The Power of a Good Story, Part 1

Today’s an exciting day for me!

I am putting the final touches on a big speaking engagement tonight – my first as an independent consultant.  The talk is called: “The Power of a Good Story”, and I’ll be speaking about the importance of incorporating strong storytelling into your marketing message.

Sure, I’ve been a little nervous, BUT when my clock radio alarm went off this morning, I awoke to a story about the power of story telling and social media in marketing… how’s that for a good omen?

Anyways, I figure this will make for an appropriate first blog topic, so let me start by telling you a story I LOVE to tell……..

ONCE UPON A TIME there was a little town in the middle of the Canadian prairies that was known for having the largest grain storage capacity in the British Empire.  This fact, while a source of great pride to local residents, was not a major draw for out-of-town visitors.

One day a television show began to air, and as the show gained popularity, locals began noticing more and more people coming into the community to have their pictures taken by the town’s welcome sign.  They also began to notice that the local sports teams began to be teased about the pointiness of their ears…. and so a story began.

The town I’m talking about is Vulcan, Alberta, and the television show that started it all is Star Trek.

Vulcan’s story grew from the coincidence that one of Star Trek’s most popular characters, Mr. Spock, came from a planet that shared the town’s name, and from the fact that Star Trek became a pop-culture phenomenon that has lasted over 40 years.  Vulcan’s history of associating itself with Star Trek slowly evolved and expanded to include annual Star Trek festivals, unveiling a large iconic starship sculpture and opening the doors to a very unique, space-themed tourist information centre – the Vulcan Tourism & Trek Station, in 1998.

These in their own rights made for an interesting story, and people who were passing through town would stop at the Trek Station to stretch their legs.  They would often come in to pick up a postcard and a pair of souvenir Vulcan Ears, take a picture by the starship and a quick look around town, before carrying on in their journeys.  Vulcan was most often a fun stopover point, rather than a final destination.

One day it was announced that a new Star Trek movie was going to be made, and it was anticipated to be a Hollywood blockbuster.

The Vulcan Tourism Department thought: Wouldn’t it be fun to try to bring a bit of Hollywood glamour to town by asking to host the world premiere of this new movie.  This was a pretty ambitious dream, considering the town doesn’t have a movie theatre, BUT as soon as word began to spread out about the little town’s aspiration, the story took off.

Thanks to a very successful Facebook group called: “Help Bring Spock Home to Vulcan, Alberta” and an engaging media campaign, the story about Vulcan’s quest was picked up by local, regional, national and international media several times throughout the course of the 18 month campaign.

Eventually the film’s promoters took notice and began to consider the idea.

Vulcan even received a celebrity endorsement from it’s favourite fictitious son, Mr. Spock, when Leonard Nimoy contacted the tourism department to personally lend his voice in support of the dream.

Ultimately, Star Trek did not open in Vulcan; however, the studio did arrange for a special advance screening of the film, and a celebrity appearance by Canadian Actor Bruce Greenwood (who played Captain Pike in the film), for 300 Vulcan residents at a theatre in Calgary.

On the evening of the event, six  busloads of Vulcans, dressed in their finest Star Trek regalia (including pointy Ears), arrived in Calgary.   They were greeted by media from all over North America, in true Hollywood papparazzi style, to a wall of camera flashes and video recorders…. it was truly a night to remember.  (You can see photos of the big day on the Vulcan Tourism Photo Gallery)

THE POWER OF THE STORY of Vulcan’s quest to host a Hollywood style movie premiere speaks for itself when one looks at the impact it had on visitor statistics.  Between 2007 and 2009, as the story unfolded, the Vulcan Tourism Centre logged a 68% increase in visitors through it’s doors – in hard numbers that counted for more than 9,500 additional visitors.

More notably, many more of these visitors were choosing Vulcan as their destination, rather than simply seeing the community as a stopover point; and all of this was accomplished without significant increases to the town’s marketing budget.

The End (or is it??)

In the interest of brevity, I’m going to wrap up this part of my story telling here.  Next time, I’ll pick up where I left off, and share with you my thoughts on what made Vulcan’s story so great.

Meanwhile, may I be so bold as to sign off saying:

Live Long and Prosper!

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(that’ s my version of a Vulcan emoticon – lol)

Tags: Alberta, Bruce Greenwood, Calgary, facebook, Leonard Nimoy, marketing, movie, social media, Spock, Star Trek, storytelling, tourism, Vulcan