The difference between narrative and messaging

I worked with a relatively new Chief Executive who was seemingly obsessed with having the right ‘narrative’.

A meeting to discuss changes to how the organisation approached a particular service – we need a narrative.

A journalist calls to ask about a pending court case – what’s our narrative?

The local MP wants to come and talk about the how we’re responding to an issue – we need a better narrative.

There are two things that I tried (and failed) to explain to my former colleague.

• messages build a narrative, they are not the same thing
• the CEO should live and breathe, and direct the narrative

They were right about the importance of narrative, of course. Without a clear narrative we are left on the back foot, reacting with tactical messaging.

We risk making the right noises without ever saying anything.

What even is a narrative?

People love stories. Stories make us think, they make us feel and they inspire action.

A narrative is the story you’re trying to tell. The story of your leadership, your company, your campaign or product.

There are innumerable ways to structure a story, from the Hero’s Journey to Shakespeare’s Five Act Structure.

What unites them all is a desire to understand the audience and to encourage them to think, feel or act in a certain way. A framework to produce a response.

I worked on a major PR campaign for a national organisation back when I ran Press Offices. It wasn’t a fun or particularly interesting topic but there was still a compelling story to tell.

I sat with senior leaders and colleagues across comms to thrash it out. There was three things to cover:

1. Where are we now?
2. Where do we want to get?
3. What needs to happen to get there?

With that framework we wrote a story about the problem our campaign was trying fix, the stuff that needed to happen and what the world would look like when we succeeded.

That was our narrative.

So what are messages then?

Key messages are the bricks in your narrative wall. They give it shape, structure and strength.

The three c approach

Be concise. Each brick needs to be roughly the same size – 1-3 sentences at best.

They need to be consistent or the wall will end up wonky – so think about tone carefully.

Most of all they need to be clear.

Narrative versus messaging

Here’ a hypothetical… say you’ve quit your in-house job and set up an insurgent communications and engagement agency called Openlook.

Your might have a narrative a bit like this:

After working long hours supporting colleagues, organisations and my local community through major improvement projects, a global pandemic and massive capital investment campaigns it was time for a change.

I found a new perspective on the importance of communications and engagement, especially given the economic and social challenges we face in today’s uncertain world.

I want to be able to choose who I work with based on my values and the potential positive impact of their work.

My experience of working with agencies hasn’t always been positive. Often they take their skills, insight and tools with them when they leave and there’s no lasting success. Sometimes things actually get worse in the long-run because morale dips when improvements can’t be sustained.

That’s why I founded Openlook. To work with values-lead organisations making a positive contribution to people’s lives. Openlook prides itself on leaving its knowledge, skills and tools behind when its work is done. We want to create communications that deliver meaningful and lasting improvement.

Now, your key messages exist to support this narrative. If you were announcing your new agency in trade media you might come up with some key messages like this:

• Openlook is the only communications and engagement agency that deliberately leaves its knowledge, skills and tools behind when its work is done. We believe in clear communication for lasting impact.
• Openlook was founded to work with values-led organisations whose work has a positive impact on people’s lives.
• We’ve led major campaigns, overhauled communications and engagement strategies and delivered once-in-a-generation capital investment for our clients in the public and private sectors.

So what?

Narrative is your story and that doesn’t change. Key messages always link to your narrative but they change to reflect the context.

If you’re renewing your organisational strategy or developing a new communications and engagement strategy then odds are you’ll be having A LOT of conversations about narrative.

It’s vitally important that senior leaders understand the difference between narrative and key messages.

Clearview is expert at developing strategy, narrative and messaging that delivers meaningful, lasting impact.

Get in touch to see how we can help you tell stories that stick.