Best 11 digital storytelling examples (2024)

In a world of short attention spans and endless digital noise, standing out is a must.
Telling a story can help you to engage with your audience. Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to convey information and evoke emotions.

But how do you build impactful stories in today’s digital world? It’s important to understand the ideas and techniques used behind digital storytelling, to be able to create authentic digital stories yourself. 

In this article we’ll dive into the world of digital storytelling by analysing the most impactful digital experiences. Get inspired and see how you can create content that truly connects with your audience. 

What do we mean with digital storytelling, exactly? 

Digital storytelling refers to the way you tell a narrative or story by using digital media such as video, audio, images, text and interactive elements. It involves a combination of various multimedia tools to create a more engaging and immersive experience. 

Key is the use of technology to tell stories and therefore digital storytelling can take many forms. You can think of short video documentaries and interactive websites, but also multimedia presentations or social media content like a Tweet.

Now you understand the concept, you might wonder why you would want to invest time in digital storytelling for your business. 

Why you want to use digital storytelling for your business

Did you know that people see up to 10,000 ads each day? Attention spans are short. Our brains are becoming better at screening through content.

Storytelling has been used for thousands of years. Now 65% of our daily conversations are based on storytelling and therefore, the human brains are more engaged by storytelling. 

The importance of storytelling keeps growing with new developments like the disappearance of third-party cookies. This means, you have less opportunities to interact with your potential customer and therefore you should make the moments count. 

The benefits of storytelling for businesses

If you want to grow your business, storytelling is the way to go. When done correctly, you can boost results significantly. 

• Increase engagement 
• Increase reach 
• Increase conversions and ROI
• Enhance the learning experience 
• Build brand awareness and loyalty

How to use digital storytelling for your business

There are plenty of ways to implement digital storytelling for your business. Let’s have a look at some of the most effective use cases. 

Building brand awareness

Storytelling can be used to build brand awareness by creating a story that resonates with customers and motivates them to take action. Engaging narratives help to share values, your mission and unique qualities that establish a strong and memorable brand. 

Employer branding

The need for strong employer brands is greater than ever with a tight labour market. Storytelling can help showcase a company culture and the experiences of employees to attract new top talent.

Part of employer branding is the candidate journey. Both can strengthen each other to attract and keep the right talent. Storytelling is often used as a foundation for both. 

Product promotion

Storytelling can also be used to promote specific products or services. Imagine building a story around a new product launch. It helps to demonstrate its value and benefits in an engaging way. People will resonate with the story which makes them more likely to buy. 

Education and learning

Interactive storytelling can benefit schools and universities as well. They can build engaging educational content to make learning more effective and enjoyable. But that’s not all. Storytelling can also help to promote universities and attract new top students.

Digital storytelling can be applied in many more various contexts to achieve objectives. The diversity of it makes storytelling a valuable tool for any type of business. 

The elements of a good digital story

Every compelling narrative shares a common thread. It exists out of essential elements that serve as the foundation. 

Clear message and purpose  

A clear and compelling story is the foundation of any story. What message do you want to share and why is that important? You need to be able to share the purpose of your story.

Your brand can be central in your narrative, but your audience needs to be able to resonate with it. The focus should always be on your audience in the end. 

Compelling content

A strong story contains compelling content. Don’t just tell the story, make it engaging to keep the audience interested. Using a combination of text, images, video, audio or interactive elements.

Audience-centered 

Stories should be relatable and resonate to your audience interests, needs and preferences. A technique often used to make storytelling audience-centered is ‘The Hero’s Journey’. Strong stories always include a hero and this hero moves through a cycle of predictable stages.

Visually appealing

The reception of a story is heavily influenced by the choice of visuals. These visual elements can be seen as tools to strengthen the storyline. High quality images, graphics and videos  need to be in line with the narrative's mood and substance.

Interactive and engaging

The possibilities of digital media are endless. New technologies arise and offer new ways to make stories even more appealing and engaging. The narrative of the story creates the experience, but interactive elements help your audience to discover the information at their own pace.

Include features such as clickable links, quizzes, polls, animations, gamification and even AR or VR to engage your audience and encourage them to participate. 

On brand

You can implement all the fundamentals of a strong story, but when it’s not on brand, it won’t be an effective way to reach your potential customers. Your buyers care more than ever about what brands they buy from. The closer you stick to your brand values, the more effective your storytelling will be.

Did you know that 64% of consumers want brands to connect with them? Even within the B2B playing field, the buyer journey has changed. Millennials are already part of the DMU and soon Gen Z will be added on top of that. This digital native audience actively seeks connections and prefers purchasing from brands they resonate with.

The 11 best digital storytelling examples right now

Now you know what elements are part of great digital storytelling. Let’s have a look at some of the best practices in the playing field and specify why they specifically did a good job. 

AirBnB - Community storytelling

AirBnB successfully lets its community tell the stories. The brand wants to create a diverse and inclusive global community where people can feel at home wherever they are. It now uses the mantra ‘belong anywhere’. 

That mantra breathes through all of their channels by sharing the stories of guests and hosts on their socials, website and an AirBnB magazine. This is a great way to engage with your audience as the stories are authentic and fully in line with the brand.

Schiphol Airport - The Waiting Games

Going on a holiday should be a positive experience. Waiting at airports however, is often a very boring and therefore negative experience. The Royal Schiphol group wants to become Europe’s preferred airport for passengers, airlines and logistics service providers.

To facilitate this, they’ve started to try out the potential of QR code experiences in their displays. Three mini games were created and presented at the gates.

The results don’t lie! Almost 3,000 QR codes were scanned in the first two weeks and a 90% engagement rate was achieved. Using QR codes and gamification increases the engagement of the users, which reinforces the connection with the brand.

