i

PRAISE FOR DATA STORYTELLING IN MARKETING

‘Every marketer should include this book in their toolkit to future

proof their storytelling skills and maximize the advantage of data-
driven marketing.’
Fiona Sweeney, veteran marketer and consultant, Women in Data®

‘Data Storytelling in Marketing is truly a how-to guide for navigating

the complex intersection of data analysis and compelling storytelling.
The book shines with its pragmatism, providing a roadmap from the
inception to the execution of a great data-based story, laden with
examples, real-world case studies, dos and don’ts and insights from
industry experts. This approach demystifies data storytelling, making
the subject matter accessible and actionable for anyone looking to
leverage the power of data in their narratives.’
Julio Franco, Chief Customer Officer, Zappi

‘Details how to use the power of data in crafting powerful narratives

and stories adapted to your target audiences. Through practical
models and case studies, the book demonstrates how insights origi-
nating from various datasets can be combined with know-how and
sense-making to create differentiation and win in the marketplace.’
Patrick Ubezio, Strategy, Novartis Pharmaceuticals

‘If your role involves extracting insight from data, then this book is
essential. It offers a masterclass in how to transform data from find-
ings to meaningful insight and persuasive stories. What’s more
important is that the frameworks shared will help you craft stories
that make people pay attention and take action. In a world where
data storytelling is becoming more important, this book is a breath of
fresh air on how not to rely on bad visualizations that can be inter-
preted in different ways and to focus on the story that matters in your
data.’
Dr Jillian Ney, digital anthropologist and Founder of The Social Intelligence Lab
ii

‘Stories have power for humans and can be more powerful with data
behind them. This book helps the reader understand how to bring
data storytelling to the marketing world, where stories and thoughts
are a part of life. Check it out if you are wanting to grow in your
marketing abilities.’
Jordan Morrow, Senior Vice President of Data and AI Transformation, AgileOne

‘I’ve found my secret weapon in Data Storytelling in Marketing.

Caroline Florence’s case studies and cheat sheets – packed with
insightful and practical dos and don’ts – have become my blueprint
for crafting stories that truly resonate. This book is your roadmap to
storytelling that engages and persuades.’
Madelaine Oppert, Senior Marketing Manager, iResearch Services
 iii

Data Storytelling in Marketing

How to tell persuasive stories through data

Caroline Florence
iv

Publisher’s note
Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this book is
accurate at the time of going to press, and the publishers and author cannot accept
responsibility for any errors or omissions, however caused. No responsibility for loss or
damage occasioned to any person acting, or refraining from action, as a result of the material
in this publication can be accepted by the editor, the publisher or the author.

First published in Great Britain and the United States in 2024 by Kogan Page Limited

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as
permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be
reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in
writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms
and licences issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be
sent to the publishers at the undermentioned addresses:

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London New York, NY 10018
EC1V 3RS USA
United Kingdom

www.koganpage.com

Kogan Page books are printed on paper from sustainable forests.

© Caroline Florence, 2024

The right of Caroline Florence to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

ISBNs
Hardback 978 1 3986 1505 2
Paperback 978 1 3986 1503 8
Ebook 978 1 3986 1504 5

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Florence, Caroline, author.
Title: Data storytelling in marketing: how to tell persuasive stories
through data / Caroline Florence.
Description: London, United Kingdom; New York, NY: Kogan Page, 2024. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2024012693 (print) | LCCN 2024012694 (ebook) | ISBN
9781398615038 (paperback) | ISBN 9781398615052 (hardback) | ISBN
9781398615052 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Marketing – Data processing. | Customer
relations–Management–Data processing. | Quantitative research.
Classification: LCC HF5415.125 .F64 2024 (print) | LCC HF5415.125 (ebook)
| DDC 658.8/340285–dc23/eng/20240402
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024012693
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Typeset by Integra Software Services, Pondicherry

Print production managed by Jellyfish
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
 v

For my greatest champions – Ryan, Euan and Isaac.

Who never once complained when I said ‘I can’t right now,
I just need to finish this chapter!’
A huge, big thank you.
vi

THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK

 vii

CONTENTS

List of figures xi
About the author xiii
List of contributors xv
Foreword xix
Preface: My data storytelling journey xxi
Acknowledgements xxv

Introduction: The role of data storytelling as part of the

marketing toolkit 1

PART ONE
Why data storytelling is essential for modern
marketing

1 The importance of data in persuasive storytelling – past,

present and future 21
The role of data in persuasive storytelling 22
How data storytelling has advanced in the 21st century 27
The impact of AI and other innovations 31
References 39

2 The impact of data storytelling on marketing outcomes 41

The role of data storytelling in creating transformative
marketing outcomes 41
How data storytelling can be used to persuade others to
support the marketing plan 47
The benefits of improving data storytelling 56
References 60
viii Contents

3 The status quo and what needs to change 61

The real-world barriers to developing great data stories 61
Why analytical and data literacy skills matter 74
The priority data storytelling skills for modern marketers 77
References 81

PART TWO
How to develop great data stories

4 Defining great data storytelling 85

The 5Rs roadmap to a great data story 85
The benefits of the 5Rs roadmap 90
How to use the 5Rs roadmap 91

5 How to plan a relevant data story 93

The power of a relevant data story 93
The pitfalls to avoid when planning your data story 96
The three steps to best practice 98
Putting into practice 114
References 117

6 How to discover a robust data story 119

The power of a robust data story 119
The pitfalls to avoid when discovering your data story 122
The three steps to best practice 126
Putting into practice 138
References 139

7 How to build a refined data story 141

The power of a refined data story 141
The pitfalls to avoid when building your data story 144
The three steps to best practice 148
Putting into practice 161
References 163
 Contents ix

8 How to create a relatable data story 165

The power of a relatable data story 165
The pitfalls to avoid when creating your data story 168
The three steps to best practice 171
Putting into practice 187
References 191

9 How to execute a remarkable data story 193

The power of a remarkable data story 193
The pitfalls to avoid when executing your data story 197
The three steps to best practice 199
Putting into practice 219
References 220

PART THREE
Becoming a data storytelling champion

10 The mindset and ways of working for a data storytelling

champion 223
How to make data storytelling stick 223
What makes a data storytelling champion 226
The mindset and ways of working to build a data storytelling
culture 228
References 239

11 Streamlining your data storytelling ways of working 241

How to run an effective data storytelling session 241
How to leverage data storytelling shortcuts 244
How to continuously improve data storytelling capabilities 256

12 What next? 259

A summary of the key data storytelling actions 259
Words of advice 261
Finding further inspiration 261
A final word 262

Index 263
x

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 xi

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 0.1 The definition of an actionable insight 5

Figure 0.2 The difference between data reporting and data
storytelling 8
Figure 1.1 The three Post-It notes challenge 25
Figure 1.2 Human vs machine? Turning WIN’s data into
stories 34
Figure 4.1 The 5Rs roadmap 86
Figure 5.1 Three components of a killer question 110
Figure 6.1 Example 5 whys 137
Figure 7.1 The data story sweet spot 157
Figure 7.2 The overlap between SCQA and Freytag’s
dramatic arc 160
Figure 7.3 An illustrative example of a story pyramid 161
Figure 8.1 The storyboard template 188
Figure 9.1 The T-shaped data story communications plan 195
Figure 9.2 The ideal meeting structure 214
Figure 11.1 Headline report template 251
xii

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 xiii

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Caroline Florence is an expert in data analysis, insight generation

and creating evidence-based narratives to drive business decisions
and actions. Based near Cambridge, UK, she founded the training
company Insight Narrator in 2012 and has since worked with over
10,000 individuals to improve their data storytelling. Caroline was
included in the Twenty Women in Data and Tech in 2023 for services
to learning and development. She was listed in the ESOMAR
Insight250 in 2021 as a global innovator in data-driven marketing
and she speaks regularly at conferences around the world on the
value of insight.
xiv

THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK

 xv

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

In developing this book, I have spoken with many experts in market-

ing and data storytelling and would like to thank the following people
for their contribution.

RICHARD COLWELL
Richard is the CEO of Red C Research & Marketing Group, a
dynamic, full-service research company based in Ireland, with offices
in Dublin and London. Richard is also the Executive Vice President
of WIN, the Worldwide Independent Network of Market Research
and Opinion Polls, and the Irish Representative of ESOMAR, the
global voice of the data, research and insights community.

LUCY DAVISON
Lucy is a communication expert, award-winning keynote speaker,
MRS Fellow and ESOMAR UK Rep. The Founder and CEO of Keen
as Mustard Marketing, Lucy has over 30 years of experience in B2B
marketing, strategy and communications. She has written for the
Independent, Marketing, Marketing Week and Retail Week and
judged the Market Research Awards.

ESTRELLA DÍAZ
Estrella is a leading researcher in the field of smart tourism. She
works as a Professor of Marketing at the University of Castilla-La
Mancha (UCLM). Estrella has been elected by ESOMAR as one of
the 250 pioneering professionals and leading international experts in
the field of market research and business intelligence and she is
included in the list of the 150 most influential people in tourism in
Spain.
xvi List of contributors

GABRIELE ENDERS
Gabriele is Director, Strategic Partnerships Marketing at Boots and
No7 Beauty Company. Currently focused on managing agency part-
nerships to deliver maximum performance, results and efficiencies,
Gabriele is an experienced marketing leader with a strong track
record across brand management, marketing strategy and operations.

RHEA FOX
Rhea is a customer and digital leader with 20-plus years in strategy,
CX, marketing and trading. A growth-obsessed data evangelist and
Marketing Week 2022 CX50 winner, Rhea is a regular speaker,
contributor, and judge on CX, digital transformation and marketing.
Rhea is currently Digital Director at Ted Baker, the British clothing
retailer with 500 stores and concessions around the world, and has
also worked for brands including Paperchase, Aviva, eBay, GHD and
Direct Line Group, as well as RAPP and dmg media.

JACKY GIUDICI
Jacky is Head of Functional and Transformation Capability at Boots
and No7 Beauty Company, responsible for sourcing, designing, and
delivering flexible global learning solutions to enable teams to oper-
ate at their best.

ROSY HARRINGTON
Rosy has worked for the De Beers Group since 2013, having previ-
ously worked for Royal Mail and Red Bull. In her most recent role as
a Global Brand Planner, Rosy was responsible for informing and
driving the global marketing strategy for De Beers consumer brands,
inspiring senior management and international marketing teams
across China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, the United States, France and
the UK with customer insight.

LIZZIE HARRIS
Lizzie is Customer Director at B&Q, the UK’s leading home improve-
ment and garden living retailer and part of Kingfisher plc, the
international home improvement company, operating 1,400 stores in
 List of contributors xvii

eight countries across Europe. An experienced marketing analytics

professional, Lizzie has also worked for Gymshark, Sainsbury’s and
Lloyds Banking Group.

JEREMY HOLLOW
Jeremy is the Founder and CEO of Listen + Learn Research, an
award-winning agency and the leading global authority on the human
side of social data, helping clients tap into the potential of social
commerce. A writer for This Social Life, a blog about how people live
their lives on social media, and a speaker at SXSW, Jeremy is featured
in the ESOMAR Insight250 and Social Intelligence Insider 50.

SINEAD JEFFERIES
Sinead is the SVP of Customer Expertise for Zappi and is a recog-
nized insight industry leader, drawing on 20-plus years’ experience,
leading teams both client-side and in agencies. She is Chair of the
Market Research Society and has previously served as a board
member. Sinead is a highly skilled researcher with the ability to cut
through findings and have meaningful discussions about driving
change and delivering commercial business impact.

RACHAEL KINSELLA
Rachael is Editorial and Content Director at iResearch Services, a
global thought leadership, marketing and research agency, specializ-
ing in narrative and content creation for B2B clients in professional
and financial services, technology, healthcare and energy sectors.
Rachael is a CIM-qualified Chartered Marketer, Fellow, MA and
CIPR communications professional with 20 years of editorial,
communications, full mix marketing and business development expe-
rience.

SANICA MENEZES
Sanica is Head of Customer Analytics at Aviva. Featured in the pres-
tigious DataIQ Future Leaders list for 2023 and 2024, she is
passionate about maximizing the impact from data to help the
xviii List of contributors

­ usiness understand its customers and build better, more meaningful

b
products and experiences. Sanica has also held roles at Aimia and
Virgin Holidays.

CHARLOTTE NEAL
Charlotte is a senior marketing leader with 20 years’ experience in
strategy, planning, communications and customer experience.
Currently Head of Marketing at Turning Point, a UK social enter-
prise that supports people with their substance use, mental health or
learning disability, she has also held a number of senior marketing
roles at Sodexo Health & Care and AXA Health, as well as working
as a director in creative and media agencies, including Havas.

REBECCA RUANE
Rebecca is Head of Reader Revenue Insight at The Guardian, one of
the world’s leading English-language newspaper websites, where she
is responsible for managing a large team of analysts supporting the
business to drive revenue from readers. An experienced insight profes-
sional, Rebecca has also worked for Westfield, Aimia, Ticketmaster,
JCDecaux and Condé Nast Publications.

RUTH SPENCER
Ruth is an expert in data, insights, loyalty and personalization. She is
currently an independent data leadership consultant but has previ-
ously held senior positions at Walgreens Boots Alliance, The
Co-operative Group and Accenture.

JAKE STEADMAN
Jake is Global Head of Market Research and Data at Canva, the
design platform that allows users to create visual materials such as
social media posts and presentations. Jake has also held senior insight
and marketing roles at Deliveroo, Twitter and O2, is on the main
board of the Market Research Society and chairs the MRS Data
Analytics Council.
 xix

FOREWORD

I have been involved with data, marketing and customer experience

for over 30 years, having led advertising, marketing services and
customer functions for blue-chip brands such as BT, Royal Mail
Group and Dixons, spending nearly two decades at board level grow-
ing teams across the world. As a former Chair of the Market Research
Society and an ESOMAR Representative, I am passionate about great
insight driving customer-centric decision-making and always deliver-
ing a return on investment. It never ceases to amaze me, when I work
with new organizations, how much intelligence and insight already
exists but all too often is siloed or forgotten, and not in the hands of
those who could use it to drive change.
As businesses strive to connect with their customers on a deeper
level, the ability to harness, interpret and influence with data is criti-
cal. It is within this context that the concept of data storytelling
emerges as a transformative tool, weaving narratives that not only
illuminate insights but also resonate with the human elements of our
audience. Effective change most often comes when an insight is trans-
formed into a compelling story that cuts through and captures the
imagination. Data storytelling is not merely about presenting infor-
mation; it is an art form that aligns, connects and transforms data
points into a cohesive and persuasive narrative. In a world inundated
with information, our ability to tell compelling and memorable
stories becomes a strategic differentiator.
I am delighted to introduce this practical guide to data storytelling
for marketers, authored by Caroline Florence, an expert trainer and
facilitator in creating powerful data stories. As an inaugural winner
of Insight250, a worldwide ‘who’s who’ of leaders and pioneers of
insight innovations across research, data-driven marketing, insight
and business intelligence, Caroline brings a wealth of experience and
xx Foreword

examples to this book. With an astute understanding of the power

inherent in both great data analysis and engaging storytelling,
Caroline has crafted a guide that is both enlightening and pragmatic.
Tailored to marketers and communication professionals looking to
harness the full potential of data storytelling, this book serves as a
comprehensive roadmap for both novices and seasoned profession-
als, guiding you through the intricate process of distilling complex
datasets into stories that captivate, resonate and drive action.
From demystifying the technical intricacies of data analysis to
providing practical frameworks for constructing narratives and
compelling outputs, this book takes you through step by step, using
practical examples, case studies, hints and tips, pitfalls to avoid and
tried and tested tools and techniques. This book is a must-read for
those navigating the complexities of modern marketing.
Embrace the art of data storytelling to create content and experi-
ences that leave a lasting impact on the hearts and minds of your
audience – be they customers, peers, stakeholders or decision-makers.
Let the story begin.

Crispin Beale FCA, FMRS, FRSA

Group President, Behaviourally
Senior Strategic Adviser, mTab
Fellow and past Chair, Market Research Society
UK Representative, ESOMAR
CEO, Insight250
 xxi

PREFACE: MY DATA STORYTELLING JOURNEY

From data cruncher…

My first role in marketing was a university summer job in 1996,
working for the UK charity the Royal Society for the Protection of
Birds (RSPB), helping them with their Millionth Member campaign.
It was my first exposure to using audience and membership data to
develop targeted marketing and it gave me the bug for data-led
marketing that has stayed with me ever since. Decades on from my
first marketing job, the relationship between data and marketing has
developed significantly and has been transformative when it comes to
targeting, understanding, converting and retaining customers. While
my first role involved manually entering data into Microsoft Excel
and conducting analysis with pen and paper, marketers nowadays
have access to data via a plethora of channels using custom-made
dashboards, reporting and knowledge share tools. Accessing, manip-
ulating and using data has been democratized and is no longer the
domain of a niche group of specialists.

… through data translator…

My first experience with data storytelling came a year later as part of
my recruitment interview for a graduate placement with Kantar, the
global marketing services giant. As part of the interview, we were
asked to analyse a selection of charts from one of their proprietary
advertising measurement tools and then present our interpretation
and recommendations to a panel of senior directors. Shortly after my
presentation I was called back in to see the directors because they did
not agree with my interpretation of one of their brand tracking meas-
ures. However, the more I looked at it, the more I was convinced my
xxii Preface: My data storytelling journey

original interpretation was the correct one. Although the data

displayed in the graph was complex, I felt I understood it well enough
and that my interpretation, and subsequent recommendations, still
stood. But I knew it couldn’t be, as they had already told me it was
wrong – so I had a dilemma to face. What was I supposed to say to
these very experienced researchers given they had already told me I
was wrong? I asked them to explain the correct interpretation of the
data from the chart. After they had done so, I learnt an invaluable
data storytelling lesson – that bad data visualization can lead to poor
interpretation. I experienced first-hand how easy it is for people to
interpret the same data differently if the story isn’t clear, simple and
explicit.

… to data storyteller…
Fast forward 12 years from my first job at Kantar to 2010. I had
spent all my career working in insight roles within marketing teams
in large corporate organizations or marketing planning agencies and
I was now working at Royal Mail, the UK postal service, heading up
a new and growing marketing analytics function within our wider
marketing services team. In this newly formed role, I had been
charged with bringing in-house all our analytics relating to commu-
nication evaluation, marketing and customer planning, and pricing.
The move to bring marketing analytics in-house was driven by a
desire to cut external consultant costs and to leverage our own data
assets. As the head of the team, my role was to persuade my market-
ing colleagues to use the new models being created by the team to
help make better decisions when marketing to our customers. I
learnt very quickly that the fantastic models the team were creating,
and the valuable insights we could generate from them, were going
to be meaningless if we couldn’t tell a persuasive data story to scep-
tical audiences. Especially if the insights were telling them that we
needed to do things ­differently.
 Preface: My data storytelling journey xxiii

… and business influencer

Sitting on a number of programme boards, where I had to convince
senior directors from across brand, marcomms, digital, product,
customer services and sales to listen to what the customer was telling
us, was a masterclass in the importance of data storytelling in driving
change. It became very clear, very quickly, that having valid and
insightful data is not enough; it is what you communicate that counts.
After one notable meeting where I was sharing performance data, a
senior stakeholder commented, ‘Just because you have all this data
doesn’t mean you are right.’ Much as it hurt to hear that all the great
work the team was creating wasn’t valued, it was still one of the most
useful pieces of feedback I ever had in my career. It challenged me to
think differently about how we use data to tell stories and enabled
me to reassess the way we communicated our insights. To be heard
we would need to do more than generate credible and actionable
insight from the data. We would have to turn that data into compel-
ling, evidence-based stories that the stakeholder audience could not
ignore. This experience took me on a quest to find new and different
ways to communicate the power of data to inform ideas, strategies
and plans. It resulted in a period of experimentation, research and
personal development that led me to specialize in helping others
develop data storytelling capabilities within their teams. This book is
the latest step in the journey.

From practitioner to coach

In 2012 I set up Insight Narrator, a consultancy and training practice,
and since then I have worked with thousands of people across multi-
ple sectors to help them not only develop their data stories but also,
most importantly, embed a data storytelling mindset, culture and way
of working within their business. As a data storytelling trainer and
coach, I now know where data storytelling works best, what great
data stories are (and are not), what works for different audiences
and, most importantly, how to create effective stories that make a
xxiv Preface: My data storytelling journey

difference. The skill is how to find and create these stories efficiently
and to weave data storytelling practices into business-as-usual
processes.
I have trained people across most continents and those in both
centralized and local market roles. I’ve worked with senior leaders to
shift the culture and help them lead from the top, and with interns
and recent graduates looking to develop specific storytelling skills.
I have coached many hundreds of data storytelling champions across
the world, from US retail giants and global CPG, pharmaceutical,
automotive, media and financial services brands, to government
departments, charities and not-for-profits. I have used data story­
telling to internally promote marketing strategy and drive budget
decisions, and to develop campaign messages and optimize prospect
targeting.
I am now sharing the lessons I have learnt, the tried and tested
approaches I have developed, and practical examples gained from
working with many different teams, to help you create insightful data
stories that influence the hearts and minds of your audience.
 xxv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A huge thanks to Crispin Beale, not only for your kind words in the
foreword of this book, but for your ongoing mentorship and support
over my career.
To all the contributors, some who I have known for decades, some
I have worked with more recently, and some I have only met through
this book, a huge thank you to you all. I wanted this book to be more
than just my perspective on data storytelling for marketing and your
perspectives and tips that you shared with me during our conversa-
tions make the book infinitely more insightful to the reader.
To the Women in Data crew in general, I thank you for champion-
ing the topics that are close to my heart, but to Roisin McCarthy and
Fiona Sweeney specifically, an extra special thanks for your help in
making this book happen. When I wanted to ensure that my expert
contributors included a diverse range of marketing, customer and
data professionals, there was only one person to call who has the
network and can always make things happen. Roisin, I salute you!
And when I wanted someone to be a diligent, but ruthless, beta reader,
Fiona was top of my list. The time you have dedicated to giving inval-
uable feedback is so appreciated and I cannot thank you enough.
Thanks also to Jeylan Ramis and Donna Goddard at Kogan Page
for your patience and feedback. Without your input and persistence,
it would have been a lot harder to turn the original proposal into a
completed manuscript.
To all my clients and colleagues over the years, you have all played
a role in shaping my experience and expertise in data storytelling.
There are far too many to mention, and I fear I would miss one out,
but you know who you are.
And a final thanks to an old boss of mine, who is no longer with
us. Janet Hull was a marketing legend and a phenomenal role model.
xxvi Acknowledgements

A tiny, chain-smoking, designer clothes-wearing single mum, who

was respected by all for her marketing knowledge, she carved out a
role for data storytelling and actionable insight a decade before
anyone else was mentioning those terms. Many of the tips in this
book started from Janet’s mentoring.
 1

Introduction
The role of data storytelling as part
of the marketing toolkit

In this chapter we will explore:

●●
the definition of data storytelling
●●
why data storytelling is a core part of the marketer’s toolkit
●●
how this book can help improve your data storytelling

I can’t think of a profession that doesn’t require storytelling as a core skill.

We’re all ultimately selling something, right? Telling good stories is the best
way I know of convincing people of what you’re selling and taking them on
that journey. You can’t just deliver data and numbers because it’s boring
and people won’t buy what you’re selling. Equally, if you tell a story with no
data or evidence people won’t buy it. Combining those two things by
putting data at the heart of our stories is the best way I know of delivering
insight in a way that is memorable and compelling.
Jake Steadman, Global Head of Market Research and Data, Canva

The definition of data storytelling

There are many different definitions of data, insights and data story-
telling, so I want to provide my version of each of these, contextualized
within the world of marketing and communication, to create a
common standardized language throughout the book.
2 INTRODUCTION

Definition of data
I refer to the word data in its broadest terms, not just as a series of
ones and zeros in a computing program. This wider definition focuses
on observations, measurements and facts. This might also be referred
to as information or evidence. Data, in this context, includes both
quantitative and qualitative data.
Types of data used commonly in data storytelling by marketing
teams include:

ZERO-PARTY DATA
This is data that has intentionally or proactively been shared with us
by audiences, such as:
●●
responses to polls, surveys or quizzes
●●
profiling data added to online accounts or loyalty programmes

FIRST-PARTY DATA
This is proprietary data that companies collect directly, with consent,
via their own channels. It might include finance data, operational data,
customer data or audience data, but typically it captures behaviours.
Given it is based on previous or current interactions and transactions
with the brand, it is a precious marketing asset. It includes:
●●
digital interactions (website, apps)
●●
customer relationship management (CRM) systems
●●
content engagement
●●
point of sale systems
●●
transactions (accounting systems)
●●
experience interactions with digital support and call centres

For example, typical first-party data sources you might use in market-
ing include:
●●
sales performance data for your region, country or category which
shows key commercial metrics
 INTRODUCTION 3

●●
internal marketing data products from CRM systems that provide
contact information, purchase history, interaction history, etc., to
inform segments and personalization
●●
purchase data from loyalty cards or payment cards that provide
behavioural information
●●
email marketing data products measuring email open rates, click-
through rates and subscriber behaviour that support email
campaign optimization

SECOND-PARTY DATA
This is data that businesses haven’t collected but is associated with
their customers or audiences. This data is gathered by partnering
with another organization (through a contractual agreement). It’s a
very economical way to gather any additional data and ultimately a
great way to increase the breadth of understanding we have about
our audience that we cannot get from first-party data alone, such as
attitudes and needs. For example:
●●
retail purchase data
●●
market research, survey data
●●
data collected as first-party data by channel partners and trusted
suppliers in the supply chain that we have a contractual relationship
with

Typical second-party data sources you might use in marketing

include:
●●
shopper research from physical stores, which can provide valuable
data on in-store customer behaviour and preferences
●●
market data from suppliers like Kantar, Nielsen, IRI, IGD and
Mintel which provides market share and retail purchase information
●●
customer surveys and market research data, such as brand and
communications tracking studies, advertising testing and in-depth
customer interviews
4 INTRODUCTION

●●
web scraping tools to collect data from websites and forums to
gather insights on consumer sentiment, product reviews and
competitive intelligence

THIRD-PARTY DATA
This is data collected by a business or other entity that doesn’t have any
direct link to customers or audiences. It is normally aggregated from
several sources and packaged up for sale, including to competitors.
From a marketing perspective it can be valuable to support acquisition
strategies, but regulation, like the General Data Protection Regulation
(GDPR), has reduced marketers’ ability to capture and use this as data,
as privacy restrictions become tighter and tighter.
Trusted third-party data sources you might use in marketing
include:
●●
social media platforms sharing demographic and behavioural data
about users to assist ad evaluation and audience analysis
●●
external website data, such as Google Analytics, providing insights
into website traffic, conversion, content interactions, etc.
●●
third-party vendors such as Experian, Acxiom and Dun &
Bradstreet, which offer vast datasets that can enhance customer
profiles, market segmentation and audience targeting
●●
open source data sources from aggregators or public bodies
providing census data on the general population

When we reference data throughout the book, we will be drawing on the

definitions above. However, we will assume in most instances it is not the
job of the marketing department to transform raw data inputs into clean,
consolidated datasets and most of the data you will be drawing on for
your data storytelling will come from managed data assets in databases,
platforms or portals. These assets are likely to be clean, with some busi-
ness logic already built in, and in some instances already combine a
number of different sources, for example campaign metadata that has
been generated from a CRM system, digital campaign performance data
 INTRODUCTION 5

from Google Ad Manager, content data from third-party suppliers and

unified customer data from first-party sources.

Definition of insight
Although there are many different interpretations of what an insight
is, I prefer to go with the perspective shared by Gary Klein in his
book Seeing What Others Don’t (2013). He states that insights are
‘an unexpected shift in the way we understand things’ but accepts
that they can come in several different varieties, rather than there
being a one-size-fits-all formula.
In Figure 0.1 I share the Insight Narrator perspective on what
constitutes a great actionable insight. While a data observation
includes the ‘What?’, an actionable insight includes:
●●
What? (the observations from the data)

plus:
●●
Why? (the link to why it matters)
●●
So what? (the relevance and relative importance)
●●
Now what? (the recommended action)

FIGURE 0.1 The definition of an actionable insight

Actionable NOW WHAT?

recommendations

SO WHAT? Meaningful understanding

of relevance and importance

Clear link to what WHY?

matters most

WHAT?
Data observations
6 INTRODUCTION

●●
A data observation is not useful if it doesn’t align to ‘why’ it matters.
●●
A data observation is not insightful if it doesn’t address a clear ‘so what’
that indicates why this is relevant and important.
●●
A data observation is a not an actionable if it doesn’t lead to a clear
‘now what’ recommendation that is viable and feasible to activate.

Definition of storytelling
Storytelling in its broadest sense is the writing and telling of stories.
Within the context of this book, we are going to focus on business
storytelling within marketing and communications teams, rather than
this wider definition of storytelling. So, while you may win a prize for
fiction or screenwriting in the future, it is unlikely that it is because
you have read this book. However, because the audience for a data
story is still people and the subject of the data is still people, most of
the traditional storytelling techniques still apply. Storytelling is a form
of business communication that adapts learnings from wider story
structures to persuade audiences to think, to feel and to act.

Definition of data storytelling

When it comes to data storytelling, we focus on how to use storytell-
ing techniques to communicate the insights, actions and ideas that
come from the data, rather than the data itself. Therefore, a core part
of data storytelling is being able to identify the value of the data
available within the broader context of our goals. Then the data
storyteller must draw insight out from the background noise, in order
to drive the right conclusions and conversations in the story message.
What matters is the process to generate sound insights from the vast
range of datasets available to the marketing team and how to inter-
pret meaning and sound judgements for decision-making and action
taking. Then we can focus on traditional storytelling techniques to
bring those insights to life for the audience. These practical skills are
where we will focus our attention in this book.
 INTRODUCTION 7

Data reporting is not the same as a data story

As Rutherford David Rogers, Yale Librarian, is quoted as saying in
an interview with the New York Times (Campbell, 1985), ‘we are
drowning in information and starving for knowledge’. Using good
data in your storytelling is one thing. Doing it well is another. Just
having and reporting accurate data is not enough. The problem we
have is that, with so much information available, audiences are over-
loaded. We need to create data stories that share key insights and
prioritize evidence that it is crucial to understand, and not just share
everything we know.
The sheer wealth of data available risks audiences being paralysed
by analysis and not making any decisions until more data is explored.
In addition, it can lead to audiences being so confused by what the
data is telling them that they default to what they already believe and
what they have always done. Both scenarios lead to inertia, conserva-
tism and stagnation.
Data reporting may be preferable as the medium of choice to track
measures and key data points required in regular, repeatable outputs.
In this instance, analysis, interpretation and insight commentary is
either limited to what can be standardized or is automated and gener-
ally descriptive with a focus on explaining the data point itself. The
rise in platform technology and in the plethora of tools to create
dashboards and reports with attractive visuals is a great enabler. But
it has led to many leaders believing that if they buy the platform it
will give them the insights needed to make accurate and quick deci-
sions. The platform providers have hijacked the term ‘data
storytelling’, making promises that a visualization tool alone just
cannot live up to. While good visualization tools can make the data
easier to read and process when compared to text or numbers, that
alone does not make it a story. And while generative AI provides the
potential to automate commentary in reporting, so far it feels generic,
one-dimensional and lacking in real insight. As such, there is still a
very human role needed to create great data stories.
8 INTRODUCTION

FIGURE 0.2 The difference between data reporting and data storytelling

Data reporting Data storytelling

Communicates the data Communicates the insight and recommendations

Standardized approach Customized approach

Requires a data-literate audience Hard work is done for the audience

Relies on good data visualization skills Relies on good critical and creative thinking skills

Collecting and reporting data is not the same as using data in persua-
sive storytelling. Figure 0.2 highlights the four key differences
between data reporting and data storytelling.

1 Reporting leads with the findings from the data, assuming it will
speak for itself. Data storytelling leads with the insights and ideas
generated from interpreting the data within the wider commercial
context.
2 Reporting is structured to facilitate consistency and standardization.
Data storytelling is structured to favour the specific transformation
it is designed to evoke. The story itself, and how it is executed, will
vary depending on the situation and the need, thus making it
harder to standardize and template.
3 Reporting should enable end users to access layers of information,
from high-level metrics to detailed sub-analysis. However, this
requires a high level of data literacy in the end user and a willingness
for them to get their hands dirty. Data storytelling will do the hard
work for the end user. Through analysis and interpretation, the
data storyteller has generated data-led arguments and will carefully
use the data to validate the story.
4 Reporting relies on data visualization to bring the data to life and
help the audience navigate through the complexity. Data storytelling
 INTRODUCTION 9

will often use visualization, infographics and interactive reporting

tools but it also leverages other storytelling techniques that are
mostly absent in reporting. These can be interpretation techniques,
such as distillation, inference and judgement, or engagement tools,
such as hooks, characters, metaphors and scenarios.

Why data storytelling is a core part of the marketing toolkit

In the ever-evolving landscape of marketing, the effective use of data
has become the driving force behind successful brands, activities and
campaigns. The rise of digital technologies, martech and the explosion
of available data have transformed marketing into a highly data-driven
field. Data has emerged as a powerful tool for marketers, providing
insights into consumer behaviour, enabling personalized experiences
and facilitating evidence-based decision-making. With the advent of
social media, digital advertising platforms and CRM systems, the
volume and variety of data available to marketers has skyrocketed.
From demographic and psychographic information to website analyt-
ics and social media engagement metrics, marketers now have access to
a wealth of data that can inform their strategies. Given the availability
of data, evidence becomes the centrepiece of robust, believable and
persuasive marketing stories.
Understanding how to use data to build and tell persuasive stories
is an increasingly important part of the modern-day marketer’s
toolkit and significant progress has been made over the last 10 years.
When interviewing the expert contributors for this book, the over-
whelming conclusion was that marketing and communication teams
have made great strides in data storytelling, including:
●●
gaining access to better data tools
●●
upskilling and training teams to improve data literacy
●●
incorporating data more formally into decision-making
●●
using data storytelling as part of everyday communications –
whether that is with customers, partners or internal teams
10 INTRODUCTION

Yet, despite the abundance of data and clear progress in data story-
telling within marketing and communication functions, many
professionals still feel they lack the necessary skills and confidence to
effectively analyse and utilize data storytelling techniques to influ-
ence others. The data skills gap poses a significant challenge for
organizations aiming to harness the power of data-driven marketing.
Marketers can lack proficiency and confidence in areas such as data
analytics, statistical analysis, data visualization and interpreting
insights to drive actionable outcomes. This gap hampers their ability
to derive meaningful insights from data to make data-driven deci-
sions, leading to missed opportunities and suboptimal marketing
campaigns. Moreover, the inability to effectively communicate data-
driven insights to stakeholders can hinder decision-making and
undermine trust in the marketing function.

Data storytelling is something that professional services firms do very well

because they’ve been doing thought leadership for many years, and it’s
been an integral part of their business development activity. But traditional
marketers are often expected just to pick that up from nowhere without
any training or opportunity to learn best practice.
Rachael Kinsella, Editorial and Content Director, iResearch Services

This book is focused on the data user in the marketing function,

rather than the data specialist, and the specific data storytelling skills
needed day to day in a marketing or communication role. Over the
years that I have worked with marketing strategists and planners,
media buyers, campaign managers, brand managers and most other
marketing specialists, it is fair to state that the vast majority do buy
into the value that data storytelling can offer, but feel they are lacking
in time, skills and confidence to do it well. So, whether you are work-
ing in digital, brand, internal communication, product management,
trade marketing, PR, planning or any other marketing discipline, this
book will give you the practical tools to develop stories centred on
robust evidence to withstand scrutiny and challenge, provide tangible
meaning, offer insight and persuade audiences.
 INTRODUCTION 11

Marketers tend to be natural storytellers who understand the prin-

ciples of benefit-led messaging and providing audiences with reasons
to believe marketing claims, and so will be more comfortable with
developing narratives and motivating campaigns than many other
business disciplines. They are used to telling stories through their
content, but many realize that, in a data-driven world, for these
stories to be truly persuasive they need to be evidence-based and
clearly communicate the data to the audience. When it comes to being
evidence-led in storytelling, many marketers feel a sense of frustra-
tion about knowing how to use data storytelling most effectively.

The different data storytelling personas in the marketing department

Within the marketing function, not everyone possesses the same level
of data literacy or is starting from the same base when it comes to
developing their data storytelling skills. The expert contributors for
this book all noted that the data skill sets within marketing functions
vary significantly.

There is a spectrum of data skills in the marketing function. I’ve seen

departments where they just don’t use data at all and they do it all on their
gut, right through to one of our clients who is so on top of the data. They
are not wanting to do lots of data analysis or anything, but they understand
the importance of data in terms of driving the marketing plan.
Richard Colwell, CEO, Red C Research & Marketing Group

Different individuals exhibit varying degrees of competency and

comfort when it comes to working with data, so it makes sense to
identify different data storytelling personas within each marketing
team. There are four distinct data storyteller personas typically found
in different marketing teams. They cover a spectrum from data scep-
tics, who actively avoid using data to inform ideas and decisions if
they can, to data storytelling experts, who are highly competent in
combining data analysis with strong narrative skills to effectively
communicate insights and tell compelling stories with data.
12 INTRODUCTION

As a broad generalization, these four personas represent the vary-

ing levels of proficiency and comfort individuals have when working
with data to create data stories. While not all marketers or communi-
cation professionals need to aspire to expert status, considering
where you, or your team, are on the spectrum and what support is
required to get to competent is a worthwhile assessment.

THE DATA STORYTELLING SCEPTIC

In the podcast ‘Data literacy: The secret to customer obsession’ (2020),
Jennifer Belissent, Principal Analyst, cites the Forrester Insights-Driven
Maturity Model, which found that fewer than 10 per cent of firms are
truly insights-driven and more than half of decisions made in busi-
nesses are based on gut instinct rather than quantitative information.
Within the marketing team there will be sceptics who still resist the
idea of using data to inform ideas, evaluate impact and influence
others. A sceptic persona may perceive data as both a necessary evil
and a threat to their art – one that stifles creativity and natural flair.
Sceptics will often see data storytelling primarily as a means to sell-in
ideas they already have or decisions already made, rather than seeing
data as an asset to inform those ideas and decisions in the first place.
They find the complexity and over-measurement of every part of the
marketing job unnecessary and a distraction to making solid judge-
ments based on experience and proven marketing theory.

THE ANXIOUS DATA STORYTELLING CONSUMER

The anxious consumer of data stories has limited experience and
knowledge of working with data themselves but must use data
provided to them as part of their job. They rely on pre-built reports,
dashboards or summaries provided by others to make decisions.
They lack confidence and feel overwhelmed by data-related tasks and
typically rely on others to do the analysis and interpretation so they
can then take appropriate actions. They are likely to rely on what
they know, the datasets that are provided to them by others, and
what sits in their comfort zone, rather than exploring new and differ-
ent datasets themselves. They may feel anxious about their ability to
question, challenge and scrutinize the insights shared with them by
 INTRODUCTION 13

others, having to accept them at face value. Potentially curious about

generating new insights for themselves, but unsure about collecting
the right data and making sense of it to tell a story that stands up to
scrutiny, they require some hand-holding to build confidence in
experimenting with accessing different sources and support with
analysis tasks. This persona typically prefers user-friendly tools that
present data in a digestible format, and they do not want to learn the
ins and outs of data manipulation, reporting tools or advanced
analytics.

Sophie is an experienced marketing manager, having worked in a few

different organizations and different marketing disciplines. In her current
role she is responsible for developing, managing and optimizing retention
campaigns across different business-to-business (B2B) customer
touchpoints and channels. She is comfortable with the key metrics used to
measure campaign performance and the reports that are generated by the
analysts in the team. However, she is also expected to understand customer
segment preferences, propensity to churn modelling, loyalty drivers and
the role of brand when designing her marketing strategy and plans.
She must influence a number of internal stakeholders across customer
experience, sales and service teams to get on board with her plans and
ensure that necessary support and resource are in place within the
operations. She finds it difficult to convince others proactively with
the data and wants to focus more time and energy getting under the skin
of customers who are at risk of churning. She would love to be able to
tell forward-looking data stories that identify which channels and
messages would prevent at-risk customers from leaving but doesn’t know
where to start.

