storytelling Video.
Can You Produce Effective Serial Storytelling with Your Existing Staff? Yes, assuming that you are staffed in the story locations, or can get staff there when necessary. They will need to know the basics of shooting video (with good audio), and will need guidance from you on what to look for, what to ask, and how to react quickly to unplanned video opportunities. Depending upon the level of expertise available within your staff, you will require skills in writing, video editing, and website maintenance. My advice is to utilise what you already have, and outsource only what you must. You will probably find that you staff can be trained to gather the all important raw video. Here is my brief NGO and Agency Staff Guide to Serial Storytelling.
How About Some Examples Issues that Can Benefit from Serial Storytelling? Sure. Please Click Here.
Why ‘Storytelling’ Videos are Different and Better for Human Rights and Humanitarian Coverage than Ordinary Videos. Most ordinary videos, including news videos, lay out the basic facts and show some highlights and a few sound bites. News organisations call them ‘stories,’ but in fact they usually barely cram in the headline of a story. True storytelling videos, on the other hand, go deeper, creating a narrative focusing on one person or one group of people, whose personal crisis sweeps us along in a classic dramatic arc: (Part 1) The situation or crisis is revealed, (Part two) Action or struggle occurs, (Part three) A result, good or bad, is revealed. Lessons are drawn, and the future is pondered.
that raise the alarm about a human rights or humanitarian issue usually alarm people, at least for a moment. They show us shocking scenes, and lay out some grim facts. But they can also add yet another numbing layer to the public’s anti-alarm amor. There is only so much bad news people can process, and after a while one human rights or humanitarian crisis begins to look like another. Victims faces are forgotten. Quick sound bites fade. It is difficult for people to retain their emotional reaction to a crisis long enough to actually take action on a prolonged basis. On the other hand, if that same crisis affected a friend, or someone they felt they knew, they would be far more likely to stay involved. Storytelling videos can help build the kind of sustained emotional involvement in a worthy cause, which brief TV news stories often can not.
How Storytelling Videos Can Help When Alarming Facts and Figures May Not Be Enough
If You Build It, They Will They Come! Right?
NGOs and Non-Profits
Would you like some new thinking about how to break through the brutal market for fund raising and public attention? I recommend trying what I call ‘Serial Stories.’ Some of what you read below also appears on my page for PR and Marketing companies. I believe it applies as well to NGOs and non profit organizations of all kinds. You need to convince people that your service is important enough to support. You need to be liked and trusted. You need for donors to feel an emotional connection with you which transcends the problem of ‘compassion fatigue.’
For instance, let’s say that you need donor support for an ongoing project in Africa. Rather than rely only upon news coverage or paid ads, you can publish your own web based Serial Stories right from the scene of the crisis. You could focus on one family, or several people, but put them into the context of the overall project or problem. You show their real life dramas as they struggle to survive. But instead of condensing it all into one video, we allow the drama to play out weekly, or even daily. A mother has mouths to feed, no husband, her own health problem, and a daily struggle to find food and work. Each day is a real drama, and you tell her story each day, much like a breaking news story. Your serial videos become a potent ‘reality show’ as the audience becomes invested in what will happen the next day or the next week. Audiences love soap operas. This is like a soap, except that it is not contrived or frivolous. It offers a genuine emotional connection because it dos not flash by in a one off 1 minute 45 second tv spot. It is compelling because it is true. It is also true that one person sitting in Ohio can made a difference to the lives of people like your featured person or group. All this can be combined with an appeal for donors.
Ironically, the sad state of network broadcast and digital news can work to your advantage with Serial Stories. News platforms are hungry for good stories but can not afford to travel the world unless it involved a shooting war, nuclear meltdown, or other major event that can not be ignored. Your serial stories become a turn key news drama which you can offer to stations and networks direct from remote locations free of charge. Your NGOs or charity information will appear on screen. You can post the videos on your own sites as well.
All of this can be achieved from any corner of the earth. I know, because I pioneered the one person global coverage concept for ABC News.
Serial Stores can also go a long way toward overcoming the perception that Americans and other westerners never care about what happens outside their city limits. What I do is bring universally human drama into their heads and hearts. I might even urge you to let me include some ordinary Americans in the series. For example, we could video a typical American family on the same days we are covering a family in your African problem zone. We can even hook them up via portable satellite to speak with one another. The impact upon the American family would probably be dramatic.
It is essential that these serial stories not be staged or faked. They must be real people, living and reacting without prompting. Audiences can sense staging. Your success will depend upon authenticity.
