{"id":70135,"date":"2017-04-25T10:32:58","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T09:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/insight\/can-samsung-ostrich-teach-us-storytelling\/"},"modified":"2025-03-07T17:21:13","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T17:21:13","slug":"can-samsung-ostrich-teach-us-storytelling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/can-samsung-ostrich-teach-us-storytelling\/","title":{"rendered":"What can the Samsung ostrich teach us about storytelling?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Have you seen Samsung\u2019s advert with the ostrich? If not you\u2019re in for a treat.<\/strong><br \/>\nSamsung has brought us one of the most adorable adverts of the 21<sup>st<\/sup> century, and that is no overstatement. It is lush. An ostrich wanders away from its flock and starts pecking at food on a table before getting its head stuck in a virtual reality headset. What does it see? Clouds and clouds, like it\u2019s tumbling through the start of the Studiocanal ad. Despite its natural limitations, it starts trying to fly and after a few failed attempts (aww), it triumphs as the first ever ostrich to get more than a foot off the ground.<br \/>\nIt\u2019s impossible not to be charmed by this advert. It\u2019s engaging, emotive and inspirational. And it\u2019s all down to the clever storytelling. In fact, the storytelling is so good that it deserved a blog from us. *wink face*<br \/>\n<strong>Lessons learned <\/strong><br \/>\nSamsung\u2019s masterpiece teaches us a lot about storytelling, but interestingly nothing new. It succeeds simply by doing the basics well.<br \/>\nIf you dust off your English books from school, you\u2019ll probably find a few handy theories from Aristotle and Freytag about what makes a good story. What our old pals taught us is still as relevant then as it is today.<br \/>\n<strong>Aristotle started it<\/strong><br \/>\nI don\u2019t want to bore you by going back through old theories, but this one is important and you can see every bit of it in the ostrich ad.<br \/>\nAristotle said that all good stories (well, tragedies, but stick with me) must have six elements:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Plot \u2013 What happens (obviously)<\/li>\n<li>Character \u2013 The protagonist who must have personality<\/li>\n<li>Thought &#8211; Universal truths shown through the action<\/li>\n<li>Dialogue \u2013 Conversations and monologues that sum up the theme of the story<\/li>\n<li>Music \u2013 Drama created by background music<\/li>\n<li>Spectacle \u2013 Staging and artistic visuals<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Confused? Let\u2019s look back to the ostrich to play out Aristotle\u2019s genius. I\u2019ve already told you the plot, so you can tick that one off. The ostrich is the protagonist, and a great one, with a big, fearless and adventurous personality. At risk of sounding like a broken record, the ostrich teaches us that \u2018if at first you don\u2019t succeed, try, try again\u2019 \u2013 there\u2019s your universal truth. Dialogue? Okay, no manic squawking occurs but we do hear Elton John\u2019s \u2018Rocket man\u2019, which we can assume is what the ostrich is singing in its head, right? That\u2019s also a double whammy. Yes, you guessed it, it\u2019s the music too, bringing an uplifting, inspirational tone to the advert. Then the spectacle has to be the ostrich finally flying with its shadow cast on the ground. You really don\u2019t see that every day, and it is beautifully shown.<br \/>\nSee, it\u2019s all there.<br \/>\n<strong>Freytag chimes in\u2026<\/strong><br \/>\nDramatic structure is another important theory of storytelling which is a bit easier to follow than old Aristotle. It\u2019s basically the idea that all good stories should have more than a start, middle and end \u2013 they should have five stages: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement. Meaning in plain English, a setting that turns into a problem which gets worse and hits a climax, then gets sorted and concludes. What a joyous tale. You can see this everywhere in all your favourite books and films. Yes, even Bridget Jones, Notting Hill, Finding Nemo &#8211; all the greats.<br \/>\nIn the ostrich advert, he is seen living a relatively bleak life in a barren African savannah. The conflict comes when he finds the virtual reality headset and starts trying to fly \u2013 it\u2019s heart-wrenching watching the poor thing fall flat on its beak. Then he overcomes the difficulty and manages to fly to freedom, which stands out as the climax of the story, all with the added crescendo of Elton John. Then Samsung winds things down with the line, \u2018We make what can\u2019t be made\u2019 in the middle of the screen, and concludes the story with \u2018so you can do what can\u2019t be done\u2019.<br \/>\nIt draws us in, fixates us then ends on an uplifting note. It really feels like a complete tale, and we simply wouldn\u2019t have felt as intrigued if we only saw the ostrich flying with the two lines.<br \/>\n<strong>Anything to add?<\/strong><br \/>\nThe only thing we would add to the vital ingredients for good stories is relevance. There has to be something that rings true with your audience. For the ostrich, it\u2019s virtual reality, linking our world with the ostrich\u2019s.<br \/>\nStuck trying to tell your story? Start with your audience \u2013 what they are currently interacting with, talking about and just generally feeling.<br \/>\n<strong>More than just a buzzword<\/strong><br \/>\nHopefully by now you\u2019re convinced that storytelling is more than just a marketing buzzword. But if you need a bit more encouragement, just imagine what could happen to a beauty brand if it created an advert with narrative. It would probably be a bit more engaging than those we currently see &#8211; \u2018this mascara gives you better-looking eyelashes\u2019, and \u2018look at this beautiful model, she applies pink lipstick and gets pink lips\u2019. Food for thought\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you seen Samsung\u2019s advert with the ostrich? If not you\u2019re in for a treat. Samsung has brought us one of the most adorable adverts of the 21st century, and that is no overstatement. It is lush. An ostrich wanders away from its flock and starts pecking at food on a table before getting its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[314],"tags":[460,486],"class_list":["post-70135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-copywriting-us","tag-copywriting-us","tag-storytelling-us"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What can the Samsung ostrich teach us about storytelling? - Stratton Craig - Global Copywriting &amp; Content Marketing Agency<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Have you seen the Samsung ostrich advert? If not you&#039;re in for a treat. 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