How Siemens uses storytelling to engage with clients and employees.

This week, we’re heading to Australia for an interview with Keith Ritchie, storyteller for Siemens.

Published by the Australian Marketing Magazine, the interview discusses the reality of storytelling in a corporate context and how it has been very beneficial for Siemens.

He mentions two interesting examples.

The first one is about an employee who lost an eye when he was an apprentice. It is part of a series called “This is my safety story.” Rather than giving directives about safety, the series focuses on employees who tell their own story rather than a manager or comedian telling you what to do and what not to do. It makes you stop and realize you don’t want to lose an eye.

In the second example, he presents the story of a dairy farmer who called Siemens to help him improve his processes and equipment (you now understand the choice of the picture for this post). The story was then re-used in a multiplatform context (print, video, content, social media, etc.). In this case, this re-purposing of the content wasn’t necessarily aimed at dairy farmers, but rather as a story that demonstrates what Siemens can do. It created situations where potential clients actually called saying “If you can do this for him, what could you do for me?”

Another part of the interview discusses ROI (return on investment) and how to measure the impact of storytelling. But for this subject, I’ll let you read it on your own directly in Marketing Mag’s article.

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