Over the years, numer­ous stud­ies have found that our brains are far more engaged by sto­ry­telling than a recita­tion of cold, hard facts. Sto­ries are illus­tra­tive, eas­i­ly mem­o­rable, and allow a brand to cre­ate stronger emo­tion­al bonds with cus­tomers. That’s why video is a con­tent marketer’s best medi­um for sto­ry­telling. Per­haps, then, the best way to illus­trate this is by show­ing a few videos that tell some com­pelling sto­ries.

The Pow­er of Non­fic­tion­al Sto­ry­telling

“Google Search: Reunion” was pub­lished by Google India on Nov. 13, 2013. The video, which clocks in at 3 min­utes and 32 sec­onds, has close to 12.5 mil­lion views as of this writ­ing.

The sto­ry it tells is worth retelling. The India-Pak­istan par­ti­tion in 1947 sep­a­rat­ed many friends and fam­i­lies overnight. A grand­daugh­ter in India decides to sur­prise her grand­fa­ther on his birth­day by reunit­ing him with his child­hood friend (who is now in Pak­istan) after more than six decades of sep­a­ra­tion, with a lit­tle help from Google search.

The moral of this sto­ry: Par­ti­tions divide coun­tries, friend­ships find a way.

“Sainsbury’s OFFICIAL Christ­mas 2014 Ad” was pub­lished by Sainsbury’s on Nov. 12, 2014. The video, which is 3 min­utes and 40 sec­onds long, has near­ly 16.9 mil­lion views.

Inspired by real events from 100 years ago, Sainsbury’s Christ­mas advert also tells a sto­ry worth retelling. Made in part­ner­ship with The Roy­al British Legion, it com­mem­o­rates the extra­or­di­nary events of Christ­mas Day, 1914, when the guns fell silent and two armies met in no-man’s land, shar­ing gifts – and even play­ing foot­ball togeth­er.

The moral of this sto­ry: Christ­mas is for shar­ing.

These videos are exam­ples of non­fic­tion­al sto­ries. They are sup­posed to have actu­al­ly hap­pened, often at a par­tic­u­lar time and place. And they draw much of their pow­er from this fact.

The Pow­er of Fic­tion­al Sto­ry­telling

Fic­tion­al sto­ries can also be com­pelling. These take place in a kind of sep­a­rate “once-upon-a-time” world of nowhere-in-par­tic­u­lar. They clear­ly aren’t intend­ed to be under­stood as true.

For exam­ple, “The Scare­crow” was pub­lished on Sept. 11, 2013, by Chipo­tle Mex­i­can Grill. This video, which is 3 min­utes and 22 sec­onds long, has near­ly 14 mil­lion views.

Anoth­er exam­ple of a fic­tion­al sto­ry is “John Lewis Christ­mas Advert 2014 — #Mon­tyTheP­en­guin”. Pub­lished Nov. 6, 2014, this video clocks in at 2 min­utes and 10 sec­onds and has more than 22.8 mil­lion views.

Why Are Fic­tion­al And Non­fic­tion­al Sto­ries So Engag­ing?

If you go back and watch all four of these videos again, you will see that they have char­ac­ters with whom you can iden­ti­fy. Ross Hock­row, an award-win­ning film­mak­er and author of “Out of Order: Sto­ry­telling Tech­niques for Video and Cin­e­ma Edi­tors”, says:

“Characters/subjects are the por­tals to every sto­ry. They are the way you get view­ers to buy into the sto­ry. The view­ers iden­ti­fy with, relat­ed to, and even empathize with the char­ac­ters. In a way, they become the char­ac­ters, or at least they com­pare them­selves to the char­ac­ter.”

All four videos also have a sto­ry arc, or plot struc­ture. This isn’t some­thing that YouTube or mod­ern brands cre­at­ed. The ancient roots of sto­ry­telling go back to Aris­to­tle, who said that a good sto­ry need­ed a begin­ning, mid­dle, and end.

Hock­row asks:

“Why does it mat­ter how long the sto­ry arc has been around? In a word: evo­lu­tion. With­out sto­ry­telling, how else would you explain how and where you were chased by a saber-toothed cat through the woods? Or that some­body ate this plant and got rid of an ill­ness, but some­body else ate that one over there, which looks almost the same, and it made them sick? Humans pass on their impor­tant infor­ma­tion through sto­ries. The human mind has evolved with the sto­ry arc, and with sto­ries in gen­er­al, which remain an import of our cul­ture.”

Sto­ries have been shared in every cul­ture as a means of enter­tain­ment, edu­ca­tion, cul­tur­al preser­va­tion, and instill­ing moral val­ues. Per­haps, the best way to illus­trate is by shar­ing two more videos that tell some com­pelling sto­ries.

The first is “‘Unsung Hero’ (Offi­cial HD) : TVC Thai Life Insur­ance 2014”. Pub­lished on April 23, 2014, it has more than 24 mil­lion views.

The moral of this video: Good sto­ries hap­pen every day.

The sec­ond video is “‘My dad’s sto­ry’: Dream for My Child | MetLife”. This video is 3 min­utes and 26 sec­onds long and was pub­lished by MetLife Hong Kong on Jan. 27. It has almost 6.8 mil­lion views.

It’s the dream of every par­ent to give their chil­dren a good edu­ca­tion to pur­sue a bet­ter life. MetLife says, “We under­stand every sac­ri­fice you make for your children’s future,” and uses the hash­tag, #Dream­ForMy­Child.

The moral of this sto­ry: “Share your dream for your child, and it could become real­i­ty.”

What’s the best exam­ple of sto­ry­telling in a video you’ve seen?