This project began from a research on storytelling conducted by Esther Bouw and Helma Wijnand-Schut –two researchers from InHolland Hogeschool– and subsequently developed into the aim of making this academic effort tangible for creative industries. After having made a contact with Dancetour –a dance event and EDM DJ contest that takes place in 12 different cities in The Netherlands– the researchers found in the Amsterdam MediaLab Visual Storytelling Team the partner needed for the design of the process that will turn this academic research into a usable output. In other words, the question we were asked to answer is: how can storytelling be used to promote the young DJs that are trying to make it into the Dutch dance scene?
Visual storytelling has become a buzzword in the realm of advertising and branding during the recent years. As shown by a research conducted by Facebook, and based on a previous one by Cisco, this can be linked to the increased use of social media platforms and digital mobile devices designed to render the user experience gradually more visual. The universality of this new “visual language” enhances the efficacy of visual contents in triggering engagement with different audiences, offering new areas of opportunities in personal and business communication.
But, what is visual storytelling? How is it used by non-professionals such as the young DJs participating to the Dancetour DJ Clash? How can it be improved? And eventually, how can visual storytelling be applied to the promotion of these DJs? These are some of the questions to which our team is supposed to answer by January 2016, eventually coming up with a tangible output.
Given that the topic is visual storytelling, the approach toward the design process should be visual as well. Hence, the very early stage of our research process consisted in the realisation of a short user scene video, a visual representation of the DJs which are supposed to benefit from our work.
The following step was the realisation of a stakeholders map, in order to figure out roles and relationships between the stakeholder involved, and the definition of the three main areas of the preliminary research: (visual) storytelling, (user) engagement and (personal) branding. To narrow down the focus of our work, these macro areas were initially taken on according to their general meaning, and later on taken into consideration relatively to the goal of our project. In fact, if storytelling has its rules, visual storytelling has its specific grammar, according to the media in which is used. The same applies to online engagement – which is different from the online one – and the personal branding, which is what DJs need, considered that the product they sell is themselves and their own live performances. A summary of this first research step was drafted in form of a written insights and reports, and followed by a mind map designed using Prezi.
The difference between the two is that the first includes definitions, stats and academic considerations on the three main area of research, the second maps the development of the stakeholders map, as well as successful case studies of visual storytelling, disruptive corporate campaign concepts, DJs personal branding and persuasive communication techniques based on visuals.
What appeared crystal clear was that to transform the previous research into a useful input for the design stage, it was necessary to filter the vast literature we have on visual storytelling, and to proceed with the analysis of selected case studies to test the theoretical approach we would like to use to shape our output. Given that the 16 finalists of the Dancetour DJ Clash had not been announced till the day after the translate session, the subsequent analysis of our sample was planned, opting for an approach that would mix aesthetic and quantitative aspects of the digital DJs’ communication.
All the material related to this post should be intended as an update on the research process, not as a report ready for publication.