THE COMPETENT DATA STORYTELLER

The competent data storyteller is proficient in working with data and
possesses a solid understanding of data analysis techniques. They are
comfortable using tools such as spreadsheets and basic statistical
methods to explore data for themselves. They can ask relevant ques-
tions, analyse trends and derive insights from data. They are keen to
expand their horizons when they have time and are interested in new
14 INTRODUCTION

ways of using data to help them do their role well and influence
others. Happy to get their hands dirty with analysis, they can get
frustrated with delays and problems accessing data and issues with
data imperfection. They can be at risk of potential analysis paralysis
without some parameters in which to operate and may often shy
away from telling the more complex data stories where the evidence
feels ambiguous, lacking in certainty or is contradictory. This persona
prefers to be able to effortlessly self-serve and create their own
reports, referring to experts only if they hit a problem, they need
something explaining in more detail to build their credibility, or they
want to utilize more advanced tools. Keen to be at the forefront of
what is new, they have an appetite and interest for different technolo-
gies, tools and platforms, but possibly don’t always know when, why
and how these should be used to add value.

James has just graduated with a distinction in his Master’s degree in

marketing and is working as a Promotions Manager for a publishing
company. He works closely with commercial teams internally and with
partner brands. Having seen his role become more focused on app-based
and digital promotions, he is particularly interested in the use of data to
determine optimal targeting, channels and creative, and he found the data
analysis part of his Master’s programme valuable in building his skills.
He works collaboratively with the internal data team when developing the
dataset and reporting tools to measure reach, conversion and return on
investment (ROI). He would like to find more time to use his data skills to
influence the partners and internal stakeholders he works with to prioritize
more customized promotions.

THE DATA STORYTELLING EXPERT

The expert is already highly competent in combining data analysis
with strong narrative skills to effectively communicate insights and
tell compelling stories with data. They can identify meaningful
patterns, draw connections across multiple complex sources, align
insights with objectives and priorities, as well as craft narratives from
the evidence that resonate with their audience. The expert under-
 INTRODUCTION 15

stands the importance of context, audience segmentation and

emotional engagement in data storytelling. They use these skills to
personalize and tailor their data stories to the different audiences
they need to reach and influence. Proactive in spotting new opportu-
nities from insights, they use data storytelling to inspire, sell in
strategy, make asks of the wider business and drive change. They are
looking to continuously improve their communications and influenc-
ing skills, as well as coaching these skills in others.

Amy is an experienced Digital Director with a specific focus on marketing

activation. She has a background in customer insight and is familiar with
the range of different methods and approaches she can tap into for her
data storytelling. Having switched from a research and data role into a
digital marketing role she has been able to bring her experience of
customer journeys to add rigour to her decision-making. Using her data
skills, alongside her leadership and strategic thinking, she has enabled her
team to simplify their efforts and processes to focus on the key priorities
for both the customer and the business. Seen as a trusted adviser to senior
management, she is confident to use evidence to challenge the status quo
and she is respected by others for her ability to connect insights to
business-applicable solutions. Her priority is to empower her wider Digital
team to develop their data storytelling skills, so they can improve their
broader influence within the business.

Before diving into the detail of this book, reflect on which persona currently
resonates with you and where you aspire to be on the data storytelling
spectrum. This will help determine the key development areas where you
want to drill down into more detail.

How this book can help improve your data storytelling

This book is designed for marketers and communications profession-
als who want to develop powerful and persuasive stories that transform
outcomes. Focused on developing evidence-based storytelling with
16 INTRODUCTION

credible data, this book will help create a paradigm shift in perfor-
mance levels within marketing and communications. It is designed to
plug the data skills gap and build powerful capabilities to support the
growing needs of the modern marketer as they strive to ensure that
data becomes a powerful asset. Written as a practical guide, its objec-
tive is to enable marketing professionals to cut through the data noise
and pick the most pertinent data to tell the right story to the right audi-
ence at the right time. Specifically, it will help you to:
●●
prioritize the data stories that matter
●●
develop robust, actionable and insightful data stories
●●
structure the data story in a way your audiences can easily navigate
●●
feel confident about your data analysis, interpretation and
storytelling

This book has been designed as a practical guide to how to approach

data storytelling and execute best practice. It will provide you with:
●●
the strategic planning skills to plan your data story
●●
the analytical skills to discover your data story
●●
the critical thinking skills to build the data story
●●
the creative skills to create data story outputs that engage and
inspire
●●
the communication skills to deliver a data story that not only sticks
but acts as a catalyst for action

In addition, the book will provide you with:

●●
expert perspectives from our experienced contributors
●●
relevant marketing examples and case studies to help you to adopt
tools and adapt them to your world
●●
the mindset and ways of working needed to embed data storytelling
into your day-to-day marketing practice
 INTRODUCTION 17

References
Belissent, J (2020) Data literacy: The secret to customer obsession, Forrester,
26 March, www.forrester.com/what-it-means/ep160-data-literacy (archived at
https://perma.cc/B7FJ-5Y8L)
Campbell, C (1985) Torrent of print strains the fabric of libraries, New York Times,
25 February, www.nytimes.com/1985/02/25/us/torrent-of-print-strains-the-
fabric-of-libraries.html (archived at https://perma.cc/2PHS-J3G9)
Klein, G (2013) Seeing What Others Don’t, Public Affairs, New York
18

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 19

PART ONE

Why data storytelling

is essential for
modern marketing
20

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 21

The importance of data in

persuasive storytelling – past,
present and future

In this chapter we will explore:

●●
the role of data in persuasive storytelling
●●
how data storytelling has advanced in the 21st century
●●
the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and other innovations on data
storytelling

The first thing to remember, it’s storytelling first and data second. Don’t
have your confidence dented because you see the ‘data’ word first. The
term should be ‘storytelling with data’ and hopefully that should make
marketers more confident because they know how to tell stories. That’s
what you’ve been trained to do. You are just using the data to make your
story even better. So, I think the first thing that helps is that mindset shift
about what data storytelling actually is.
Ruth Spencer, independent data leadership consultant
22 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

The role of data in persuasive storytelling

Evidence has always had a role to play in convincing others to think,
feel or take a certain action. The problem is, now we have so much
data it is hard to decipher what is the best evidence to use to cut
through the noise and motivate others. This section looks at what we
can learn from storytelling theory to help with the modern-day issue
of data overload.

The classic definition of persuasive storytelling

Different data storytelling models may have unique variations but
there are also some consistent components across various models –
most of which align with Aristotle’s principles in The Art of Persuasion.
These principles provide a useful universal framework to refer to
when defining the role of data in persuasion. Over 2,000 years ago,
the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle outlined three fundamental
elements of persuasive communication: ethos, logos and pathos.
These timeless principles can be effectively applied to modern data
storytelling to create compelling narratives that influence and
persuade audiences.

PRINCIPLE 1: ETHOS – CREDIBILITY

Ethos appeals to the audience’s sense of trust by ensuring both the
narrator and the evidence are credible and have authority. In data
storytelling, it is crucial to establish credibility by presenting data
from reputable sources and demonstrating expertise in the subject
matter. Ethos also involves ensuring the accuracy and integrity of the
data used, adhering to ethical standards and maintaining transpar-
ency in data collection and analysis methods.
How ethos applies to data storytelling practice:
●●
identifying and selecting the relevant data sources
●●
considering the quality, accuracy and reliability of the data
●●
ensuring data privacy standards
●●
being transparent about limitations in the data
 THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA IN PERSUASIVE STORYTELLING 23

●●
selecting appropriate visual formats, such as graphs, infographics
or interactive visualizations, to present data in a clear and visually
appealing manner
●●
incorporating credentials, relevant experience or testimonials from
trusted experts
●●
validating insights gained from internal data sources with other
well-respected second- or third-party data

PRINCIPLE 2: LOGOS – LOGIC

Logos appeals to the audience’s rational mind and use of reasoning
by providing a clearly structured and supported argument. Done
well, it is easy for the audience to navigate the narrative and under-
stand the supporting claims. In data storytelling, this involves making
logical connections in data interpretation and using sound arguments
to support the main message. This requires providing clear and
concise explanations of data trends, patterns and correlations, and
drawing logical conclusions from the data.
How logos applies to data storytelling practice:
●●
explaining trends, correlations and cause-and-effect relationships
found in the data
●●
providing a perspective on the relevant context and the implications
for the story
●●
creating a well-structured narrative that is easy to follow
●●
providing a point of view on what the data means and what needs
to be considered
●●
offering a clear call to action to encourage the audience to take
specific actions based on the data story – this could involve
recommendations, next steps or a key ask of the audience

PRINCIPLE 3: PATHOS – EMOTIONS

Pathos taps into the emotional aspect of persuasion and is a crucial
component in data storytelling – one that is often lost when simply
24 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

reporting data. Given humans are not motivated by logic and evidence
alone, we need pathos to drive an emotional link to the data story
that will motivate the audience to think, feel and act. Pathos involves
connecting with the audience on a personal and emotional level,
evoking empathy and appealing to their values, desires or aspira-
tions. In data storytelling, leveraging pathos means framing the data
in a way that resonates with the audience’s emotions, and using data
to create mental pictures that spark their interest and engagement.
How pathos applies to our data storytelling practice:
●●
understanding the audience, their knowledge levels, interests,
needs and preferences
●●
adapting the storytelling approach (not the story itself) to different
audiences to enhance engagement and comprehension
●●
considering the emotion you want to evoke in the audience and the
best way to create it
●●
bringing the data to life using human examples of real experiences
or journeys
●●
grounding abstract data concepts into everyday practices that are
easily understood

All three components of The Art of Persuasion are necessary in order

to create persuasive stories:
●●
Drawing on pathos to motivate the audience to act will not work
if there is no substantive argument to support what action needs to
be taken.
●●
It is futile to draw on logos and provide a strong narrative if there
is no credible data to back it up versus an alternative course of
action.
●●
Providing a data dump of evidence is not going to build a strong
ethos into your data story if there is no insight or meaning to help
connect this with the audience.
 THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA IN PERSUASIVE STORYTELLING 25

FIGURE 1.1 The three Post-It notes challenge

What does the Why should the Why should the

audience really audience believe audience care?
need to know? you?

How classical theory applies to the modern data story

Applying Aristotle’s principles to data storytelling can bring three
advantages to the modern marketer:
●●
It drives a clear focus on the ethical use of data and credible
sources.
●●
It moves beyond reporting data to the restoration of evidence-based
judgement and logical arguments to support data interpretation.
●●
It incorporates data and logical arguments alongside the importance
and value of the human behaviour, needs, motivations and attitudes
behind the numbers.

APPLYING THE PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE

Figure 1.1 illustrates the three Post-It notes challenge and how it can
help get initial story ideas out of your head and on to paper, while
ensuring the balance between the three classic principles.

Post-It note 1 – logos question: What does the audience really need
to know? This question forces the data storyteller to distil and
prioritize the one message that matters the most.
26 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

Some marketing examples from the logos Post-It include:

Only by investing £5 million in paid social will we get the reach we will
need in the short time frame we have available to achieve the results
expected.

Lower income doesn’t equate to lower impact. Activations that bring in

lower income are still worth doing as they can help to build our brand
warmth prior to our big income push.

Customers expect digital first, seamless interactions with us and have a

lower tolerance for friction in our service than they do for other brands.

The ad direction does not help Brand X mitigate the risk of attack from
Brand Y because it doesn’t address all of the copy issues previously
raised.

Post-It note 2 – ethos question: Why should the audience believe

you? This question forces the data storyteller to extract meaning
from the data and justify what it is about the evidence that makes it
credible in supporting the argument.

Some examples from the ethos Post-It include:

For every X million video views we will generate X in social media

revenue, meaning investment cost will be covered within three months.

The ONS is a trusted data source and states X metric is the most
reliable measure of long-term trends.

Validated consumer behaviour in past recessions means we can

confidently predict that consumers will be trading down from premium
to own label, doing without indulgences and using multiple tactics to
find ways to reduce spend, during the current cost of living crisis.

Among the highest performing organizations, 80 per cent use this metric
as a means to measure success in advertising effectiveness.
 THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA IN PERSUASIVE STORYTELLING 27

Post-It note 3 – pathos question: Why should the audience care? This
question forces the data storyteller to put themselves in the shoes of
the primary audience and consider the emotion we want to evoke
through the story. This could be any emotion – from reassurance to
excitement, nervousness to shame – depending on the story message.
It can tap into the commercial drivers and needs of the audience, or
more human, universal motivators.
Some examples from the pathos Post-It include:
We are driving our customers to the competition by getting this
consistently wrong/failing to prioritize – our competitors don’t need to
do anything themselves to encourage this switch.

By failing to intervene in a human way at this point in the journey we

are escalating the issue and not giving our loyal customers the benefit of
the doubt to respond positively to our messaging.

If we get this right, we can capture this valuable section of the market
and own this space before our competitors.

Try your own three Post-It notes challenge for a story you are developing
to see how Aristotle’s principles can still be valuable for modern data
storytelling.

How data storytelling has advanced in the 21st century

In the 21st century, where data is being generated, consumed and
used all the time, the absence of data in your story will stand out. You
may have a theoretically sound position, but if you can’t support it
with credible evidence then why should anyone be convinced by your
argument? As more and more audiences become data-literate and
savvy about the use of data, then the harder the storytelling needs to
work to ensure data is used to support any claims and the evidence is
robust and can stand up to scrutiny.
28 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

The role data storytelling plays in modern marketing

Data democratization means marketers have ever-greater access to
data to help inform decisions. No longer in the hands of specialists,
data is more readily available to use than ever before. Several key
changes over the last decade have had a significant impact on the
prominence of data within marketing as a function.

INCREASE IN ACCESS TO DATA

Access is the cornerstone of data democratization, breaking down
silos and ensuring that data is readily available to all.

What has changed over the years is the prevalence and accessibility of data
and that’s come with a lot of technology that marketers use in their
day-to-day roles, enabling them to build their confidence in the stories they
can tell, both internally and externally.

Charlotte Neal, Head of Marketing, Turning Point

IMPROVED DATA LITERACY

To ensure that all employees can harness the power of data, organ-
izations have invested in enhancing data literacy across the
workforce. This involves providing training and resources to help
marketing teams to interpret and use data effectively in their day-
to-day activities.

At the top of the funnel we can understand markets and consumers with
more texture than ever before, and at the bottom of the funnel it is much
easier to understand the impact of our work in detail. Who wouldn’t want
that?
Jake Steadman, Global Head of Market Research and Data, Canva
 THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA IN PERSUASIVE STORYTELLING 29

DRIVE TOWARDS CUSTOMER-CENTRICITY

Organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance of align-
ing data initiatives with the needs and preferences of their customers.
By understanding customer behaviours and preferences, marketers
can tailor their efforts to deliver insights that directly impact customer
satisfaction and drive business growth.

Injecting data as inspiration before starting your marketing planning, and

thinking in a customer-centric way, are key.
Sanica Menezes, Head of Customer Analytics, Aviva

AGILITY IN MARKETING ACTIVATION

With the rise of ‘always on’ marketing, marketers need to be nimble
when it comes to understanding what works and why. This increas-
ingly relies on marketers’ ability to quickly and effectively interpret
real-time data streams to facilitate continuous improvement and
optimization.

Social media campaigns are quicker, cheaper, and often better targeted to
our key audience. It was not surprising that it became an increasingly
important part of the media mix. This in turn meant we had to become
more agile in creating content and campaigns. It was also important to
understand the effectiveness of marketing campaigns much quicker than
ever before. Expectations across the business evolved and so did our data
skill set.
Rosy Harrington, Global Brand Planner, De Beers Group

INTEGRATION OF ANALYTICAL TEAMS INTO THE MARKETING FUNCTION

While many businesses will still have a centre of excellence for specific
skills relating to data governance and management, it is also likely
that many will have some decentralized analytical resource working
directly within the marketing team. This means that senior marketers
30 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

are likely to have to manage and lead analytical teams at some point
in their career. In addition, the transition from a marketing role into
an analytical role is becoming a recognized career pathway and an
attractive option for marketers looking to get the best of both worlds
and boost their opportunities as future chief marketing officers
(CMOs).

There has been a huge shift in the marketer’s ability to talk an analytical
and data game. You’ve got a lot of marketers who are becoming leaders of
analytical teams because they know what they need and they can demand
that quality and standard, without ever needing to have actually done it
themselves.

Lizzie Harris, Customer Director, B&Q

RELEVANCE OF DATA TO INCREASING NUMBER OF MARKETING ROLES

The evolution of digital marketing means that data is central to more
marketing practices and activities than before.

When I started working in marketing over 20 years ago, it was known that
if you worked in database marketing or loyalty, you had to be data-literate.
However, this field of marketing was seen by some to be second-class
compared with branding or above-the-line marketing. Back then, there
were many areas of marketing, such as brand management, where data
literacy wasn’t necessary or expected. The big shift over the last 20 years is
that the number of jobs in marketing where you need an understanding of
data to do the job has grown. You genuinely could do a good job in media
planning 20 years ago and not know about data. Now if you’re on the
campaign team and buying media, you’re buying impressions on Facebook
and Google, and you need to understand data to be able to do that.

Ruth Spencer, independent data leadership consultant

 THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA IN PERSUASIVE STORYTELLING 31

All the above areas of progress demonstrate that data now plays a
critical role in any marketing and communication function. Data
storytelling is a key enabler to make sure you are at the forefront of
how that data gets used to inform decisions and actions.

The impact of AI and other innovations

Storytelling is an integral part of the human experience. People have
been communicating observations and data to each other for millen-
nia using the same principles of persuasion that are being used today.
However, the means by which we can generate data and insights and
tell stories has shifted significantly and will continue to do so, as tech-
nology plays an ever-greater role in our ability to collect, process and
find meaning from the wealth of information available. So, what is
the future of data storytelling?

I think we’ve all talked about data being the engine that powers business
decision-making. And there’s no escaping the role that AI and data are
going to play in the future. So, I think the more data-literate and aware you
are, the more informed and evidence-led you can be about our decisions,
regardless of what field you are in – because that is the future we’re all
working towards and going to embrace, right? It’s about relevance and
being at the forefront of cutting-edge technology.

Sanica Menezes, Head of Customer Analytics, Aviva

The near future scenario

Imagine simply applying a generative AI tool to your marketing data
dashboards to create audience-ready copy. The tool creates a clear
narrative structure, synthesized from the relevant datasets, with
actionable and insightful messages relevant to the target audience.
The tool isn’t just producing vague and generic output with question-
able accuracy but is sophisticated enough to help you co-author
technically robust and compelling content that integrates a level of
32 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

human insight. Writing stories from vast and complex datasets will
not only drive efficiency and save time, but free up the human
co-author to think more creatively about how they deliver the end
story to land the message, gain traction with recommendations and
influence decisions and actions. There is still a clear role for the
human to play as co-author, including the quality of the prompts
given, expert interpretation, nuance of language and customization
for key audiences. But the human co-author is no longer bogged
down by the complex and time-consuming process of gathering
different data sources and analysing data for insights. The human
co-author can focus on synthesizing findings to make sense of patterns
or trends and perfect their insight judgement and communication.
In my conversations with expert contributors, the consensus was
that AI would have a significant impact on data storytelling but
would never replace the need for human intervention.

The main advantages of AI for data storytelling were seen as:

●●
saving time for some elements of the data storytelling process,
particularly data visualization and chart creation
●●
drilling into multiple sources of data to pull out consistent themes
quickly
●●
identifying specific nuances from large datasets that may be missed by
a human
●●
providing a starting framework for secondary research to build a quick
picture of the overall landscape
●●
providing better quality do-it-yourself research, especially when creating
questionnaires for surveys
●●
allowing more freedom and time to think about how to utilize the story
to influence others

This vision for the future of storytelling is (almost) here. Tools like this
already exist and are being further improved, enhanced and rolled out
to market as I write this book. But the reality is that the skills involved
 THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA IN PERSUASIVE STORYTELLING 33

in leveraging these tools are no different from the skills needed to

currently build, create and deliver great data stories. If anything, the
risks involved in not having human co-authors means that acquiring
the skills covered in this book becomes even more valuable.

CASE STUDY
The experiment: Human vs machine

This experiment was conducted in partnership with the Worldwide Independent

Network of Market Research and Opinion Polls (WIN), Keen as Mustard
Marketing and Inspirient, an AI-driven end-to-end data analytics tool.

The brief
Using the data provided by WIN, both the AI tool and humans were tasked with
preparing a presentation to the CEO and director of a global communications
agency. The brief was to suggest the best stories that have come out of the
research to inform a content plan that would gain maximum awareness for the
research. The secondary audience for the data stories would be journalists from
national media in the US and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
Both the AI tool and the human researchers were expected to produce a
PowerPoint presentation suitable for use in a 30-minute client meeting, a press
release targeting national media, a longer-form report or white paper to use as
follow-up, and LinkedIn posts about the stories with suggested images.

Results
The team of humans gathered the data, organized and reviewed the key findings,
pulled out the story, built a 15-slide story deck, before creating the marketing
content. The total time taken on these tasks came to around 20 hours. In
comparison, the AI uploaded the raw data, analysed the data, assessed for data
quality, prioritized key observations and used Chat GPT to create marketing
content within 14 minutes. Of the 14 minutes, 11 minutes was the human time
involved and 3 minutes was the machine time. However, it ended up creating a
1,001 slide report and multiple presentations around the key themes.
34 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

While the human-generated press release took 2 hours to craft, the AI-generated
version took around 1 minute, including time for the human prompts. However,
the AI-generated example had a more generic story upfront, a lot of data, less
focus on WIN, no quotes and was less tailored to the specific brief.
The human-generated LinkedIn article took just under 30 minutes to create
and used relevant tags, hashtags, engaging imagery and a clear focus on the story.
The AI-generated example took under 1 minute to create but was focused on the
data and numbers, had no related hashtags and used data charts as images.

The data story

Despite the drive towards using AI tools in data storytelling to maximize efficiency,
there is a clear trade-off between speed and relevance when utilizing AI that has
an impact on quality and effectiveness. As highlighted in Figure 1.2, the reality is
that human-generated insights and content are more relevant to the audience
and the brief but take significantly longer to create.

FIGURE 1.2 Human vs machine? Turning WIN’s data into stories

HIGH
INSIGHT RELEVANCE

Target:
Highly relevant
insights, available
immediately!

LOW

DAYS HOURS MINS

SPEED TO INSIGHT
SOURCE Reproduced with permission, Guillaume Aimetti, Inspirient (2024)
 THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA IN PERSUASIVE STORYTELLING 35

In the AI storytelling exercise WIN conducted, the tool came up with ‘80 per
cent of people are healthy’ as its key point. Well, it’s just not an interesting
fact. Whereas the humans looking at the same data were able to see a trend
of increasing stress, which is far more interesting as a story. AI could
analyse the data in seconds, but my feeling is that it needs a lot of really
good prompting in order for it to seriously help with the storytelling bit.
I’m much more positive about it being able to create 100 slides for me from
the data and that may make it easier for me to pick out what the story is.

Richard Colwell, CEO, Red C Research & Marketing Group

The ambition to achieve highly relevant content in minutes requires humans and
AI working together effectively.
●●
Both humans and AI need to be involved in data sorting to ensure the quality
of the input.
●●
Humans can default to AI to conduct the basic data analysis and prepare the
initial content.
●●
Humans are required to uncover and draw out the best story from the basic
data analysis, finalize the storytelling using more qualitative and human-
related inputs, and create usable marketing content from the insights.

We did a recent experiment with the Inspirient AI platform taking a big, big,
big dataset and in three minutes it was able to produce 1,000 slides with
decent titles and design. Then you can ask it a question about anything,
and it can produce 110 slides, 30 slides, whatever you want. So there is no
reason why people should be wasting time on the data in that way. AI is
going to make a massive difference – and then we bring in the human skill
which is contextualization, storytelling, thinking about the impact and the
relevance to the strategy and all that stuff the computer is never going to
be able to do.

Lucy Davison, Founder and CEO, Keen as Mustard Marketing

36 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

Other innovations impacting on data storytelling

Besides AI, there are a number of other key trends that are likely to
have an impact on our approach to data storytelling in the future:
●●
Synthetic data is data that has been created artificially through
computer simulation to take the place of real-world data. While
already used in many data models to supplement real-world data
or when real-world data is not available, the incidence of synthetic
data is likely to grow in the near future. According to Gartner
(2023), by 2024, 60 per cent of the data used in training AI models
will be synthetically generated. Speaking in Marketing Week
(2023), Mark Ritson cites around 90 per cent accuracy for
AI-derived consumer data, when triangulated with data generated
from primary human sources, in academic studies to date. This
means that it has a huge potential to help create data stories to
inform strategies and plans.
●●
Virtual and augmented reality will enable us to generate more
immersive and interactive experiences as part of our data
storytelling. Audiences will be able to step into the story world,
interact with the data and influence the narrative outcomes. This
technology is already being used in the world of entertainment to
blur the lines between traditional linear television and interactive
video games, creating a new form of content consumption. Within
data storytelling we can easily imagine a world with simulated
customer conversations, while navigating the website or retail
environment. Instead of static visualizations and charts showing
data, the audience will be able to overlay data on to their physical
environment and embed data from different sources accessed at a
touch of a button.
●●
Transmedia storytelling will continue to evolve, with narratives
spanning multiple platforms and media. Data storytellers will be
expected to create interconnected storylines across different media
and channels, enabling audiences to engage with the data story in
different ways. We are already seeing these tools being used in data
journalism, where embedded audio and video, on-the-ground
 THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA IN PERSUASIVE STORYTELLING 37

eyewitness content, live-data feeds, data visualization and

photography sit alongside more traditional editorial commentary
and narrative storytelling. For a great example of this in practice,
look at the Pulitzer Prize-winning ‘Snow fall: The avalanche at
Tunnel Creek’ (Branch, 2012), which changed the way the New
York Times approached data storytelling. In the marketing world,
some teams are already investing in high-end knowledge share
portals or embedding tools alongside their intranet and internets,
to bring multiple media together in one place to tell the data story.
●●
User-generated content will also have a greater influence on data
storytelling. With the rise of social media and online communities,
audiences will actively participate in creating and sharing stories.
Platforms will emerge that enable collaboration between
storytellers and audiences, allowing for co-creation of narratives
and fostering a sense of community around storytelling. Tailoring
narratives to the individual audience member based on their
preferences, and even their emotional state, will lead to greater
expectations of customization in data storytelling to enhance
engagement and impact. Moving beyond the traditional ‘You said,
so we did’ communication with customers to demonstrate how
their feedback has been actioned, user-generated content will
enable customers to play a more central role in sharing their
experiences and expectations.

These advanced tools are a complement to, and not a substitution for,
the human creativity and critical thinking that great data storytelling
requires. Used appropriately, they can enhance your data storytelling
but they cannot do it for you. Whether you work with Microsoft
Excel or access reports from more sophisticated business intelligence
tools, such as Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, Looker Studio or Qlik,
you will still need to take those outputs and use your skills as a data
storyteller to curate them in ways that are useful for your end audi-
ence. There are some great knowledge-sharing platforms out there
that can integrate outputs from existing data storytelling tools and
help curate content in one place. Some can be built in existing plat-
forms that might be accessible within your business, like Confluence.
38 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

Some can be custom-built using external tools for a bespoke need,

such as creating a micro-site for your data story using WordPress.
And some can be brought in at scale to integrate with existing
Microsoft or Google tools. The list of what is available is extensive
but will typically be dependent on what is available IT-wise within
your own organization. What is more important is how we leverage
these tools, and we will discuss this in more detail in Chapter 9.

The continuing role of the human in data storytelling

In this evolving world, the role of the data storyteller doesn’t disap-
pear but becomes ever more critical. The human data storyteller still
has many important roles to play, and the skills necessary to influence
and engage cynical, discerning and overwhelmed audiences become
even more valuable. Now that white papers, marketing copy, internal
presentations and digital content can all be generated faster than
humans could ever manage on their own, the risk of information
overload becomes inevitable without a skilled storyteller to curate
the content.
Today, the human data storyteller is crucial for:
●●
ensuring we are not telling ‘any old story’ just because we can and
that the story is relevant to the business context and needs
●●
understanding the inputs being used by the tool, including
limitations and potential bias, as well as ensuring data is used
ethically and that it is accurate, reliable and obtained with the
appropriate permissions
●●
framing queries appropriately in the right way to incorporate the
relevant context, issues and target audience needs to inform the
knowledge base
●●
cross-referencing and synthesizing AI-generated insights or
synthetic data with human expertise and subject domain knowledge
to ensure relevance and accuracy of recommendations
●●
leveraging the different VR, AR and transmedia tools available to
ensure the right one for the job
 THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA IN PERSUASIVE STORYTELLING 39

KEY TAKE-OUTS

1 A great data story needs to balance credible data with a logical narrative
structure and an emotional connection to the insight.
2 Modern marketers need data storytelling as a key skill – being capable
and willing to learn about data storytelling is a ‘must have’ in the
majority of marketing roles.
3 Despite advances in technology, the human role in data storytelling will
remain critical.

Coming up next…
In the next chapter we look at the impact of data storytelling on
marketing outcomes and the benefits of data storytelling skills to
marketing and communication professionals.

References
Branch, J (2012) Snow fall: The avalanche at Tunnel Creek, New York Times,
20 December, www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/index.
html#/?part=tunnel-creek (archived at https://perma.cc/PV3V-4H7U)
Gartner (2023) Gartner identifies top trends shaping the future of data science and
machine learning, Gartner, 1 August, www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-
releases/2023-08-01-gartner-identifies-top-trends-shaping-future-of-data-
science-and-machine-learning (archived at https://perma.cc/LRE6-S3BH)
Ritson, M (2023) Synthetic data is suddenly making very real ripples, Marketing
Week, 24 October, www.marketingweek.com/synthetic-data-market-research
(archived at https://perma.cc/8A8T-C8VF)
40

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 41

The impact of data storytelling

on marketing outcomes

In this chapter we will explore:

●●
the role of data storytelling in creating transformative marketing
outcomes
●●
how data storytelling can be used to persuade others to support the
marketing plan
●●
the benefits of improving data storytelling

There are two areas where data plays a key role: inspiring marketing
activity and measuring the impact of the activity to improve marketing
effectiveness. This is where data storytelling is crucial.
Sanica Menezes, Head of Customer Analytics, Aviva

The role of data storytelling in creating

transformative marketing outcomes
The journey from good to great
A five-year study cited in Good to Great: Why some companies make
the leap... and others don’t by Jim Collins (2001) began with a field
of 1,435 companies and emerged with a list of 11 good-to-great
42 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

companies: Abbott Laboratories, Circuit City, Fannie Mae, Gillette

Co., Kimberly-Clark Corp., the Kroger Co., Nucor Corp., Philip
Morris Cos. Inc., Pitney Bowes Inc., Walgreens and Wells Fargo. In
exploring what made greatness it became clear there were a few
consistent practices and a lot of myths about success that needed to
be busted. One of those myths was about access to great data. Collins
concluded:

We found no evidence that the ‘good-to-great’ companies had more or

better information than the comparison companies. None. Both sets
of companies had virtually identical access to good information. The
key, then, lies not in better information, but in turning information into
information that cannot be ignored.

While access to great-quality data held in one frictionless data lake

where anyone with any skills can access a single customer view might
be the Holy Grail, the reality is that if we wait for a perfect system we
will be waiting a long time. Time in which other organizations are
making the most of the data they have, in whatever shape and imper-
fect form that comes in. This is what is necessary to gain advantage.
So, if what we do with the information we have is what makes an
organization great, versus merely good, then there is a central role for
data storytelling to play in driving performance and growth.

The role of data storytelling in positive marketing outcomes

For a marketing team specifically, there are a number of areas where
data storytelling can help transform a good marketing function into
a great one. Effective data storytelling can play a key role in helping
the marketing function make decisions around where to focus time,
attention and effort. In this section we identify a number of positive
outcomes that come from data storytelling, supported by case study
examples and perspectives from our expert contributors.

BUILDING A DEEPER CUSTOMER UNDERSTANDING

By analysing demographic information, attitudes, needs, behavioural
patterns, purchase history and preferences, marketers can build a
 THE IMPACT OF DATA STORYTELLING ON MARKETING OUTCOMES 43

stronger understanding of their ideal customer and create more

personalized and targeted marketing campaigns. This in turn leads to
better engagement with content and increased conversion rates. Using
data storytelling to keep the organization’s ‘finger on the pulse’ can
pre-empt surprises and help spot opportunities before competitors do.

CASE STUDY

Take CeraVe as a recent example that saw potential within the beauty market that
others had either missed or ignored. They were able to activate their marketing to
target a specific customer segment right under the noses of some of the biggest
brands who have access to a significant volume of data. While other beauty
brands saw a negative impact due to Covid, according to Beauty Business Journal
(2021), CeraVe’s parent company reported over 40 per cent growth in its Active
Cosmetics Division in 2020. The key to their success was in understanding TikTok
audience data to design a marketing strategy that leveraged Generation Z
skincare influencers as brand advocates. Success for CeraVe came down to using
data to understand the potential target pain points and utilizing user review data
to gain product feedback that could be incorporated into messaging. From this
they were able to pivot their marketing investment in a timely manner to
leverage the power of user-generated content on social media.

CeraVe’s competitor brands have got top-end marketing teams, top of their
league, and should have the best skills and tools to be all over this. CeraVe
came out of nowhere because it saw market potential where the others
didn’t – and it knew how to activate it. CeraVe really talks to skin wellness,
rather than beauty. It is all about how to deal with different skin types.
So, you’ve got a ton of people with acne on TikTok. Then you get content
creators that come along – these amazing beauty influencers that have
been blogging for a long time. They’ve got a big presence on YouTube and
they’re cross-referencing that with bite-sized chunks on TikTok. The big
latent pool of demand is then set on fire by these content creators.
It creates a community, it lights these people up and they think ‘Oh
wow – that’s me. That’s my problem.’ CeraVe used that opportunity to drive
sales through to its product, because no one else in the market was doing
the same.

Jeremy Hollow, Founder and CEO, Listen + Learn Research

44 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

EVALUATING AND OPTIMIZING CAMPAIGN PERFORMANCE

Marketing has evolved beyond creative intuition, and data analytics
and customer insights play an ever-greater role in achieving commer-
cial success. For example, a recent study by Boston Consulting Group,
commissioned by Google (Field et al, 2019), claimed that data-driven
marketing can double revenue and increase cost savings by 1.6 times.
By tracking key metrics such as conversion rates, customer acquisi-
tion costs, customer lifetime value, etc., marketers can evaluate the
success of their marketing initiatives. This evaluation helps in opti-
mizing future campaigns, allocating resources efficiently and
achieving better results. Data storytelling provides us with an on­going
mechanism to track and optimize business performance. By g­ enerating
ongoing data stories, marketing teams can spot opportunities for
tests, experiments and pilots, reviewing impact in real time, before
making further interventions or changes.

CASE STUDY

A charity marketing team was charged with reducing budgets, but at the same
time driving awareness, activation and income via more effective use of digital
marketing. Having trialled several different campaigns and evaluating
performance and impact, they had a clear indication of which events and
triggers aligned best with their brand purpose and how digital marketing could
support overall brand-building. However, to drive awareness among a younger
audience, it was clear that aligning digital activations (such as online prize
draws) with traditional media channels (such as mainstream television) was not
going to work. They needed to make a case for switching budget into paid social.
Using the campaign data, alongside audience insight data and sector case
studies, they were able to create a data story that made the case for a specific
paid social budget to support digital campaigns.

ENHANCING PERSONALIZATION
By leveraging data on customer preferences, browsing behaviour and
purchase history, marketers can create customized content, offers and
recommendations. This personalization enhances the customer expe-
rience, fosters brand loyalty and increases customer satisfaction.
 THE IMPACT OF DATA STORYTELLING ON MARKETING OUTCOMES 45

Utilizing good data storytelling skills means we can move beyond

superficial customer understanding and gain insight at a more granu-
lar level to guide this personalization. For example, measuring
conversion from page views on the website to clicking through to the
detailed content will give only a high-level view of what works for
different customers. However, linking this learning with customer
data that aligns digital behaviours with wider purchasing behaviour
adds a new dimension. Then layering additional insights from user
experience (UX) research that highlights how other similar targets
have been triggered to act when exposed to certain messages at this
stage in the journey provides an even greater level of insight to guide
personalization. By getting to know customers in a much deeper way,
understanding their likes, dislikes and content topics they engage with,
and then feeding that back into the content plan, data can help increase
the relevance and engagement of campaigns or marketing activation.

OPTIMIZING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

In truly customer-centric organizations the customer experience
becomes everyone’s responsibility. The marketing function needs to
play a central role, given the importance of customer communication
at every touchpoint. Data storytelling can help build awareness of the
triggers, barriers and enablers along the journey and help determine
what communication interventions are required for different custom-
ers at different stages of the journey.

One of the most exciting projects that we’re working on in collaboration

with marketing is shifting from a product-based marketing approach to a
customer-centric one. From saying ‘We’ve got to sell this product and we’re
going to identify customers’ to being an ‘always on engine’ that says, ‘We
want to be in front of customers and the moments that matter to them.’
So, it’s about being relevant and responsive to those triggers and moments
in our customers’ lives, agnostic of the product. And it just so happens that
we might have a product that is available for them. So that’s a huge shift in
mindset and ways of working.

Sanica Menezes, Head of Customer Analytics, Aviva

46 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

TAPPING INTO NEW SEGMENTS AND POCKETS OF DEMAND

Partnerships and affiliations are a key component of successful
marketing, but knowing which influencers and demand generators to
work with to tap into new target groups requires an extensive under-
standing of rising trends, audience sizes and brand fit, before lucrative
win–win deals can be struck. Data storytelling techniques will ensure
that decisions can be based on sound judgement and sustainable
commercial benefits, removing the influence of the latest craze, buzz
topic or senior decision-makers’ personal preferences.

These pockets of demand are out there. And if you don’t get involved
with it in the right way, then you’re at the whim of what’s happening
elsewhere. I see a lot of brands trying to just invade other people’s
parties without really understanding what’s going on. They’re not really
showing me that they understand the nature of the category, they’re just
being quirky, rather than profound. For example, before March 2020
BookTok didn’t exist. Now it’s one of the strongest demand generators in
the young adult book category. Full stop. It’s like you go into TikTok or
you go into Amazon, and it’s got ‘As seen on BookTok’. Waterstones has a
BookTok and it’s ingrained in the everyday commercial experience of
that brand.

Jeremy Hollow, Founder and CEO, Listen + Learn Research

MITIGATING THE RISK OF CUSTOMER CHURN

By understanding market trends, customer preferences and competi-
tive landscapes, marketers can make proactive adjustments to their
strategies and minimize the potential impact of external factors in
causing customers to churn. Whether that is identifying ‘at risk’
customer segments based on behaviours to trigger proactive commu-
nications, promotions or discounts, or optimizing elements of the
experience based on feedback and reactions, data storytelling can
have a positive impact in any retention strategy.
 THE IMPACT OF DATA STORYTELLING ON MARKETING OUTCOMES 47

The retention team have managed to reduce the churn rate by 8 per cent
just by implementing small data-driven changes. Things like defining when
a customer is past onboarding and now at the in-life stage within the
journey. Those small things made huge differences when they were starting
to ask for money for campaigns, because optimizing the journey had a
massive impact both on revenue and efficiency.

Rebecca Ruane, Head of Reader Revenue Insight, The Guardian

How data storytelling can be used to persuade

others to support the marketing plan
This section looks at the positive outcomes marketing can achieve
using data storytelling to influence relevant stakeholders and deci-
sion-makers both inside and outside the organization.
Drawing on case studies and our expert contributors, we will
demonstrate the difference data storytelling can make in persuading
others to support the marketing plan.

Utilizing data storytelling to influence internally

BUY-IN TO STRATEGY AND PLANS
Data storytelling can help gain buy-in from decision-makers and
stakeholder teams to get marketing plans and strategies over the line.
Buy-in and support can help protect brand assets from short-term
tactics and tinkering and even build the trust needed to sell in more
radical approaches.

We do a lot of work with marketing teams that are particularly interested in

the Ehrenberg-Bass theory of how to grow brands. We work with one client
in the National Lottery here in Ireland, who totally gets it, and uses the data
to educate and persuade the board on what they want to do, because it’s a
very different way of thinking about marketing. For example, the value of
48 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

distinctive brand assets and keeping consistency. How do you persuade a

board that you shouldn’t be changing stuff and that we need to keep it the
same? Even simple data, such as reviewing assets and showing how
confused consumers are, can help to show the strength of doing things
consistently and can make a big difference.

