The Story or the Storyteller: A Timeless Debate

Does trust begin with the story or the storyteller? I’d argue they should be on equal footing at the start.

For example, I can shout out loud in a quiet restaurant and make people aware of me. But who they think I am and what I shout are equally important factors in whether people behave the way I desire.

If I’m wearing a badge and uniform, people make certain assumptions. So, when I yell for everyone to follow me in a crowded restaurant, everyone follows. (In marketing terms, the conversion rate is higher.)

But the outcome will be much different if people can’t discern who I am or if I’m wearing a badge and uniform but shouting incoherent things.

The ‘authentic’ marketing storyteller

Lately, brands increasingly prioritize people as the voice (storytellers) of their value.

Consider the rise of influencer marketing, which relies on people (internal or external to the brand) to gain access and build trust with audiences. Recent Ogilvy research found that 75% of B2B marketers are already utilizing influencers, and most of those who don’t say they plan to start soon.

Then there’s the founder-led marketing trend (that name is new, but the practice isn’t), which activates founders or senior leaders to create a more personal bond with potential customers.

And finally, there’s the increased pressure (even in large companies) for senior leaders to comment on and communicate their take on social and cultural issues. The 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer found that 62% of respondents expect CEOs to communicate about societal changes, not just those occurring in their business.      

As a result, many marketers focus on “authenticity” these days.

But, if trust in the storyteller starts on equal footing with the story itself, we’d be better off using words such as “trust,” “honesty,” or “transparency.”

Why? Well, because the primary definition of “authentic” is simply “of undisputed origin; genuine,” as in an authentic Andy Warhol painting. Other definitions include “accurate or reliable” or “based on facts,” as in an authentic depiction of that historic event.

So, you can be an authentic jerk (reliably unkind, mean, and untrustworthy). And you can be an authentic liar (one of undisputed origin).

In short, your brand (and its storytellers) can be authentic and distrusted.

Authentically distrusted

I recently spoke with a team at a large, well-known tech brand that’s trying to tell a new story through its blog and social media. The company’s new CEO is the lead thought leader and storyteller, and the team is having a heck of a time getting anyone to listen.

Comment after comment and poll after poll told them the same thing: The audience didn’t trust the brand to tell that story because they didn’t know this CEO or believe in his depth of knowledge.

It wasn’t that they questioned his authenticity or motive — they just didn’t trust him yet.  

You can see this mistake happening across several founder-led initiatives. For example, OpenAI has used CEO Sam Altman and CTO Mira Murati to tell the generative AI story. It’s safe to say they’ve failed at building the trust the brand needs to broaden its audiences. The company seems to now be on its back foot, trying to regain trust — even with its own employees. 

You can see the same challenges with Tesla/SpaceX CEO and X owner/CTO Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the struggling side of trust.

On the other side, you have Canva CEO Melanie Perkins, Spanx founder Sara Blakely, and 37Signals CEO Jason Fried.

The primary challenge for founders and influencers who struggle with trust isn’t authenticity, it’s belief in the storyteller. The new CEO at the tech brand hadn’t earned his way to “trusted storyteller” status. And the leaders at OpenAI seem incapable of telling a consistently trustworthy story.

Evolving trustworthiness

So, wait a minute. Doesn’t this seem like a catch-22? If the storyteller must earn the trust of an audience before they can tell a new story, how do they do that without actually telling the story?

Does that mean a brand can never evolve into new stories or introduce new storytellers? No, of course not.

The cause of failure for these brands isn’t that they’re trying something new. It’s thinking of influencer- or founder-led approaches as a shortcut to building customer trust. The calculus seems to be: “We have to develop trust quickly, so a warm, human storyteller should be the star instead of the cold, corporate brand.”

But trust and storytelling don’t work that way.

To succeed, you have to do one of two things.

The first option is to slowly and purposely evolve the story (with or without new storytellers) to ease audiences into it. Consider the years-long journey Mattel took with Barbie, slowly addressing the toy’s disconnect with modern audiences before tapping new storytellers (Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie) to tell a new and different story.   

The second is to suffer the distrust of a large portion of a potential or existing audience as the storytellers prove themselves trustworthy to those who choose to give them a chance. Like it or not (I and many others didn’t), Toys “R” Us used OpenAI technology as the storyteller in a controversial ad. The brand has since said it’s moving ahead with AI as the storyteller despite unfavorable reactions. 

The tech brand I mentioned earlier created incredible content for the CEO as honest, passionate, and true stories told in a humorous way. But because the team was telling these stories through the mouth of their new, not-well-known CEO, they might as well have been CNN trying to launch a streaming service. Nobody was willing to give that a chance.

The answer for them? One experiment they’re trying is to break the content away from the corporate voice and brand. Creating a separate content brand gives them the opportunity to build a trusted voice (and an engaged audience) and bring the CEO along for the ride. 

They’re also pairing the CEO with other influencers to build his bona fides in that industry. They’re easing their audience into realizing that their brand (and its CEO) is behind this new story.

The author John Maxwell once wrote, “People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.”

Is his quote at odds with my position that they’re equals? I don’t think so.

The story creates the value and the trust. But if your audience doesn’t believe in the storyteller, it’s so much harder to make the story worth telling.

It’s your story. Tell it well.