chief storyteller

A chief storyteller is an employee of an organization tasked with wording the company's mission, history and messages about their brand, also known as their story, as they want it to be heard internally and externally. The internet sparked the growth of this job title as brands suddenly needed a consistent message across all platforms and customer perception began to play a larger part in company success. Individuals selected for these positions are often previously writers of fiction.

Similar to the role of an author, it is the job of a chief storyteller to reach the intended audience with messages that are evocative of emotion as well as company intent. Typical duties of the chief storyteller include increasing employee and customer engagement, tailoring content towards different strategic goals, translating executive vision statements into easily consumable material, putting together clear narratives and measuring the success of each story.

The types of stories that chief storytellers are responsible for can range in size and priority. Smaller stories are typically conventional forms of content marketing such as brand descriptions, social media posts, company updates and newsletters. Larger stories have a greater focus on company strategy as a whole and can include portraying the company mission, purpose, corporate culture and values.

Previously, rather than having an official job position of chief storyteller, the CEO would often be given the role of conveying a company's story. However, a number of highly successful enterprise companies, such as Microsoft and Nike, began to employ a chief storyteller as a means to craft messages that convey what they desire, causing other organizations to follow suit.