Richard Colwell, CEO, Red C Research & Marketing Group

CASE STUDY

The ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ positioning for Dove was initially rejected by
senior management at Unilever because it was a disruptive strategy and did not
align with their perception of beauty ideals. By investing in consumer research,
the agency team at Ogilvy and the Dove brand team were able to tell the story
from a consumer perspective where women from around the world expressed
their views on beauty and how they felt about themselves. Ultimately, the
insights gleaned from the data persuaded the board to buy in to the new
positioning of widening the remit and definition of beauty. This campaign went
on to be incredibly successful for the brand, supercharging their brand purpose.
In her interview with The Brand Blog (Ferguson, 2020), Daryl Fielding, who
was involved in the campaign from the start, talked about the importance of
spending time to get senior stakeholders on board and how this is often
neglected or done badly.

JUSTIFYING MARKETING INVESTMENT

The 2023 Gartner CMO Spend and Strategy Survey indicated that
marketing budgets are still below pre-pandemic levels and found that
75 per cent of CMOs are facing increased pressure to ‘do more with
less’ to deliver profitable growth (Gartner, 2023). This means data-
driven decisions around budget, resource and opportunity costs are
even more important than ever.

A lot of the time, marketing feels hugely under pressure – they’re being
driven much more commercially than ever before. They’re trying to
demonstrate ROI in a world which is really fast-moving, and how do you
 THE IMPACT OF DATA STORYTELLING ON MARKETING OUTCOMES 49

pull apart all of the threads of what’s driving this? Is it being driven by this
campaign? Or is it because of that promotion? At the same time, there’s
data paralysis, so marketers are working with a million times more data
than ever before. How do you know what to trust? How do you feel
confident in what it is you’re looking at?

Sinead Jefferies, SVP Customer Expertise, Zappi

As Jon Evans, Chief Customer Officer at System1 Group, states in

Marketing Week (2023), ‘something magical happens when you have
significant constraints. You get creative.’ In this context, a data-­
literate marketing team are able to use data storytelling to influence
stakeholders on where money and resource are best spent to drive
acquisition, retention and revenue growth.

With less budget and fewer resources, you definitely have to think
differently, and you have to get stuck in more. We’re always trying to find
innovative ways of doing stuff. So that can be liberating, exciting, creative
and motivating, but it requires more of you as an individual.

Charlotte Neal, Head of Marketing, Turning Point

Data storytelling is a powerful tool when it comes to convincing

the business to give you funding and then, when you’ve been given
the funding, assuring them that their trust will be rewarded. The
best marketing directors and senior decision-makers will rightly
demand that these plans are based on robust customer insight and
previous performance data. The marketer needs to explain why
they have taken the decision to place their budget in the different
areas. Budgets are subject to scrutiny, so utilizing evidence-based
insights into the effectiveness and impact of marketing efforts
helps marketers justify budget allocations and secure resources for
future campaigns.
50 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

GAINING SUPPORT FROM THE CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Marketing is often seen in some organizations as a cost centre with a
lack of clarity on how it contributes to the bottom line. This gets even
more opaque when ROI is measured in short time periods. When it
comes to engaging with the chief financial officer (CFO) or other
commercial stakeholders, the data storytelling effort must align
marketing activities with the bigger picture.
Several recommendations were made by our expert contributors
when it comes to using data storytelling to build relationships with
CFOs, finance partners and commercial functions, including:
●●
ensure they have sight of the plan and how it fits into the bigger
picture
●●
speak their language
●●
make unambiguous and relevant points
●●
remove subjectivity from the deliverables

Many of our expert contributors talked about subjectivity in market-

ing and how data storytelling can help balance the argument. One
marketing expert talked about using data storytelling to mitigate the
role of personal preference when making decisions regarding creative
choices. Using data storytelling can align creative recommendations
with consumer feedback and preference, rather than internal prefer-
ence. This is critical because marketing is the function where
subjectivity easily comes in because everybody has a taste, everybody
has an opinion on an advert, on a piece of content, on a new logo, or
on a colour used in product packaging.
The reality is that using ROI in your data storytelling is more likely
to appeal to your finance colleagues than quoting marketing theory
or sharing your personal preference. In fact, according to Josh
Stephenson (2023), ROI is considered by two-thirds of 1,300 brand-
side marketers to be the key metric demanded by the chief executive
officer (CEO), CFO and other senior stakeholders to prove market-
ing effectiveness.
 THE IMPACT OF DATA STORYTELLING ON MARKETING OUTCOMES 51

A key focus of any marketing team is to demonstrate its impact and land
that message with finance and commercial teams. Proving that this
proportion of sales has been driven by this marketing activity is always
hard, especially in a world where there are so many other things going on.
Did our revenue increase because of the range review, or this optimization
we did over here, or because you put more colleagues in the store? They
can all claim sales. But if you added everything up that could be claimed to
influence sales, it would never equal the actual sales; it would be
significantly more. So, getting financial and commercial stakeholders to
believe the science, where we can share the actual result from our analysis,
is really important. It requires credibility and an understanding of the
science of measurement.

Lizzie Harris, Customer Director, B&Q

In the same article, Premier Foods CMO, Yilmaz Erceyes, warned

that a laser focus on ROI could lead to dilution of brand equity that
may ‘transpire into a performance problem in the mid to long term’.
So while there may be an affinity for performance data among your
commercial colleagues, the data storyteller still has the responsibility
to put that into context and educate the audience on the limitations
of one key metric. Therefore, the more data-literate the marketing
team, the more data stories can focus on the bigger picture and the
different metrics beyond ROI required to evaluate performance and
measure success.

Brand marketers bang on about the long and short of it. We all know brand
marketing is important, but if you go in talking about the long and short of
it to CEOs and CFOs, they do not care. CEOs and investors love performance
marketing – one pound in and five out sounds brilliant – because you can
quantify that. Apart from the large, sophisticated marketing organizations
like Unilever, I still don’t think marketing is fully articulated in a way that a
lot of C-suite really understands, and this is really harmful. It is like an
iceberg – 90 per cent of it is below the surface. The bit that’s visible,
52 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

because it has a pound sign and revenue against it, gets talked about more.
So, you spend 90 per cent of your time talking about 10 per cent of what
drives business success. There’s a gap there and there are lots of examples
where businesses fail because they have no real customer insight of what
they want, what they are prepared to pay or knowledge of how the
competition has changed.

Rhea Fox, Digital Director, Ted Baker

Leveraging data storytelling with external partners,

suppliers and customers
Marketing requires strong relationships with external stakeholders
to ensure the brand thrives in our hyper-connected world. Using data
storytelling to influence external stakeholders is essential for those
working in partnership with other parts of the value chain. Marketing
needs to add value to existing datasets that the partner, supplier or
customer may already have available to them through effective data
storytelling.

SUPPORTING EXTERNALLY FACING COLLEAGUES TO SELL TO CUSTOMERS

Marketers can empower sales colleagues by crafting data stories that
align with customer needs, market forces and brand differentiators.
Utilizing data storytelling to highlight customer success stories
enhances sales pitches. By sharing insights on customer preferences,
pain points and market dynamics through the data story, this equips
sales teams with tailored information for targeted pitches. It also
helps sales to build credibility, address objections and ultimately close
deals, creating a seamless synergy between marketing efforts and the
sales process.

At Twitter, one of the responsibilities we had was helping our sales team
sell advertising. You’re selling to advertising agencies or brands, and you’re
convincing them why putting their work on Twitter will be the right place to
spend their ad dollars. There must be data in that – whether that is big,
 THE IMPACT OF DATA STORYTELLING ON MARKETING OUTCOMES 53

robust, media mix modelling (MMM) type data, or whether it’s data talking
about the value of the audience on Twitter. If you think of any major kind of
advertising moment, like Christmas, all the media owners are using a
combination of data and sales craft to tell the same story. And, guess what,
all that research and all those stories say that their platform is the best one
for a brand to put their Christmas advertising. I would imagine it is easy for
the brands to forget which media owner said what, because they’re all
using similar methodologies to say similar things. There’s just a different
logo in the corner of the slide. You have to fight to cut through that. And
that’s where data storytelling comes in. You can choose not to play that
game, not to be just another media owner waiting in the hallway to come
in and give a 30-minute presentation. You can choose to think of it
differently.

Jake Steadman, Global Head of Market Research and Data, Canva

(ex-Twitter)

INFLUENCING PARTNERS TO STEP OUT OF THEIR COMFORT ZONE

By surfacing emerging consumer behaviours, market trends or compet-
itive threats, marketers can proactively adapt their marketing strategy
and campaigns to stay ahead of the competition. This agility in response
gives marketers a competitive edge and enables them to leverage first
mover advantage, but only if they can influence partners to step outside
their own comfort zone and buy in to new ways of marketing.

CASE STUDY

Traditionally the key target audience for De Beers was men buying diamonds for
women, predominantly focused on the engagement ring and tokens of love.
During qualitative research designed to develop a new advertising campaign, the
De Beers team identified a new trend of women buying diamonds for themselves.
No one in the industry at that time was speaking to this audience or pushing this
narrative. Before surfacing this insight, the planning team triangulated this trend
with wider macroeconomic data on female purchasing power, trend studies on
the nature of modern relationships, microeconomic factors in key markets and
54 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

competitor data. From this they were able to develop a compelling data story.
This was then pitched to the CEO with a clear reference to the positive impact on
the bottom line, as well as to jewellers around the world.

We shared these insights in the 2017 De Beers diamond insight report

which is available to the whole diamond industry. We did a feature on
‘self-purchase’ to create a story highlighting that this was a real gap in the
market. The report had to look at consumer insight in a very different way
and look beyond what we’d normally focus on. It was really important for us
to think differently and highlight the synergies where we hadn’t before. De
Beers created a new campaign that was aimed at women, where the brand
had to find a new voice for itself. We also created a new jewellery collection
aimed at women and that has evolved and expanded over time and it’s
doing really, really well.

Rosy Harrington, Global Brand Planner, De Beers Group

Encouraging integrated marketing plans

Producers and manufacturers need to build integrated marketing
plans with the various channels to market. Personalized data story-
telling can be effective in showcasing strategies to retail and other
channel partners to create a win–win plan. Going beyond the sales
data that the retail channel has available to them, the marketing
team can integrate market, category and consumer insights and
trends into the data story to recommend a tailored marketing plan.
Data-driven narratives can guide collaborative promotional
campaigns, optimize product placement, and refine messaging to
resonate with target audiences. Sharing actionable insights through
data storytelling fosters a unified approach and ensures consistency
of brand message.
 THE IMPACT OF DATA STORYTELLING ON MARKETING OUTCOMES 55

CASE STUDY

A governing body were looking to support the food producers they represented
in their conversations with retailers and on-trade channels around the world
using data storytelling to influence category-specific marketing. Looking to go
beyond consumption data and barriers to purchase, the team sought to use data
storytelling techniques to generate fresh insights to support above-the-line
campaigns, in-store and in-aisle marketing activation. Having developed a core
story that utilized extensive primary research, the organization set out to
develop a number of data storytelling outputs to build the capabilities of their
clients when engaging with the buyers in various channels. With an extensive
data storytelling toolkit that was insightful but also easy for non-experts to use,
the marketing team were able to play a key role in driving category growth.

SHOWCASING QUALITY THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

According to the B2B thought leadership impact study (Edelman,
2021), there is a tidal wave of content marketing, making it harder
for companies to connect with B2B customers and prospects. Seventy-
one per cent of decision-makers state that less than half of the thought
leadership they consume gives them valuable insights. Utilizing data
storytelling in thought leadership can help your content stand out
from the noise and provide real insight.

The benefits of great storytelling are differentiation and being able to stand
out when everyone’s putting out content. A lot of the content is very much
the same, a lot of it is just market analysis or commentary. Quite often,
statistics are used without any real data storytelling. Thought leadership
programmes and the content that’s coming out from organizations that are
doing data storytelling well are really standing out from the crowd, because
they’re displaying the data in a way that resonates. It’s easy to digest
compared to the big, long 50-page PDFs that have been the norm for
thought leadership for many years. So, by breaking things up, by focusing
in on particular issues, by really interrogating the data and drawing out
those narratives and stories, they’re showcasing their own expertise. And
that’s what stands out. That’s what’s resonating with their target markets.

Rachael Kinsella, Editorial and Content Director, iResearch Services

56 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

The benefits of improving data storytelling

The benefits of driving a data storytelling mindset
We acknowledged earlier in this chapter that data storytelling is a key
tool in the journey from ‘good to great’, therefore the marketing
function should play a central role in delivering this to the business.
The marketing function is a key advocate and voice for the consumer,
so taking the lead in delivering great data storytelling is a natural fit.
There are four key benefits as to why marketing should want to be
focused on building the skills, capabilities, processes and ways of
working to own data storytelling as a growth driver.

BENEFIT 1: DATA STORYTELLING CREATES A BUSINESS ASSET THAT

HAS TANGIBLE VALUE IN ITS OWN RIGHT
Creating data stories translates data into assets that hold immense value
for the organization, enabling informed decision-making, gaining
competitive advantage, building customer or consumer understanding,
generating revenue and optimizing performance. By developing compel-
ling data-driven narratives, the marketing and communications team
can unlock and deliver the insight to drive growth.

BENEFIT 2: DATA STORYTELLING PUTS MARKETING AT THE HEART OF BUSINESS

TRANSFORMATION
Using data storytelling to encourage evidence-based decision-making,
collaboration between marketing and other departments and the
integration of data-driven insights into overall business strategies
makes marketing the lynchpin in transforming how data is leveraged
within the business. This ensures that the customer is placed at the
heart of the business and every decision is referenced on the needs of
the customer and aligned to operational and finance data.

BENEFIT 3: DATA STORYTELLING IS A CATALYST TO FACILITATE THINKING,

CONVERSATION, DEBATE AND ACTION
By its nature, data storytelling results in a distilled and focused message,
clearly communicated in an easy-to-understand output. It becomes a
powerful communication tool, both inside and outside the business, by
 THE IMPACT OF DATA STORYTELLING ON MARKETING OUTCOMES 57

cutting out the noise, helping the audience navigate through the
complexity of the data and providing meaning via human, grounded
examples. Data storytelling ensures clarity and greater understanding,
as the audience has to do less work to understand the message.
Marketers through data storytelling can help bridge the gap between
data specialist teams and non-technical stakeholders. Marrying natural
storytelling skills with data analytical capabilities ensures that the
organization can be more agile and confident as it takes action.

BENEFIT 4: DATA STORYTELLING IS SOMETHING WE HAVE DIRECT

CONTROL OVER
Much as we would like to make others do what we want, we are
limited to influencing their thoughts, feelings and actions. We cannot
make CFOs give us more money, we cannot make our sales and
service colleagues support our core brand messages in their customer
conversations, and we cannot make our customers like us more or
buy more from us. But we can help the audience to make up their
own minds by using data storytelling as a way to influence our differ-
ent audiences around their own needs and wants. It is within our
power to effectively analyse the data to identify the most important
messages. It is within our power to decipher what data is insightful
and actionable and what is just noise. It is within our power to
consider how we distil and chunk our insights into easy-to-digest
formats that help our audience to navigate our claims. It is within our
power to evaluate and contextualize our insights within the real-
world paradigm. It is within our power to choose to simplify our
outputs to aid comprehension.
We will not convince our audiences all of the time, but by applying
the systematic storytelling techniques covered in this book, we can be
certain that this is down to other reasons and not just because they
didn’t understand the message in the first place.

The personal benefits of data storytelling to marketing

and communication professionals
Being a good data storyteller can offer numerous personal benefits,
all of which help with motivation, building new capabilities and
58 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. Here are some of the key
personal benefits to building data storytelling capabilities gathered
from the marketing delegates I worked with over the years.

ENHANCED DATA LITERACY

Data storytelling encourages you to delve deeper into data analysis
and interpretation. As a result, you develop a stronger understanding
of data and become more proficient in extracting valuable insights.
Hands-on experience with the data can supplement and enhance any
training given. By honing these skills, you enhance your critical think-
ing abilities and become better equipped to solve complex problems
and spot new opportunities.

IMPROVED PRESENTATIONS
Presenting data in a story format makes your presentations more
engaging and memorable. By combining facts, visuals and narratives,
you can produce a concise and compelling story to captivate your
audience, leaving a lasting impact and increasing the effectiveness of
your presentations. Telling a story with the data forces us to fine-tune
the main message and ensure we focus on the most important impli-
cations.

INCREASED INFLUENCE
When you can effectively present data in a story format, you can
become more persuasive. Your ability to influence and inspire others
grows, making you a valuable asset in various professional situa-
tions. By being a proficient data storyteller, you position yourself as a
sought-after professional who can contribute to strategic discussions
and drive business outcomes. This can lead to better career opportu-
nities and advancement.

CREDIBILITY WHEN CHALLENGING OTHERS

Using evidence as part of your storytelling enables you to break through
existing thinking and myths about the customer. In a customer-first
business, using data storytelling to positively challenge the status quo
should be actively encouraged and seen as a constructive way to achieve
 THE IMPACT OF DATA STORYTELLING ON MARKETING OUTCOMES 59

growth. The more capable and confident in using data, the more likely
you are to identify priorities and feel empowered to push back on deci-
sions or actions that are not supported by the evidence. Being able to
make a compelling case for a particular course of action, even if not a
popular one, can make a significant impact on job satisfaction, morale
and sense of purpose.

EFFICIENT USE OF TIME

Having a clear roadmap to create a data story will optimize your
time. Rather than spending time and energy endlessly mining data
sources hoping for inspiration and getting lost on the detail, using a
story framework to guide your analysis will help you to decide where
to start and ultimately stop to turn around insights and ideas in a
more timely manner.

KEY TAKE-OUTS

1 Data itself is not transformative when it comes to business success – it

is what you do with it that counts.
2 Data storytelling will lead to a whole range of positive marketing
outcomes – whether that is influencing the board, persuading external
stakeholders and partners, informing customer-centric strategies and
plans or reaching customer audiences.
3 Data storytelling is not going away. In fact, now is the time for
marketers to invest time and energy into this skill set to reap the clear
benefits.

Coming up next…
In the next chapter we look at the status quo and what needs to
change, including the barriers that need to be overcome and the key
skills marketing and communication professionals require to excel at
data storytelling.
60 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

References
Beauty Business Journal (2021) How CeraVe became an unlikely Gen Z favorite
through TikTok, Beauty Business Journal, 28 January, beautybusinessjournal.
com/cerave-marketing (archived at https://perma.cc/86LM-R2GD)
Collins, J (2001) Good to Great, Random House Business Books, New York
Edelman (2021) 2021 LinkedIn-Edelman B2B thought leadership impact report,
Edelman, www.edelman.com/expertise/business-marketing/2021-b2b-thought-
leadership-impact-study (archived at https://perma.cc/YYQ6-Z6J4)
Evans, J (2023) What to do when you have no budget, Marketing Week, 6 June,
www.marketingweek.com/jon-evans-no-budget (archived at https://perma.cc/
GK3G-UZRB)
Ferguson, K (2020) Daryl Fielding: The story behind Dove’s ‘Campaign for Real
Beauty’, The Brand Blog, 3 November, www.thebrandblog.co.uk/daryl-fielding-
the-story-behind-doves-campaign-for-real-beauty (archived at https://perma.cc/
S6VF-RSXQ)
Field, D, Patel, S and Leon, H (2019) The dividends of digital marketing maturity,
BCG, www.bcg.com/publications/2019/dividends-digital-marketing-maturity
(archived at https://perma.cc/WY95-KUEV)
Gartner (2023) Gartner survey reveals 71 per cent of CMOs believe they lack
sufficient budget to fully execute their strategy in 2023, Gartner, 22 May,
www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-05-22-gartner-survey-
reveals-71-percent-of-cmos-believe-they-lack-sufficient-budget-to-fully-execute-
their-strategy-in-2023 (archived at https://perma.cc/3NHM-PG6L)
Stephenson, J (2023) ROI top effectiveness metric demanded by C-suite, Marketing
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at https://perma.cc/LF2T-MVQW)
 61

The status quo and what

needs to change

In this chapter we will explore:

●●
the real-world barriers to developing great data stories
●●
why analytical and data literacy skills matter
●●
the priority data storytelling skills for modern marketers

Rather than marketers thinking of data as restricting what they can do, it
should be that they see it as empowering them. So maybe there’s a little bit
of reframing around that and the understanding of how they can use the
data to better their own position, or better their position at the board,
rather than seeing it as something that’s telling them that they’re not doing
something right, or it’s not working, or feeling like they are not going to be
able to do X or Y, because the data is telling them not to. It’s about
understanding how they can evaluate the data and the strength of being
able to use the data, rather than seeing it as restrictive.

Richard Colwell, CEO, Red C Research & Marketing Group

The real-world barriers to developing great data stories

Generating great data stories is not always simple. There are several
blockers that get in the way of finding and telling good data stories
that marketing teams need to overcome or work around if they are to
leverage the benefits discussed in Chapter 2.
62 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

The role of organizational structure and culture

There are a number of issues relating to structure and culture that
impact on data storytelling effectiveness.

TRADITIONAL DECISION-MAKING CULTURES

Data-driven insights often encounter resistance from individuals accus-
tomed to traditional decision-making approaches.

Some companies are very traditional, and they don’t see the benefits that
the use of data can have in driving competitiveness or creating different
customer experiences. We need to do a lot to convince or to change the
minds of the managers of the companies in order to increase the use of
data analysis, interpretation and storytelling.

Estrella Díaz, Professor of Marketing, University of Castilla-La Mancha

In a data-driven culture you should be knocking on an open door

and being invited in to share your data stories; however, in organiza-
tions where decision-making is more traditional and often based on
the experience of a handful of people at the top, trying to influence
with data storytelling can feel frustrating, slow and futile.

One of the things that I’ve seen is that there’s so much driven by the
company culture and how they operate, which comes from the top down.
So, if it is a very data-driven organization that’s all about dashboards and
numbers then decisions must be validated by that. Or if the culture is based
on instinct and goes on what feels right, decisions can be based on what
people like. We’ve all seen the classic case of the advert that has got this
person in it because it’s the celebrity that the marketing director likes. So,
it’s driven by people’s own preferences. I think a lot of marketers struggle
with understanding how to get that balance right.

Sinead Jefferies, SVP Customer Expertise, Zappi

 THE STATUS QUO AND WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE 63

COMPLEXITY OF MARKETING AND RIVAL CAMPS WITHIN THE FUNCTION

Across organizations, marketing departments rarely look the same
and can span a wide variety of different roles and disciplines, some of
which may even compete against each other when it comes to budget
and strategy. Working in this type of environment adds pressure to
marketers to be able to justify their point of view.

In the old days there was just a marketing team. Then, as performance
marketing really took off in some businesses, you then had a brand team
over here, a product marketing team there and CRM elsewhere, which is
super-unhelpful. And because measurement was the next hot thing,
everyone thought brands were a bit of a waste of time and too expensive.
Then they sort of came together again through tools like MMM and
econometrics, but there is still a debate about ‘Is it brand?’ or ‘Is it
marketing?’ I’m still seeing quite a lot of teams stuck in this debate and
what has made it worse is that now we also have all the organic, social,
TikTok influencer stuff, too. So, you’ve got all these rival camps. In one camp
the talk is all about customers and is seen as a bit fluffy, and in the other
the talk is all about the numbers and performance and clicks and
conversions.

Rhea Fox, Digital Director, Ted Baker

PACE OF DECISION-MAKING
In today’s fast-paced world, it is hard to find time to think rather than
do. This can create a pinch point where people lose focus on how to
evaluate what matters and rely on simple metrics that are easier to
work with. The reality is that the process of insight generation and
effective data storytelling is a messy one – it may feel very circular at
times and involve a few unforeseen rabbit holes. Rarely will we find
a brilliant, insightful and compelling data story just looking at our
screens – we need to work for it. There is no silver bullet to advance
knowledge; it is about immersing ourselves and finding ways to
advance. When the pace of change is fast and there is a constant
expectation to be agile, move quickly or find a quick win, it is uncom-
fortable to feel that you are the one slowing progress down.
64 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

It takes time and energy to shift from reporting numbers to connecting

what you’re seeing back into the customer and the wider organization and
finding a great way to engage them with a story. Finding the space to do
this can be hard, but it is incredibly worthwhile if you can do it. Marketing
is a combination of maths and magic, and we tend to lose the magic
because we’re having to work at such a fast pace to get stuff out the door.

Charlotte Neal, Head of Marketing, Turning Point

In addition to the pace of change in decision-making, we work in a

dynamic data environment where new technologies and approaches
come thick and fast. This can make it hard even for data specialists
to keep up with technological advances, to stay on top of new think-
ing, to anticipate new developments and be able to leverage
opportunities before the ‘next big thing’ comes along.

SPECIALISTS’ TIME TAKEN AWAY FROM INSIGHT GENERATION

AND STORYTELLING
The demand for data specialists, insight professionals, analysts and
researchers to support marketing planning and decision-making
continues to grow, but there is an increasing skills gap in the disci-
plines of data analytics and data science. This means there are not
enough specialists available to support the marketing department as
they continue to access data and harness its power. The solution for
many organizations has been to invest time, resource and budget in
driving data democratization, self-serve tools and data literacy train-
ing. The result is that an empowered, data-literate marketing team
can create their own robust and compelling data stories without rely-
ing on resource from the traditional analytics functions. This not
only speeds up the process of insight delivery, it also frees up the data
experts in the team to work on cutting-edge tools, complex analysis
or more strategic initiatives.
Although many data teams are growing, a significant proportion of
the roles are focused on the development and maintenance of data assets,
as well as servicing other business functions with their data needs. The
 THE STATUS QUO AND WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE 65

more data is available and the more complex the data environment, the
greater the amount of time and resource that goes into the upstream
tasks like sourcing, cleaning and managing the data, as well as develop-
ing data products and dashboards. As a consequence, business partnering
and insight translator roles become thinner on the ground and harder to
justify – especially given investment in supposed self-serve tools. This
means fewer experts working on the downstream tasks and a reliance on
data users to manage the data storytelling tasks themselves.

When I was leading client teams in the past, I wasn’t thinking about how to
structure my data assets or how to get systems in place to deliver that. But
that’s a real thing now – the best insight teams supporting marketing are all
about systems and digital transformation, and organizing your data assets,
before you can apply all of the insight skills like curiosity and storytelling
and interpretation.

Sinead Jefferies, SVP Customer Expertise, Zappi

Even insight professionals who have been recruited for their problem
solving, insight interpretation and storytelling can find an ever-greater
amount of their time directed to firefighting on business-as-usual
projects and supporting suppliers rather than on the tasks where they
can add value. I have worked with thousands of insight experts over
the last decade and have found that their time to focus on proper
analysis, interpretation, storytelling, communication and collabora-
tion is even more constrained than it was a decade ago.

The client-side Insight team are in the position to create the stories, and
indeed they should be creating communication which is really engaging
and exciting and helping drive conversations. But they often spend too
much time noodling with the data, getting the data, checking the data,
screening the data, loading into platforms, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
They spend way too much time on the data and not developing the
insight or thinking about the story.

Lucy Davison, Founder and CEO, Keen as Mustard Marketing

66 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

WORKAROUNDS FOR ORGANIZATIONAL AND CULTURAL BARRIERS

Overcoming resistance and encouraging a shift towards data-driven

decision-making requires effective communication, stakeholder
engagement, and building trust in the data stories. Below are our
recommended workarounds:
●●
Find a senior champion who already values the role of data storytelling,
even if they’re outside the marketing function, and build in time with
them so they understand your data stories and can influence by proxy.
●●
Prioritize one or two key stories that need to be heard and start there.
Keep reinforcing the same stories, rather than trying to add complexity
into your internal communication.
●●
Focus on a collegiate approach to creating your data stories and draw on
knowledge from across the business. This approach will be extremely
valuable when it comes to educating the wider business. Be realistic – the
answer to the business question is not always going to be your marketing
specialism!
●●
Give yourself a break – having spent three years in one role trying to
embed customer data and feeling like I was banging my head against a
wall, I realized persistence was only getting me so far and I needed to
play smarter rather than harder. This meant leveraging data storytelling
skills to build a compelling message, spending less time on creating new
insights and more time in conversations selling in the priority data
stories.

Dealing with data issues

Poor use of data in your storytelling can have a significant impact on
marketing outcomes. Making decisions without reliable data will mean
more reliance on assumptions, default practices, guesswork and
personal biases in your data stories. Without clear, compelling and
accurate data-driven insight stories at the heart of marketing decision-
making there is a risk of making poor strategic choices, investing in
ineffective campaigns and a waste of resources. In addition, a lack of
 THE STATUS QUO AND WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE 67

up-to-date data stories on customer behaviours, preferences and trends

means potential for missed opportunities. Missing out on new segments,
emerging trends, unmet needs and untapped opportunities can hinder
innovation and growth. Using information with inaccuracies, incon-
sistencies or incomplete datasets can undermine the credibility of the
storytelling. This feeds the fear that our insights and ideas might be
misleading or that our conclusions are incorrect.
Typical problems relating to issues with the data itself that can
impact on data storytelling effectiveness include the following:

NOT ENOUGH OF THE RIGHT DATA TO INFORM THE STORY

In a world overrun with data, there are still certain topics, sectors and
audiences from which data is hard to obtain. Working with qualita-
tive data only can feel especially uncomfortable when the wider
organization expects numbers to inform decisions. But small data is
better than no data and high-end qualitative research can trump
poor-quality big data, so it still has a significant role to play in under-
standing customers and defining marketing strategy.

The challenges are that we get hit with a bunch of data and no context,
or there’s not enough data in certain areas, or certain sectors haven’t been
surveyed. Then you’ve got glaring gaps you need to manage. Also not
having the right data, or not having it in a timely manner, so it goes out of
date before you can do anything with it – that’s no use to anybody.

Rachael Kinsella, Editorial and Content Director, iResearch Services

Parts of the marketing landscape are still less understood than others
and the pace of change regarding social media platforms can make it
hard for even the most innovative and forward-thinking marketer to
keep up. As more energy is spent on harnessing the first-party data
organizations are capturing, there is the potential to miss insights
from the wider world.
68 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

There does seem to be a common thread and that’s a lack of knowledge

about social spaces and how quickly they can change. Talking to marketers
at the moment, the biggest blind spot is the gap in their knowledge about
TikTok. For me, not knowing about TikTok is the same as not knowing about
Amazon, in terms of route to market and activating demand. So, the biggest
skill gap is understanding the role of social spaces in the way that people
make decisions.

Jeremy Hollow, Founder and CEO, Listen + Learn Research

PROBLEMS WITH ACCESSING DATA

In an organization where you have to rely on others to run a report
or to develop a dashboard, this will cause delays in getting things
done. This can also negatively affect your understanding of the data,
how it works and what it means, because you never physically inter-
act with the data itself. While gatekeeping is often done with good
intention to manage governance and quality, it is hard to get comfort-
able with data storytelling if you are exposed to only a sanitized
version of the data created by someone else. While some organiza-
tions have sought to build knowledge management systems and tools
to work around this issue, many more organizations have very basic
central repositories that can easily fall into disuse if not kept up to
date or managed.

Accessibility can be really challenging, especially in a large organization, as

data can start to get so siloed so quickly and there is no central repository
of the customer insight that cuts across all areas, all products, etc. Being
able to access data in a meaningful way can be really challenging and
becomes a big hurdle. It becomes very difficult to join the dots across a lot
of areas.

Sanica Menezes, Head of Customer Analytics, Aviva

 THE STATUS QUO AND WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE 69

DATA OVERLOAD
Data is everywhere and anyone can find a number to support their
argument. The abundance of data available can overwhelm even
expert data storytellers, making it challenging to identify the most
relevant and meaningful insights. Sorting through large datasets and
extracting key insights requires time, effort and analytical skills. But
when there is so much data available it is difficult to judge where to
start, where to stop, and how much of our workings out we need to
demonstrate to convince others. For our end audiences, attending
meeting after meeting where they are exposed to multiple metrics,
spreadsheets and dashboards can turn them off data completely. This
becomes even more complex when decision-makers are then exposed
to different perspectives and interpretation of what the same data
even means.

When it comes to marketing and media measurement there are too many
cooks. The media buying partner has their own data science and they come
back with a story. The econometrics partner comes back with another
narrative, and they will say to finance, ‘Look, it’s econometrics, it’s really
robust, you should believe this.’ They have all these different, really clever,
people doing all of these different things for them. As well as our digital
marketing team, we’ve got Google saying, ‘Here’s how much store sales
you’re driving from PPC.’ The marketing director can source numbers from
different teams and get a different perspective. If there is an inconsistent
perspective, this can damage credibility.

Lizzie Harris, Customer Director, B&Q

WORKAROUNDS FOR DATA ISSUES

Waiting for perfect data is unrealistic – you will be waiting for a very long
time! Getting the balance between reliability and imperfection is crucial for
effective data storytelling. Below are some recommended workarounds:
70 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

●●
Push for a hierarchy for all of the different measures that exist within
your marketing world. Work as a team to understand what drives the
metrics that matter most for different targets or parts of the journey and
keep it simple!
●●
Remember that a world does exist outside your own brand bubble
and look to see what relevant context can be included in your data
storytelling by considering this wider world in which the consumer
really lives.
●●
When there are gaps in the data that are absolutely critical to inform the
decision, this needs to be flagged and addressed. Drawing attention to
genuine gaps can prompt conversations with experts on whether the
gap can be filled or whether a suitable proxy can be found.

Misunderstanding the role of data

BLIND FAITH IN DATA AND ANALYTICS TO PROVIDE THE ANSWER
In the information age we expect that data will provide an answer for
everything and yet we know rationally that this is not the case.

I think over the last 10 years, there’s been a massive erosion of the value
placed on marketing and this is because marketers have chased headlong
into data. And because they haven’t charged headlong into insight. They
take a data point, make a decision, which could be the wrong decision, and
then they build on that. And I think the focus on data has destroyed the
broader skills that marketers ought to have. It’s about getting past the
data and looking at the customer. Data has incredible, immense value, and
the whole issue around data being like a currency has made data ‘a thing’.
But data is only a description or an explanation of human beings. It’s an
enabler to understand what’s going on in terms of attitudes, behaviours,
needs and markets.

Lucy Davison, Founder and CEO, Keen as Mustard Marketing

 THE STATUS QUO AND WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE 71

Great data storytelling requires far more than just great data. It requires
us to understand the data and synthesize it against existing knowledge
to join the dots. It requires us to make inferences and judgement. It
requires us to know what the data can’t tell us.

There is blind faith in analytics, which is important, but it’s missing these
other elements. You need insight into why and where people enter a
category, and then what are the stages in that process? Is the way you
make sense of the world aligned to the way consumers do? I would argue
that reporting on your own activity is missing a huge opportunity, that
sweet spot where all the early warning signals are going to come from.

Jeremy Hollow, Founder and CEO, Listen + Learn Research

THE FEAR OF DATA

For many non-data specialists there is a fear of data and an expecta-
tion that it is all about numbers, coding or the dark arts! This is
especially true if you equate the word data with maths, spreadsheets
and statistics. While there is a role for all of these things in data, these
are not the areas that marketers need to worry about if they are not
inclined to. It is far more important to think of data storytelling as
interpretation and communication of insights driven from the data
than as having to wrangle the data.

Sometimes people can get scared because they think data storytelling
means ‘I’ve got to be able to manipulate data and do pivot tables, and as a
marketeer they are not in my skill set.’ Whereas in reality most marketers
are never going to have to write a Power BI query. But what they do need
to be able to do is know how to take all the data that they’ve got and
construct it into a story. If you’ve not come from a background in data,
this can look like a bit of the dark arts, and it can feel a bit scary.

Ruth Spencer, independent data leadership consultant

72 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

WORKAROUNDS FOR PERCEPTION ISSUES

Data storytelling is not something to fear, and equally is not something

that is going to answer all your questions. It is a tool, just like any other,
to help you make informed decisions and to influence others. Here are
two recommended workarounds to readjust your expectations of how
data can help:
●●
Reframe data storytelling as an enabler to help you enhance your
position, agenda or argument with others. See it for what it is – a useful
tool in your marketing toolkit.
●●
Spend time with experts and ask them to demystify the data for you.
Ask practical questions to find out how the data product, report or
dashboard can help you solve problems or spot opportunities, rather
than worrying about the nuts and bolts of the methodology itself.

The skills gap

Despite the rise in importance of data within the marketing depart-
ment, the skills and capabilities to leverage this data have not increased
at the same rate. In fact, according to Marketing Week’s 2023 Career
and Salary Survey, data and analytics is still the most significant skills
gap in marketing teams. In the article ‘Skills gaps, wage rises, market-
ing tenure: 5 interesting stats from Salary Survey 2023’ (Marketing
Week, 2023), it states that more than a third (34.4 per cent) of the
3,000-plus respondents taking part in the survey identify it as a key
area they are looking to improve. This compares to 21 per cent for
content and copywriting skills, 20 per cent for social media skills and
16 per cent for e-commerce skills.
There are several issues relating to the skills gap that can impact
on data storytelling effectiveness.

PRACTICAL DATA SKILLS ARE NOT BEING COVERED AS PART OF BUSINESS

OR MARKETING EDUCATION
While many business schools or marketing programmes will cover
the importance of understanding the customer and some will cover
 THE STATUS QUO AND WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE 73

market research and data modules, very few offer more advanced
understanding of data analytics and data storytelling for marketers.
This is improving, but there is a generation of marketers who need
these skills urgently. They are expected to pick these skills up and
apply them to their roles, without having any formal grounding or
training.

To mitigate the data skills gap, organizations can invest in training and
upskilling programmes for their employees, hire data experts or collaborate
with experts in educational institutions, like universities, to build a pipeline
of talent with data-related skills. I’m speaking from my own perspective
working in a business school, but I think that the majority of professors in
my school are not users of data, and this is still quite new for us too.

Estrella Díaz, Professor of Marketing, University of Castilla-La Mancha

MISUNDERSTANDING OF WHAT SKILLS ARE REQUIRED

Businesses looking to fix the skills gap often focus on training in the
wrong areas. Great data storytelling does not require the use of
advanced tools or coding skills. The training needed combines
improved data literacy skills with marketing theory and expert prac-
tice. This needs to be practical and relate to their specific organizational
culture and marketing role.

Sometimes marketers see analysts as just ‘doing SQL, or Python’, so they

think ‘If I could just learn how to do SQL, then I could do that for myself.’
But you don’t need to be able to do maths or code – you need to want to,
and be able to, solve problems. It’s learning how to get the right bit of
information out to solve the problem.

Rebecca Ruane, Head of Reader Revenue Insight, The Guardian

Above all, it requires more training and support for marketers in the
critical thinking skills that will enable them to leverage the power of
data without being a data specialist.
74 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

Go beyond measurement. Are your tools and insight capabilities fully

aligned to see and interpret consumer behaviour? For example, if you don’t
know the dominant tribes and subtribes in your category on YouTube,
Instagram and TikTok then the answer is no. Do you have the skill set to do
the analytics part? Do you have critical thinking and insight-generating
skills to actually understand the why? Can you tell the difference between
waves and tides?

Jeremy Hollow, Founder and CEO, Listen + Learn Research

WORKAROUNDS FOR THE DATA SKILLS GAP

Data storytelling is an invaluable skill in which to invest time and effort to

future-proof your marketing career. To improve your data storytelling skills,
here are some recommended workarounds:
●●
Ask for training, on-the-job coaching and to spend time with peers who
already have these skills. Get familiar with the tools that you have access
to and ask the owner to walk you through a practical demonstration
using a live query.
●●
Get involved in cross-functional teams and become proactive, rather
than waiting for the experts to impose their ‘black box’ version of the
data story.
●●
Ask for access to relevant tools, seek out applicable sessions in industry
conferences, and utilize the plethora of online courses. Think quality not
quantity, and align your learnings to where will add most value to your
development.