Serial Stories This is explanation also appears in other sections because the ideas are valid not only for corporations, but for PR and marketing firms, NGOs, and other organisations.
There is a lot of social media video out there now, but most of it clings to old media advertising techniques. It works hard to sell you a product, service, or idea and push for a quick commitment. That often doesn’t work because web audiences know when they are being pressured, and many just resent it. By contrast, if you want to build a solid long term relationship with clients or potential clients, you might want to consider adding what I call ‘Serial Stories’ for social media marketing campaigns.
With ‘Serial Stories’ you post on your FB or other site a series short videos which document the natural drama and integrity of your unique product, service, or idea. You create a following by showing real behind the scenes drama. Each video teases to the next instalment your unfolding story. Audiences love a soap opera. Serial Stories are like a soap, except that they are real life, and they provide a compelling reason for your potential clients and customers to come back to your site again and again.
For example, let’s say that you are planning an event or product lunch for a few weeks or months from now. Rather than waiting until just before the event, you can start now to build interest with serial story videos. You take your viewers behind the scenes, and help them to become invested in what will happen tomorrow or a week from now, as you prepare for the event. This is not a series of commercials. It is a series of genuine behind the scenes activities. For instance, you have a county fair coming up. There is a huge amount of drama on farms, in stables, coach work house, and dog training circles, all because there will be fierce competition for prizes. This is what best selling books and movies are made of: great drama in the lives or ordinary people.
If it is a product for which you want to build an audience, but you don’t want to give away the design before the launch, you can use serial story telling to build suspense about the design.
If you are a service provider, use serial story telling to take us ‘back stage,’ and show us a week of natural drama, hard work, suspense, and results. You might end of up a natural soap opera of 20 videos which you release one at a time. Each video is a ‘chapter’ in your story, with a tease to the next chapter.
Ideas and values are notoriously difficult to market because they so often seem abstract. Serial story telling can help package your ideas as concrete examples of how and why they are so great.
Serial story telling works best when produced by an expert story teller.
Contact Mike to discuss tel +44 (0) 7879 257 761 or email Mike
show us shocking scenes, and lay out some grim facts. But they can also add yet another numbing layer to the public’s anti-alarm amor. There is only so much bad news people can process, and after a while one human rights or humanitarian crisis begins to look like another. Victims faces are forgotten. Quick sound bites fade. It is difficult for people to retain their emotional reaction to a crisis long enough to actually take action on a prolonged basis. On the other hand, if that same crisis affected a friend, or someone they felt they knew, they would be far more likely to stay involved. Storytelling videos can help build the kind of sustained emotional involvement in a worthy cause, which brief TV news stories often can not.
I am former ABC News Correspondent Mike Lee. I have 46 years experience in telling human interest video stories. I offer the following thoughts and suggestions for human rights groups, NGOs, and other charities who want to increase their profiles, earn more public attention for their causes, or raise more donations for their work. I am not here to try to tell you how to do your jobs. Instead, I offer my expertise in the specialised field of best presenting your work to the world.
Why ‘Storytelling’ Videos are Different and Better for Human Rights and Humanitarian Coverage than Ordinary Videos. Most ordinary videos, including news videos, lay out the basic facts and show some highlights and a few sound bites. News organisations call them ‘stories,’ but in fact they usually barely cram in the headline of a story. True storytelling videos, on the other hand, go deeper, creating a narrative focusing on one person or one group of people, whose personal crisis sweeps us along in a classic dramatic arc: (Part 1) The situation or crisis is revealed, (Part two) Action or struggle occurs, (Part three) A result, good or bad, is revealed. Lessons are drawn, and the future is pondered.
that raise the alarm about a human rights or humanitarian issue usually alarm people, at least for a moment. They show us shocking scenes, and lay out some grim facts. But they can also add yet another numbing layer to the public’s anti-alarm amor. There is only so much bad news people can process, and after a while one human rights or humanitarian crisis begins to look like another. Victims faces are forgotten. Quick sound bites fade. It is difficult for people to retain their emotional reaction to a crisis long enough to actually take action on a prolonged basis. On the other hand, if that same crisis affected a friend, or someone they felt they knew, they would be far more likely to stay involved. Storytelling videos can help build the kind of sustained emotional involvement in a worthy cause, which brief TV news stories often can not.
How Storytelling Videos Can Help When Alarming Facts and Figures May Not Be Enough
If You Build It, They Will They Come! Right?
