This is the second time in a month I’ve come across the connection between PR and storytelling. Earlier in the month, at the IABC conference, master storyteller Salman Rushdie told communicators never to underestimate the power of storytelling in their jobs.

In the recent edition of CW Bulletin, the online magazine of Communication World (for IABC members only) Robbie Vorhaus observes (in an article titled “Storytelling and PR: A Novel Way of Telling Your Tale.” that PR is a form of classic storytelling, refined for business.

“It is pure non-fiction—truth—told in the exact same context as any other story form, such as movies, novels, advertising and journalism. Essentially, storytelling, and that includes PR, is having a point of view or theme, focusing on one person or thing (the hero) and taking your audience on that hero’s journey through trials and tribulations to arrive at some new point. It doesn’t matter if you’re promoting a country, company, product, person or cause; if you tell the story with the same structure, elements, archetypes and path of all great stories, your message will be heard and acted on. And, in business, whoever tells the best story wins.”

It’s so refreshing to hear this, in a market-saturated world where we have almost been made to believe that “whoever CRAFTS the best story wins.”

Asked where does one acquire storytelling skills, Vorhaus advises:

”First, stop trying to sell. Learn how to engage an audience, not manipulate it…”