Why analytical and data literacy skills matter

The importance of analytical thinking
According to the World Economic Forum in the article ‘Future of
jobs 2023: These are the most in-demand skills now – and beyond’
(2023), analytical thinking is in the top 10 skills in demand for 2025.
The ability to analyse opinions, data and information to inform
 THE STATUS QUO AND WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE 75

judgements about whether these are of value or not will continue to

remain important in marketing teams of the future. Even in a world
of automation, AI and machine learning, critical thinking skills will
be highly sought after as a means to determine what information to
pay attention to, what information is fake and what data is biased.
The ability to navigate the data noise and determine what informa-
tion is misleading is a vital skill. According to Bernard Marr in his
article ‘The top 10 in-demand skills for 2030’ (2023), by 2030
­practically all of us will be expected to understand how data affects
our role, including what tools we need to use to analyse it and how
to work with data fairly and ethically. Those who are able to embed
these skills into their practices will be the ones doing their jobs more
efficiently and effectively.

The need for data literacy skills in the marketing department

In his book Be Data Literate (2021), Jordan Morrow states, ‘The
ability to communicate data is vital to the understanding of the
­
company’s success. Overall, we can see the common theme that runs
throughout the world of data literacy: everyone needs the skills to
communicate with data.’ Data literacy is the ability to read, analyse,
interpret and communicate data effectively and data storytelling is
embedded within all four of these stages. Being able to read, analyse
and interpret data informs the story you need to tell and why you
need to tell it; the communication of data focuses on how you tell the
story to the audience. Data storytelling is something that everyone
should to be comfortable with and is a practical tool to develop as
part of building overall data literacy skills.

READING DATA
Data-literate marketers need to be able to read and understand the
wide range of insight and data reports provided to them from other
teams, external agencies and suppliers, as well as general manage-
ment information. This means not just understanding the number
itself, but also understanding what is behind the key performance
indicator (KPI) or metric and why it is used to measure success. Also,
76 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

how it is made up (if a composite score of several measures) and what

influences it. From a data storytelling perspective, this will enable the
marketer to use the right data for the right reasons.

ANALYSING DATA
Understanding a set of data measures and eyeballing specific numbers
in a vacuum is one thing; being able to take a series of different data-
sets and make sense of what they are telling you is another. With
multiple datasets available to the marketing team to measure perfor-
mance, position, purchase and perceptions, it is imperative that
marketers understand what each dataset is saying. In addition, they
also need to consider how different datasets compare to each other
and explain any differences in the story. Joining the dots and synthe-
sizing findings together will help determine what are the most
important insights from the data. From a data storytelling perspec-
tive, this will enable the marketer to draw solid and robust conclusions.

INTERPRETING DATA
In a perfect world, organizations would have one single customer
view, with comprehensive and complete data, and be able to make
sound and accurate judgements on what the data is suggesting we
do. In the real world, a single view is an unrealistic aspiration given
real life and the complexity of customer touchpoints, consumer
psychology and imbalanced markets. A marketer needs to optimize
imperfect data to interpret meaning, generate ideas and draw
conclusions. The data itself will not do this for you. It requires the
human skill of making our best-informed and best-intentioned
judgement based on the evidence available. From a data storytelling
perspective, this will enable the marketer to have confidence and
imbue trust in their data story.

COMMUNICATING DATA
Communication skills are often a natural strength for marketers. But
incorporating data can unsettle even the most eloquent of content
producers and presenters. But there is no point creating the most
insightful, robust and actionable data story if there are no skills to
communicate that story in a way that makes an impact with the rele-
vant audience.
 THE STATUS QUO AND WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE 77

The priority data storytelling skills for modern marketers

The value of building data storytelling skills specifically
McKinsey (2023) cite a recent study that identified 56 foundational
skills for work. Of these, 16 focus on core cognitive skills, seven of
which align closely with data storytelling:
●●
structured problem solving
●●
logical reasoning
●●
understanding bias
●●
seeking relevant information
●●
asking the right question
●●
synthesizing messages
●●
public speaking

These are the skills that will be highly valuable to the marketing
team, both now and in the future.
The data skills that marketing teams need are not the same as a
data scientist, analyst or researcher. Wrangling with data and setting
up data manipulation tools and platforms will not help the market-
ing department close the skills gap. While a data scientist, analyst or
researcher might need to build capabilities in methodologies, statis-
tics, programming languages and modelling, a marketer will gain
more value from developing their knowledge of how to access the
data, how to interpret it correctly, how to make judgements and deci-
sions based on imperfect data, and how to communicate data-driven
ideas and insights to others.

Priority skills for marketing and communications professionals

In conversation with our expert contributors, five core data storytell-
ing skills surfaced as the priorities for data users in the marketing
function.

KNOWING WHICH DATA TO PAY ATTENTION TO IN THE FIRST PLACE

Determining which data to prioritize and what to deprioritize is crucial.
Marketers are inundated with metrics, ranging from engagement rates
78 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

to conversion numbers, and not all data holds equal significance.

Focusing on KPIs aligned with specific business objectives ensures that
efforts are directed towards impactful strategies. Conversely, ignoring
or deprioritizing irrelevant data prevents distraction and the risk of
misinterpreting campaign effectiveness. The ability to sift through the
noise and concentrate on actionable insights is a core competency.

For me, the biggest gap for some marketers is being able to understand
which data they should be paying attention to, and which they shouldn’t.
That’s a big problem. And it’s becoming a greater problem, because of the
pressure for DIY cost-effective means of gathering data. So, they’re using
lots of data sources, but if they don’t understand what’s good data and
what’s bad data, then really it’s just all data and it gets given equal
credence in any decision-making. The biggest skill gap is being able to
evaluate what they’re being told from all these different sources and being
able to clearly see that this bit of data is better than that bit of data. It’s not
that the marketers should ignore other data that’s not as reliable, but it’s
how much weight they put on it. Ultimately, they’re making huge decisions
on the back of all this information, so they need to be confident that all
these decisions are actually rooted in something worthwhile.

Richard Colwell, CEO, Red C Research & Marketing Group

THE ABILITY TO CHALLENGE AND QUESTION THE DATA

Blindly accepting data without questioning its validity or relevance
can lead to misguided conclusions and suboptimal choices. The
capacity to challenge and question data ensures that marketers iden-
tify potential biases, anomalies, or inaccuracies that may distort their
understanding of market dynamics.

I think the good marketers are the ones that can challenge if the number
doesn’t look right, or it doesn’t make sense, or it’s not big enough to be
significant. They understand the methodology to the point that they can
 THE STATUS QUO AND WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE 79

explain it to other people credibly and answer questions on it when

challenged. They can read patterns and analyse the data, challenge the data
if they need to – asking questions around significance and knowing what it
means, or asking how robust the control group was.

Lizzie Harris, Customer Director, B&Q

DRAWING INSIGHT, MEANING AND ACTIONS FROM MULTIPLE DATASETS

In the complex landscape of modern marketing, data is often sourced
from multiple channels, such as social media, sales channels, customer
surveys, website analytics and other touchpoints. The ability to
synthesize this disparate information enables marketers to identify
nuanced patterns, correlations and hidden opportunities that may go
unnoticed when examining individual datasets. By combining
insights, marketers create a holistic view of their audience, allowing
for more precise targeting and personalized campaigns. Synthesizing
data helps marketers uncover the interplay between various factors
influencing consumer decisions.

Every single marketer will be making decisions on a continuous, if not

minute-by-minute, basis, based on data, because they’re doing digital
marketing. They’ll be looking at Google Analytics or they’ll be looking at
their website performance, the UX as well as non-digital data in terms of
sales and performance. But a marketer should be looking at multiple
different data sources at any point in time and be thinking about how to tell
their story to the business to get their idea over the line, and if it’s not
grounded in insight then I don’t think it’s going to go anywhere.

Lucy Davison, Founder and CEO, Keen as Mustard Marketing

BEING ABLE TO DIG DEEPER

Discerning subtle differences within the data can help marketers
refine their messaging, tailor content to specific demographics and
80 WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL FOR MODERN MARKETING

anticipate changing preferences. This level of detail enhances the

effectiveness of marketing strategies, making them more attuned to
the dynamic nature of consumer expectations. Recognizing the
nuances within data also aids in uncovering untapped market
segments or niche opportunities. In a landscape where personaliza-
tion and relevance are paramount, the ability to be able to look
beyond the obvious and dig below the surface can make the differ-
ence to the quality of the final outcome.

Scrutinizing survey findings, making something interesting out of them,

combining it with qualitative interviews and subject matter interviews,
pulling all those different threads together to build the bigger picture and
to create the stories, is still quite a niche skill set.

Rachael Kinsella, Editorial and Content Director, iResearch Services

UNDERSTANDING ENOUGH TO EXPLAIN IT TO OTHERS

Complex concepts, abstract methods and technical terms all inhibit
great data storytelling. Finding ways to communicate to non-techni-
cal audiences can be challenging. Complexity can be overwhelming,
and a great storyteller needs to find a way to translate the insights in
an accessible way, without over-simplifying the insights themselves.

I also think it’s about really having a grasp and a mastery of your data. There’s
something important about feeling comfortable with data. And even if data
and analytics are not your strong point, find somebody who can help you
understand what that means. You need to be able to look at a dashboard and
go, ‘I know what this means. I know what this is telling me. I understand how
to look at these metrics.’ If it’s your strong point, great, but if it’s not, find
somebody who can help you feel comfortable with what that is. So, you can
trust your instinct on what it is that you’re seeing in the data.

Sinead Jefferies, SVP Customer Expertise, Zappi

 THE STATUS QUO AND WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE 81

KEY TAKE-OUTS

1 You need to find ways to work around the various blockers to great data
storytelling, rather than wait for the perfect environment.
2 Investing time and energy in developing analytical and critical thinking
skills will future-proof your skill set – but this doesn’t mean you need to
become an expert statistician or coder.
3 The core skills for great storytelling focus on understanding data, finding
meaning from the data and being able to clearly communicate.

Coming up next…
In Part One we have looked at why data storytelling is important,
including the benefits it provides and the barriers we need to work
around to instil a data storytelling mindset. In Part Two we will
look at how to develop a great data story in practice using the data
storytelling roadmap. Each chapter takes you through a step in the
roadmap and provides practical hints and tips for creating a
persuasive data story.

References
Marketing Week (2023) Skills gaps, wage rises, marketing tenure: 5 interesting
stats from Salary Survey 2023, Marketing Week, 17 January, www.marketing-
week.com/skills-wages-tenure-5-interesting-stats-salary-survey-2023 (archived
at https://perma.cc/JSJ4-89FW)
Marr, B (2023) The top 10 in-demand skills for 2030, Forbes, 14 February, www.
forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2023/02/14/the-top-10-in-demand-skills-for-2030
(archived at https://perma.cc/9YZ4-SWUJ)
McKinsey (2023) What is the future of work?, McKinsey, 23 January, www.
mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-the-future-of-work
(archived at https://perma.cc/W3PU-MDLC)
Morrow, J (2021) Be Data Literate: The data literacy skills everyone needs to
succeed, Kogan Page, London
World Economic Forum (2023) Future of jobs 2023: These are the most in-demand
skills now – and beyond, World Economic Forum, 1 May, www.weforum.org/
agenda/2023/05/future-of-jobs-2023-skills (archived at https://perma.cc/
Q8XV-MEHJ)
82

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 83

PART TWO

How to develop great

data stories
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 85

Defining great data storytelling

In this chapter we will explore:

●●
the 5Rs roadmap to a great data story
●●
the benefits of the 5Rs roadmap
●●
how to use the 5Rs roadmap

In my experience of working with businesses around the world, I have

found that companies that are better at simplifying the outcomes and the
story are more successful than the ones who aren’t.

Richard Colwell, CEO, Red C Research & Marketing Group

The 5Rs roadmap to a great data story

Part One of this book outlined the need for data storytelling, the
benefits of data storytelling for the marketing function, and the prac-
tical barriers that can get in the way of creating a great data story.
Part Two answers the question: ‘What do I need to do to create a
great data story in practice?’
The 5Rs roadmap is summarized in Figure 4.1. It has five key
stages with expected outcomes, each supported by three practical
steps. For a more comprehensive colour version of the roadmap visu-
alization, please visit www.datastorytellinginmarketing.com.
86 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

FIGURE 4.1 The 5Rs roadmap

Transformative
RELEVANT Aligned
Focused

Reliable
ROBUST Accurate
Insightful

Distilled
REFINED Stress-tested
Compelling

Empathetic
RELATABLE Personalized
Engaging

Accessible
REMARKABLE Digestible
Provocative

The outcome is a great data story that is:

●●
relevant
●●
robust
●●
refined
●●
relatable
●●
remarkable

Chapters 5 to 9 will take you through each of the 5Rs in detail, but below
there is a summary of each stage.

Make it RELEVANT
A relevant data story must focus on the audience’s knowledge levels,
needs and preferences and should include:
●●
a clear premise that will generate a transformation in the hearts
and minds of the audience
 DEFINING GREAT DATA STORYTELLING 87

●●
a clear understanding of the context aligned to the audience’s
needs
●●
a focused story that answers the killer question for the audience

A relevant story requires strategic thinking skills to outline the story

plan.
There are several benefits to this stage, including:
●●
the opportunity to gain early input, collaboration and co-creation
to feed into your story development
●●
a clear sense of purpose to keep your story development on track
●●
a chance to get nearer to right first time, thus saving significant
iteration time at the later stages of your story development

Chapter 5 provides more detail on how to make your data story

relevant.

Make it ROBUST
A robust data story must stand up to scrutiny and should include:
●●
a solid interpretation drawn from a range of reliable data sources
●●
a data-driven argument and recommendation based on accurate
and up-to-date information
●●
an insightful point of view providing the audience with a ‘So what?’
and ‘Now what?’

A robust story requires strong analysis skills to surface and discover

the key insights.
There are several benefits to this stage, including:
●●
the opportunity to uncover new insights and ideas, rather than
predictable findings
●●
a chance to draw out richer, nuanced insights that can give depth
to your data story
●●
a sense of confidence in the credibility of your interpretation and
recommendations
88 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

Chapter 6 provides more detail on how to make your data story

robust.

Make it REFINED
A refined data story must provide a clear and compelling narrative
and should include:
●●
a story resolution that is synthesized and distilled into a key
message
●●
a stress-tested story resolution that can drive real decisions and
actions
●●
a compelling structure that makes it easy to follow the argument

A refined story requires critical thinking skills to build a data story

that is easy to follow and engage with.
There are several benefits to this stage, including:
●●
the chance to pinpoint the specific ask the data story needs to get
across to the audience
●●
a sense of confidence that your data story offers the audience
solutions that are both commercially viable and practically feasible
●●
the opportunity to focus your audience on decisions needed or
actions required, rather than all of their energy being used to
understand the insights

Chapter 7 provides more detail on how to make your data story

refined.

Make it RELATABLE
A relatable data story needs to enrich the insight message with an
emotional connection and should include:
●●
an empathetic understanding of the humans involved in the data
story
●●
a personalized approach that speaks to the specific target audiences’
hearts and minds
●●
an engaging story flow that draws the audience in
 DEFINING GREAT DATA STORYTELLING 89

A relatable story requires emotional intelligence to create a story

grounded in real life and enriched by human experience.
There are several benefits to this stage, including:
●●
the increased likelihood of cutting through and resonating with
the audience
●●
the chance to influence real results and meaningful outcomes
●●
a sense of confidence in your ability to integrate data, logic and
emotion in your data storytelling

Chapter 8 provides more detail on how to make your data story

relatable.

Make it REMARKABLE
A remarkable data story must cut through the noise, land the message
and provide a catalyst for action and should include:
●●
an easy-to-follow and accessible data story presentation
●●
a range of digestible micro-content that appeals to a wide range of
audience needs
●●
a storytelling delivery that is provocative and stimulates reflection
and debate

A remarkable story requires creative thinking and flair to execute a

story that will stand out from the crowd and drive action.
There are several benefits to this stage, including:
●●
the ability to keep a distracted audience’s attention
●●
the opportunity to drive further interest in your data story
●●
the chance to disrupt the status quo and move beyond default
thinking

Chapter 9 provides more detail on how to make your data story

remarkable.
90 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

The benefits of the 5Rs roadmap

There are several advantages to the roadmap.

Practical
This roadmap has been tried, tested and fine-tuned over many years
with different functions and teams. By breaking it down into 15
different steps across the five stages, it can be easily incorporated into
existing processes and ways of working in teams depending on need.
For example, on a strategically significant data story, such as onboard-
ing retail partners with brand plans, each step will require more
dedicated time to ensure a best-in-class persuasive story than if you
are sharing insights with a marketing peer.

Flexible
The steps are flexible, enabling you to adapt your data storytelling
approach to different scenarios. For example, if you work closely
with insight business partners or analysts within your team, you may
need to be less hands-on at some of the stages. If you have expert
visualization support, you may not need to invest time in learning the
tools to execute a great data story but will need to know enough to
brief those who can help you. You might not be called on to deliver
the story but may need to prepare a story that your manager or the
senior director in the team will deliver. For different stories and on
different occasions, some skills and tasks will require more of your
time and effort than others.

Holistic
The telling of the story is just one step in the data story roadmap. By
also focusing on how to effectively plan your story, surface real
insight, build a narrative and create a well-rounded data story, you
can be confident that you are communicating stories that are worth
telling. There is no point in having a beautifully executed story that
 DEFINING GREAT DATA STORYTELLING 91

is meaningless, flimsy and irrelevant to the audience. By covering all

stages in the journey, the roadmap enables you to leverage your exist-
ing strengths and dial up efforts in areas that need further improvement.

How to use the 5Rs roadmap

Each of the following chapters in this section will outline the stages
and steps in the roadmap in more detail, including why they matter
and how to implement them in practice.
As your guide through this ‘how to’ section, I am assuming that
you know your own audiences, stakeholders, domain specialism,
commercial goals and marketing practices, and that you will use the
hints and tips as required, adapting to the individual needs of your
role, team ways of working and specific projects. To support you
with adapting your data storytelling approach, you can find a range
of different examples across different contexts for each step, so you
are able to draw inspiration from real-life practice, as well as more
detailed case studies that provide a comprehensive perspective on
how others have used the roadmap to help with their data s­ torytelling.
Each chapter also has some practical elements, with a reflection
exercise to enable you to review, audit and improve existing data
stories, as well as an implementation challenge to put the steps into
practice when creating a new data story. I encourage you to spend
time trying these practical tasks to see how the steps work for your
own data stories and to be able to use this real-world application to
help you refine, perfect and scale your data storytelling.
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 93

How to plan a relevant data story

In this chapter we will explore:

●●
the power of a relevant data story
●●
the pitfalls to avoid when planning your data story
●●
the three steps to best practice
●● identify the story transformation
●● align the story premise to the bigger picture
●● focus on a killer question
●●
putting into practice

The power of a relevant data story

QUICK RECAP

A relevant story requires using our strategic thinking skills to outline

an initial story plan. This story plan enables opportunities for early
collaboration, provides us with a clear sense of purpose and helps avoid
needless iteration.
94 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

Making a difference
The case study example below demonstrates the value of developing
a relevant story plan before diving into the data.

CASE STUDY
Context
A marketing client in the grocery retail sector needed to develop a data story to
convince their executive committee to shift their marketing stance in light of the
cost-of-living crisis. Despite the wealth of data the marketing team had available
to them, they were unable to cut through and disrupt default thinking about the
brand and the customer. They needed a new data story to challenge these myths
and inject a sense of urgency into the current marketing plan.

Challenge
By auditing their existing data stories, it became clear there was an issue with
relevancy:
●●
There was a disconnect between the different brand measures tracked and
the ultimate KPIs the executive committee cared about.
●●
There was no clear connection between the different brand measures
themselves, resulting in mixed messages, where some measures were holding
ground, some losing ground and some appearing to improve.

This lack of clarity surrounding relevance to the bigger picture made it difficult to
get across the need to take decisive action.

Action
To develop a plan for the data story we set up a 90-minute workshop with a
select group of the marketing team and their insight partners.

Data storytelling priority number one

The team realized the most important task was to clearly define the parameters
for the data story and how this would align with what mattered most to the
audience. Given grocery retail is highly competitive and the brand’s current
position in the market, the number one priority for what was already shaping up
to be a difficult trading year was to protect market share from the nearest
competition. This became the ‘north star’ we needed to align to.
 HOW TO PLAN A RELEVANT DATA STORY 95

Data storytelling priority number two

Next, the team needed to be ruthless in the distillation of what we were
measuring and what was in and out of scope for the story, given this ‘north star’.
Rather than looking to tell an exhaustive story explaining all the data, we agreed
to develop a hierarchy of measures. The brainstorm resulted in the identification
of one lead brand indicator to measure performance, three key levers as drivers
of the lead indicator and two clear customer segments where these measures
mattered most. The purpose of the data story was to drive a transformation in
the understanding of the executive committee around these priorities.
Everything else was noise.

Data storytelling priority number three

To drive this transformation in understanding, the marketing team were going to
have to bust some pre-existing myths. The key challenge was to overcome the
disconnect between how the brand was really perceived versus their main
competitors in the current trading environment and how the executive
committee felt shoppers viewed the brand. Highlighting this disconnect was a
big focus of the data story, as we needed to get across the vulnerability of the
brand if we were to get them to understand the need for different marketing
interventions.

Data storytelling priority number four

The marketing team needed to be unambiguous on which specific promotional
tactics they would be recommending in the data story. This would mean
providing clear direction on the actions that would make the biggest difference
to the key drivers among the priority segments.

Results
The workshop felt uncomfortable at times. The multitude of measures had
become a comfort blanket. But this level of planning was going to be
instrumental in the ultimate success of the data story. Once this plan had been
agreed at the end of the workshop, the process of analysis and story building
became significantly easier for the marketing team and their partner agency to
do. In the final data story, we identified six promotional tactics that still aligned
with the brand position for the longer term but would ultimately lead to
protecting share during this difficult period. While some of the tactics aligned
with existing plans and provided some reassurance that actions already in place
would make a difference, the data story also introduced new tactics focused on
96 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

removing friction around certain offers, changing target messaging as well as

making some tweaks to the loyalty programme to ensure that discounts were
competitive.

Outcomes and learning

By focusing the data story on a more succinct and targeted message, the
marketing team were able to make some clear asks of the executive committee.
In addition, the story planning session informed the marketing team’s plan to
measure the success of the interventions that were signed off so they could
evaluate what worked in practice. A frustrating and uncomfortable 90 minutes
of planning led to a successful outcome and saved a significant amount of pain
in developing this and future data stories.

The pitfalls to avoid when planning your data story

There are three main pitfalls to avoid when planning your data story:
●●
providing generic context
●●
failing to scrutinize the query for the real question
●●
looking to retrofit data stories to support existing ideas and actions

Providing a generic context

A generic context lacking in relevant details will not resonate with
the audience, leading to decreased engagement with the data story
from the outset. By failing to connect with the wider context, the data
story will not result in the emotional response required to motivate
action. A data story that relies on generic context, without considera-
tion of the nuances for the particular brand, product, service, customer
or business challenge, will lack depth. This can leave the audience
questioning the relevance to their unique situation. To create impact-
ful data stories, marketers and communication professionals should
focus on crafting narratives that are relevant, authentic and tailored
to the specific needs and interests of their audience.
 HOW TO PLAN A RELEVANT DATA STORY 97

Failing to scrutinize the query for the real question

Poor business questions lead to poor data stories. Overly broad and
ambitious stories can lead to a data dump of everything you can
uncover about a subject, while a request that is too specific leaves no
room to consider the wider context, drivers and alternative needs.
Often, a poor question will trickle down from the top and no one
knows why the question is important or the reason is lost in transla-
tion. This is called the HIPPO effect (highest paid person’s opinion),
and a HIPPO question can often be taken as important only because
of who has asked it, rather than because it is a worthwhile question
to explore.
For example, while training a senior management team on the
importance of asking good questions, a senior commercial director
complained that when he asked questions of his marketing analytics
team, he was often provided with a huge volume of findings, rather
than an actionable insight. When pushed to share an example ques-
tion, he stated he had asked the team to share insight on a specific
target group. When challenged, it was clear he had not shared any
context as to why this group was important or what decision this
knowledge would feed into. In the absence of better guidance, the
team did exactly as requested. This resulted in a large PowerPoint
deck of slides containing a significant number of data visualizations.
However, if the senior manager had shared more reasoning and had
asked a better question, he would have received more valuable
customer insight and a data story that could influence action. In this
case, his real need was to understand the behaviours of this target
group just before they let their membership lapse, in order to identify
marketing interventions that could be triggered before attrition.
Poorly crafted questions can lead decision-makers in the wrong
direction, as they fail to capture the essential information needed to
make informed choices. In problem-solving scenarios, poor questions
can hinder progress by:
●●
failing to uncover the root causes or underlying issues
●●
addressing symptoms rather than the actual problems
●●
wasting valuable time, effort and resources
98 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

Looking to retrofit data to support existing ideas and actions

Rubber-stamping ideas and actions that are in play misses the oppor-
tunity to tell a data story that is truly consumer- or customer-centric.
Biased or leading requests can influence teams to deliver answers that
align with the questioner’s agenda or desired outcome, compromising
the objectivity of the data story. Valuable insights may be overlooked
if you do not explore the wider context, different perspectives or
findings from the datasets.

The three steps to best practice

1 Identify the story transformation.
2 Align the story premise to the bigger picture.
3 Focus on a killer question.

In this section we will look at each step in turn, including why it

matters and how to implement in practice.

Step 1: Identify the story transformation

WHY DEFINE THE TRANSFORMATION?
A premise is the key to any story. Your premise is the underlying idea
of your story; the foundation that supports your entire plot, your
point of view from your analysis and how you position this in any
creative output. According to J D Schramm (2020), ‘Every good story
charts a change – even a subtle one’.
If stories are about transformation, then a good plot will guide the
audience through that transformation. But, as the creator of the story,
you need to be clear about what that transformation will be. Your
first step is to define the impact you seek through your story. At the
most fundamental level, the change that your data story should
support is the recognition of the truth. What is not known, under-
stood or believed before the start of the story should be known,
understood or believed by the end.
 HOW TO PLAN A RELEVANT DATA STORY 99

HOW TO DETERMINE THE TRANSFORMATION

Data storytelling has the power to create various audience transfor-
mations, impacting how individuals perceive, understand and act
upon information presented through data-driven narratives.
Start by asking yourself the question:
What transformation in the hearts and minds of the audience does my
story need to inspire?

To answer this question, you need to complete two tasks:

●●
Do your homework on the audience.
●●
Reflect on typical transformation examples.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK ON THE AUDIENCE

Here are five questions to ask yourself about the audience for your
transformational story:
●●
Who is the primary audience?
{{ Identify the specific individuals or groups who will be hearing
or reading your story.
{{ Consider factors such as their demographics, roles, interests and
prior knowledge related to the subject matter.
●●
What is their view on the topic now and where do we want it to
be?
{{ Understand the audience’s needs, challenges and aspirations.
{{ Determine what topics or themes are most relevant and engaging
for them.
●●
What emotions do you want to evoke?
{{ Consider the emotions you want your audience to experience
and what will be necessary to open minds and provoke thinking
and debate.
{{ Transformational stories often aim to evoke emotions such as
inspiration, empathy, hope or determination. But they might
sometimes leverage fear, shame or nervousness to disrupt
patterns of thought.
100 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

{{ Think about how these emotions align with your audience’s

mindset and motivations, and what has worked or failed in the
past.
●●
What do you want them to take away from the story?
{{ Define the key message you want your audience to remember
about the topic. Whether it’s a call to action or a change
in perspective, ensure that the message aligns with the
transformational impact you seek to create.
●●
How can you make the story relevant?
{{ Find common ground with your audience to make the
transformational story relevant to their own experiences.
{{ Incorporate elements that resonate with their lives, challenges or
aspirations, so they can see themselves reflected in the narrative.

By asking these questions, you can gain valuable insights into your
audience’s mindset and tailor your transformational story to connect
with them on a deeper level. Your homework will be invaluable at
later stages in the data storytelling roadmap as you position your
message and create story mechanics that relate to the audience.

REFLECT ON TYPICAL TRANSFORMATION EXAMPLES

Here are some example transformations that can be achieved with
data storytelling:
Transformation 1: From confusion to clarity
●●
Data can be complex and overwhelming, especially for non-tech-
nical audiences. Data storytelling can transform confusion into
clarity by presenting data in a more accessible and understandable
format. Through compelling narratives, data storytellers can break
down intricate concepts and findings into digestible insights, help-
ing the audience grasp the key takeaways. In this situation your
realistic and achievable premise for your story might well be to
drive awareness of the challenge and how the data can help under-
stand the issues and potential options, and very little else.
 HOW TO PLAN A RELEVANT DATA STORY 101

Transformation 2: From disconnected facts to holistic understanding

●●
Data points in isolation will not provide a comprehensive picture.
Data storytelling can transform disconnected facts into a holistic
understanding by contextualizing data within a broader narrative.
By showing the relationships and patterns between data points,
data storytellers enable the audience to see the bigger picture and
make more informed connections. In this instance you need them
to shift from being aware of some of the disconnected facts to a
holistic understanding of what needs to be done to address a prob-
lem or leverage an opportunity.
Transformation 3: From apathy to engagement
●●
Numbers and statistics alone may fail to capture the audience’s
attention or evoke an emotional response. Data storytelling has
the ability to turn apathy into engagement by weaving a narrative
around the data. By connecting data to real-life examples, anec-
dotes or human stories, data storytellers can make information
relatable and emotionally resonant, keeping the audience invested
in the story.
Transformation 4: From scepticism to conviction
●●
Scepticism about data and its interpretation is common, especially
in decision-making processes. Data storytelling can transform
scepticism into conviction by presenting data-backed evidence and
logical arguments in a compelling manner. When data is used effec-
tively to support a narrative, it can build trust and credibility with
the audience, leading them to embrace the insights. You may well
have an audience that fully understands the course of action you
are recommending from the data but are sceptical that this is the
best route forward. The actions may be contrary to what they
already expected or have invested time, resource and budget in.
They might be sceptical of the data itself, especially if it doesn’t
relate to their own world view. Sometimes it can take a significant
amount of time to progress a story from scepticism to convic-
tion – but without this belief the audience are not going to be
prepared or motivated to act.
102 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

Transformation 5: From resistance to willingness to change

●●
Change can be met with resistance, especially if it challenges the
status quo. Data storytelling can transform resistance to change by
using data to illustrate the need for adaptation and improvement.
When data is used to demonstrate the benefits of change and
address concerns, it can facilitate a more positive and receptive atti-
tude towards necessary action. Sometimes the resistance is due to
an unwillingness to change among the audience, while sometimes it
is due to real barriers. Acknowledging that change is difficult in
your data storytelling, and providing examples of how others have
worked around these challenges, shows empathy for the audience.
Transformation 6: From complacency to action
●●
Mere presentation of great insight is not enough to drive action. Data
storytelling can inspire action by creating a sense of urgency or high-
lighting the potential consequences of inaction. By outlining clear
opportunities or challenges revealed by the data, data storytellers moti-
vate the audience to take specific actions. It’s only when your audience
are engaged with the insights, and have conviction in the recommenda-
tions and a willingness to change, that your story can nudge them to
take action. At this stage our story doesn’t need to convince; it needs to
compel the audience to turn the data story into a reality.
It is important to be realistic about what transformation your story
can inspire. While you may want to drive action from your story, if
the primary audience is still confused about the facts relating to the
topic, it is unlikely that your data story will get them to walk away
ready to take immediate action. Expecting them to go from unaware
to action through one piece of communication is unrealistic – human
beings just don’t work that way.

To answer the question:

What transformation in the hearts and minds of the audience does my
story need to inspire?
 HOW TO PLAN A RELEVANT DATA STORY 103

Try completing the following sentence:

After delivering my story on [TOPIC], my primary audience [WHO],
will have shifted from [CURRENT POSITION] to [EXPECTED POSITION],
resulting in [CHANGE].

For example:

After delivering my story on the value of paid search, my primary

audience, the director of marketing, will have shifted from resistant to
being willing to use this campaign to trial paid search and will support
budget sign-off.

After delivering my story on customer perception of brand partnerships,

my primary audience, the head of partnerships, will have shifted from
being sceptical about the role of customer perception versus commercial
results in determining who to partner with to being convinced that some
partners generate more brand equity than others, resulting in a review
of the decision-making criteria.

After delivering my story on brand performance and the impact of our value
strategy, my primary audience, the board, will have shifted from complacency
to action, resulting in the removal of barriers to access promotions.

Step 2: Align the story premise to the bigger picture

WHY ALIGN TO WHAT MATTERS MOST?
At the heart of transformative storytelling is the illumination of
ideas with context – whether that is the macroeconomic context,
the market context or the strategic context. Great data stories work
because they don’t just tell the story from the datasets in a vacuum;
they orientate and align to the issues that the specific audience cares
about. By aligning to what matters most you can deepen under-
standing, reframe knowledge and reveal new perspectives on
common issues, challenges or opportunities that already mean
something to your audience. Through understanding strategic
priorities, lead indicators, predictors of performance and existing
impact measurement frameworks, you can highlight the relation-
ship between these wider goals and your day-to-day practices to
find your data story sweet spot.
104 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

The best kind of marketing leaders have got that real sense of what a
company is trying to do, but also understand what the role of marketing is
in driving that. It’s all about getting that understanding of what the core
business focus is, what are the questions that you’re trying to answer to
support that, and being really, really clear about your role.

Sinead Jefferies, SVP Customer Expertise, Zappi

Finding the connection between the data story and the metrics that
matter most enables your story to remain relevant. By conveying the
key insights and implications of the data story in a way that is rele-
vant to the audience it will:
●●
reach the audience on a personal level
●●
foster better understanding
●●
demonstrate a clear link between the analysis and desired outcomes
●●
encourage them to take more accountability
●●
identify the most promising business opportunities

Aligning our data story to the marketing strategy, the broader

customer strategy and overall business strategy enables us to maxi-
mize its reach, impact and value. This ensures that time, effort and
funds are directed towards marketing and communication initiatives
that are likely to have the greatest impact on business outcomes.

HOW DO I ALIGN THE DATA STORY PREMISE TO THE MOMENTS THAT MATTER?
Start by asking yourself the question:

How will this data story create value for the business?

To answer this question, you need to complete two tasks:

●●
identify the relevant source of value
●●
define the problem statement
 HOW TO PLAN A RELEVANT DATA STORY 105

IDENTIFY THE RELEVANT SOURCE OF VALUE

There are only five sources of value for a business. Knowing which
one our data story relates to is a quick shortcut to aligning to what
matters the most.

Acquisition
●●
Your marketing efforts to enter new markets, drive switching from
competitor brands, gain new customers to try your products and
services, and reach new targets and lapsed customers all feed into
the topline driver of revenue through acquisition. Any data story
that is evaluating your ability to reach and convert new customers
needs to clearly spell out the alignment to your overall acquisition
goals and targets.
Retention
●●
Your marketing efforts and customer communications strategy
supporting satisfaction, repeat purchase and loyalty all feed into
the topline driver of retention. Any data story that is helping your
ability to reduce churn, drive renewals or repeat usage, encouraging
loyal behaviours, such as advocacy and recommendation, needs to
clearly spell out the alignment to overall retention ambitions and
targets.
Upsell/cross-sell
●●
Your marketing efforts to encourage existing customers to buy
more, upgrade, or purchase adjacent products and services in the
range or portfolio all feed into the topline growth driver of revenue
through increased customer spending. Any data story that is
focused on optimizing communications with customers to build
and convert incremental revenue needs to clearly spell out the
alignment to like-for-like growth targets.
Cost saving
●●
Your marketing efforts to drive customer behaviours into more
commercially effective communication channels and routes to
purchase all feed into the bottom-line profit driver of cost savings.
Any data story that is focused on evaluating how well you are
106 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

transitioning traditional communication into digital channels or

optimizing marketing spend needs to clearly spell out the alignment
to budget reduction or efficiency targets.
Risk reduction
●●
Your marketing efforts to utilize the most relevant communications
channels and efficient media mix and create the most compelling
marketing messages for the budget available all feed into the
bottom-line profit driver of risk reduction. In addition, data stories
that evaluate success of brand building and the ability to ward off
current and future threats also align to risk reduction. In a world
where money is spent and invested just to keep the doors open and
operations running, aligning your stories to how you can optimize
the investment both immediately within a fiscal year and over the
longer term to ensure sustainable growth is going to be attractive.
Any data story that is focused on providing a good return on
investment, how to improve returns or how to build brand
resilience needs to clearly spell out the alignment to short-term and
long-term ambitions.

Marketers need to understand the commercial objectives. Marketing can be

powerful because you can deliver any objective you need or want, so
knowing the strategy enables you to come up with the best plan to deliver
results. For example, if you go to a buyer and ask for £20,000 of their
margin and say ‘We will turn it into £50,000 of incremental sales’, that
might not be a good deal for the buyer based on their objectives. Maybe
they are already on target for sales and profit and don’t need to give up
margin. Maybe their strategy is to gain new customers to the category
rather than incremental sales, or they need to improve the relationship with
a particular supplier to get more funding. Every category has its own
agenda, and it is important to spend the time understanding this, rather
than assuming.

Lizzie Harris, Customer Director, B&Q

 HOW TO PLAN A RELEVANT DATA STORY 107

DEFINE THE PROBLEM STATEMENT

Diagnosing the problem you are helping to solve with your data story
requires you to focus on both internal and external sources of pres-
sure. In addition to understanding what these pressures are, you also
need to evaluate and spell out the impact, especially on your overall
goals and aspirations. Some of the challenges will be known to the
audience and some only become apparent once you have completed
your analysis of the data. Some problems at a macro level may be
hugely influential but might be outside of your control to change and
require the business to review how to respond; some are within your
control and require you to consider specific decisions and actions.
Try asking yourself and your stakeholders the following questions
to define the problem statement:
●●
Why is this an important story to tell right now compared to the
other stories you could tell?
●●
How does this data story help you better understand your
customers and their needs/expectations/behaviours and how you
respond to these?
●●
What macro-level factors are relevant to this story and how will
the data story help the business leverage/overcome these wider
factors?
●●
What changes have occurred in the wider market that could be
having an impact on your brands/products/services and how
important are these changes to your performance?
●●
How is the brand/product/service performing relative to other
markets/competitors/periods of time?

To answer the question:

How will this data story create value for the business?
Try completing the following sentence:
This data story will provide actionable insights and recommendations to
help overcome [PRIORITY PROBLEM], in order to improve/optimize
[SOURCE OF VALUE].
108 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

For example:
This data story will provide actionable insights and recommendations
focused on the best marketing mix to help overcome the current budget
constraints in order to reach the stretching goals of the acquisition strategy.
This data story will provide actionable insights and recommendations
focused on the new advertising copy recommendations to help
overcome the negative customer perception around X, in order to
improve overall loyalty and retention.

Step 3: Focus on a killer question

WHY CREATE A KILLER QUESTION?
Using one killer question for your data story can be a highly effective
technique to create a compelling and focused narrative. The killer
question:
●●
serves as a central theme, driving force or anchor for the entire
story, guiding the data analysis
●●
enables you to identify some early hypotheses more easily
●●
frames the insights in a way that is meaningful and useful to the
audience
●●
becomes a memorable hook that encapsulates the story essence
●●
forces you to exclude the superfluous, thus avoiding information
overload
●●
avoids the complexity of having to manage multiple questions,
resulting in disconnected data points
●●
sets the stage for a call to action – by virtue of asking a killer
question your data story needs to offer an answer in reply

You have to be focused, because there’s so much data, and if you try and
boil the ocean, you’re never going to get there. So you have to make sure
that what you’re delivering is something that’s helping move the business
forward. You’re helping by saying this is working, this isn’t working, this is
 HOW TO PLAN A RELEVANT DATA STORY 109

what we need to do differently, here’s what we’re going to do to boost in

the next quarter. It is not just about what your marketing strategy is; you
have to do it in a way that’s very closely aligned to the business strategy,
because that’s what marketing is there to serve.