NGOs and Non-Profits
Would you like some new thinking about how to break through the brutal market for fund raising and public attention? I recommend trying what I call ‘Serial Stories.’ Some of what you read below also appears on my page for PR and Marketing companies. I believe it applies as well to NGOs and non profit organizations of all kinds. You need to convince people that your service is important enough to support. You need to be liked and trusted. You need for donors to feel an emotional connection with you which transcends the problem of ‘compassion fatigue.’
For instance, let’s say that you need donor support for an ongoing project in Africa. Rather than rely only upon news coverage or paid ads, you can publish your own web based Serial Stories right from the scene of the crisis. You could focus on one family, or several people, but put them into the context of the overall project or problem. You show their real life dramas as they struggle to survive. But instead of condensing it all into one video, we allow the drama to play out weekly, or even daily. A mother has mouths to feed, no husband, her own health problem, and a daily struggle to find food and work. Each day is a real drama, and you tell her story each day, much like a breaking news story. Your serial videos become a potent ‘reality show’ as the audience becomes invested in what will happen the next day or the next week. Audiences love soap operas. This is like a soap, except that it is not contrived or frivolous. It offers a genuine emotional connection because it dos not flash by in a one off 1 minute 45 second tv spot. It is compelling because it is true. It is also true that one person sitting in Ohio can made a difference to the lives of people like your featured person or group. All this can be combined with an appeal for donors.
Ironically, the sad state of network broadcast and digital news can work to your advantage with Serial Stories. News platforms are hungry for good stories but can not afford to travel the world unless it involved a shooting war, nuclear meltdown, or other major event that can not be ignored. Your serial stories become a turn key news drama which you can offer to stations and networks direct from remote locations free of charge. Your NGOs or charity information will appear on screen. You can post the videos on your own sites as well.
All of this can be achieved from any corner of the earth. I know, because I pioneered the one person global coverage concept for ABC News.
Serial Stores can also go a long way toward overcoming the perception that Americans and other westerners never care about what happens outside their city limits. What I do is bring universally human drama into their heads and hearts. I might even urge you to let me include some ordinary Americans in the series. For example, we could video a typical American family on the same days we are covering a family in your African problem zone. We can even hook them up via portable satellite to speak with one another. The impact upon the American family would probably be dramatic.
It is essential that these serial stories not be staged or faked. They must be real people, living and reacting without prompting. Audiences can sense staging. Your success will depend upon authenticity.
Serial Stories This is explanation also appears in other sections because the ideas are valid not only for corporations, but for PR and marketing firms, NGOs, and other organisations.
There is a lot of social media video out there now, but most of it clings to old media advertising techniques. It works hard to sell you a product, service, or idea and push for a quick commitment. That often doesn’t work because web audiences know when they are being pressured, and many just resent it. By contrast, if you want to build a solid long term relationship with clients or potential clients, you might want to consider adding what I call ‘Serial Stories’ for social media marketing campaigns.
With ‘Serial Stories’ you post on your FB or other site a series short videos which document the natural drama and integrity of your unique product, service, or idea. You create a following by showing real behind the scenes drama. Each video teases to the next instalment your unfolding story. Audiences love a soap opera. Serial Stories are like a soap, except that they are real life, and they provide a compelling reason for your potential clients and customers to come back to your site again and again.
For example, let’s say that you are planning an event or product lunch for a few weeks or months from now. Rather than waiting until just before the event, you can start now to build interest with serial story videos. You take your viewers behind the scenes, and help them to become invested in what will happen tomorrow or a week from now, as you prepare for the event. This is not a series of commercials. It is a series of genuine behind the scenes activities. For instance, you have a county fair coming up. There is a huge amount of drama on farms, in stables, coach work house, and dog training circles, all because there will be fierce competition for prizes. This is what best selling books and movies are made of: great drama in the lives or ordinary people.
If it is a product for which you want to build an audience, but you don’t want to give away the design before the launch, you can use serial story telling to build suspense about the design.
If you are a service provider, use serial story telling to take us ‘back stage,’ and show us a week of natural drama, hard work, suspense, and results. You might end of up a natural soap opera of 20 videos which you release one at a time. Each video is a ‘chapter’ in your story, with a tease to the next chapter.
Ideas and values are notoriously difficult to market because they so often seem abstract. Serial story telling can help package your ideas as concrete examples of how and why they are so great.
Serial story telling works best when produced by an expert story teller.
Contact Mike to discuss tel +44 (0) 7879 257 761 or email Mike