Ikea - Ikea Kreative 

Ikea launched Ikea Kreative in 2022. By launching this new AI-technology the brand wants to make home design easier and accessible for many.

The great part of Ikea Kreative is the fact that Ikea did research among their customers and understood perfectly that they want to feel good about their home, but don’t know how to make it happen. 

The launch of this new technology is a great example of digital storytelling as it aligns with the brand’s values and vision. Ikea wants to ‘create a better everyday life for many people’.

NHL - Campus tour

Grabbing the attention of student’s is incredibly hard. With an attention span of only 8 seconds, old brochures or dull landing pages are not going to cut it anymore.  

Making a memorable first impression is crucial to attract new top students. NHL, a Dutch university that’s on a mission to work on global innovation, did a great job in making the best first impression. The university inspired potential students by implementing an interactive campus tour in collaboration with Intractive. 

Especially for universities it’s incredibly hard to make it to the shortlist of students to visit a campus. Interactive campus tours can therefore make a huge difference and will soon become the standard, we expect.

Film Board of Canada - Bear71

This next example is a famous one and therefore can’t be left out. Bear71 is an interactive web documentary that followed a female grizzly bear for 8 years.

It highlights how our growing dependence on technology divorces us from nature, even while allowing us to keep closer tabs on it. Bear71 is a great example of digital storytelling as it evokes emotion by showcasing the story of a bear who gets traumatised by the interactions with the human world. 

The web documentary used outdated technology that was not supported by browsers anymore. The National Film Board of Canada searched for new ways to make the story more innovative and upgraded to WebVR as a new platform. 

One Tree Planted - Global Forest Watch

One Tree Planted is a non-profit organisation focused on global reforestation. The company wants to make it simple for anyone to help the environment. The company is planting trees to make a positive social impact around the world.

‍The global forest watch is part of their website to showcase the deforestation in the world. It’s an interactive map that showcases the impact of planting trees together.

By combining the global forest watch with stories throughout their website and social media channels they are building an emotional connection and community feeling. This increases the chance of receiving more support.

Sephora - Virtual Artist

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Sephora’s Virtual Artist is a great example of implementing AR to bring the offline experience of the beauty brand alive in the digital world.

The Virtual Artist can be used in the app and offers users the ability to try on products, get inspired by looks created by Sephora, save the looks but also receive tutorials to learn how to apply make-up. 

AR is just part of the full digital experience Sephora wants to bring to its customers. The brand wants to “cultivate innovation, creativity, nonconformity and freedom to experiment” and with the Virtual Artist this all comes alive. 

Spotify - Wrapped

Spotify takes digital storytelling to a next level by using data to personalise experiences. If you’re using Spotify frequently, you probably have received a Spotify Wrapped overview yourself as well.

Spotify Wrapped is a series of personalised insights based on listening behaviour to tell the story of the year. Have you thought about the best part already? Users are sharing those stories and with that Spotify increases reach drastically. 

The Lekker  Company - Bringing the brand alive

What do you do when people fall in love with your brand story, but you can’t share that story very easily offline? The answer is easy, use QR code experiences on product packaging.
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The Lekker Company was founded because of frustrations about cosmetics labels and ingredients. As a result of that, they’ve created cosmetics with safe, edible ingredients to make sure your skin stays healthy too. 

We might be biassed, but we love how The Lekker Company implemented digital storytelling in the offline world to spread awareness and create a brand preference. 

Neal Agarwal - The Deep Sea

This next example is not created by a brand, but it definitely deserves a spot on the list. It’s a scrolling deep-dive into ocean life that adds facts about ocean creatures.

Neal Agarwal is the designer of ‘The Deep Sea’. He’s a designer and computer engineer with an interest in creating interactive websites that combine storytelling, education and technology.

This example is great due to its simplicity as well. You just have to keep scrolling right? More interactive websites created by Neal can be found on his website.

Amsterdam Science Park - Attracting new business

The next example showcases that any type of business can benefit from storytelling. Amsterdam Science Park is a European hub for digital innovation and sustainability. The hotspot combines research, education and entrepreneurship.

It’s hard to evaluate and understand the value of the park, without experiencing it yourself. Therefore, they’ve set up a virtual interactive tour with Intractive with the main goal to attract new business.

The tour shows the potential of choosing the innovative hotspot as a base. This virtual tour helps in positioning their brand, showcase the value and community online.

Digital storytelling keeps evolving quickly. New technologies and developments arise. This also makes it easier for yourself to implement storytelling for your business.

How to implement powerful interactive digital storytelling yourself

Storytelling will help you to set yourself apart from competitors and other digital ‘noise’. Do you want to increase results? Well, then let’s get this party started! It doesn’t have to be difficult. 

5 simple steps to get started with digital storytelling

Here’s a step-by-step guide to implement it for your business. 

1. Identify your audience: Understand your audience to the fullest. What are their interests? The pain points you address and the reasons you're addressing them with your business can be great starting points.
2. Define your message: Clearly define what message you want to communicate. It should be in line with your brand values.
3. Craft a compelling story: Define the hero’s journey and develop a story that evokes emotion. 
4. Choose the right platform: Determine how you want to bring your story alive and on what platforms you’ll be sharing it. 
5. Use different media: Combine images, videos, interactive content like quizzes and polls or even AR and VR to bring your story alive. 

Need help bringing your story to life? At Intractive we enable you to easily build interactive stories that literally come to life through gamification. We help you to make users the hero of your story which turns them into leads, customers and brand ambassadors. Want to know more? Book a free demo or check out our product tour.