Sinead Jefferies, SVP Customer Expertise, Zappi

HOW TO CREATE A GREAT KILLER QUESTION

A great killer question deserves some dedicated critical thinking to
ensure we encapsulate what transformation we need to inspire, what
matters most and why the story is important.
To create a great killer question you need to ensure it can:
●●
go beyond the objective
●●
hypothesize the answer

GO BEYOND THE OBJECTIVE

As highlighted in Figure 5.1, a great killer question requires three
component parts:

1 A specific objective that clarifies exactly what we need to know.

This can be subdivided into three different types of objective:
a. an exploratory objective – a what, who, where and when
question:
i. What has changed in the last quarter?
ii. Where is the space/opportunity to differentiate?
iii. What are the primary drivers of value?
iv. What do the target audience like about the proposition?
b. a discovery objective – a why question:
i. Why is this happening?
ii. Why do prospective purchasers drop off at this stage of the
journey?
iii. Why are we failing to catch competitor X?
110 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

FIGURE 5.1 Three components of a killer question

OBJECTIVE

OUTCOME FOCUS

c. an action objective – a how question:

i. How do we fix/change/leverage/optimize/avoid…?
ii. How do we enter markets successfully?
iii. How do we continue to grow the brand?
iv. How do we innovate to meet these needs?
2 An end outcome that this objective will help us achieve and is
viable to action. This can be divided into either achieving a positive
outcome or avoiding a negative outcome:
a. a positive outcome – related to achieving our goals and targets
with specific reference to the key performance indicator
b. a negative outcome – related to avoiding further problems,
losses or risks with specific reference to the key performance
indicator
3 A specific focus area that fits with key priorities. This can be
divided into three different focus areas:
a. within a specific time/place – by a certain end point (this year,
this quarter, etc.) or specific geography (country, region, etc.)
b. within a specific target group – by segment, by demographic,
by frequency of purchase, by channel usage
c. within a specific set of criteria – within existing budget, within
a benchmark, within a tolerance level
 HOW TO PLAN A RELEVANT DATA STORY 111

Example 1:
●●
Original question = Should we produce content on topic X?
●●
Killer question = What is the appetite to engage with topic X
among our loyal readers and is this significant enough to have a
positive impact on advertising revenue for the brand?

The original question covers the ‘what we need to know’ at a very

broad level and will probably result in an answer that suggests ‘it
depends’, with lots of analysis addressing pros and cons. It is missing
any definition of what success would look like or parameters to make
a decision on, making it hard to produce a data story from lots of
potential data analysis.
The killer question provides greater clarity and depth by focusing
on the three component parts:

1 The objective is to understand the size of the opportunity.

2 The outcome is the link to driving engagement metrics and
advertising revenue opportunities.
3 The specific focus is existing loyal readers.

Example 2:
●●
Original question = How are consumers’ shopping habits changing?
●●
Killer question = What are the top three consumer shopping trends
that we need to plan for and respond to now to stay relevant to
segment A and gain share of wallet advantage over competitor X?

The original is a real question posed by a category marketing team. It

is far too broad and doesn’t give any sense of priority actions that
any analysis could support.
The killer question provides room for generating actionable insight
by focusing on the three component parts:

1 The objective is to understand the priority shopper trends the

brand should respond to.
2 The outcome is the link to gaining share of wallet over a specific
competitor.
3 The specific focus is relevance for segment A.
112 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

Example 3:
●●
Original question = Why should we invest in paid social?
●●
Killer question = What difference would a £x million paid social
media investment make to campaign X in terms of mass market
reach and ROI compared to other communications approaches?

The original is a real question posed by a decision-maker who was

sceptical about the need to include paid social in the communications
budget. The question is too broad and doesn’t give any room to eval-
uate the role of the channel in relation to specific campaign goals.
The killer question provides a tangible example and measure of
success by focusing on the three component parts:

1 The objective is to understand the relative performance of paid

social compared to other approaches.
2 The outcome is the impact on the campaign goal to reach a mass
market audience in the most efficient way.
3 The specific focus is the £x million recommended spend.

Example 4:
●●
Original question = Are we attracting new customers to the brand?
●●
Killer question = Did the June campaign targeted at 18- to 25-year-
olds result in an increase in revenue for the new range?

While this might be a common question, it is lacking in any specifics

to create a compelling data story as it doesn’t indicate what activity
we are measuring, what new customers we are looking to attract or
any measure of success.
The killer question provides an opportunity to evaluate what has
worked by focusing on the three component parts:

1 The objective is to understand the performance of the campaign

on acquisition.
2 The outcome is the impact on purchase of items within the new
range.
3 The specific focus is the 18- to 25-year-old target market.
 HOW TO PLAN A RELEVANT DATA STORY 113

HYPOTHESIZE THE ANSWER

A killer question needs to strike a balance between not being too
broad that the story becomes too generic, high-level and convoluted,
and not so specific that the answer becomes a simple ‘Yes’, ‘No’ or ‘It
depends.’ Equally, it needs to be stretching and challenging enough to
enable new insights and a deeper understanding, but not so ambi-
tious that it is impossible to answer.
To stress-test the killer question we can generate early hypotheses.
To generate well-rounded hypotheses, you need to take into account
the following questions:
●●
What do I expect the answer to the killer question to be and why?
●●
What do I hope the answer to be given our current plans, strategy
and decisions and why?
●●
What evidence do I already have that supports the likelihood that
this hypothesis will be proven to be true?
●●
What evidence would I need from any new analysis to suggest that
this hypothesis is true?

In order to avoid unnecessary bias creeping into your chosen hypoth-

eses, ask the additional following questions:
●●
Can I refer to an existing example or user case where this is true?
●●
What are the alternative hypotheses and why do I believe this one
is more valid?
●●
What are the blind spots or existing assumptions that might be
driving this hypothesis?

A perfect story plan with a perfect killer question and hypotheses is

not necessary; what you are looking for is a solid start point. One
hour of high-quality thinking will make a significant difference in the
quality of your final data story.
114 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

Putting into practice

A key framework to assist you with planning your data story
Working with many business storytellers over the years, I have found
the SCQA tool to be particularly useful. It is easy to understand and
to apply in many contexts. When I run story planning sessions, such
as the one described in the earlier case study, it is the SCQA that helps
give structure to the workshop and keeps the brainstorm on track.
The SCQA tool is part of Minto’s wider framework shared in
The Pyramid Principle: Logic in writing and thinking (2021). It is
a useful acronym to help you pull together your draft story plan,
resulting in a clear and concise paragraph that forms the starting
point for your story.

SCQA stands for situation, complication, question and answer.

●●
The situation is a one-or two-sentence summary of the status quo, wider
context and how it aligns to the bigger picture.
●●
The complication is a one- or two-sentence summary articulating the
problem statement.
●●
The question is our killer question that we have crafted from our
understanding of the context.
●●
The answer is our hypothesis that is going to be the starting point for
our analysis.

Example 1
Business A wanted to close the market share gap with its nearest
competitor. One part of the marketing plan to support this was to
make changes to the existing advertising copy to better promote the
brand benefits. However, the marketing team had a number of chal-
lenges that would likely impact on success, including a reduction in
the overall budget for advertising and an increase in competitor
marketing activity.
 HOW TO PLAN A RELEVANT DATA STORY 115

The following SCQA was devised to provide a focused outline for

the data story to highlight the impact of budget cuts on achieving the
end goal. The hypotheses have been excluded to prevent sharing
commercially sensitive information.
●●
Situation: To support the business goal of driving market share, we
recommended developing new copy focused on leveraging point of
differentiation A. This campaign is due to go live on date X.
●●
Complication: Our planned spend and activity for the campaign
have been affected by the wider macroeconomic issues and budget
cuts. This resulted in the decision to launch the new copy without
any rigorous testing. Given uncertainty regarding the effectiveness
of the copy changes, coupled with overall media spend cuts and
aggressive competitor activity, we fear the new advertising will not
protect market share.
●●
Question: How much impact has the aggressive action of
competitor Y had on our brand equity and will our new advertising
campaign and supporting marketing effort protect us from further
erosion of share?

Example 2
Business B needed to quickly address revenue issues caused by the
cost-of-living crisis to protect market share. While current rejuvena-
tion plans were making some impact, the roll-out was slow and
would not address all the immediate issues that the operation was
facing. Marketing tactics were not as effective as those of the compe-
tition and immediate changes were required to remove friction for
customers on promotions.
The following SCQA was devised by the marketing team to provide
a focused outline for the data story to convince the board to buy in
to changes to specific promotion mechanics, including the loyalty
scheme. The hypotheses have been excluded to prevent sharing
commercially sensitive information.
●●
Situation: Our primary focus is protecting and optimizing market
share during a difficult trading period and a number of pillar plans
have been put into place to support this strategy. Tough market
116 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

conditions and competitor activity have had a significant impact

on shopper perception and make for a more challenging
environment to execute our plans.
●●
Complication: We cannot solely compete by driving value
perception via discounting and our main competitor is closing the
gap on our quality position, especially among repertoire shoppers.
Customers are becoming increasingly savvy about shopping
around and some of our promotional mechanics mean basket
shoppers are at a disadvantage, causing them to have their heads
turned and try elsewhere for top-up shops.
●●
Question: What are the priority marketing actions we need to take
to overcome barriers to accessing deals in order to prevent
customers switching to the competition?

Crafting your SCQA gives you a wireframe story that others can contrib-
ute to and co-create. Sharing your draft story ideas with interested
parties, select audience members or team members enables you to seek
clarification on priorities. Early input from others also ensures additional
perspectives on hypotheses are built into any data analysis frameworks
and facilitates initial challenges around myths, biases and expectations,
rather than having to circumvent them at the delivery stage.

Challenge 1
Take an existing data story you have been involved with and reflect on the
following questions:
●●
How well did the original data story frame the message by aligning to
the moments that matter and specific goals and priorities?
●●
How well did the original data story highlight the scale of the issues and
why this story is important to tell?
●●
How clear was the killer question in your original story? Was it implied
or explicit?
●●
Given your evaluation, what would you have done differently at the
planning stage to improve the relevance of the data story?
 HOW TO PLAN A RELEVANT DATA STORY 117

Challenge 2
Create a plan for a new data story using the techniques covered in this
chapter. Remember to:
●●
Define the transformation that the story needs to inspire.
●●
Identify the commercial objectives that this data story supports.
●●
Evaluate the different pressures pertinent to the story.
●●
Create a killer question.
●●
Use the SCQA tool to pull together a one-page story plan.

KEY TAKE-OUTS

1 Defining the transformation you are looking to achieve will provide a

clear focus for the data story.
2 Time spent planning will result in relevant data stories that align with
what matters most with the audience.
3 Creating a killer question provides an anchor for our analysis that will
help the development of the data story.

Coming up next…
In the next chapter we will develop a robust data story by using
analytical skills to uncover relevant insights. It will provide ideas to
help you access the right data solutions for your story, guidance on
best practice data interpretation and a means to create actionable
insights worth shouting about.

References
Minto, B (2021) The Pyramid Principle: Logic in writing and thinking, 3rd edn,
Pearson Education, London
Schramm, J D (2020) Communicate with Mastery: Speak with conviction and write
for impact, John Wiley & Sons, Nashville
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 119

How to discover a robust data story

In this chapter we will explore:

●●
the power of a robust data story
●●
the pitfalls to avoid when discovering your data story
●●
the three steps to best practice
●● access a range of high-quality data sources
●● question the data observations
●● draw out meaningful insight
●●
putting into practice

The power of a robust data story

QUICK RECAP

A robust story requires you to use your analytical skills to surface and
discover key insights. Solid analysis and interpretation provide the
opportunity for uncovering new insights and developing a richer, nuanced
and credible data story.

Making a difference
The case study example below demonstrates the value of a robust
data story.
120 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

CASE STUDY

Context
Team X were responsible for customer communications. This involved not only
marketing communication, but all inbound and outbound communication with
the customer. Part of their responsibility was to share customer feedback on
communications and the impact on overall customer experience and churn. This
required them to influence their colleagues outside of marketing in the wider
operations without direct authority over their objectives and plans. As part of
their usual ways of working, the team held a monthly meeting to share a key
data story and agree any actions.

Challenge
Despite the source of data being valid, the team were constantly questioned
about the robustness of the data story. If their stakeholders did not like the
recommendations or actions in the data sources, they would default to criticizing
the data itself. This defensive behaviour is something I have witnessed in many
organizations, and while it is understandable that individuals may resist change
or feel they do not have the tools or resources to implement change, it is easy
to lose confidence in your data story if you feel the data is being unfairly
scrutinized. The main challenge with the data storytelling was that the
recommendations drawn from the data were not quick or easy fixes, nor were
they particularly attractive or motivating to action. The stakeholders’ feedback
was that they were tired of hearing about these actions and wanted the data
story to offer exciting new insight, not the same old recommendations. As the
team dug deeper and deeper into the data, it didn’t take long for them to realize
that these mystical new insights didn’t actually exist, and that their data
interpretation would always prioritize the importance of the same three key
actions, as these were the key drivers to improve customer communications.

Action
The team decided to change tack. Instead of mining for insights that were not
robust or valid, they doubled down on the existing insights and reviewed their
data storytelling approach.
No more time wasted on:
●●
creating visually appealing dashboards and presentations, using data that was
at best ignored and at worst weaponized
 HOW TO DISCOVER A ROBUST DATA STORY 121

●●
looking for phantom insights that didn’t exist
●●
delivering awkward presentations that did not lead to improving the
customer experience

Instead, they invested their time in developing a better data story centred
around the three most important insights. This time allowed for:
●●
deeper data exploration across a broader range of sources
●●
collaboration with the finance team to develop models that could
demonstrate the relationship between the insights and commercial KPIs
●●
reviewing recommendations and actions required against resources and
capabilities
●●
adequately preparing for any challenging conversations that they would still face

Results
The team were able to come back to the stakeholders with the same insights
from the data, told in a more powerful way, using robust data from multiple
sources that aligned to an action plan. The work to validate the data story built
their confidence in the recommendations and their ability to manage any
scrutiny they might face. This confidence enabled them to be consistent in
reinforcing the same message, until progress was finally made and a true
transformation occurred.

Outcomes and learning

Buy-in to the data story helped make real change in communication activity and
alleviate a number of customer pain points. The conscious, patient and robust
data storytelling described in this case study highlights the significant impact
insights can have on marketing and wider business outcomes. However, it also
shows that, when the pressure is on, or we are busy, or we don’t feel we have
the right skills to influence with data stories, it is easy to succumb to any
pressure to back down or change the story. Getting back to basics, being diligent
in our approach and focusing on the robustness of the data interpretation can
make a significant difference to great data storytelling.
122 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

The pitfalls to avoid when discovering your data story

There are three main pitfalls to avoid when discovering your data
story:
●●
data distortion
●●
ignoring contradictory evidence
●●
failing to mitigate for bias in interpretation

Data distortion
Jerry Z Muller (2019) discusses the ‘distortion of information’ in
his must-read book The Tyranny of Metrics. As the volume of data
available increases, so too does the potential to manipulate and
distort it. This distortion occurs day to day within our everyday
lives and in our work. This can be magnified in teams and busi-
nesses that are looking to achieve ever more elusive short-term
gains, and the marketing function is no exception. According to
Marketing Week’s Language of Effectiveness Survey (Stephenson,
2023), 46 per cent of the 1,610 brand-side marketers interviewed
felt that their brand is too focused on ROI at the expense of longer-
term brand building. This pressure to prove ROI and short-term
impact can lead to shortcuts when it comes to using data to drive
marketing decisions and actions.
Sometimes, ‘data distortion’ is conscious and intentional. I have
worked with well-respected marketing teams where they have been
asked to prove certain claims to be true and have found themselves
manipulating the data to do so. Some of the ‘distortion’ that happens
in data storytelling is unconscious and driven by our innate human
desire to simplify the complex into something that is more easily
measurable. Examples of data distortion include:
●●
quoting declines in raw numbers, rather than as a percentage
among the relevant base
●●
changing definitions or parameters to remove certain segments or
categories within the data
●●
averaging quarterly data by three to make comparisons to monthly
data when it was unavailable in certain markets
 HOW TO DISCOVER A ROBUST DATA STORY 123

●●
measuring the impact of interventions based on the total numbers
rather than the proportion of a variable base
●●
cherry-picking the data that proves the point that they need to
make and ignoring any related data that does not
●●
encouraging, or turning a blind eye to, poor behaviours that game
the metric

The reality is that it is possible to get data to say what you want if
you look at it in a different way. While it might make someone happy
in the moment or suit a specific agenda, it weakens any benefits to be
had by using data in the first place. If we use data to prove that some-
thing worked when it didn’t, then all we are doing is fooling ourselves.
Eventually, the misuse of data catches up with us because the reality
doesn’t match what we have claimed to be true and the effectiveness
we sought to demonstrate isn’t realized.
Knowing how to use data ethically becomes everyone’s responsi-
bility when failing to do so can have severe legal, financial and
reputational consequences. No customer is going to admire your
brand for the great job you do at personalization if at a wider corpo-
rate level there is any question about misuse of data. Companies are
penalized with significant fines for breaching data regulations.
According to Data Privacy Manager (2023), the top fines imposed
for breaching GDPR regulations in Europe in 2023 were €1.2 billion
for Meta and €746 million for Amazon. In the UK, the Information
Commissioner’s Office has the power to fine companies that breach
regulations up to £17.5 million or 4 per cent of the total annual
worldwide turnover, whichever is higher.
Given these risks, it is crucial for marketing teams to prioritize
data accuracy, solid analysis, ethical practices and robust data story-
telling to effectively leverage data for strategic decision-making,
campaign optimization and customer-centric marketing initiatives.
As individuals within the marketing function, you need to use data as
part of a persuasive storytelling approach that incorporates data in a
conscious, robust and deliberate way.
124 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

Ignoring contradictory data

Managing contradictory data is an essential part of data analysis and
can yield real insights if we embrace the mess and the discomfort it
causes. Ignoring the contradiction can cause inaccuracy in interpreta-
tion and ultimately in decision-making. Given the data has been
cleaned, validated and quality-checked by the data owner, we can be
confident that the data is correct. If statistical testing has determined
that the differences are significant, rather than just random variation,
it requires the data storyteller to explain any differences and what
they mean. Rather than ignore these differences, further exploration
will be required to understand and make sense of the contradictions.
These contradictions could be due to:
●●
looking at data over different time periods or different samples –
comparing apples with oranges
●●
looking at different types of measurement, such as attitudes versus
behaviours – comparing apples with an elephant!

Often, the data wouldn’t really match up because the sources of those data
points could vary enormously. For example, data from a brand tracking
study measuring awareness and perception of the brand and campaign is
derived through an online survey (and therefore an online panel of
‘non-rejectors’ of the category), data showing advertising penetration is
based on a completely different base and set of attributes, and social again
is different. So, trying to pick out the stories in all of that was difficult. It’s
important to be aware of these differences and the limitations in order to
make sense of all the information gathered and create a coherent
understanding and evaluation of performance. It often took a lot of time to
gather this data and analyse it, which often felt like we were on the back
foot when it came to planning the next campaign as often the learnings
from the previous one hadn’t fully been understood.

Rosy Harrington, Global Brand Planner, De Beers Group

 HOW TO DISCOVER A ROBUST DATA STORY 125

There are three steps to manage contradictory data to ensure it has a

place in your data story:

1 Consult with others and seek input from subject matter experts to
get a fresh perspective and help uncover potential explanations.
2 Incorporate insights into your data story as ‘directional’ only and
review implications as new information becomes available. You
can caveat these insights as ‘watch and wait’ while further data is
collected that may resolve the contradiction.
3 When presenting your data story, be transparent about the presence
of contradictory data and the steps you’ve taken to address it.
Acknowledging uncertainty and imperfection is a sign of credibility
and can help build trust in your analysis.

Failing to mitigate bias

Bias is normal, but trying to limit bias in data interpretation is crucial
for making objective and reliable decisions from your data story.
Here are some of the key biases to watch out for in your interpretation:
●●
The ‘not invented here’ bias means it is easy for you to default to a
sceptical or dismissive interpretation of data that comes from
outside – whether that is from another team or external to the
business. This can lead to a myopic interpretation of the data and
can risk down-playing wider knowledge.
●●
Confirmation bias occurs when individuals tend to favour
information that confirms their existing beliefs or hypotheses,
while discounting or ignoring data that contradicts them. This can
lead to cherry-picking data that suits your own agenda, rather
than challenging your point of view.
●●
Cultural bias arises when differences or stereotypes influence the
interpretation of data, leading to misinterpretation or misrepresenta-
tion of certain groups. This becomes more prevalent when you are
removed from reality and exist within a marketing bubble.
126 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

●●
Anchoring bias happens when an initial piece of information has
an undue influence on subsequent decisions or interpretations,
leading to results that are biased towards the anchor. This could
mean that early indications become the final interpretations,
without you digging deeper or looking for alternatives.

The first strategy to minimize bias in your data interpretation is to

acknowledge its existence. Everyone has biases – it is normal. The
more transparent we can be about our process, our assumptions and
areas of uncertainty, the easier it is for potential sources of bias to
present themselves.
There are a number of additional ways of working that can also
assist in minimizing the risk of bias:

1 Gather a range of different perspectives on relevant hypotheses at

the planning stage.
2 Consider alternative explanations and look to disprove hypotheses
when conducting your analysis.
3 Seek input from others and invite others to peer review our
interpretation.
4 Replicate the findings through further research or experiments.

These are relevant tactics when looking at any datasets but are
particularly relevant when looking at large datasets and using AI
tools, as any bias can quickly be magnified and replicated at scale.

The three steps to best practice

1 Access a range of high-quality data sources.

2 Question the data observations.
3 Draw out meaningful insight.

In this section we will look at each in turn, why it matters and how
to implement it in practice.
 HOW TO DISCOVER A ROBUST DATA STORY 127

Step 1: Access a range of high-quality data sources

WHY HIGH-QUALITY DATA SOURCES MATTER
In Chapter 1 we explored Aristotle’s Art of Persuasion and the need
to balance ethos, logos and pathos in our data storytelling.
Understanding the credibility of sources is imperative for executing
ethos in our data storytelling practice. Using unreliable data can have
serious consequences leading to flawed, incorrect or misleading data
stories. This in turn may result in misallocation of resources, legal or
compliance issues, or reputational damage with customers, partners
and other suppliers. Using unreliable data can also lead to missed
opportunities if we fail to accurately measure trends, emerging threats
or changing customer preferences.
By selecting relevant, accurate and reliable data sources for our
story we can be confident in the validity of our conclusions and
recommendations. While you may not personally be responsible for
data quality and governance, by understanding the data available to
you and critically evaluating the source and methodologies you are
taking accountability for the integrity of your own data story.

HOW TO ACCESS HIGH-QUALITY DATA SOURCES

To ensure you are using credible information sources that are accu-
rate and trustworthy, you need to:
●●
find out what data sources are available
●●
speak to an expert or the data owner

FIND OUT WHAT DATA SOURCES ARE AVAILABLE

Before we can make any judgement regarding reliability, we need to
understand which data sources are available on the topic area. Start
with what you already have access to and review through the lens of
your new killer question. It may be that existing sources can give you
at least part if not most of the answer, without additional analysis.
From this review you should be able to spot the knowledge gaps that
still exist and make a judgement as to how critical they are to fill,
before investing further time, resource and potentially budget acquir-
ing more data.
128 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

While sticking to what you know can build trust in your interpre-
tation, the downside is we may miss different perspectives or new
insights. But when we don’t know what is available, spending time
investigating what else could be out there can be time consuming.
I recommend focusing on uncovering other data sources that exist
within the business or with trusted partners first. This is where great
knowledge management systems can add real value, enabling you to
access different sources that might sit outside your remit.
In the absence of a great knowledge management tool, lean on
your network. But resist the urge to send an ‘all staff’ email request-
ing information. Instead, look to uncover new sources by sharing
your story plan with other relevant peers, internal communities and
trusted stakeholders. This way they can understand the bigger picture
relating to your request for data, which will increase the likelihood of
them being able to provide useful information. Requesting general
information on a broad topic area is likely to mean that you become
inundated with reports that may or may not be relevant to your
investigation.

SPEAK TO AN EXPERT OR THE DATA OWNER

Understand the basics of the methods and techniques so you can

collaborate with experts to find the best approach, rather than just asking
for data science! For example, understand that prediction doesn’t have to
be machine learning and we can do a lot with advanced statistical
techniques, or know when analytics can’t help, and customer research
would be better.

Rebecca Ruane, Head of Reader Revenue Insight, The Guardian

There are a number of questions to ask the expert or the data owner
to help you make a judgement on the quality of the data source,
including:
●●
Who is the author or owner of the data and are they an expert in
the subject matter?
 HOW TO DISCOVER A ROBUST DATA STORY 129

●●
Who is/was the intended audience?
●●
What is the purpose of the data source? Is it to inform or to sell?
●●
Who produced and paid for the data? Are they reputable, do they
have their own agenda, or do we trust that they are impartial?
●●
Is the owner of the source independent or are there any known
biases or conflicts of interest that can affect objectivity of the
source?
●●
Is the platform where the data sources is hosted an established and
reputable publisher known for credible content?
●●
Has the source been validated, peer reviewed or fact-checked?
●●
Is the source up to date?

Be curious about the source and how the data has been collected to
ensure you are not opening yourself up to any risk by using the data.
If the credibility of a source is unclear, seek advice from experts who
can provide guidance on reputable sources for specific topics.

Step 2: Question the data observations

WHY QUESTIONING THE DATA MATTERS

Before you as a marketer go off with numbers and use them or share them,
you need to know that you can back them. You need to know where they
came from. Don’t be fobbed off by the black box or by someone telling you
that you don’t need to concern yourself with the detail. You need to be able
to challenge everything about that number and own it.

Lizzie Harris, Customer Director, B&Q

In 2020, Berlin artist Simon Weckert faked a traffic jam to make a

point about the flaw in big data. As part of his project, and subsequent
installation, ‘Google Maps hack’, Weckert used a small red wagon
filled with 99 second-hand smartphones with the Google Maps app
130 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

open. By walking around quiet city streets he created a signal cluster

that indicated to Google Maps there was a traffic jam, therefore shar-
ing data with app users that would impact on their decision-making
around avoiding the route and seeking alternatives. By transforming a
green route into a red one on the map he was highlighting the map’s
reliance on user data. This is a great visual example of how data
manipulation can result in the communication of misinformation and
how it can impact on decision-making.
Marketers do not need to know how to generate predictive models
or run statistical tests (unless you really want to). It is not imperative
to be a data expert to integrate analytical thinking into your market-
ing practice – it just requires a certain level of confidence when
reviewing datasets, reports and presentations, plus the ability to ask
good questions. Marketers may be reluctant to get their hands dirty
with the data or have a fear of getting it wrong. This can lead to an
over-reliance on the data expert for their interpretation of the
evidence. Building confidence in our analytical skills requires demys-
tifying the language around data, providing easy-to-replicate
analytical processes and the empowerment to challenge the data.

HOW TO QUESTION THE DATA OBSERVATION

To be confident in the evidence that is informing your data story, you
need to question the data itself. This requires the ability to look at the
data and know what questions to ask to help you:
●●
check the findings are valid
●●
build confidence in your interpretation

CHECK THE FINDINGS ARE VALID

To test the validity of the data, there are a number of key questions you
should ask:
●●
What is the sample and is it representative of the customers I am
interested in?
●●
How recently was the data collected?
 HOW TO DISCOVER A ROBUST DATA STORY 131

●●
Who is missing from this sample and what impact could that have?
●●
What is the margin of error on the sample size and what is a fair
comparison?
●●
What are the sublevels/breakdown of results of any composite metric/
KPI and how are they behaving?
●●
What is the range of scores that makes up the mean on any key
measures?
●●
What are the key drivers of change in our KPIs and how strong are the
correlations?

Asking these questions can elicit a great deal of insight, and with
better quality analysis you will be better placed to make quality
judgements on what course of action to take. Having sought answers
to these questions you can now consider what the data means and
your response to the killer question for your data story. Being confi-
dent enough to ask questions of the data will go a long way towards
avoiding interpretation pitfalls and ensuring high-quality data inter-
pretation and storytelling.

BUILD CONFIDENCE IN YOUR INTERPRETATION

Confidence comes not from knowing all the answers, but from being
able to look at the data and know what questions to ask.

To get comfortable with data – get stuck in. Look at what’s it telling us and
how it is backed up with other credible sources. Be prepared to review the
data at every stage. So, look at it early on, maybe at the 50 per cent stage,
to see if any trends are emerging. And then check in again at 75 per cent
and 100 per cent, just to see what the data is telling you and to see what
trends and narratives are emerging. They may well change. It’s important to
keep on top of the data and just keep checking in on it. Don’t just take it at
face value and don’t just wait until all the final data is in, because that’s an
opportunity for you to look at some secondary resources or other analysis
and to be able to question it a little bit more.

Rachael Kinsella, Editorial and Content Director, iResearch Services

132 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

Some questions to ask yourself when looking at the data include

those listed below:

Is the average meaningful?

For example, if customers are asked to rate a brand, they are likely to
be given a scale to choose from. If that scale is 1–10 and the mean
average in the data is 6 among a sample of 1,000 customers, what
does this actually mean?
Averages are useful when conducting comparative analysis over
time or between groups or markets, but as a tool to drive action they
can be meaningless as they neglect the range of scores given that
makes up that average. Looking beyond the mean to the range of
scores can generate more insight than just the mean itself – it enables
us to identify those that are positive and those that are negative and
differences between their needs, attitudes and behaviours.

Is this uplift in the data significant?

Sample size, margin of error and confidence levels give an indication

of accuracy in the conclusions drawn from the data.
For example, with a robust sample size of 1,000 responses or
counts you could still have a margin of error of +/– 3 percentage
points when comparing that data over time. Therefore, if the data for
a particular measure has moved from 52 per cent, to 55 per cent, this
uplift of 3 percentage points could be down to noise in the data rather
than a real change. However, if it moved from 52 per cent to 60 per
cent, this is outside the margin of error and so we could be 95 per
cent confident that this is a real uplift.
It is important to know the sample size you are basing your deci-
sions on, and with smaller samples or subsamples it is necessary to
understand the impact of the margin of error when making compari-
sons over time or between groups. This might mean you need to look
at a longer time period to ensure more stable data, or, if looking at a
subsection of the data, look at the level above.
Can I be certain that making a particular change/intervention will
lead to a positive uplift in a key measure?
 HOW TO DISCOVER A ROBUST DATA STORY 133

Probability measures the chance of events occurring and whether

results would be replicated if we conducted the same analysis again
and again. If probability is 1 then it is certain to occur each time it
was replicated; if probability is 0 then it is impossible it will occur
ever again; and 0.5 is an even chance it could be replicated again –
such as the toss of a coin. Understanding the difference between the
possibility of something happening (e.g. it could technically happen)
versus the probability of something happening (e.g. it will happen) is
important when it comes to levels of certainty about future consumer
behaviour based on current attitudes, forecasting and demand model-
ling. While you shouldn’t expect a model to be based on a score of 1,
as nothing is ever that certain, you should be asking more questions
if it is less than 0.6.
Can I explain how a particular action/intervention impacted on the
data?
Correlation measures the relationship between two variables to
predict events. If the different variables are completely independent
from each other and have no impact on each other the score is 0. If
they are positively related, where if one improves the other does too,
the maximum score is +1. If they are negatively related, where if one
increases the other decreases, the minimum score is –1. Correlation
analysis can provide information about different marketing metrics
and their relationships with each other to identify key drivers that
can be influenced through marketing and communications activity.
Understanding the strength of that relationship will again impact on
the level of certainty shared in your data story.
However, be mindful that correlation does not always imply causa-
tion. A strong correlation between sets of variables might indicate
causality, but there could easily be other explanations, such as the
result of random chance, where the variables appear to be related but
there is no true underlying relationship or there may be a third, lurk-
ing variable that makes the relationship, appear stronger (or weaker)
than it is. For example, although shark attacks and ice cream
consumption are correlated, are they causally related? The per capita
cheese consumption is correlated with the number of people who die
134 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

from getting tangled in their bedsheets – but are these causally

related? The key to check for causality is more questions and more
experiments to test to see whether this relationship is consistent over
time or in different settings.
Asking these questions might require you to build some basic know­
ledge of these key statistical terms, or you may prefer to just know
enough to ask the relevant questions of the experts. Either way, it will
help build your confidence in the conclusions you are drawing from
the data.

Get the language right. It’s not just statistical significance – but also what
do we mean by terms such as propensity or likelihood. You need to be able
to understand and explain the data. For example, when you say the uplift is
statistically significant, know what that means. You can then be more
persuasive because you know the uplift isn’t just a fluke.

Rebecca Ruane, Head of Reader Revenue Insight, The Guardian

Step 3: Draw out meaningful insight

WHY MEANINGFUL INSIGHTS MATTER
Meaningful insights hold greater significance than robust data obser-
vations as they provide actionable understanding. While data
observations offer raw information or measurement of a metric,
insights contextualize, interpret and extract valuable implications.
Insights distil complexity, revealing patterns and relationships crucial
for strategy refinement. They transform data into a strategic asset.

Ask yourself ‘Do we really understand the customer and their needs?’ and
‘Do we understand enough about our data landscape to be able to identify
those needs at the right moment in time?’ Data literacy is part of it but so is
asking the ‘Why?’, understanding the ‘So what?’, being able to join the dots.
Those are some very basic things that we all need to learn and get better at.

Sanica Menezes, Head of Customer Analytics, Aviva

 HOW TO DISCOVER A ROBUST DATA STORY 135

Example of a data observation:

The cost-per-click (CPC) profitability metric for campaign X improved in
March X.
Example of a meaningful insight:
Although the CPC profitability metric for campaign X shows month-on-
month improvement and was significantly better than our target in
March, this was due to the fact that there was less competition, which
lowered the CPC in that month, rather than because of any of the
optimizations made.

HOW TO DRAW OUT MEANINGFUL INSIGHTS

To draw out meaningful insight from the data, you need to:
●●
dig deeper into the data
●●
interrogate the data for the ‘So what?’

DIG DEEPER INTO THE DATA

Eyeballing the data in the spreadsheet, dashboard or report will give
you a basic understanding of the data and you may be able to quickly
answer some simple observations:
●●
Does this look right?
●●
Does it make sense?
●●
Is this interesting?
●●
Am I drawn to anything in particular?
●●
Are there any patterns/themes/trends I am noticing?

But to draw out meaningful insight you need to go beyond looking at

the data at face value as it is unlikely that a quick review of the data
will help you immediately answer your killer question. This will
require a more detailed investigation to look deeper into the data
with the killer question and hypotheses in mind.
136 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

When conducting your deeper-dive analysis, ask yourself:

●●
What metrics or measures are most helpful to me?
●●
How does the data compare to our hypotheses?
●●
How does it compare to past data, benchmarks or targets?
●●
How does this vary by segment, demographic or user type?
●●
How does this relate to the wider environment?
●●
How does it compare to other data observations I have seen?
●●
How does it contribute to a wider and deeper understanding of the
problem or objective?

INTERROGATE THE DATA FOR THE ‘SO WHAT?’

To understand why certain observations might be insightful, we need
to interrogate why these changes or differences have occurred. By
investigating the root cause, we are better placed to understand why
the observation matters.
When conducting your root cause analysis, ask yourself the ques-
tions below:
●●
Why is this happening, and why now?
●●
What are all the directly relevant and connected factors?
●●
What factors or conditions contributed to these results?
●●
What are the most likely or probable reasons for this to occur?
●●
Have similar patterns/trends arisen in the past?
●●
Why does this matter more than other findings we have uncovered?
●●
How does it relate to what we are trying to achieve?

Asking the deeper root cause questions not only helps you build more
thorough understanding of problems, drivers of change or potential
solutions, it can also prevent recurrence of issues, improve optimiza-
tion efforts and mitigate future risks.
Once your meaningful insight starts to develop, you can also utilize
projective techniques and ‘What if?’ questions to scrutinize further. Below
 HOW TO DISCOVER A ROBUST DATA STORY 137

are a selection of questions you can ask yourself to ensure that you have
considered the argument from as many perspectives as possible:
●●
If I shared this insight with [someone who often has a different or
contentious point of view], what would they say and how would I
defend this position?
●●
What could be a feasible alternative explanation and why is my
interpretation better than any alternative interpretation? What
evidence would convince me that the alternative interpretation is
better?
●●
What if I am wrong? What would be the consequence, and would
this stop me from pushing this message in my data story?
●●
What if I was the stakeholder in the audience? How would I feel
or think about this data story?
●●
What if a customer was a fly on the wall? How would they expect
the business to respond to this data story?

FIGURE 6.1 Example 5 whys

Cost-per-click (CPC) profitability

metric high in March

Why?

Increase from February and ahead of

target

Why?

Less competition in March lowering

the overall CPC paid

Why?

Outperformed in some segments

Why?

Segments X and Y less attractive to

others

Why?

Potentially trading off effectiveness for

metric performance
138 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

Putting into practice

A key framework to assist you with planning your data story
When running analysis sessions, I have found the 5 whys tool a quick
and effective way of digging deeper into the data to surface meaning-
ful insight (Figure 6.1). The 5 whys technique was invented in the
1930s by Sakichi Toyoda, the Japanese industrialist, founder of
Toyota Industries and developer of lean manufacturing.
The 5 whys is essentially a problem-solving technique, and by iter-
atively asking ‘Why?’ it can help to identify the root cause of an issue.
When faced with a problem, individuals or teams repeatedly ask
‘Why?’ to dig deeper into the layers of causation. Starting with the
surface-level problem, each subsequent ‘Why?’ prompts a more
profound examination, gradually unveiling the underlying causes. By
the fifth iteration, practitioners typically reach a fundamental insight.

Challenge 1
Take an existing data story you have been involved with and evaluate the
quality of the insight:
●●
How confident are you that the argument made in the data story stands
up to scrutiny?
●●
In hindsight, what else might you have considered if you wanted to
make the story stronger?
●●
Did the data story ultimately provide an answer to the question or just
provide interesting findings?
●●
Did it highlight the root cause and provide a ‘So what?’
●●
Given your evaluation, what would you do differently to improve the
data story?

Challenge 2
Working on your story plan from Chapter 5, use the questions and
techniques covered in this chapter to identify the credible data sources,
analyse your data and identify the answer to the killer question.
Remember to:
●●
Ask questions of the data sources to ensure they are accurate and
robust.
 HOW TO DISCOVER A ROBUST DATA STORY 139

●●
Ask questions of the data itself to identify the relevant and useful
findings that relate to your question.
●●
Ask the 5 whys to help you dig deeper and get to the root cause.
●●
Challenge your interpretation to make sure you have avoided the
common pitfalls and can argue your case to others with confidence.
●●
Summarize your answer to the killer question.

KEY TAKE-OUTS

1 To maximize the value of your data story, use credible data from a range
of sources.
2 Get comfortable asking questions about the data so you can own and
trust your interpretation of the data story.
3 Keep asking questions to gain a deeper understanding of what story the
data is telling you.

Coming up next…
In the next chapter we look at building a refined data story by using
critical thinking skills to isolate the key messages for the narrative. It
will provide ideas to help you synthesize and stress-test your insights
into a coherent point of view, guidance on best practice story struc-
ture and a means to create a compelling narrative.

References
Data Privacy Manager (2023) 20 biggest GDPR fines so far, Data Privacy Manager,
19 September, dataprivacymanager.net/5-biggest-gdpr-fines-so-far-2020
(archived at https://perma.cc/S2B2-SMXQ)
Muller, J Z (2019) The Tyranny of Metrics, Princeton University Press, Princeton
Stephenson, J (2023) ROI top effectiveness metric demanded by C-suite, Marketing
Week, 16 June, www.marketingweek.com/roi-top-metric-effectiveness (archived
at https://perma.cc/6NQC-9RZV)
Weckert, S (2020) Google Maps hacks, Simon Weckert, simonweckert.com/
googlemapshacks.html (archived at https://perma.cc/SRG5-NWET)
140

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 141

How to build a refined data story

In this chapter we will explore:

●●
the power of a refined data story
●●
the pitfalls to avoid when building your data story
●●
the three steps to best practice
●●
distil insights into points of view
●●
stress-test your recommendation
●●
weave insight into a compelling narrative
●●
putting into practice

The power of a refined data story

QUICK RECAP

A refined story requires you to engage your critical thinking skills to build
the narrative. Distilling and stress-testing the insights to weave them
together into a clear argument provides the opportunity to focus the
audience’s attention on the specific messages and asks.

Making a difference
The case study example below demonstrates the value of a refined
data story.
142 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

CASE STUDY

Context
In late 2019 the brand director of a global financial services company instigated
a strategic review of all customer feedback data sources and how they were
communicated to the board. Data storytelling was seen as a key opportunity to
drive more customer-centric decision-making from the very top, but existing
outputs were under-performing. A few months into this review, and like many
other organizations in early 2020, the operational delivery and customer service
plans of the business drastically changed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
This fast-tracked the need to reach senior decision-makers with better data
stories, as it was imperative that they fully understood the immediate and
long-term impact of these changes on customer perceptions towards their
different brands. This now became a critical programme of work for the brand
director, the head of customer experience and the insight partners from different
business units.

Challenge
A number of challenges were identified by the team, including the following:
●●
Only highly sanitized data reports on customer experience were being shared
with the board, with minimal insights on how to influence the globally
mandated net promoter score (NPS) targets.
●●
The board were frustrated with the lack of joined-up thinking across the
numerous data sources and wanted to see a greater link between the
customer-led recommendations and the commercial value.
●●
Reporting was very transactional with limited ‘So whats?’ or ‘Now whats?’ for
the individual brands that were operating in very different market contexts.
●●
Data was missing to explain the nuances behind the key drivers and granular
data was not scalable to make the necessary inferences regarding the
performance of specific actions and interventions.

It was clear to the team that current data storytelling was not fit for purpose and
would require a significant overhaul if it was to provide more actionable insight
and play a fundamental role in defining and driving customer strategy.
 HOW TO BUILD A REFINED DATA STORY 143

Action
To meet the need for immediate change, the team focused on working the
existing data sources harder, conducting more deep dive analysis and synthesis
across the different sources, developing a project management process to
manage data storytelling, and improving the quality of the narrative within the
existing mandated templates.
A proof-of-concept data story was built out from the data that already
existed, as well as the new analysis and models that linked different attitudinal
and behavioural sources. Working collaboratively in a small working group, the
focus was on using the data to answer a killer question for each business unit
that was relevant to their individual brands and markets, as well as developing
an overall ‘meta story’ focused on the impact of the pandemic on customer
expectations and relative brand performance.
Specific actions taken by the working group overseen by the brand director as
the key sponsor of the programme of work included:
●●
a greater up-front investment in stakeholder conversations, hypothesis
development and deep dive analysis sessions to draft the story and tie in
specific activities
●●
a push to synthesize the different sources both qualitatively (using the story)
and quantitatively, where correlations and comparisons were possible
●●
a shift in the focus of the board discussion paper towards the overall story
coming out of the datasets, rather than reporting numbers in the scorecard
●●
a new format board report and personalized one-pagers for each of the
brands that were designed around key customer journeys with commentary
focused on areas of discussion in relation to their customer strategies

Result
While the change in the data story outputs led to more engagement with the
board, it was the new ways of working that made the biggest difference to the
quality of the data storytelling. Once the new data storytelling approach was
embedded across the working group, it led to further enhancement of the data
storytelling process, including:
●●
building data back in from the new models to the existing data sources to
improve future analysis
144 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

●●
automation of standard analysis and reporting to free up more time for story
building and communication
●●
creation of early warning systems to flag potential risks to core customer
metrics

Outcome and learning

The changes that came about as part of the initiative required each of the
individuals involved to think differently about their role as data storytellers.
What resonated was the need to utilize collaborative ways of working to leverage
their different knowledge, expertise and experience to develop a great data
story. While additional time and energy was needed to invest in the new process,
this was offset by greater efficiencies in standard reporting. The impact the
changes had on the way senior management engaged with the data story was
phenomenal and had a lasting impact on the value of customer metrics on
decision-making at the very top of the organization. This case study shows the
importance of refining the messages in the data story to move away from just
explaining how various metrics are moving towards a customer-led narrative to
drive real change in strategy.

The pitfalls to avoid when building your data story

There are three main pitfalls to avoid when building the structure of
your data story:
●●
showing all your workings out
●●
not getting to the point
●●
wanting to avoid difficult conversations

We’ll explore each of these in turn.

Showing all your workings out

When you get the opportunity to present your story, don’t be tempted to
show your workings out. Focus on the key messages and some simple
takeaways. People don’t need to see what is behind the scenes!

Charlotte Neal, Head of Marketing, Turning Point

 HOW TO BUILD A REFINED DATA STORY 145

When you are uncertain about your insights it is easy to fall into the
trap of over-justifying them. This is especially true if the insights are
challenging the norm, or the overall data story is negative. However,
the reality is that beliefs are rarely changed by throwing more data at
them! By showing all your workings out you are more likely to over-
whelm and confuse the audience, rather than get them to understand
and believe in your story. There is something credible in openly stat-
ing the main learning gained from your analysis and starting your
data story with what you are recommending and why. Just because
you are not showing all your workings does not mean that you
haven’t conducted robust analysis; you should be confident enough
in your data story to consciously focus on the key messages only.
A recent presentation shared with me was a classic example of
data storytelling style over substance. It took me too long to surface
the key insights and recommendation from all of the data shared and
I seriously doubted that the real audience would have had as much
patience as I had. The purpose of the data story was to demonstrate
how a marketing team in a global drinks brand could drive acquisi-
tion within a particular lifestyle segment and what that meant for
their marketing plans, content and social media conversations. The
data story was built from a rich mix of cultural analysis from ethno-
graphic and other qualitative research, market sizing data, media
consumption data, social media data and quantitative brand research.
But the overall data storytelling had minimal impact because it failed
to distil all of this evidence into an insightful narrative. In particular,
the data story:
●●
demonstrated little to no connection to the brand strategy and
why this segment was even important
●●
mistook a shopping list of interesting findings for a useful summary
●●
failed to deliver either a central recommendation or a prioritized
set of actions
●●
followed a structure dictated by the different methodologies rather
than a narrative structure
●●
reported on multiple occasions, mindsets, cultural codes, themes
and motivations with no synthesis across these different measures,
146 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

making it impossible to understand what to prioritize in any

marketing plan or specific campaign
●●
used multiple case studies collated in a section of the presentation,
rather than illustratively weaved around any key point of view
●●
resulted in a 124-page report rammed full of visual social data,
volumes of verbatim, streams of text commentary and complex
coded diagrams that needed a number of charts to explain

While the quality of the data visualization was very good and the use
of imagery used to bring the segment to life was powerful, the actual
story was impenetrable because of the sheer volume of information,
making it a perfect example of a data dump. All in all, this data story
would have taken months to collect, curate and report, and required
significant investment to produce, but there was very little insight
and storytelling to show for it.
One of our expert marketers also shared an example from a recent
meeting with CRM colleagues, stating:

There is a balance to be struck around showing your proof points and

adjusting them to the level that the audience needs to hear them. Rather
than overwhelming them with an abundance of data that everybody just
thinks ‘Oh my God!’, you need to be able to mine your data, make your
point succinctly, use the data to underpin what you’re saying and what
you want to do, and then hit home your point, while pitching at a level
that your audience can still follow.

Not getting to the point

Having sat through many thousands of presentations over the years,
of which many hundreds failed to get to the point, one in particular
stands out. Rather than tolerate the pain of a long-drawn-out data
story like the rest of us, this senior stakeholder decided enough was
enough and called it out. After the first five minutes, the data story-
teller was still justifying the methodology used in his data analysis as
a means to prove his credentials, when the commercial director inter-
rupted and stated, ‘I don’t care how you did it and who you are – I
 HOW TO BUILD A REFINED DATA STORY 147

am assuming I can trust you to have done what we have paid you for.
I just need to know the answer to our ****ing question and what we
need to do next.’ It was a classic example of failing to understand the
audience and their needs. Those working on the data storytelling had
spent their time making their data charts look beautiful and provid-
ing an explanation that justified their work and their existence, rather
than understanding why this mattered to the audience and what they
needed to know from the data story. Distracted by his own safety net
of the charts, the presenter had failed to get to the point. When this
safety net was removed, the data storyteller struggled to get off the
fence and provide a clear and logical answer to the killer question,
causing further frustration and damaging trust in the story itself.
Spending too much time on the output at the expense of understand-
ing the core message has a detrimental effect on the impact of the
data story.
The number one fear of getting to the point early among the dele-
gates I have trained over the years is: ‘If I tell them the answer up
front, then why will they listen to the rest of the story?’ They should
really be thinking: ‘If I don’t get to the point early, why will they want
to listen to the story?’ This shows more concern for the attention
‘payback’ they are looking to achieve based on the time they have
invested in the data story, rather than concern for whether the data
story has delivered concrete value to the audience. All of our market-
ing experts focused on the need to be absolutely ruthless in getting
the key message across, with one marketer calling out the temptation
to sell in your work first. They stated, ‘You may want to demonstrate
all that work you’ve done, all the thinking that you’ve done, but actu-
ally the person receiving it doesn’t care. As long as it answers their
problem. But that’s really hard to let go of.’

Wanting to avoid difficult conversations

Don’t let uncertainty around the audience response and a fear of
conflict dictate your approach. If there is bad news in your data story
or a contentious point of view, there is no point trying to avoid it. You
need to proactively manage it, rather than dilute, hide or sugar-coat it.
148 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

Putting your head in the sand risks leaving yourself exposed to scru-
tiny. Managing the difficult messages in your data story will mean you
avoid awkward surprises, so look to get input from others before
widening distribution and stress-test any contentious points of view
with those who might be impacted. Use this early feedback to plan
how best to position the story and prepare any additional analysis,
content or conversations that will help you manage these challenges.
I am personally a big fan of calling out the difficult messages up front
and making sure the audience knows I understand this is going to be
difficult or uncomfortable to hear. Being transparent about bad news
or disappointing performance builds trust and credibility – avoiding,
hiding or failing to acknowledge it can look duplicitous.

The three steps to best practice

1 Distil insights into a few salient points of view.

2 Stress-test your recommendation.
3 Weave together into a compelling narrative.

In this section we will look at each in turn, why it matters and how
to implement in practice.

Step 1: Distil insights into a few salient points of view

WHY DISTILLATION MATTERS
In his paper ‘The magical number seven, plus or minus two’ (1956),
George Miller detailed his law of human cognition and information
processing, and his supposition that humans can effectively process
no more than seven units, or chunks, of information, plus or minus
two, at any given time. The premise is that when using short-term
memory, humans struggle to retain and recall more than seven key
points from a story. This means we need to identify the key messages
we want our audience to focus on.
 HOW TO BUILD A REFINED DATA STORY 149

Miller also stressed the importance of recoding as a key compo-

nent of how audiences process information. Recoding occurs as the
brain reorganizes information into fewer units to help overcome the
cognitive limitations of the seven-item processing limit. This natural
distillation process is something you can duplicate when structuring
your data story to reduce the cognitive effort required. Critical think-
ing skills are invaluable to ensure the fine balance between simplifying
to aid recall and over-simplifying – this ensures that the value of the
data story is maintained.

We often sit through the big presentation by the market research agency
with the client and we ask them questions and the agency uses slide after
slide after slide after slide after slide after slide. And at the end of it, we
work with the client without the agency to help them distil that down to a
single key overriding message, which is the same principle as you use with
any advertising or communications campaign. It’s really, really hard and we
push the client to be really focused, but when you do it well and you give
that part of the process effort you come out with something that is super-
focused, extremely helpful to the creative process and easy for the
audience to understand, leading to changes in their behaviour and
opinions.

Lucy Davison, Founder and CEO, Keen as Mustard Marketing

HOW TO DISTIL MULTIPLE INSIGHTS

To structure the data into a clear narrative you must first distil your
insights. To build confidence in your distillation process you need to:
●●
recode to three to five points of view
●●
go back and answer the killer question
150 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

RECODE TO THREE TO FIVE POINTS OF VIEW

You must boil it down to a couple of really salient points and ensure that
people can see the connection and why that’s important. It’s the classic
thing – and we’ve been talking about this for my whole 20 years in the
industry. If you go in with a 100-slide deck, nobody’s going to be interested.
If you go in with two or three really compelling points that people can see
are relevant, they are much more likely to do something. People don’t know
what to do when you give them too much information. Your job is to say
‘We can see this is happening, and we know why, and this is what needs to
change.’ Focus on that and be really, really clear and that will get you so
much more impact and will help unlock value.

Sinead Jefferies, SVP Customer Expertise, Zappi

Here are some questions you might ask yourself to help recode:
●●
How can I group disparate learnings into three to five manageable
themes that are easy to explain?
●●
What themes are critical to informing the recommendations in the
data story?
●●
Why do these points of view matter more than other judgements
or evaluations I could make from the data?
●●
How do I manage other topics of interest or hypotheses that do
not align to the points of view and don’t serve the story at this
point in time?
●●
How can I articulate these points of view in a way that highlights
their overall importance to the data story?
●●
How can I justify and support each of these points of view with the
data I have analysed?
●●
What data is irrelevant/superfluous/repetitive and can be excluded
from our data story, and why?

Once you have distilled your analysis into three, four or five themes
then you need to craft these into solid points of view. Spending time
crafting your points of view is critical as they are the key messages
you want the audience to retain and retell from your data story.
 HOW TO BUILD A REFINED DATA STORY 151

Following these best practice principles will ensure you craft great
points of view:
●●
It is important that each point of view supports the overall story
and aligns to the killer question – it should feel like seamless
reinforcement of the argument, not lots of disparate points nor
unnecessary repetition.
●●
Each point of view can be related to the others but should be a
distinctive point in its own right – they can be ordered
chronologically (first, second, third), comparatively (best or most
important to worst or least important) or structurally (a, b, c).
●●
A strong point of view avoids truisms and generalization to provide
a unique perspective.
●●
A point of view should incorporate not only your learnings from
the data (the ‘What?’) but also your experience and expertise to
determine why this matters (the ‘So what?’) and what can be done
about it (the ‘Now what?’).
●●
A point of view requires a short and succinct statement that
incorporates verbs (such as optimize, inject, implement).
●●
A point of view should use conjunctions to enable connections
between the ‘What?’ and the ‘So what?’ Garr Reynolds (2005)
shares a simple framework that he discovered from Matt Stone
and Trey Parker, the co-creators of South Park, where the
conjunction ‘and’ is replaced with ‘but’ or ‘therefore’ to drive more
tension into the point of view.

Some examples of a weak point of view

‘Value is the issue on which we need to focus our engagement activities.’

This is too generic and could apply to lots of different data stories for many
organizations. It doesn’t outline what specifically about ‘value’ matters nor
provide a reason why this should be the focus.
‘We need to make the content relevant to issues they care about.’
This is an over-simplified truism that again applies to any marketing
activity. It needs to provide specific reference to what the priority issues are
and what that means for any new content or content changes.
152 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

‘Our target shoppers are vulnerable to competitor discounts.’

This is purely an observation from the data rather than a point of view.
While it may be true, it needs to detail what that means in practice and
provide reference to actions to prevent this vulnerability.

Some examples of strong points of view

‘Currently healthcare professionals have significant capacity issues that
constrain the amount of time they can spend on device demonstrations
or training, resulting in habitual prescribing based on their previous
experience, which is a significant barrier to gaining trial and adoption of
any new innovations such as product X.’
‘The campaign was viewed very passively by the test audience, even if
they were positive. What is considered as “pleasant” and “gentle” by
some is viewed as “boring” and “dull” by others, so we need to inject
elements into the creative execution that consumers can react to.’
‘Proactive claim management, where customers feel that we anticipate
their specific needs rather than respond to their chasing, is a key driver
of advocacy in the category and one we need to improve if we are to
reduce switching volumes to competitor X.’
‘If we truly want to be seen as a company committed to providing for the
health and wellness of all our customers, we need to implement
programme X in our stores in lower income areas, as their profile suggests
this is where the headroom exists to make the biggest immediate impact.’
‘Someone’s ability to quickly assess the quality of news underpins
everything, and therefore if we want to reduce the risk of spreading fake
news we need to consistently urge platforms to promote and highlight
verified and fact-checked news content.’
‘To drive subscriptions, we need to provide more space for our star content
producers who rank highest on page views and reduce the number of
articles of less than 750 words that do little to drive engagement.’
‘Focusing the messaging on the unmet needs of “a high chance of
winning”, “transparency in how the game works” and “interesting bonus
prizes” will give brand X a distinctive position when entering this saturated
market.’
 HOW TO BUILD A REFINED DATA STORY 153

‘Customers place considerable value on the support and stories shared

by their peers, so brand X can leverage this by either partnering with
advocacy groups or by signposting them to support resources that speak
directly to the patient experience.’

GO BACK AND ANSWER THE KILLER QUESTION

Finally, you need to ladder up from your three to five key points of
view to provide an overall answer to your killer question. This is your
story resolution and the main message that you want the audience to
take from your overall data story. This answer will help you resolve
some, or all, of the conflicts, challenges and tensions in your story,
and will help the business achieve its objectives and desired outcomes.
Questions you might ask yourselves when forming this judgement
include the following:
●●
How does this answer build on, enhance or change our current plans?
●●
What is the benefit of this answer, and which specific tension will
it help us overcome?
●●
What are the areas of compromise, and where are the red lines?
●●
What is the risk of doing nothing, doing what we always do or
doing the wrong thing, versus taking the course of action we are
recommending?
●●
What are the short-, medium- and long-term outcomes?

A great answer requires two components:

●●
It actually gives an answer to the question – no sitting on the fence!
●●
It encapsulates all of the points of view developed from your analysis.

To illustrate this with an example, I have taken one of the real killer
questions shared in Chapter 5 and provided a fictitious response.

Killer question: What are the top three consumer shopping trends that we
need to plan for and respond to now to stay relevant to segment A and gain
share of wallet advantage over competitor X?
154 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

Answer: The three trends we need to respond to this year are 1, 2 and 3,
with 1 offering the biggest opportunity for us to steal share of wallet. The
criteria we used to judge each trend for relevance to this segment were X,
Y and Z as they align most closely with the core brand position.
POV 1: Trend 1 outperformed all other trends on all three key criteria,
therefore making it the obvious choice for us to focus on, but we will need
to leverage our existing strengths in strength A and strength B if we are to
be considered authentic in this space.
POV 2: To make the most of the opportunity to increase relevance with
segment A we need to reinforce our key points of differentiation from
competitor X by specifically dialling up our messaging around …
POV 3: While trend 4 did perform well on criterion X and is being talked
about a lot in the business now as being an obvious choice to address X,
this will be a distraction to optimizing relevance with segment A because ...

Step 2: Stress-test your recommendation

WHY STRESS-TESTING MATTERS
Stress-testing our recommendations to ensure they are practical is a
critical step in any decision-making process. Team members and
stakeholders are more likely to commit to and engage in initiatives
that they believe are feasible and have a realistic chance of success. By
evaluating the practicality of the insights, we increase the likelihood
of tangible results and enable future-proofing of any decisions and
actions.

HOW TO STRESS-TEST YOUR DATA STORY

To build confidence in the narrative and stress-test your recommen-
dation you need to:
●●
review desirability against feasibility
●●
assess commercial viability
 HOW TO BUILD A REFINED DATA STORY 155

REVIEW DESIRABILITY AGAINST FEASIBILITY

To determine whether a recommendation will be practical and lead
to clear actions, there are a number of questions for you to consider:
●●
Will the recommendation lead to desirable decisions and actions?
●●
Is this initiative or optimization likely to be successful if
implemented?
●●
Does the evidence suggest customers see value in the idea/
change/creative?
●●
How does this idea/change/creative fit with the priorities and
needs of the customer?
●●
Is this something our competitors have done?
●●
Is there demand in the market that means we will lose out if we
do not implement it?
●●
How big is the opportunity?
●●
How does it compare to other ideas/changes/creatives we have
implemented in the past?
●●
Is the market ready for it?
●●
Do we have any predictive analysis to quantify the potential
impact?
●●
What is the risk of doing nothing, or doing something else
instead?
●●
What factors are critical to success that we will have to meet?
●●
Is the recommendation feasible to put into practice?
●●
Do we have the resources/knowledge/experience/expertise?
●●
Do we have the time, given other priorities?
●●
Do we have the technology or operational capabilities to
support this?
●●
Are we legally allowed to do it?
●●
Does anything else like this exist?
●●
Have we considered the ‘go to market’ changes required?
156 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

In an ideal world you will be looking for a solution where there is

demand and desire that is also feasible to implement. However, there
may also be new opportunities to explore and conversations to be
had, even if there is an imbalance between the two. For example, in a
case study for a fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brand market-
ing team, the data story identified a significant demand for a new
product variant to meet the needs of the consumer that would also
support the long-term strategy to protect their number one status in
the category through new innovations. However, from a practical
perspective, the organization was not equipped operationally to
produce the packaging format needed for this product variant.
Instead of coming up with an easier incremental action, the team
stayed true to their data story but positioned the message around the
size of the opportunity and the art of the possible. The data story led
to a partnership with an external packaging supplier that was eventu-
ally bought out by the organization once the new variant proved to
be commercially successful.

ASSESS COMMERCIAL VIABILITY

Just because an action is attractive and you can do something about
it doesn’t mean you should. You need to remain true to the overall
strategy and priorities, as well as ensure the action is commercially
viable. To stress-test the data story and determine whether the recom-
mendation will result in commercially viable actions there are a
number of questions for you to consider:
●●
Is the recommendation commercially viable and worth pursuing?
●●
Are we going to make enough revenue to justify any investment
cost?
●●
What is the opportunity cost of focusing on this versus other
priorities?
●●
Will it damage our reputation if we get it wrong/it doesn’t work?
●●
Is it of strategic benefit, even if not commercially beneficial?
●●
Is it scalable?
 HOW TO BUILD A REFINED DATA STORY 157

FIGURE 7.1 The data story sweet spot

Desirability
Feasibility

Viability

●●
Is there a long-term market for this?
●●
Why now? Why not wait and see?

Although the sweet spot identified in Figure 7.1 would be ideal, we

may not have all the answers in our data story to make that judge-
ment. If our resolution is desirable and feasible, we may have to
run a trial or test before we can make a judgement on commercial
viability.
For example, a brand team is concerned that analysis is indicat-
ing a potential reputational risk by continuing to invest in a social
media platform. Other brands have chosen to step away from the
platform and the team are questioning whether they should cease
activity and switch advertising budgets to other platforms. However,
further ana­lysis shows that the majority of their loyal customers do
not have a particularly strong opinion about brand fit with the plat-
form and commercially the return on investment remains consistent.
Given that there are likely to be some constraints in switching, the
data story takes the position that the brand should implement a
‘watch and wait’ policy, but keep an eye out for any change in
customer perceptions that might require a different approach
further into the year.
158 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

By asking these questions of your data story you will be better

placed to position priority actions and recommendations and deal
with any areas where the data story might be challenged.

Step 3: Weave together into a compelling narrative

WHY NARRATIVE STRUCTURE MATTERS
Humans are naturally drawn to narrative structure due to its inher-
ent ability to engage emotions, simplify complex information and
enhance understanding. It provides the framework that our brains
find easy to process, and by offering a journey with a beginning,
middle and end it satisfies our cognitive need for coherence. Narratives
tap into the way our brains naturally process information, making
them a crucial component of data storytelling.

I have a very simple approach to data storytelling, which I often do myself

and encourage the team to do to avoid getting caught up in the data. I try
to get them to pull away from the data, leave it behind, and get them to
just tell me what are the big things that are coming out of the data. Quite
often, they can articulate the story much better than they think. Then I tell
them to just write down what you’ve just said to me, in five bullet points –
like the elevator pitch. Simplifying it to that is really hard for people
because they have all this information, and they feel that they’ve got to tell
the audience about all this information. The key strength is being able to
just say ‘This is what it’s telling us. Sure, there’s loads of bits of information
that I can add in afterwards. But this is what we’re trying to tell you.’ And
then it’s much easier to tell the story.

Richard Colwell, CEO, Red C Research & Marketing Group

But the real magic of narrative is its use of tension. As John le Carré is oft
quoted as saying from his interview with the New York Times (Barber,
1977), ‘“The cat sat on the mat” is not a story. “The cat sat on the dog’s
mat” is a story.’ Bringing in an element of tension, you move your data
story on from sharing observations to utilizing story mechanics that
actively connect with the audience’s brain. Instead of passively processing
 HOW TO BUILD A REFINED DATA STORY 159

a fact or data observation such as ‘The cat sat on the mat’, the use of
tension actively engages the brain through stirring curiosity and prompt-
ing questions, such as ‘Why is the cat sitting on the dog’s mat?’ or ‘What
might happen if the dog comes into the room and notices where the cat
is sitting?’ It even enables the brain to paint a visual picture that connects
with the narrative and projects forward to potential future scenarios
without having to use explicit words to explain. This is how to connect
your audience to the data story – give them a tension to think about
before resolving it with your data-driven recommendations.

HOW TO WEAVE A NARRATIVE FOR YOUR DATA STORY

To weave a narrative that pulls together all the components from
your planning, analysis and interpretation you need to:
●●
follow a storytelling framework
●●
ruthlessly edit for clarity

FOLLOW A STORYTELLING FRAMEWORK

In Chapter 5 we introduced the SCQA tools from the Pyramid
Principle framework (Minto, 2021) as a means to develop your story
outline. In this chapter we will revisit the tool as a useful framework
for pulling together all the story strands into a well-structured narra-
tive. While there are other frameworks that exist, I have found the
Pyramid Principle to be best placed when creating a data story as it
helps manage all the detail and helps the data storyteller balance a
succinct story with using the most compelling evidence.
Like many storytelling frameworks, the SCQA approach aligns
with 19th-century scholar Gustav Freytag’s dramatic arc (Boyd et al,
2020) and leverages the strengths of universal storytelling. Figure 7.2
maps how the two overlap to build confidence and extra validity in
the SCQA tool.
●●
Freytag argued that the upfront exposition sets the scene by sharing
relative context, which aligns with the situation in Minto’s SCQA.
●●
In Freytag’s arc the focal part of the story is the central conflict or
tension that must be grappled with, which aligns with the
complication in Minto’s SCQA.
160 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

FIGURE 7.2 The overlap between SCQA and Freytag’s dramatic arc
CLIMAX
QUESTION

COMPLICATION

FA
SE
SITUATION ANSWER

L
RI

L
FREYTAG’S ARC
EXPOSITION RESOLUTION

●●
Freytag’s arc peaks at the top of the narrative arc at the story’s
climax where the tension leads to a decision that leads to a
resolution, which aligns with the question and answer components
in Minto’s SCQA.

Minto’s Pyramid Principle expands beyond the SCQA to reveal how

the points of view and the selective data can be used to justify the
answer. The pyramid structure uses a chunking approach – this is a
cognitive process where information is managed in chunks, making it
easier for the audience to process and remember. Each chunk in the
data story is held together by the key point of view and the support-
ing data for that point of view. This framework therefore helps with
balancing the overall story, the supporting messages and the evidence
in the data story. Figure 7.3 shows the structure of a data story using
the Pyramid Principle approach.

RUTHLESSLY EDIT FOR CLARITY

Once you have structured your narrative using the framework, it is
time to ruthlessly edit to avoid overload. This is an essential step to
maintain the quality of the narrative. Use your killer question as an
anchor to make the decision about what stays in and what is left
out of the data story. And when you think you are done, have one
final check to make sure the data story is as fine-tuned as it possi-
bly can be.
 HOW TO BUILD A REFINED DATA STORY 161

FIGURE 7.3 An illustrative example of a story pyramid

Situation Complication Killer question

Answer

Point of view 1 Point of view 2 Point of view 3

Insight Insight Insight Insight Insight Insight Insight Insight Insight

Editing takes practice – it takes us out of our comfort zone. But most
of your audience will be used to consuming content that has been
managed for the different levels of time and attention they have. And
they will expect nothing else from your data story. So, seek inspira-
tion from the news media, journalists and content producers who
excel at this skill. Try practising editing your data story to create:
●●
a one-page summary for a five-minute read
●●
one or two paragraphs for a two-minute read
●●
a 30-second soundbite
●●
a Tweet

Putting into practice

Challenge 1
Take an existing data story output that you are familiar with and audit it for
best practice:
●●
Did the output have a balanced beginning, middle and end, or did the
detail in the middle dominate?
162 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

●●
Did the story flow effortlessly, or were there parts that jarred?
●●
How confident are you that the argument made in the data story
stands out?
●●
Did the story use tension to draw you in?
●●
Did the story resolve the tension?
●●
Was the detailed data chunked into easy-to-consume sections?
●●
Did the data included in the output clearly align with the narrative
structure or was there superfluous data that could have been moved to
an appendix or another mechanism for reporting?
●●
In hindsight, what else might you have considered if you wanted to
make the story stronger?
●●
Given your evaluation, what would you do differently to improve the
data story?

Challenge 2
For your revised data story that you have defined and developed in
Chapters 5 and 6, use the principles and techniques covered in this chapter
to develop your narrative structure.
Remember to:
●●
Use the SCQA and Pyramid Principle framework to help you with the
flow and balance between narrative and data.
●●
Perfect the tension within your points of view to draw your audience
into your story.
●●
Challenge your use of evidence and ruthlessly edit to ensure that only
what is necessary is included.

KEY TAKE-OUTS

1 By distilling your insights into three to five points of view, you help
reduce the cognitive load on the audience.
2 Stress-testing your recommendations for desirability, feasibility and
viability ensures your data story is actionable.
3 Using a framework to help define the narrative ensures your data story
utilizes tried and tested story mechanics.
 HOW TO BUILD A REFINED DATA STORY 163

Coming up next…
In the next chapter we look at creating a relatable data story by
enriching the data-driven narrative with human experience and real-
world examples. It will provide ideas to help you bring your data
story to life, to drive engagement and connection with the audience.

References
Barber, M (1977) John le Carré: An interrogation, New York Times, 25 September,
archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/03/21/specials/lecarre-­
interrogation.html (archived at https://perma.cc/33BR-QM7M)
Boyd, R, Blackburn, K and Pennebaker, J (2020) The narrative arc: Revealing core
narrative structures through text analysis, Science Advances, 6 (32),
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aba2196 (archived at https://perma.cc/
A7WZ-SSE9)
Miller, G A (1956) The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on
our capacity for processing information, Psychological Review, 63 (2), 81–97
Minto, B (2021) The Pyramid Principle: Logic in writing and thinking, 3rd edn,
Pearson Education, London
Reynolds, G (2005) The key to story structure in two words: Therefore and but,
Presentation Zen, 22 May, www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2015/05/
the-key-to-story-structure-in-two-words-therefore-but.html (archived at https://
perma.cc/PC9J-GJG4)
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 165

How to create a relatable data story

In this chapter we will explore:

●●
the power of a relatable data story
●●
the pitfalls to avoid when creating your data story
●●
the three steps to best practice
●● integrate human experience and real-world examples
●● add the personal touch
●● keep the momentum going
●●
putting into practice

The power of a relatable data story

QUICK RECAP

A relatable story requires you to use your emotional intelligence to create

a holistic data story. Enriching the data story with human experience and
grounding it in real life increases the likelihood that it will cut through,
resonate and influence your audience.

Making a difference
The following case study demonstrates the value of a relatable data
story.
166 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

CASE STUDY

Context
This data story example was investigating the growth opportunities for a drinks
category. The marketing team were looking to develop customer-led innovations
and reposition several brands in their portfolio to tap into opportunities in this
category. The data story needed to educate senior decision-makers within each
brand and external communications partners to convince them of the need to
instigate a change in direction. The data story was based on multiple sources,
including expert interviews, social listening, market data, audience data, three
years’ worth of performance data and a global usage and attitudes research
study.

Challenge
The team faced a number of challenges with creating the data story:
●●
The category is relatively traditional in comparison to others in the sector
and, while innovations have cut through and helped drive revenue in the
past, they have typically been ‘me-too changes’ taken from following trends
and ideas from adjacent categories, rather than forging their own path.
●●
The volume of data and potential routes forward coming out of the analysis
could easily confuse and overwhelm the different audiences or result in
multiple different actions across the brands and markets. Like similar data
stories exploring trends and segments, it had the potential to become an
unwieldy 120-page data dump.
●●
The audience were very different to the consumer profiles that the data story
was recommending as new targets and there was a potential for disconnect
and lack of empathy.

Action
The priority focus was on creating a strong data storyboard that could be
integrated and built upon through conversations with relevant stakeholders
before finalizing recommendations that would be shared with the brand
directors and category leaders in key markets.

Results
●●
The finalized data story incorporated a hook that focused on a landscape
analogy using mountains, maps and pathways to highlight distinctive routes
 HOW TO CREATE A RELATABLE DATA STORY 167

that consumers could navigate based on preferences and occasions – this

hook was brought to life with real human examples and was used as a
reference point throughout the story and as an anchor for managing the
nuances in the data.
●●
The story context was shared in a visual summary and included a killer
question that would serve as a focal point for the story – this simple use of
the SCQA approach discussed in Chapters 5 and 7 helped frame the
parameters for what the data story would and would not explore.
●●
The high-impact start also included the answer to the question upfront,
giving the audience the high-level version of the story before delving into the
detailed data story.
●●
A visual summary of the nine potential growth areas was synthesized and
recoded into three simple subcomponents of growth – more people, more
often, higher price – thus structuring the data story into three bite-sized and
meaningful chunks.
●●
The growth routes served as the key points of view for the structure of the
story and each section included a summary of the point of view, including an
estimate of volume or value impact, the pathways to growth and the stress-
tested recommendations to activate.
●●
Despite there being nine key areas to investigate in the detailed data story,
each section was consistent in format and structure, making them easy to
navigate through the detail.
●●
Each of the nine sections was summarized at the end with what, why, when,
where and how, as well as some thought-starter questions to generate further
thinking.
●●
The data visualizations were ultra-simple and consistent. Insights were
synthesized across the multiple sources using very simple diagrams to show
the meaning and take-outs
●●
Imagery and verbatims were used selectively to illustrate key points of view,
rather than becoming an overwhelming data source in their own right.
●●
The ending focused attention back onto the mountain analogy with three key
questions for the audience, as well as a quote from an industry expert on how
this category has failed to capture trends in the past and a provocative
statement to encourage action.
168 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

Outcomes and learning

The data story served as a great enabler for thought-provoking conversations
with different stakeholder audiences and was used and referenced extensively in
developing the brand strategies and in category conversations with retail buyers.
By using a clear narrative structure alongside human experience, metaphor and
personalized recommendations, the data story was able to connect, influence
and persuade. The story output was bespoke to the specific context, challenge
and data. Although this meant it required significant effort to craft into a
meaningful data story, the level of impact it therefore had was significant.

The pitfalls to avoid when creating your data story

There are two main pitfalls to avoid when creating your data story:
●●
defaulting to the tools and existing templates
●●
forgetting your audience are humans too

Defaulting to tools and existing templates

It is easy to stick to the prescribed templates from previous data story
outputs or the standard output produced by any tools you use for
data analysis. But these default practices can limit our ability to reach
and influence others, as they do not encourage us to engage with our
creative brain to work out the best way to tell the specific data story
for the specific audience.
Many data visualization tools and data storytelling platforms are
primarily designed for reporting purposes and leave little space for
bespoke data storytelling. Dashboards are useful tools for reporting
comparative data for key metrics and help distribute the mental
workload required to interpret meaning. Effective data storytelling
tools used well can help to filter out the noise and assist the user to
recognize patterns, spot exceptions and focus in on the key signals
coming from the data. While these tools can make the analysis and
interpretation process easier, they cannot – in themselves – create a
data story that can be used to influence others. For marketers looking
to create persuasive data stories, these data visualization tools and
 HOW TO CREATE A RELATABLE DATA STORY 169

dashboard reports are enablers and inputs, not the final output. A
significant amount of work and consideration needs to be made
outside of the tool.
Templates for your story outputs can reduce the time taken to
create your data story and draw on a consistent format, structure
and style. But relying heavily on a template can produce generic data
story outputs that look like every other presentation that your audi-
ence has seen that week. Predetermined structures and visuals can be
restrictive and may force you to align your data story output with a
prescribed way of presenting the data. Allowing a degree of custom-
ization is going to be critical when it comes to telling your data
story. If templates are mandated, you will have to find a workaround
and think creatively about how to use the space on the prescribed
template to get the story message across. If you have more freedom
you can incorporate different tools and approaches to help bring the
story to life.

Forgetting your audience are humans too

It is easy to think, once you have a well-structured narrative supported
by robust evidence, that the story will tell itself. If you were commu-
nicating with robots then maybe that would be the case, but, assuming
your audience are still humans, you need more than data and logic to
cut through, reach, influence and persuade. Even the most powerful
statistics can fall on deaf ears if they are not positioned in a way that
connects with the audience. Make sure you give time and effort to
thinking about the story mechanics that instigate an emotional
connection.
One of the lasting memories of my early career in leisure retail is a
data story that resulted in the data storyteller being removed from
the meeting by a senior stakeholder. The data story was focused on
early-stage customer insights gathered on a new retail proposition we
were testing for potential roll-out. The evidence had been gathered
through in situ quantitative interviews with paid customers on entry
to and exit from the venue, researcher observations and ethnographic
studies, where the target market were recruited for an accompanied
170 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

night out at a number of venues, including the test site. Rich with
both qualitative and quantitative data sources, the story highlighted
several insights to optimize the final proposition and had the poten-
tial to be a highly immersive data story.
However, the agency partner responsible for creating the data
story made the decision to send a senior director who had zero
involvement with the project to present the data story, with the false
belief he would have more credibility with the senior audience than
the junior researcher who had conducted all the qualitative fieldwork
and analysed the data. Given his lack of familiarity with the project,
all the data storyteller could do was read out the presentation to the
audience. He was unable to add any examples or nuance from his
own observations, provide any anecdotes from interactions with the
customer in the venue or answer any questions that required him to
share his personal perspective or point of view. These stories would
have brought flavour and depth to the story and given the audience a
stronger understanding of the response to the proposition by the
target market than any bar chart or verbatim comment ever could.
He had no real understanding of the data story himself and he was
only able to communicate what was in the deck of slides that some-
one else had created for him. The audience were frustrated with the
data story from the beginning, which led to more questions and even
greater exposure. When quizzed again on his own point of view and
having revealed that he had in fact never been to any of the test sites,
let alone conducted any of the fieldwork himself, he was asked to
leave and for the junior researcher to take over. Despite the junior
researcher doing a brilliant job and being able to bring the data story
to life, a lot of damage had been done and a lot of work behind the
scenes was required to rebuild faith in the insights as part of the roll-
out decision-making process.
This example demonstrates that credibility is not just about having
robust data shared in a coherent structure – it also means having a
credible storyteller who can share the story in a believable way to
fellow humans!
 HOW TO CREATE A RELATABLE DATA STORY 171

The three steps to best practice

1 Integrate human experience and real-world examples.
2 Add the personal touch.
3 Keep the momentum going.

In this section we will look at each in turn, why it matters and how
to implement in practice.

Step 1: Integrate human experience and real-world examples

WHY HUMAN EXPERIENCES AND REAL-WORLD EXAMPLES MATTER
In Chapter 1 we explored Aristotle’s Art of Persuasion and the need
to balance ethos, logos and pathos in our data storytelling. Given
humans are not motivated by logic and evidence alone, you need
pathos to drive an emotional connection with the data story that will
move the audience to think, feel and act. Pathos means bringing the
data to life using human examples of real experiences or journeys
and grounding abstract data concepts into everyday practices that
are easily understood. By evoking emotion in the audience, you give
them a reason to care about the data story. By simplifying complex
data and making it more accessible, you make it easier to understand
and to engage with.
Humans can express empathy for another individual human
through hearing their story but cannot connect in the same way to
a statistic or a set of data points. You need to weigh up the advan-
tage of storytelling as a means to engage, connect and influence
alongside the risk of any narrative bias and misinterpretation.
Dahlstrom (2021) argues that narratives can play a powerful role in
combating scientific misinformation, and his article ‘The narrative
truth about scientific misinformation’ explores the tension surround-
ing the role of storytelling in both the creation and the dissemination
of scientific misinformation. Despite the evidence suggesting the
risk that audiences find it hard to distinguish facts from falsehoods
within a story, he also determined from the research that stories
have more influence on attitudes and behaviours when compared
172 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

with data and information. As part of this study, he concluded that

‘the underlying purposes of both science and narrative are not that
different. They both seek to make sense of the world and find our
place within it. By bridging the two, narrative can also help science
counter misinformation by providing meaning to reality that incor-
porates accurate science knowledge into human experience.’
Specifically, the research concludes that, although the use of story
mechanics can be a cause of scientific misinformation, it can also be
the remedy, depending on how well the narrator marries the
evidence with story in the narrative.
This need to balance the substance of the data with the benefits of
the narrative is also referenced by Lydia Hooper, designer, facilitator
and author. In her article ‘Ten ways cognitive biases impact data
design work’ (2020), she concludes that ‘stories are best when they
balance both statistical trends and the experience of real people’.

HOW TO INTEGRATE HUMAN EXPERIENCE AND REAL-WORLD EXAMPLES

To ensure you are integrating experiences and examples in a way that
adds to the value of the data story and retains integrity, you need to:
●●
utilize qualitative data
●●
incorporate a story hook

UTILIZE QUALITATIVE DATA

Tapping into qualitative sources can bring richer experiences into
your data story, as well as provide you with relatable examples to
bring the data to life.
Examples of qualitative enrichment include:
●●
customer interviews to add depth and context
●●
first-person narratives to provide nuanced insights into customer
experiences and motivations
●●
customer observations to reveal pain points, preferences and
emotional responses

Utilizing qualitative data can generate a more holistic and human-

centred understanding that enhances the impact of data-driven
 HOW TO CREATE A RELATABLE DATA STORY 173

narratives. Review existing qualitative sources through the lens of

your specific data story or seek new qualitative sources to bring the
human back to the centre of the story.
A well-constructed human story gathered from qualitative sources
can prepare the audience for the main content of the data story,
making it easier for them to absorb and understand it. Priming with
a human story enables your audience to process the story on a simple,
human and emotional level before they connect with the logical data
story. It helps them to connect the information to an idea that is
already understood in the brain. Reinforcing the human story over
time to nudge the audience to take action is a good shortcut to help
them recall the data story without having to repeat key messages over
and over again.

INCORPORATE A STORY HOOK

The importance of a good hook is rooted in both cognitive psychol-
ogy and effective communication principles. According to John
Medina, a molecular biologist at the University of Washington, you
have just under 10 minutes to keep your audience’s attention (Gallo,
2018). Medina’s studies show that our brains are wired to a primitive
timing mechanism, and after 10 minutes your audience’s attention
will plummet. It is therefore imperative to hook your audience early
and cover your main messages from your data story in that first
10 minutes. Given human attention spans are limited and your audi-
ence are being bombarded with data and content on a daily basis, we
need to quickly cut through the noise in their heads, capture their
attention and give them a reason to keep listening to or reading the
data story. If you don’t have them engaged early on, then they will
not stay with you and all the great data analysis you have done will
be wasted.
Your story hook should be both audience-centric and in service of
your data story and is a great way to inject an emotional connection.
This is not about being gimmicky for the sake of attracting attention;
it is about leveraging a hook to ensure that the audience connect with
the data story and consider the key insight messages and recommen-
dations.
174 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

There are a number of different ideas for hooks that can build an
emotional connection and ensure your data story is relatable:
●●
an individual story that connects with the human experience
●●
a killer stat that puts the story into larger perspective
●●
a metaphor that translates a complex challenge into an everyday
decision
●●
a future scenario that highlights what is possible

A human story
Using human stories taps into a natural affinity for understanding
others and the challenges and dilemmas they face. They enable the
audience to connect with the real people behind the data, making the
data itself more relatable. It helps to explain why the data story
matters and how it impacts real life, fostering empathy, allowing us
to vicariously experience their struggles and triumphs, and reminding
us of the real-world implications of our decisions and actions on real
people. Done well, it can lead to a biochemical response in the audi-
ence where oxytocin levels surge, giving the audience a vested interest
in finding out what happens next or finding a way to improve the
situation. In a ground-breaking study, Paul Zak (2014), Founding
Director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies, Professor of
Economics, Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate
University, and the CEO of Immersion Neuroscience, investigated the
neurobiology of storytelling to see whether it could be used to ‘hack’
the oxytocin system to motivate people to engage in cooperative
behaviours. The study discovered that character-based stories with
emotional content aid understanding, recall and impact.
A human story works well as a hook:
●●
when we want the audience to consider different or alternative
perspectives and experiences to their own
●●
where there is a disconnect between business decisions and the
impact on the customer
●●
where we want to communicate a journey or lived experience
 HOW TO CREATE A RELATABLE DATA STORY 175

Individual stories work best when seen as an authentic voice, rather

than filtered through the lens of the narrator. Telling the true, raw
story of a real person will always make a greater impact on the audi-
ence than a polished version of their experience. While the aim is not
necessarily to make your audience cry, I have seen boards moved to
tears when listening to a first-person account of real experiences an
individual has had with their brand and the impact that has had –
positive or negative – on their life.
Human stories can also serve as anchor points for the data. By
presenting a story at the beginning as your hook you can create an
interesting reference point that the audience can return to as they
navigate the data, helping them stay oriented, or even use the indi-
vidual in the story to act as an alternative narrator. However, human
stories can raise ethical considerations related to data use and privacy,
so we need to ensure we have permission when using a personal story.
Human stories that you could use in your data storytelling include:
●●
your own personal story as a consumer or customer
●●
a strong verbatim showcasing positive or negative sentiment from
a customer
●●
a hypothetical user journey
●●
an immersive view of customer lives through diaries, videos and
interviews
●●
a personification of the brand as the hero

A killer stat
Focusing attention on one killer stat from your main data story can
sharpen the audience’s mind and get them to see the scale of the
potential opportunity or threat in a real-world context. It works well
when the killer stat is shocking, surprising or thought-provoking –
you can then build a story around the statistic, providing context,
explanation and implications. By focusing on one killer stat, you
reduce the risk of misremembering and misinterpreting the data,
ensuring more accurate recall.
176 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

However, the downside of using a killer stat for the hook is that it
might over-simplify the story, so due consideration is required to
ensure it is the right killer stat and it aligns to the overall message and
objectives of the data story.
Examples of potential killer stats:
●●
the monetary value associated with the opportunity or risk to
show the size of the prize we can win or lose
●●
the range between differences in opinion to show diverse and
polarizing responses or feelings
●●
the relative scale of demand or uplift versus a tangible concept
such as a visualization comparing the number with the size of a
country or the capacity of a stadium
●●
a quiz to guess the number before the real number is revealed to
show difference between perception and reality

Metaphors
A metaphor can simplify a challenging abstract concept and relate it
to more familiar and concrete ideas that are already understood,
making the data story more accessible to audiences with different
knowledge levels. They tap into common knowledge and shared
experiences, bridging the gap between what the audience already
know and the new data in your story by anchoring any new informa-
tion in familiar territory. Metaphors are great for creating vivid
mental images to help audiences visualize the data for themselves, as
well as engaging multiple senses to enhance the storytelling process.
However, the downside of using metaphors as hooks is that they are
not always understood in the same way across different cultures and
languages, making them harder to use with global audiences.
Examples of potential metaphors:
●●
well-known folk tales and fairy stories with a moral that relates to
the customer or brand dilemma
●●
comparisons to tangible constructs, such as the vast ocean, the
high mountain, a bridge, a puzzle piece, etc.
 HOW TO CREATE A RELATABLE DATA STORY 177

●●
comparison to other brands in the use of case studies to showcase
how others have dealt with similar challenges

Having worked with data storytellers for many years, I have seen lots
of different metaphors used to bring data to life. The one that had a
lasting impression and I often cite as a great example of the power of
metaphor was for a very dry and serious data story to be shared with
the board within local government to encourage them to work with
external partners to improve how resident data was collected, shared
and used to drive real-world interventions. The existing data story
was full of graphs and data tables, but when asked to think creatively
about the problem in the data story and the impact it was having,
they came up with the idea of ‘Where’s Wally?’, who is also known as
Waldo, Willy, Walter, Charlie, Holger and Vallu, depending on where
you are in the world. In these children’s books you must find the
character in complex visual images with very few clues to go on – just
his hat and glasses. Just like in the metaphor, the data story high-
lighted the problems of having lots of contrasting data and very few
clues to find the right people and the risk involved with delivering
interventions aimed at these hard-to-reach targets. The team were
reluctant to use the metaphor for fear of over-simplifying and making
a serious data story seem trite, but the director involved loved the
idea and purchased a number of the books to use with the board at
the start of her board presentation. When she finished, the chief exec-
utive stated he wanted all data stories to be as great as that one and
asked to borrow the books so he could replicate the same hook when
meeting with external stakeholders to address the issue that was now
top of his agenda.
Scenarios
Scenarios provide a perspective of a possible future and enable you to
explore ‘What if?’ questions with your audience. They are not predic-
tion; they are narratives of alternative outcomes and consequences in
which today’s decisions may be played out. They may be based on
forecasting data or more qualitative scenario planning, but they help
bridge the gap between the data story and the practical application of
178 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

the insights, ideas and recommendations. Scenarios allow for illustra-

tion and the painting of a mental or physical picture that provides a
tangible output for the audience to relate to. However, scenarios,
even if supported by good forecasting data, incorporate uncertainty
and variability. They need to be used with audiences who understand
the limitations of the data, otherwise they may require so many cave-
ats that they lose their impact.
Examples of potential scenarios:
●●
a perspective on alternative paths in response to an external trigger
or event
●●
a comparison to an under-performing or failed brand that
highlights your fate if the situation gets worse
●●
painting a picture of the art of the possible your audience can
aspire to

A recent scenario hook used by a B2B service brand that proved

highly effective involved them taking their internal newsletter format
and rewriting the headline summary page with news stories from five
years in the future. Each headline story highlighted certain KPIs that
had shifted positively and the impact it was having on performance.
Having been exposed to this future world the audience had many
questions on whether this was possible as an outcome and what they
would have to do to get to this end point, thus engaging them with
the agenda of the data story and provoking them to generate ideas
before the data story even started.

Step 2: Add the personal touch

WHY PERSONALIZATION MATTERS
Personalization in data storytelling enhances engagement by tailoring
information to the specific needs and interests of the audience.
Customizing narratives with relevant copy, examples and visualiza-
tions creates a more compelling and relatable experience. It fosters a
deeper connection, ensuring that the data resonates with individuals
on a personal level. Personalized data stories are more likely to be
 HOW TO CREATE A RELATABLE DATA STORY 179

understood and remembered, driving better comprehension and reten-

tion of key messages. This approach not only captures attention but
also facilitates more meaningful communication, making the data
more accessible and impactful for diverse audiences with varied levels
of expertise and interest. In the same way that you expect email copy
and insights to be personalized to you as a consumer, tailored B2B
communication is needed to demonstrate your understanding of the
relevant context and to foster trust in your specific recommendations.

Think about who your audience is and who you are trying to influence.
Is it somebody who’s going to be more numbers and data-driven or is it
somebody who gets excited by what gives consumers energy when they get
out of bed in the morning? How can your product fit in with that? You have
to be flexible in your style, understand who you’re trying to influence,
understand what their needs are, and make sure you’re using what you’ve
got in the right way so that you really resonate with the people you’re
trying to influence.

Sinead Jefferies, SVP Customer Expertise, Zappi

However, if you are to avoid creating multiple versions of a story you

need to think creatively when it comes to personalization. The data
story itself should not be personalized as this has been driven by the
evidence and creating multiple versions will cause confusion, and
possibly chaos! But you can personalize content in a smart way by
how you emphasize different points of view and in the copy you use.

HOW TO PERSONALIZE YOUR STORY

To personalize the data story without creating multiple versions of
the truth you need:
●●
to pick a perspective
●●
bespoke, specific outputs
180 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

PICK A PERSPECTIVE

If you’re talking to a very customer-centric person you might use a more

purist customer angle focused on their pain points, the emotion customers
feel and what impact that has in driving them to a competitor. You might
lean in on the emotional side, but it is still data based on what customers
are doing and saying. But if you’re dealing with somebody who’s more
focused on the commercials then you’re still using customer data, but
you’re using it to tell the commercial story. Here you will focus on how
many customers left us, how much that is worth and the impact on market
share. In both cases we are going to ask for a budget to do something
about it.

Rhea Fox, Digital Director, Ted Baker

When it comes to personalization, considering the right angle is

imperative. Ask yourself the following questions about the angle you
want to take to reach and influence the specific audience:
●●
Do you want to be controversial?
●●
Do you have something new to say about the topic?
●●
What are others saying about the topic?
●●
How can you differentiate the message by making it more
personalized?

I’m seeing more focus on coming up with either a different or more

controversial angle on a topic. If it’s a topic that everybody’s talking about,
take generative AI for example, everybody wants to have something to say,
and everyone’s pretty much saying the same thing. Can we say something
different? Is it going to cut through? Can we back it up with data and
research? And if we can, can we own this space? Otherwise, it’s not worth
us getting involved in the conversation.

Rachael Kinsella, Editorial and Content Director, iResearch Services

 HOW TO CREATE A RELATABLE DATA STORY 181

When picking your perspective, lean on your marketing skills to

help you build your audience personas. For example, in the De
Beers case study we shared in Chapter 2, the data story was focused
on targeting a new segment in the population. But there were two
very different audiences to be convinced, with different motiva-
tions and needs. This meant that personalization of the data story
outputs was required to cut through and engage the different target
audiences. Although the De Beers diamond report stayed the same,
the story output was personalized to reach and influence the two
personas.

Senior management and the CEO really needed to see what this was going
to do to the bottom line. They knew the market inside out, so they needed
to understand what the potential was, so obviously we had to make sure we
had the right data to show what we expected a performance uplift to be.
On the other end of the scale, the jewellers needed to be taken on more of
a story about evolving consumers and the world around them, linking this
to real people they could really see and feel in their local areas.

Rosy Harrington, Global Brand Planner, De Beers Group

BESPOKE, SPECIFIC OUTPUTS

As data storytellers you can leverage the same techniques used in
account-based marketing (ABM) when looking to persuade your
different internal and external audiences. This means that some of
your data storytelling output will have more universal messages, and
some will need to be tailored to the unique requirements of specific
audience members.
Some ways to personalize your data story outputs include the following:
●●
Customize the emails that accompany the circulation or distribution
of your data story to pinpoint how the data story will help them
with their specific needs or pain points.
●●
Produce specific content to support different stages of the
communication journey, such as short educational content for new
182 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

starters to the business to quickly inform them of the back story,

or ‘What’s new?’ updates for audiences who are already very
familiar with the data story outputs.
●●
Leave a small section in the executive summary to tailor personal-
ized calls to action that you can adapt for different meetings.
●●
Offer dynamic content as part of the data story outputs to allow
audience members to analyse certain elements of the data story in
a different way.

One of our expert marketers talked about using data storytelling as

part of their ABM strategy to engage external customers with their
products and to help position the brand as the expert. Personalization
was required for the thought leadership used in their marketing
campaigns to speak to the specific needs of decision-makers in each
key account. Conversations around different insights were shared
between marketing and business development teams to enable those
having frontline conversations with decision-makers in the account
to personalize the data stories shared in the overall thought leader-
ship. Bespoke content creation led to better customer conversations,
which then led to a better understanding of audience needs that could
feed into future storytelling and marketing campaigns.
Using data storytelling as a circle of engagement was something I
witnessed first-hand when heading up a B2B insight team. A key
programme of work involved designing bespoke data stories for a
tailored customer experience feedback tool that catered to our top 20
key accounts. The 20 bespoke stories involved rich qualitative data
and quantitative benchmarking that we shared with the service direc-
tors to enable them to have personalized conversations with their key
accounts.

Step 3: Keep the momentum going

WHY MOMENTUM MATTERS
An article written by behavioural scientist Daniel Kahneman and
colleagues provided groundbreaking evidence for what is known as
the peak–end rule (Kahneman et al, 1993). This study, along with
 HOW TO CREATE A RELATABLE DATA STORY 183

further studies, concluded that people judge an experience largely

based on how they felt at its peak (i.e. its most intense point) and at
its end, rather than based on the total sum or average of every moment
of the experience. The effect occurs regardless of whether the experi-
ence is pleasant or unpleasant.
The peak–end rule applies to any interaction or experience where
there is a distinctive beginning, middle and end, including a data
story. When applying this psychological rule to data storytelling it
assumes that people will judge a story based on how they felt at its
peak and at the end, rather than based on the total sum of the aver-
age of every moment of the story experience. Other information
included in the data story aside from the peak and the end is not lost,
but it is not used to evaluate how the story made them think and feel.
While there is some contention regarding the long-term impact of the
peak–end rule and whether the peak or end is more prevalent in
recall, the theory does suggest that not all elements of your data story
are equal, and some require more care and attention. When applied
effectively, the peak–end rule can help make your data story more
engaging, memorable and influential.

HOW TO KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING

To ensure you create a data story that not only captures initial atten-
tion but also keeps the momentum through the detail you need to:
●●
craft your points of view into story peaks
●●
finish on a high point

CRAFT YOUR POINTS OF VIEW INTO STORY PEAKS

In Chapter 7 we discussed the importance of identifying three to five
insight points of view as part of your analysis, synthesis and interpre-
tation of the data. These encapsulate the most impactful insights and
recommendations from the data and represent the peak moments in
your story. To translate these points of view into peak moments we
need to leverage the memory bias for more intensely emotional
events. While this does not mean manipulating the emotions of the
audience, it does mean highlighting and dramatizing the emotional
elements of the story.
184 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

To ensure that each peak stands out and makes the necessary
impact, there are a number of storytelling techniques you can apply:
●●
Build a sense of tension leading up to the peak moment by creating
a sense of anticipation. This could involve reasserting the
complication in your story that needs to be resolved before sharing
the point of view and how it will make a difference.
●●
Identify what emotions you need the data story to evoke. Is this
about building empathy for the customer among the audience? Is
it to inject a sense of urgency and determination into agreeing an
action? Is it about generating a buzz and excitement about the art
of the possible? Is it about feeling shame for not adequately
addressing a customer pain point?
●●
Incorporate details that emotionally resonate with the audience.
This could include personalizing the point of view to highlight
what it means for specific audience members, or linking to a
personal first-person story shared in the hook.
●●
Consider how you will visualize and reinforce the peak moment
and engage the senses. This could involve using photographic
imagery, infographics, or video or audio verbatim to bring the
peak to life visually and through sound.
●●
Use repetition of key words or images to reiterate the significance
of these peak moments and how they connect to the overall
narrative.
●●
Use emotional and descriptive language to describe the peak and
bring the human experience to the forefront, rather than business
jargon.

FINISH ON A HIGH POINT

Given that the ending is critical for recall, we need to be more strate-
gic about how we finish off our data story.
 HOW TO CREATE A RELATABLE DATA STORY 185

ENDINGS TO AVOID FOR YOUR DATA STORY

●●
Finishing with the most important message: Saving the most
important message to last, thinking it will mean your story ends on a
high, is naive. Given poor attention spans and the risk of cherry-picking
messages throughout, waiting to reveal the best bit last is high-risk.
Chances are the audience switched off after 10 minutes, so your
supposed ‘ta-dah’ ending will be lost. Saving the best for last is about
the storyteller’s ego and is not audience-centric.
●●
Finishing with the same points already made: While some repetition
is useful for aiding processing and recall, too much repetition is a bad
thing. Repeating the summary you started with is just plain lazy and
doesn’t add any further value to the story.
●●
Finishing with the last observation in your dataset: Worse than a repeat
of the summary is no deliberate ending at all. Finishing with the data is the
easiest way to make the energy levels of the audience fall off a cliff.
●●
Finishing with ‘Any questions?’ The least memorable way to end your
data story is with the question ‘Do you have any questions?’ By this
point any audience questions should have already been addressed –
either in advance of communicating the data story or as the data story
has been delivered.
●●
Finishing with a rational benefit: Concentrating on the rational
benefits linked to your story does not leave the audience with a strong
personal outcome. What the audience really want to know is what is in it
for them personally to take ownership of the data story and take the
recommended decisions or actions. Will this make their lives more
fulfilling? Will it help with their visibility and recognition? Will it help
build their credibility in a particular area? These are the human
motivations that encourage people to act, not arbitrary metrics and
targets.

There are different styles that you can choose from when crafting a
deliberate data story ending:
Open-ended
For exploratory and highly complex stories, you may not be able to
offer the audience a complete and neat ending. An open-ended story
186 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

might be necessary when only part of the complication can be

resolved by your data. The key to a good open ending is to ensure
you either resolve some of the issues – with some quick or obvious
wins – or give a sense of hope that the work in progress will ulti-
mately provide a more complete answer. The ambition for the ending
in this scenario is to ensure the audience care enough to keep the data
story alive.
Techniques you can try when an open ending makes sense include the
following:
●●
Personalize the ending to key individuals in the audience by
highlighting what they can contribute to the next stage of the story.
●●
Inspire them to keep the momentum going by painting a picture of
what could be possible.
●●
End with a thought-provoking question regarding what next to
encourage further reflection.
●●
Reiterate why this is still an important data story by reinforcing
why it matters.

Co-created ending
Humans prefer their thoughts and ideas to be endorsed and supported
by others rather than being told what to do. Often, when there are
multiple egos in the audience, giving them a role to play in co-creat-
ing the ending, before providing your own version, can be a useful
technique to ensure buy-in or for the audience to take ownership of
the story direction. The ambition for the ending in this scenario is to
ensure the audience are invested enough to play a role in what
happens next.

Here are some techniques you can try when a co-created ending
makes sense:
●●
Incorporate a ‘choose your own adventure’ element to your data
story by providing different options or routes that the audience
can select and preview potential outcomes.
●●
Use frameworks that encourage your audience to take the data
story to the next level by facilitating divergent thinking and the
prioritization of ideas.
 HOW TO CREATE A RELATABLE DATA STORY 187

●●
Ask the audience to use the data story to inform the development
of a journey map and pinpoint the areas of most importance and
where they can influence.
●●
Ask the audience to create an empathy map to translate the data
story into a working plan to meet the needs of the target audience.
●●
Use a ‘How might we…?’ question to help the audience build on
the ideas from the data story.

Definitive ending
A definitive ending works when we are clearly able to show how the
resolution in our data story will help meet the goals and overcome
the challenges. In this situation we have permission to think through
the practical implications and next steps to achieve these results in
the real world. The ambition for the ending in this scenario is to
motivate the audience to act.
Techniques you can try when a definitive ending makes sense include:
●●
making a specific call to action or ask of the audience
●●
showcasing progress already being made and how the new
learnings will help improve this further
●●
highlighting any successes that have been made by others in the
same situation

Putting into practice

A key framework to assist you with creating your data story
Creating a storyboard before developing specific outputs offers
several advantages in the process of crafting an effective and impact-
ful data-driven narrative. Storyboarding enables you to visualize the
flow and how the various narrative elements we have discussed will
connect and progress. By storyboarding first, you can think creatively
about what the essential components of the data story are, and what
188 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

FIGURE 8.1 The storyboard template

START
Exec.
Headline Hook
summary

Peak = Visual/ Visual/

+
POV 1 graph graph
MIDDLE

Peak = Visual/ Visual/

+
POV 2 graph graph

Peak = Visual/ Visual/

+
POV 3 graph graph
END

Ending Segue

Appendix

are just ‘nice to have’ elements that make it too complex or convo-
luted. By reviewing and editing your storyboard before creating the
content itself, you can spot where moments of impact or emotional
resonance need to be dialled up or whether the pacing needs to
change to keep the momentum going. Storyboarding is also an effec-
tive and efficient way of developing your data story and will inevitably
save reworking content later in the development of your data story.
It is also a good visual tool for sharing, gathering feedback and
collaborating on the final story.
Figure 8.1 is a visual representation of a storyboard that ensures a
strong beginning, middle and end to your data story. A great story-
board should incorporate the following:

1 The high-impact beginning contains three core elements:

a. a compelling headline title to encourage the audience to want
to find out more
 HOW TO CREATE A RELATABLE DATA STORY 189

b. a hook that makes an emotional connection with the audience

and primes them to receive the detailed messages
c. an executive summary which contains the full high-level story
from set-up, through conflict, to resolution, supported by the
key points of view you want them to recall
2 The strong middle contains three core elements:
a. an easy-to-navigate structure that follows the argument outlined
in the summary and segmented by the points of view
b. points of view that translate into peak moments in the data
story for the audience
c. only the most relevant data to support the story, with simple
visualizations, such as graphs and diagrams
3 The high-impact ending contains two core elements:
a. a purposeful and deliberate ending that is relevant to your story
b. a well-managed segue into reflections, conversation, debate or
action planning

If you want to change the way that you tell a story, you need to do the work
upfront and you need to think differently. You need to invest in engaging a
wide range of people to build your story and socialize it in the business.
That can take more time, and if you’re short on resources or have regular
deadlines that can be a barrier to doing things properly or differently.
Getting buy-in from people can be challenging but it’s extremely
worthwhile.

Charlotte Neal, Head of Marketing, Turning Point

Challenge 1
Take an existing data story output that you are familiar with and audit for
best practice:
●●
Did the output have a balance between the logical argument, the use of
data and the emotional connection or did one dominate more than the
others?
190 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

●●
Did the start include a hook to make the emotional connection between
the data and the audience?
●●
Could you clearly identify the three to five story peaks?
●●
In hindsight, what else might you have considered if you wanted to
make the story stronger?
●●
Given your evaluation, what would you do differently to improve the
data story?

Challenge 2
For your revised data story that you have defined and developed in
previous chapters, use the principles and techniques covered in this
chapter to finalize your storyboard.
Remember to:
●●
Think creatively about how to hook your audience with a simple but
engaging mechanic.
●●
Personalize your executive summary with a specific audience in mind.
●●
Ensure the storyboard follows the structure recommended to balance
the beginning, middle and end.
●●
Perfect the tension within your points of view to create peak moments
that will draw your audience further into, or back to, your story.
●●
Challenge your use of evidence and ruthlessly edit to ensure that only
what is necessary is included.
●●
Identify a suitable ending that leaves your audience thinking and
wanting more.

KEY TAKE-OUTS

1 Enriching your story with human experience and real-world examples

will instantly make it relatable.
2 Look for clever ways to personalize the story without creating multiple
versions of the truth.
3 Remember the science behind hooks and the peak–end rule when
developing your data storyboard.
 HOW TO CREATE A RELATABLE DATA STORY 191

Coming up next…
In the next chapter we look at executing a remarkable data story by
using our communication and presentation skills to land the message.
It will provide ideas to help you design your story outputs, curate a
range of digestible micro-content to improve reach, and incorporate
interactive techniques into the story delivery to facilitate audience
thinking.

References
Dahlstrom, M F (2021) The narrative truth about scientific misinformation,
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of
America, 118 (15), e1914085117, doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1914085117 (archived
at https://perma.cc/R3ZY-VD9X)
Gallo, C (2018) You have 9 minutes and 59 seconds to hook your audience. Here’s
how to do it in 3 steps, Inc., 31 May, www.inc.com/carmine-gallo/you-have-
9-minutes-59-seconds-to-hook-your-audience-heres-how-to-do-it-in-3-steps.html
(archived at https://perma.cc/4YLQ-R95B)
Hooper, L (2020) Ten ways cognitive biases impact data design work, Medium,
20 May, medium.com/nightingale/ten-ways-cognitive-biases-impact-data-design-
work-be83f86d4274 (archived at https://perma.cc/8E5Y-BWXK)
Kahneman, D, Fredrickson, B, Schreiber, C and Redelmeier, D (1993) When more
pain is preferred to less: Adding a better end, Psychological Science, 4 (6), 401–5
Zak, P J (2014) Why your brain loves good storytelling, Harvard Business Review,
28 October, hbr.org/2014/10/why-your-brain-loves-good-storytelling (archived
at https://perma.cc/6HFW-3QB5)
192

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 193

How to execute a remarkable

data story

In this chapter we will explore:

●●
the power of a remarkable data story
●●
the pitfalls to avoid when executing your data story
●●
the three steps to best practice
●● optimize existing data story outputs
●● curate a range of digestible micro-content
●● incorporate interactive techniques into the story delivery
●●
putting into practice

The power of a remarkable data story

QUICK RECAP

A remarkable data story requires you to use your communication skills to

execute and deliver story outputs that will stand out, disrupt thinking and
drive further interest in the topic.

Making a difference
The following case study demonstrates the value of a remarkable
data story.
194 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

CASE STUDY

Context
A global client in the automotive sector had invested significantly in understanding
the customer experience across the purchase and service journeys. Through
extensive research and customer data analytics they had a clear picture of:
●●
the role of each touchpoint on overall brand perceptions and the customer
lifetime value metric
●●
drivers of satisfaction at each touchpoint
●●
the role of customer communications at each touchpoint

In addition to the data collection and analysis resources, the business had also
invested heavily in some great reporting tools to communicate the data to
relevant stakeholders, including senior decision-makers and frontline sales and
service teams.

Challenge
Despite producing high-value actionable data stories, very few people were
accessing or using the tools to incorporate these stories as part of their decision-
making processes or their business-as-usual practices. This meant that although
the business had the knowledge to improve perceptions, optimize
communications, drive purchase consideration and maximize long-term
customer value, they were not able to surface and communicate this in a way
that had an impact on the decisions, actions and behaviours of stakeholders.

Action
The customer experience team set off on a two-year journey to disrupt the
communication of the data stories within the business. We decided to focus on
changes that would result in the greatest impact at the lowest cost that would
not intervene with business-as-usual reporting on key customer metrics.

Year 1, priority 1: Improve the monthly board report

The existing board report comprised many data tables, graphs and bullet points
all squeezed onto an impossible-to-read one-pager. This had been amalgamated
over many months based on specific asks from the senior decision-makers to
include certain measures but had led to a document that was impenetrable. The
accompanying appendix was equally cluttered, with no room for any insightful
commentary to draw out the important ideas and recommendations. Even the
 HOW TO EXECUTE A REMARKABLE DATA STORY 195

FIGURE 9.1 The T-shaped data story communications plan

Regular consistent narrative

Ad hoc specific stories

executive summary was a dense, text-filled page and, although it held interesting
findings, there was no real story, recommendations or actions.

DEVELOPING A T-SHAPED COMMUNICATIONS PLAN

Figure 9.1 illustrates a T-shaped data story communications plan. The T-shaped
plan incorporates the need for both ongoing consistent narratives – the
horizontal part of the T shape – alongside ad hoc, time-specific or trigger-
specific stories that will stand alone as a narrative while connecting to the bigger
picture – the vertical part of the T shape.
●●
The first step in developing the T-shaped plan was to develop the core story
themes for the monthly customer update with a focus on the ongoing brand
performance story. This would be based not on the measures that were
requested out of interest but determined by the evidence and the key drivers
of brand loyalty.
●●
The second step involved brainstorming ad hoc data story ideas centred on
specific triggers, such as a new product launch, a new campaign or seasonal
promotions.
●●
The final step focused on agreeing the appropriate format, channels and
media we wanted to incorporate into the plan. For the new board report the
summary was designed to both encapsulate the metrics that matter and also
provide specific recommendations on actions. It was supplemented by
additional pages for the specific trigger story for that month.

To execute delivery of this new report, we set up a new way of working to

ensure a more efficient process for insight generation, more timely story
196 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

development that would incorporate sponsor feedback and more visually

appealing data story outputs.

Year 1, priority 2: Create micro-content to share bite-sized data stories with frontline staff
It was clear that the frontline sales and customer services teams who were the
end users of the data did not have the time, inclination, data literacy skills or
motivation to utilize existing dashboards. So any new content would need to
overcome these limitations if we were to land the most important insights to
help the teams improve customer communications.
Our solution was to develop a template for the team to create a monthly
video summary which would highlight the three most important messages for
the month, as well as a training video to explain why the measures mattered.
The monthly video summary involved a piece to camera from the team and a
do-it-yourself screen cast using PowerPoint and audio voiceover. The video was
created in-house to ensure a quick turnaround was achieved in delivery and only
a small budget was needed to purchase licences to help with editing the video.

Result
Both year one changes had a significant impact on the level of engagement with
the data among the two key target audiences. Not only did the frontline teams
start accessing the new assets and using them as talking points in their regular
team meetings, the micro-content videos helped drive their overall interest in
understanding the customer, leading to an increase in the use of the dashboards.

Outcome and learning

After year one, the new board reporting and video summaries had reached a
level of maturity and traction that enabled us to focus on further optimization of
the tools and look at what else could improve the communication of the data
stories. The optimizations would allow for the team to reset the momentum
around the key outputs and drive further reach and engagement across the
business. The objectives for year two became:
●●
showcasing flagship insight stories in customer roadshows
●●
ensuring a level of consistency across all insight stories
●●
pushing the gold standard data outputs further into teams
 HOW TO EXECUTE A REMARKABLE DATA STORY 197

Year two actions

The year two actions were:
●●
building a relationship with internal communications colleagues to schedule
data story campaigns and to utilize existing channels for wider distribution
●●
building capacity for prioritizing the data story generation and
communication alongside business-as-usual
●●
generating a number of ‘best-in-class stories’ to tap into the competitive
mindset of the sales audience
●●
creating a digital feedback loop via a comments function in the tool
●●
refining the video template to incorporate more dynamic content

This case study is a great example of applying communication planning to data

storytelling in practice. The dual focus on optimizing what already existed to
meet business-as-usual demands and integrating new data story outputs shows
that one story output will very rarely do all the jobs you need it to do. The use of
the T-shaped plan demonstrates that the value of consistent messaging to
reinforce the meta story can be supplemented by ad hoc ‘in-the-moment’ data
stories to provide both breadth and depth.

The pitfalls to avoid when executing your data story

There are three main pitfalls to avoid when executing your data
story:
●●
failing to prioritize time to plan the delivery
●●
broadcasting the data story at the expense of socializing the
message
●●
ignoring security risks for the sake of creativity

Failing to prioritize time to plan the delivery

It is common to run out of steam towards the end of a project or
initiative and there is a danger you might have very little time or
energy left to think about how you are going to deliver the data story.
Leaving it too late to plan can mean you do not prepare properly.
198 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

This can have a negative impact on landing the message, anticipating

any challenges, addressing questions or doubts and building consen-
sus on next steps with the audience. According to Jeremy Connell-Waite
in his article ‘The 72 rules of commercial storytelling’ (2019),
‘Spontaneous talks are seldom memorable. The best talks involve a
huge amount of preparation. Many TED talks have been built upon
the 1:10 principle. They spend on average 10 hours crafting their talk
for every minute that they present.’
A former boss of mine suggested that for every hour-long meeting
I had with a senior decision-maker she would expect me to spend
double that time on my preparation and that was on top of creating
the data story and the content I planned to share. I have carried this
advice throughout my career as it reinforced the fact that creating
slides alone was not adequate preparation for influencing outcomes.

Broadcasting the data story at the expense of socializing the message

The reality is that activation of ideas is like a relay race, not an indi-
vidual sprint. If you spend too much time focused on running your
own race and neglect the handover process itself, opportunities to
influence the end outcome may be lost. As such, we need to remain
laser focused on how the data story will be socialized to ensure audi-
ences take ownership of what comes next.
If you are too focused on merely broadcasting your data story you
limit the opportunity to check for understanding, stimulate the
conversation and debate, and agree what happens next. Actions to
mitigate this risk could include:
●●
making sure an agenda has been agreed
●●
circulating suitable pre-reading or pre-watch material
●●
holding necessary pre-meetings
●●
ensuring audiences are primed to participate and contribute to the
discussion
●●
making sure potential questions or areas for challenge are surfaced
and responses considered
●●
preparing activities designed to stimulate debate
 HOW TO EXECUTE A REMARKABLE DATA STORY 199

I remember once a great team member was presenting to a senior decision-

maker and I said, ‘Are you ready for the meeting?’ and she said, ‘Oh, yeah,
I think I’ve nearly finished the presentation.’ Now that doesn’t mean that
you’re ready for the meeting. She had crafted a beautiful deck, but not
thought about what’s the point of this and what she wanted to get out of
the meeting.
Ruth Spencer, independent data leadership consultant

Ignoring security risks for the sake of creativity

There is a range of great do-it-yourself content tools available that
you can access to create infographics, digital brochures, videos,
animations, GIFs and so on. However, when using web-based alter-
native media platforms, you should consider data privacy and security
concerns. Be cautious about sharing sensitive business information
on external platforms and always check with the experts before
­signing up and using free licences. Find out what tools already exist
in the business that you can utilize to create your micro-content or
speak with partners regarding outsourcing.

The three steps to best practice

1 Optimize existing data story outputs.

2 Curate a range of digestible micro-content.
3 Incorporate interactive techniques into the story delivery.

In this section we will look at each in turn, why it matters and how
to implement it in practice.
200 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

Step 1: Optimize existing data story outputs

WHY EXISTING DATA STORY OUTPUTS STILL MATTER

I recommend a review of your current data reporting to assess what is

adding value. So, refreshing, reviewing and reflecting on the way that you
report, manage and act on data within your team. Because if you’ve got
somebody who’s having to spend six hours a month on a report that no one
reads, there’s no point. Then it is about working with people who can guide
you through the process of improving what you do.
Charlotte Neal, Head of Marketing, Turning Point

We all learn in different ways. Rather than defaulting to what we

know or like ourselves, we need to consider what is going to work for
others. The VARK model (Fleming and Mills, 1992) identified the
different sensory modalities that are used for learning: visual, audi-
tory, read/write and kinaesthetic. We may draw on all four different
modes at times, and the creators of the model highlight that 55–60
per cent of respondents studied had multiple preferences. It is worth
considering what is your own dominant style and how it might differ
from your audience. Review the summary of the four modes below
and reflect on how you and your audience like to learn.

VISUAL LEARNERS

In his Harvard Business Review article, ‘The value of a good visual:

Immediacy’ (2013), Bill Franks says, ‘Our brains are meant to see in
pictures. Grids and columns of data, while ubiquitous, make it very difficult
to see trends or patterns.’ Those who are dominant visual learners like to
see ideas and concepts drawn out to make sense of data. They naturally
gravitate towards maps, graphs, infographics and diagrams to help
understand information. Presentations meet the needs of visual learners if
they incorporate images, graphs and diagrams. As those with this dominant
mode will be drawn to your slides, rather than any auditory voiceover, it is
important that the key messages in your story are highlighted in the visuals
themselves, not just explained verbally.
 HOW TO EXECUTE A REMARKABLE DATA STORY 201

Auditory learners
Those who are dominant auditory learners like to talk things through, and
they learn best by hearing ideas and concepts from other people. They
favour deep discussions, debates and even arguments, rather than content.
Presentations meet the needs of auditory learners when they include
voiceover, opportunity for questions and wider discussions. Auditory
learners may find visuals a distraction from the oral narrative, especially
if they’re not completely aligned. They may not be motivated to read
documents or pre-reads unless someone is there to talk it through with
them. The quality of the narration is important to meet the needs of
auditory learners – it requires the right balance of pace, tone and
sentiment to get the message across in a compelling way.

If I look at a big spreadsheet and I have to really try and sift out stuff, I find
that really frustrating and boring. But if I sit down with someone and they
can talk to me a bit about what’s been going on and where this data
comes from that helps my understanding of the data and also the context.
Charlotte Neal, Head of Marketing, Turning Point

Read/write learners
Those who are dominant read/write learners are a fan of the written word
and like lists, hierarchy and structure to their content. They draw meaning
from the words used in headings, titles and commentary and appreciate
clarity and brevity. Read/write learners are happy to work with written
rather than presented documents, if they are well structured and easy to
follow. For time-poor read/write learners, the key message needs to be
spelt out clearly in a few bullets in an email, while presentations meet the
needs of read/write learners through the use of executive summaries and
the commentary used on the individual slides. In meetings and
presentations, they are just as likely to write their own notes or doodles to
help explain the content, rather than rely solely on the content itself. Hard
copies of the slides or physical assets they can access will be appreciated.
202 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

I think platforms like Canva are going to be critical. The majority of the
data outputs in our industry are probably written on PowerPoint and
Keynote, but I think everyone is frustrated as they are too constrictive
and it’s just not creative enough for great storytelling. I think
platforms like Canva are bringing an element of creative, playful
storytelling and fun to what was traditionally quite a dry business
presentation.
Jake Steadman, Global Head of Market Research and Data, Canva

Kinaesthetic learners
Those who are dominant kinaesthetic learners require ideas and concepts
to be demonstrated rather than explained. They value application, real-
world examples and case studies. As they learn through problem solving
and interaction, rather than being told the key messages, they may benefit
from reviewing the data themselves in the spreadsheet or data platform in
advance of a formal presentation of results. Getting their hands dirty with
the data manipulation, rather than relying on the interpretation of the data
provided by others, helps them to understand the data story. This can be
the hardest segment to reach via traditional presentation formats, but
incorporating real-world examples, case studies and interactive exercises
such as quizzes and polls, alongside the standard deck of slides, can go a
long way to meet their needs.

Presentations have become ubiquitous as a communication tool to

deliver learnings, because, when done well, they can be helpful for all
four modes of learning. While many have predicted the demise of the
PowerPoint presentation over the last couple of decades, the reality is
that it is still the medium of choice for the majority of businesses.

HOW TO OPTIMIZE EXISTING STORY OUTPUTS

To maximize the value of existing outputs in traditional formats, you
need to:
●●
rethink your data visualization
●●
create powerful commentary
 HOW TO EXECUTE A REMARKABLE DATA STORY 203

RETHINK YOUR DATA VISUALIZATION

Given visuals play a significant role in data storytelling, they are a
great functional tool to help our audiences interpret the evidence we
are prioritizing to tell our data story.

When it comes to supporting visuals, they need to pop with the message –
you shouldn’t have to explain it. And people shouldn’t have to work hard to
read it. It should just pop and smack them in the face with the facts or story
you want to tell – it should be punchy, powerful, but ultimately easy to read
– no matter how complicated to derive in the first place.
Lizzie Harris, Customer Director, B&Q

When optimizing your visuals, you need to assess which is the most
suitable graph type to get across the message you are trying to convey.
Richard Wurman (2000), architect, graphic designer, author and
creator of the TED conference, argues that although information is
infinite, the ways of structuring it are not. He identified five different
methods to structure information using his LATCH acronym as a
useful tool to consider the right graph for the job:
●●
Location: Information can be organized by its physical location,
such as on a map or in a directory. When the key message is focused
on space, place or location the following options work well:
{{ Maps are the most intuitive way to show location data and
the rise in geographic information system (GIS) software has
enabled users to create ever more creative data maps, such as
heat maps showing different usage patterns over geographic
areas.
{{ Scatter plots represent data points in a two-dimensional space
and are useful when looking at the relationship between
different brand attributes relative to a defined axis.
{{ Flow maps illustrate the movement of objects or people
between locations. These are helpful when visualizing traffic
flow in a retail space.
204 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

●●
Alphabet: Text-based information that needs sorting to make it
more coherent can be presented alphabetically. This technique can
be useful when looking at sentiment and text analysis from
unstructured data sources. When showing information organized
alphabetically the following options work well:
{{ Word clouds visually represent the frequency of terms or
names by varying the size of the text based on their occurrence
and can be a good visual way to summarize large datasets of
unstructured information, such as text analysis generated from
social media scraping.
{{ Tables are a useful means of presenting alphabetical data when
you need to show detailed information, such as lists of names,
titles or text-based records.
●●
Time: Information can be organized by time, such as trends,
milestones, stages, journeys and processes. When your story
requires a key focus on progression or change over time the
following options work well:
{{ Line charts display data points over a continuous time or
numeric scale, with lines connecting the data points, and are
often used for tracking trends and changes.
{{ Area charts are like line charts but fill the space below the
line, making them suitable for showing cumulative data trends
and where you want to highlight the total trend, as well as the
individual sub-elements.
{{ Flowcharts illustrate processes or workflows, showing the
sequence of steps, decisions and actions within a system over
time.
{{ Gantt charts are project management diagrams that show tasks
or activities on a timeline and are useful for tracking progress.
●●
Category: Information can be organized by category, such as by
topic, type or function. When showing information organized
categorically the following options work well:
{{ Venn diagrams and matrix charts depict the relationships
between sets or categories, showing the commonalities and
 HOW TO EXECUTE A REMARKABLE DATA STORY 205

differences between them. They are useful for organizing

information and making comparisons.
{{ Bar charts are used to represent data with discrete categories.
They show data as horizontal or vertical bars of varying
lengths, making it easy to compare values. Stacked bars are
effective for illustrating the composition of a category to show
how each category contributes to the whole.
{{ Pie charts display data as a circular graph divided into slices,
where each slice represents a proportion or percentage of a
whole. They are effective for showing parts of a whole, but
use them wisely – the brain struggles with reading angles and
so works best with two or three categories to compare, rather
than many categories.
●●
Hierarchy: Information can be organized in a hierarchical structure
using a predefined set of criteria, such as ‘most to least important’.
When showing information organized hierarchically the following
options work well:
{{ Mind maps are hierarchical diagrams that help visualize
relationships between a central idea and related subtopics.
{{ Tree diagrams represent hierarchical structures, branching out
from a central node to show relationships and subcategories.
{{ Indented lists such as bullet points work well for simple
hierarchical text-based data.

Deciding on what type of visual best suits the key message you want
to get across will stop you from defaulting to what you already have
in your templates and tools.
Further enhancements of the visual element of your existing data
story outputs can be made by utilizing standard design principles.
Below are some basic principles, but if in doubt consult with an
expert, experiment with different ideas in data visualization tools, or
look online for inspiration.
206 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

DESIGN PRINCIPLES
●●
Stick to one primary message per visual. This keeps your data story clear
and prevents overwhelming the audience with complex graphs.
●●
Use relevant visual cues like annotations or callouts to emphasize the
most critical information within your data visualization – but don’t
overdo it (see next bullet!).
●●
Keep your visualizations simple and uncluttered by removing any
unnecessary elements or distractions that don’t contribute to the
understanding of the data.
●●
Embrace white space to create a clean and uncluttered look, making
your content more accessible.
●●
Edit and refine multiple times to eliminate any unnecessary elements.
Every element should have a purpose.

The mindset that we need to adopt when optimizing the visuals in

presentations is simplicity and that less is more. This is not about
dumbing down and over-simplifying but making it as clear as possi-
ble so the eye can focus on the most important information.

CREATE POWERFUL COMMENTARY

Words have power. The words you use to communicate the points of
view can make the difference between the audience finding your data
story merely interesting and informative versus being motivated to
take action. In crafting your points of view, you can use the 4Us prin-
ciples (urgency, usefulness, uniqueness, ultra-simple) as a checklist for
effective copywriting. The 4Us were created by author and entrepre-
neur Michael Masterson as part of his work with the American Writers
and Artists Institute and the Accelerated Program for Seven-Figure
Copywriting and is a near-universal tool for writing effective copy:
●●
Urgency: Convey why the insight is time-sensitive or why it’s
crucial to act now rather than later, or explain the potential
consequence of delaying action.
 HOW TO EXECUTE A REMARKABLE DATA STORY 207

{{ The use of deadlines, milestones or tipping point in your points

of view can demonstrate urgency.
{{ The use of verbs can also be helpful as they are doing words
and can be urgency-triggering for audiences.
{{ Urgency can help gain immediate attention and action.
●●
Usefulness: Your point of view should demonstrate how it helps in
answering the killer question and resolving the conflict, as well as
linking to the tangible benefits of acting on your recommendations.
{{ It should focus on the practical utility of the information you
will be using to support your point of view and articulate the
practical applications.
{{ Making claims relating to potential impact and outcomes that
tie to commercial benefits and use the language of business will
get your audience’s attention.
{{ Usefulness particularly helps when you are looking to
demonstrate that you understand the audience and why this
data story matters to them.
●●
Uniqueness: The audience don’t want to hear the same generic stories
so find new perspectives or nuances related to this specific story.
{{ Showcase unique data sources or methodologies that were
used, and highlight distinctive findings or insights that are not
widely known.
{{ Personalizing the story for different audiences will make the
data story feel unique even if the message is consistent.
{{ Uniqueness helps when you are looking to build rapport with
the audience.
●●
Ultra-simple: Your point of view needs to be succinct, without any
unnecessary embellishment, vagueness or over-generalization.
{{ Using universal language that is easily understood, rather than
overly complex, theoretical language or jargon, will help keep
it simple and concrete.
{{ Use precise numbers to illustrate your points of view or reference
case studies or real-life examples that are known and understood.
{{ Ultra-simplicity helps when building credibility and expertise.
208 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

For example, we might inject the 4Us into our example points of
view by making the following changes to the copy.
From:
There are unmet needs we can focus on, such as the high chance of
winning, transparency and interesting bonus prizes, but the market is
already saturated, therefore we need all messaging to reinforce these
benefits as part of a distinctive positioning.
To:
There are unmet needs we need to be the first to own [urgency], such as
the high chance of winning, transparency and interesting bonus prizes
[useful], but the market is already saturated with little opportunity to
bring in new users versus switching [ultra-specific], therefore we need all
messaging to reinforce these benefits as part of a distinctive positioning
by focusing on X, Y and Z [unique].

From:
HCPs have significant time constraints that limit device demonstrations
or trainings, therefore resulting in habitual prescribing based on
experience, but without overcoming this significant barrier we will have
limited opportunity to gain product adoption.
To:
HCPs have only two hours a month available [urgency] for device
demonstrations or trainings, therefore resulting in habitual prescribing
based on experience, which leads to the dominance of competitor A
[usefulness], but without overcoming this significant barrier by providing
alternative ways to access the information [unique], we will have limited
opportunity to hit our product adoption target of X [ultra-specific].

Step 2: Curate a range of digestible micro-content

WHY MICRO-CONTENT MATTERS
In addition to your optimized data story outputs, you need to utilize
other communication tools to help your data story reach a range of
audiences, often outside a meeting format. Developing micro-content
to tell your data story can offer three key advantages.
 HOW TO EXECUTE A REMARKABLE DATA STORY 209

Advantage 1: Preventing information overload

In a world of constant distractions, it’s crucial to cut through the noise
and convey your message quickly. Micro-content is more likely to
capture and retain the audience’s attention than a long and complex
presentation and it forces the storyteller to distil complex stories into
their most essential components. Incorporating micro-content into your
communication plan allows you to design with a distracted audience in
mind and focus on short, easily digestible and engaging outputs.

Advantage 2: Increasing flexibility and usage

Micro-content is designed for sharing and can increase your reach
and engagement with a broader audience, while at the same time
tailoring messages to specific audiences with content that is highly
relevant to their needs. You are unlikely to tailor different versions of
a presentation deck due to complexity and time constraints, but
micro-content is quicker and easier to personalize for the specific
audience. Micro-content is ideal for A/B testing and experimentation
to understand what resonates best with your audience, while getting
large-scale feedback on a presentation deck is unwieldy and slow.

Advantage 3: Increasing the ease of consumption

Micro-content is easier to consume and understand on the go. It’s
more accessible to a wider audience, including those with limited
time or those who want to consume content on small screens. As
micro-content lends itself to more visual tools it can also be repur-
posed across various platforms and media in a way that a presentation
deck finds hard to do.

HOW TO INCORPORATE MICRO-CONTENT INTO YOUR DATA STORYTELLING

To ensure you make the most of the communication opportunities
available you need to:
●●
think digital and physical
●●
tap into existing channels
210 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

THINK DIGITAL AND PHYSICAL

We developed a communications campaign to help the global insights

team. They are all doing research studies focusing on their area in lots of
different countries around the world, but what they needed was a curated,
editorial view of it all. They’ve got data over here, got data over there.
They’ve got trends. They’ve got Mintel reports. So, we pull that together,
curate it as an editorial exercise and create much more consumable content
like a New York Times-style article, videos, infographics, blogs – three or four
things a month. Many are short films, a lot of them are observing trends on
social media. Then we share them with the wider organization internally –
and that has had an amazing impact. It’s basically been a really good source
of inspiration for innovation and R&D. It’s not just the insights sitting in a
PowerPoint report. It’s getting them to think, ‘What are we going to do
about this?’ I feel like it’s created a really visceral understanding of the
customer.
Lucy Davison, Founder and CEO, Keen as Mustard Marketing

There are many different digital tools to help generate micro-content.

The most popular include:
●●
infographics
●●
video
●●
screen casting
●●
interactive quizzes
●●
GIFs and memes
●●
blogs and newsletter articles
●●
podcasts
●●
white papers
●●
ebooks

The choice of digital micro-content depends on your data story, your

target audience and the platforms you have available for d
­ istribution.
 HOW TO EXECUTE A REMARKABLE DATA STORY 211

But don’t forget the role that non-digital content can play. By
allowing for a more tactile and multisensory experience, non-digital
micro-content can stand out and make a more personal connection
with the audience. To this day, the most utilized and in-demand
insight communication I created was a series of short, printed and
bound A5 compendiums of each key competitor. As part of running
the marketing analytics team I was also responsible for competitor
intelligence and the compendiums were designed as a pre-read for a
workshop where we were going to play war games to stress-test a
particular marketing strategy. Each compendium provided a detailed
data story on a key competitor we would be using in the war game.
Each workshop attendee was supposed to just have one booklet each
in preparation for the competitor they would be playing in the game.
But all the attendees asked to have access to all the booklets, not just
for the workshop itself but for future reference. Even stakeholders
not involved in the workshop were demanding copies for themselves,
so we had to organize multiple extra print runs. By making it a useful
data story and an exclusive tangible asset, we ended up creating
in-demand data content.
In addition to flyers, brochures or booklets, consider other forms of
physical content, such as swag, posters or meeting room decorations.
In-person micro-content might include a short speech in a ‘town hall’-
style forum or a practical demonstration. These can be video-recorded
for digital repurposing and edited into even smaller bite-sized content.

When I was at Twitter we talked about the theatre of research, which is

partly about how we told stories, and partly about the medium we used to
tell that story. We tried to put on a show. We did things like invite hundreds
of people to a venue and do live neuroscience. Very few graphs, very little
data, make it heavy on the ‘lols’. It was putting on a show, but ultimately
delivering the key insight that we needed to deliver. It wasn’t always in
person, though. Sometimes it was an animation, or a video or a physical bit
of swag. The common thread between all those stories was this idea that
we had to put on a show and there was theatre to that if we were to
convince people and be memorable.
Jake Steadman, Global Head of Market Research and Data, Canva
212 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

TAP INTO EXISTING CHANNELS

Tapping into existing communications channels offers several advan-
tages that can enhance the reach, impact and effectiveness of your
data story. These channels might include your own intranet site,
existing newsletters, knowledge-sharing platforms or digital tools
like internal social media platforms. These channels already have
established audiences so you can reach people without having to
build something new from scratch and are already a trusted source of
information.
Utilizing tools that can track your audience can help you to learn
about behaviours and preferences to adapt your future content and
stories. I would also actively encourage participation with the content
by turning on features such as likes, comments and shares, to gain
input and feedback on your data story. See these channels as another
means to answer questions, provoke thinking and engage in conver-
sations around the topic.

I also think there’s something about the semi-permanent distributed nature

of work now that is having an impact on how I tell stories. Post-Covid, some
people are back in the office all the time, but most of us are working some
kind of hybrid now, and I don’t see that changing. That means you have to
find different ways of telling stories. I think the distributed nature of work
and the platforms that we use to communicate in that distributed
environment are going to force a change in how we tell our stories.
Jake Steadman, Global Head of Market Research and Data, Canva

Step 3: Incorporate interactive techniques into the story delivery

WHY INTERACTION MATTERS
Despite all the communication tools we have at our disposal to reach
busy people, when it comes to influencing decisions and actions, it
can be hugely beneficial to meet with others, at the same time, ideally
in the same place, if feasible. Pushing for a meeting, face-to-face or
virtual, has three key advantages.
 HOW TO EXECUTE A REMARKABLE DATA STORY 213

Advantage 1: Socializing plans, ideas and insights to build consensus

Sharing output in a meeting environment can socialize insight and
build consensus around the recommendations regarding decisions
and actions. Being in the same meeting ensures that those with differ-
ing views can be exposed to the same data story and work towards
agreement and alignment on the best course of action. Feeling part of
the process and being given a chance to have a say is more likely to
lead to an increase in commitment and support from others.

Advantage 2: Generating input to refine the final story message

For data stories that are works in progress, sharing early storylines in
meetings can facilitate input from others than can help shape the final
story. With the right audience in the meeting, you can present your data
story and gain feedback and constructive criticism to help refine how
the story is positioned. Bringing in members from cross-functional
teams at this stage can both highlight and help integrate diverse perspec-
tives on the data story and assess what that means for the decision.

Advantage 3: Encouraging buy-in and accountability of the actions

For data stories that require immediate action, reinforcing the argu-
ment and making the ask in a meeting with the relevant decision-makers
and action takers can sharpen minds, drive urgency or make a burning
platform feel more real. With the right people in the meeting, decisions
can be collectively made and the process fast-tracked to the next stage.
Even with data stories where buy-in of the recommendations has yet to
be achieved, holding a meeting as a mid-point discussion to air chal-
lenges and issues can help. These meetings can focus on agreeing on the
next steps even if there is no consensus on the end goal.

HOW TO INCORPORATE INTERACTION WITH THE DATA STORY

To ensure the meeting is more than sharing the data story outputs,
you need to:
●●
leave space in your agenda
●●
spark a conversation
214 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

FIGURE 9.2 The ideal meeting structure

• Agenda

PRE Prime • Pre-materials

• Pre-meetings

• Manage expectations
Initial • Hook 15%
connection • Interaction
MEETING

• High-level story + reaction

Story • Detailed story + reflections 50%
delivery • Q&A

• Questions for the audience

Facilitated • Co-creative activities 35%
reflection • Next steps

• Async activities
POST

Nudge • Feedback
• Follow-up

LEAVE SPACE IN YOUR AGENDA

My own golden rule for data storytelling is only use 50 per cent of
the time you have with your stakeholder audience to share the data
story. As Figure 9.2 shows, this 50 per cent should be the middle part
of the meeting and include landing the key messages, covering the
necessary detail required to support your messages and dealing with
specific questions about your data story. The other 50 per cent of
your time with the stakeholder audience should top and tail your
story delivery.
As shown in Figure 9.2, we have allocated 15 per cent of time for
the beginning of the meeting, where you will make an initial connec-
tion with the audience, and 35 per cent for the end of the meeting,
where you will facilitate a conversation.
In reality, if you have a 30-minute time slot to make your case, you
have only 15 minutes to share the story and are unlikely to be able to
present more than two or three slides. If you have an hour scheduled
 HOW TO EXECUTE A REMARKABLE DATA STORY 215

this would mean no more than 30 minutes presenting content – so

probably a deck of 12–15 slides. Bear in mind that most individuals
cannot concentrate beyond 20 minutes anyway and this is why TED
talks are limited to 18 minutes (Connell-Waite, 2019). Guy Kawasaki’s
(2005) 10/20/30 rule of PowerPoint also supports this level of
restraint, suggesting a PowerPoint presentation should have 10 slides,
last no more than 20 minutes, and contain no font smaller than 30
points.
This concise approach has implications on how you use your time
effectively that we address in the following tips:
●●
Tip 1: Think creatively about how you use the time outside the
meeting itself. If you have only limited time in a meeting or on a
call to get your data story across then you are going to need to
think about utilizing simple pre-reading or pre-watching micro-
content in advance. This will encourage buy-in from the audience
by building confidence in your ability to make the most of the time
available and can get the audience up to a certain knowledge level
or level the playing field. You might also need to prioritize
pre-meetings with key sponsors or audience members who can
provide valuable feedback on how to distil your message for the
audience and who can help you land the message in the meeting
itself. You might also need to consider any supplementary content
you need to prepare if some of the audience expect to access a
more comprehensive view of the data story in their own time.
●●
Tip 2: Focus on the initial connection. At the start of the meeting:
{{ reiterate the expected outcome you are looking to reach by the
end of the meeting
{{ share the agenda and how the meeting is going to run to ensure
you get to the outcome
{{ outline your expectations of them and their role in the process
{{ get them engaged and motivated on the topic

This could be as simple as reasserting an agenda, followed by shar-

ing your story hook, or as complex as conducting a short ice-breaker
activity following up on any pre-reads or activities. The key at this
216 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

point is to ensure they are focused on the present – not their ‘to do
list’ from their last meeting or when they are going to get lunch. By
grounding in the present and giving them the direction of travel,
you automatically instil a level of confidence into your audience.
You are demonstrating that you know what needs to be done and
are in control. This makes the audience feel that you can be trusted
to optimize the time available and will offer a suitable value
exchange for their participation.
This initial connection becomes even more powerful when
working virtual and informal communication is minimal. Resist
the urge to jump straight into the data story.
{{ Tip 3: Deliver the data story with impact. When it comes to
presenting your data story, remember that your audience may have
a short attention span. This means starting with the short version
of the data story in the executive summary. Telling the high-level
story in the early part of the presentation not only shows confidence
in what you are recommending, but also provides the opportunity
to take a strategic pause to check initial responses to the message
and tailor the detailed content delivery to the areas that require
more understanding or persuasion.

Chunking the content down using the principles shared in this book
and using deliberate strategic pauses to encourage reflection and
questions throughout will make the presentation feel more interac-
tive. Inject reflection points at key stages in your presentation and use
verbal cues to manage expectations around feedback, questions or
challenges.

SPARK A CONVERSATION
Connell-Waite (2019) cited a keynote he attended given by Gary
Vaynerchuk, the entrepreneur, speaker and author, when, ‘in the
1-hour keynote he spoke for only 12 minutes and then conducted a
48-minute Q&A with audience, creating a masterclass in audience
engagement’.
 HOW TO EXECUTE A REMARKABLE DATA STORY 217

Here are a number of ideas to help you spark a meaningful conver-

sation about the data story:
●●
Ask for initial reflections. If short on time, or when handling a big
audience, you might not be able to have a detailed discussion but
that doesn’t mean you cannot capture initial reflections on the data
story. If the meeting is in person, you can capture quick reflections
on Post-It notes, or if meeting virtually via chat function or
whiteboard tools. This could then kick-start a follow-up
conversation from that feedback.
●●
Give the audience a task. Give your audience an active listening
task before diving into the details – this way, they are consciously
listening throughout, rather than playing a passive role. Active
listening tasks also provide ready-made conversation starters. This
could be as simple as asking them to listen out for the two or three
points that are most relevant to them, or as complex as giving
them a role and asking to listen to the story through the lens of a
customer segment or competitor.
●●
Ask the audience to ‘think back’. One of my favourite ways to get
the audience involved and to spark a productive conversation is to
deploy a ‘think back’ exercise towards the end of the presentation.
For example, I might say, ‘Before my final slide containing next
steps/thought starters/calls to action, I am going to pause and ask
you to co-create that page first in pairs based on what you have
heard in the story.’ These are then shared among the wider group
to ensure different perspectives are heard. It also allows the data
storyteller to reinforce ideas, actions or plans, rather than prescribe
them – leading to greater accountability among the audience.
●●
Offer a mechanism for further questions. If you don’t have much
time to answer questions as you go along or at the end of the
meeting, you could prepare some FAQs of your own to share. Or
you may request any additional questions are posted in the chat so
you can answer offline afterwards as part of the follow-up.
●●
Ask a brilliant question. Finishing a presentation by asking ‘Any
questions?’ is a surefire way to kill the experience. You are better
off asking an interesting, challenging or provocative question of
the audience to ensure they create a positive end experience in
their own mind.
218 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

QUESTIONS TO STIMULATE DEBATE AROUND YOUR DATA STORY

To check understanding of the data story:

●●
What has been a real aha!/surprise/what has sparked interest?
●●
What is the best/worst thing that could happen now?
●●
What’s the one thing you want to change (based on what you just
heard)?
●●
What are the implications and risk?
●●
What does this mean for us/our brand/product/plans?

To explore options highlighted in your data story:

●●
What are you already doing/planning to do that addresses these issues/
opportunities and what else are you now thinking?
●●
What scenarios can we foresee?
●●
When have we been successful in a similar situation in the past and
what can we learn from that experience that applies here?
●●
What’s getting in the way of our progress?
●●
If this was your own business, what would you do?

To help develop accountability of decisions and actions off the back of

the data story:
●●
What is within your control to do something about?
●●
What will you do differently in the next couple of weeks/immediately?
●●
What are the next steps towards achieving the end goal?
●●
What are the options moving forward? Now? Next? Never?
●●
What if competitor X acted on this first?
 HOW TO EXECUTE A REMARKABLE DATA STORY 219

Putting into practice

Challenge 1
Reflect on a data story you have recently shared and review against best
practice:
●●
Did you utilize a campaign approach and consider the use of micro-
content to support the main presentation delivery?
●●
Did the presentation of the content itself take less than 50 per cent of
the time with the audience?
●●
Did you have lots of clarifying questions about the data in the charts?
●●
Did you have time to instigate a facilitated conversation to gauge
reaction, check for understanding and provoke some early responses?
●●
In hindsight, what else might you have considered if you wanted to
make the execution of the story more effective?
●●
Given your evaluation, what would you do differently to improve the
delivery of the data story next time?

Challenge 2
For the revised data story that you have defined and developed in the
previous chapters, use the principles and techniques covered in this chapter
to develop your communications plan.
Remember to:
●●
Use the T-shaped plan shared in the case study to think about what
approach works for each type of story.
●●
Think beyond a PowerPoint presentation and incorporate micro-content
into your approach.
●●
Ensure the agenda for any meeting follows the golden time rules and
leave enough time to make an initial connection, answer questions and
facilitate a conversation.
●●
Prepare where your strategic pauses might need to come during your
delivery and the questions you want to ask of your audience.
●●
Identify the success criteria for your delivery that you are looking to
achieve that can easily be measured to evaluate progress.
220 HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT DATA STORIES

KEY TAKE-OUTS

1 Don’t forget that significant improvements in communicating your data

story can be achieved by optimizing traditional outputs like PowerPoint.
2 See the communication of the data story as a campaign, rather than a
one-off piece of content, and consider what additional methods, media
and channels might help you to maximize reach and impact.
3 Don’t use up all your time, energy and head space creating the data
story content itself. Remember, you need time and effort for the delivery
as well.

Coming up next…
In Part Three we move away from the specific skills and tasks involved
in the data storytelling roadmap and look at the wider mindset, ways
of working and processes that enable you to embed the skills in prac-
tice. We will focus on becoming a data storytelling champion and
how to develop a data storytelling team culture.

References
Connell-Waite, J (2019) The 72 rules of commercial storytelling, LinkedIn,
­22 October, www.linkedin.com/pulse/72-rules-commercial-storytelling-
jeremy-waite (archived at https://perma.cc/3RGZ-TMG6)
Fleming, N D and Mills, C (1992) Not another inventory, rather a catalyst for
reflection, To Improve the Academy, 11 (1), 137–55
Franks, B (2013) The value of a good visual: Immediacy, Harvard Business Review,
21 March, hbr.org/2013/03/the-value-of-a-good-visual-imm (archived at https://
perma.cc/6EA6-ZVCZ)
Kawasaki, G (2005) The 10/20/30 rule of PowerPoint, Guy Kawasaki,
30 December, guykawasaki.com/the_102030_rule (archived at https://perma.cc/
D9XP-RYNG)
Wurman, R (2000) Information Anxiety: What designers need to know about the
information age, Mayfield Publishing Company, California City
 221

PART THREE

Becoming a data storytelling

champion
222

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 223

10

The mindset and ways of working

for a data storytelling champion

In this chapter we will explore:

●●
how to make data storytelling stick
●●
what makes a data storytelling champion
●●
the mindset and ways of working to build a data storytelling culture

There’s a misperception that all marketers have to have the numbers and
the qualitative perspective and do everything. Recognize what your
strengths are. Find a way to be an influencer, while still being true to
yourself. Be really focused on being the best you, not just being some kind
of carbon copy of an excellent data-driven marketer.
Sinead Jefferies, SVP Customer Expertise, Zappi

How to make data storytelling stick

In Part Two we focused on the data storytelling roadmap, providing
a step-by-step guide to developing a great data story. In Part Three we
look at moving beyond the steps, skills and capabilities involved in
developing great data stories to focus on what it means to become a
champion responsible for building a wider culture of data storytell-
ing within the marketing function.
224 BECOMING A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION

The biggest reward as a trainer and coach is going back into teams
six months, a year and two years after delivering development
programmes and seeing the practices and behaviours taught embed-
ded in the team. I love hearing feedback from those who have taken
the learnings and made a conscious decision to apply them in prac-
tice, to experiment with what works for them and to persist with a
change in behaviour, even when busy or under pressure. It is even
more rewarding when they share the feedback they have received
from their end audiences about the impact the data story has had on
their ability to make or support decisions and take action.

The impact of quick incremental wins

In a recent storytelling showcase session, we reviewed progress since
the formal training workshops. As we celebrated success and shared
story examples, I was struck by how even small storytelling changes
had made a significant impact on how individuals approached their
work and the immediate feedback they were receiving from their
stakeholders.
When sharing what had worked, they called out the following:
●●
Focusing on the killer question not only gave them structure for
their content, but it also shaped their approach to information
gathering up front and where they focused their energy at the
interpretation stage.
●●
By holding themselves to account as to whether each element of
the story content had a clear ‘So what?’ or ‘Now what?’, they were
able to be more ruthless in their storytelling and more concise in
their outputs.
●●
By focusing on compelling titles, clear headlines, insightful commentary
and simple visuals they had more high-value conversations with end
stakeholders and greater levels of engagement.
The examples they shared were varied, including:
●●
The creation of a one-page visual summary that demonstrated the
key components of successful income-generating campaigns.
Stakeholders have now asked for this data story to be expanded to
a wider dataset and replicated for other types of campaigns.
 THE MINDSET AND WAYS OF WORKING FOR A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION 225

●●
The use of two killer questions to provide strategic-level evaluation
of all partnership marketing activity. Evaluation outputs are now
providing different activation teams, in both the organization and
the partner companies, with an understanding of the bigger picture
impact and the role of the different activities and campaigns in
driving overall success.
●●
A simple data visualization supported by relevant real-life examples
of marketing activities was used to bust a myth on the role the
brand plays in a key social issue. This data story has been used to
support negotiations with a potential new partner to invest more
in the issue.

What makes the difference

Over many years supporting teams with their data storytelling skills,
I have sought feedback on what changes have been implemented and
what practices, activities and behaviours made the biggest difference.
There are a number of consistent factors shared by teams that have
truly embedded a data storytelling culture.

1 Keeping data storytelling on the agenda. This means it is seen as an

ongoing topic of discussion, knowledge shared and skills
development. They don’t just tick the box by upskilling individuals
and assuming ‘job done’ – they look for more ways to keep the
momentum going.
2 Holding each other to account. Through collaboration and giving
constructive feedback they ensure continuous improvement. They
are not afraid to seek input and ideas from others in the endeavour
of getting to a better and more actionable data story.
3 Translating the learnings. After applying the techniques in practice,
they create their own principles for data storytelling, coupled with
suitable templates, checklists, guidelines and case studies.
4 Empowering passionate individuals within the team. They create
dedicated storytelling champions who proactively support others to
develop and embed the skills in practice, as well as finding new ways
to stretch their own skills in this area.
226 BECOMING A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION

What makes a data storytelling champion?

To be a data storytelling champion you do not need to be the best
data storyteller. As highlighted in the McKinsey behaviour archetype
matrix (Kirchherr et al, 2023), a champion is already putting in a
high level of practice in a chosen area and has a high desire to keep
improving. Being the best at something doesn’t make you a
champion – being prepared to persevere and learn from mistakes is
key. Being able to take others with you on the journey, to provide
support and encouragement to those who are also looking to develop
their skills, and to design and embed structures that will enable prac-
tices to become a normal way of working is more important than
being the best data storyteller.
The champion role requires the data storyteller not only to get
involved within their own team and support others in their function,
but also to advocate externally for data storytelling. This relies on
building strong, trusted relationships outside of the marketing func-
tion to influence others without the formal authority of being their
manager or having a say in what they do and how they do it.

To perform as a champion:
●●
Be motivated and passionate about the benefits that data storytelling
has to offer.
●●
Advocate for the time, resources and budget needed to improve data
storytelling.
●●
Build alliances with the right people to create and promote great data
stories.
●●
Engage in training to build expertise and look for best practice that you
can learn from.
●●
Role model the data storytelling behaviours and ways of working to others.
●●
Coach and inspire others to raise awareness of the role and benefit of
data storytelling.
●●
Assess and demonstrate the impact of data storytelling investment and
initiatives.
●●
Communicate accomplishments and shout about success.
 THE MINDSET AND WAYS OF WORKING FOR A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION 227

For example, take our data storytelling champion, Thomas.

Working as a media strategist, Thomas is already a highly competent
data storyteller, but he knows he could be more consistent in his own
practice, could always look for incremental improvements to enhance
his data stories and help others that he works with to improve their
own data storytelling skills. Thomas is motivated by going beyond
the data to uncover the truths driving audience behaviour and has
spent time working closely with colleagues across planning and data
to build his understanding of existing tools and datasets.
Using well-known industry tools such as TGI and Google Analytics,
alongside other primary and secondary sources, Thomas uses his
audience insights to shape communication strategies and his data
stories to support his creative, design and editorial colleagues.
After attending training, Thomas volunteered to be put forward
for the champion’s programme. His manager was pleased as she felt
he would be perfect for the role, but wanted him to want it for
himself, so he would be motivated to make the most of the opportu-
nity. Working with the sponsor for the programme and with input
from his fellow data storytelling champions, Thomas put into place
an activation plan which was pitched to the director of the agency
and incorporated a range of ideas to support data storytelling, includ-
ing leveraging existing tools even harder, designing new checklists,
crib sheets and a ‘story finder’ tool to assist the wider team, and
adding new scoping, analysis and retrospective sessions to the project
workflow.

ARE YOU READY TO BECOME A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION?

Are you:
●●
passionate about data storytelling and the benefits it can bring to the
marketing function?
●●
keen to stay up to date on new data storytelling tools and techniques?
●●
motivated by coaching and mentoring others in their data storytelling
journey?
228 BECOMING A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION

The mindset and ways of working to build

a data storytelling culture
There are five key mindsets to enable great data storytelling:

1 Begin with the end in mind.

2 Stay curious.
3 Think story continuously.
4 Embrace the mess.
5 Collaborate with purpose.

Mindset #1 – Begin with the end in mind

Ask yourself, who are we trying to reach? What story are we trying to tell?
What hypothesis are we trying to test? Not thinking about that at the outset
and then trying to reverse engineer it – that doesn’t work. You need to be
aligned at the starting point.

Rachael Kinsella, Editorial and Content Director, iResearch Services

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY ‘BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND’?

In his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (2004), Stephen
Covey shares in his second habit, ‘Begin with the end in mind’, the
need to define clear measures of success and plan how to achieve
them. This habit is about your ability to use your imagination and to
envision the end goal. Unless you make a conscious effort to visualize
the outcome you are trying to achieve, then you empower other
people and circumstances to shape the outcome by default.

KEY BEHAVIOURS AND WAYS OF WORKING TO SUPPORT THIS MINDSET

IN PRACTICE
Beginning with the end in mind encourages intentional planning,
leading to more meaningful and effective outcomes. As a data
 THE MINDSET AND WAYS OF WORKING FOR A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION 229

storytelling champion, you can demonstrate and role model this

mindset:
●●
Keep in touch with events in the wider business. It is so easy to get
stuck in our silos, but bringing in a broader understanding of the
business (commercially and operationally) can ensure your data
story is based on what is feasible and actionable.
●●
Review your archives. Look back into your archives and evaluate
which data stories made a significant impact. Keep track of the
different data stories and the key topics of interest to highlight
consistent patterns that can feed into future data storytelling plans.
Valuable questions to ask to assess the impact of previous data
stories include:
}} How many people did the data story reach?
}} How many people opened and shared the outputs?
}} How many people contacted the marketing team with follow-
up questions?
}} What was the audience feedback on the data story?
}} How has the data story been used for decision-making?
●●
Create your own frameworks. Similar stories can be repurposed
for similar topics and business questions. These are your story
archetypes and can offer a go-to structure and storyboard to refine
for future data stories. While each data story will have its own
unique evidence and recommendations, the structure of the
argument and points of view may be relatively consistent within
an archetype. Using predetermined structures that are tried and
tested saves reinventing the wheel.

Mindset #2 – Stay curious

Stay curious and constantly look beyond the usual or the expected.
If you’re working in FMCG, or whatever sector, don’t just look at what your
competitors are doing there. Don’t just stay within that lane. Get out of
230 BECOMING A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION

your lane. See what’s happening elsewhere. Read different reports or listen
to podcasts or ideas to get a different perspective to your own. One of the
things we used to do all the time would be consciously breaking the rules.
So, for example, if you’re trying to get sales to cross-sell a new SKU, or
upsell, look at who does that well – not just in your sector. Investigate how
they do what they do – what’s their model? Who can we talk to in that
industry about that? What can we learn from that?
Rosy Harrington, Global Brand Planner, De Beers Group

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY ‘STAY CURIOUS’?

A mindset that stays curious will incorporate a strong desire to learn,
explore and understand the world. Despite the well-known benefits of
curiosity to business performance and culture, research by Francesca
Gino at Harvard Business School (2018) shows that leaders are often
resistant when it comes to encouraging curiosity for fear of making
individuals harder to manage and the perceived trade-off between curi-
osity and efficiency. Therefore, finding ways to stay curious when under
time pressure to deliver and facing short-term goals can be difficult and
will require intentional practice. It is unlikely that you will be able to
invest excessive amounts of time making new discoveries in the data-
sets, but there are a number of ways you can inject curiosity in short
bursts to disrupt any default thinking and to keep an open mind. By
staying curious, data storytelling champions will spot the meta stories
that cut across individual plans, strategies or projects. These are the
data stories that deserve to be heard but aren’t always being called for.

KEY BEHAVIOURS AND WAYS OF WORKING TO SUPPORT THIS MINDSET

IN PRACTICE
Curiosity encourages time and head space for asking questions,
which can lead to new insights. As a data storytelling champion, you
can demonstrate and role model this mindset:
●●
Spend more time immersed in the world of your customer or target
consumer. Observe qualitative research or get out in the field and
do your own intercept interviews with customers in situ. Ask
 THE MINDSET AND WAYS OF WORKING FOR A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION 231

agencies or insight partners to organize accompanied shops or

visits with different customer types.
●●
Keep abreast of best practice. Read widely about marketing,
consumer psychology, retail trends and the macro environment in
which your customers operate. Having a broad view of the bigger
picture can ensure you bring a range of ideas to your data
storytelling. Gain inspiration by expanding your network and
attending events, and generally get out of the marketing bubble.
●●
Try new ideas. Conduct experiments, test hypotheses and make
early inferences and predictions before committing to further
exploration. This could be A/B testing in a live environment to test
two different versions of digital marketing, or multi-variant testing
in labs to test different combinations of copy, images and headlines.
●●
Take note of where the critical knowledge gaps are. Consider what
questions are harder to answer and create a plan to address the
gap. This might mean advocating for access to sources not budgeted
for or investment in the right tools for the job to enable you to
make the most of the data already available.

Mindset #3 – Think story continuously

One of the key things we found when we worked with Coca Cola EMEA was
that stakeholders were interested in the data or insight when it was ‘their’
project, but they were not interested in it when it wasn’t their project,
because they’d moved on. Not only that, but the rest of the organization,
beyond the core stakeholders, had no knowledge or understanding of what
the consumer insights team were doing. And this is the world’s leading
consumer brand. Insights were not actually cascading out throughout the
organization. The role of the marketing person is to stop being so project-
focused and think much more broadly about the organization and the
future.
Lucy Davison, Founder and CEO, Keen as Mustard Marketing
232 BECOMING A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY ‘ THINK STORY CONTINUOUSLY’?

If you view data storytelling as a back-end task aligned to a specific
project, you risk not having the time, energy or inclination to build
good practice into your work. Tight turnarounds on projects and
deliverables can mean there is no extra capacity to build in these
additional storytelling tasks to your processes. Another risk to seeing
data storytelling as a back-end task aligned to a specific project is
that you can miss the opportunity to ensure that any new ideas and
insights uncovered that do not relate directly to the project are lost in
the vacuum.
While some data stories will be tactical and serve a specific purpose
for a predefined project, many data stories will run and run – just like
a 10-season blockbuster drama. These stories may require greater
reach and complex buy-in and are unlikely to be completely resolved.
For example, consumer needs and expectations are constantly evolv-
ing based on their experiences in the wider world, so it is unlikely you
will ever have a perfect solution for their needs that lasts forever.
Instead, you will constantly be looking to understand how those
needs are evolving and what it means for your brand, products and
services. Just when one conflict appears to have been overcome, the
next one is around the corner.
These are the meta stories that need to be top of mind throughout,
regardless of some of the day-to-day data stories required for busi-
ness-as-usual performance measurement. By thinking of data
storytelling as a continuous activity, you give yourself permission to
share early insights, discuss findings with others, seek additional data
and incubate ideas without committing to a set deadline for sharing
a specific data output. This allows data stories to emerge and develop
more proactively and organically and data story content to focus on
the work in progress and the evolving narrative, rather than an arbi-
trary end point.

KEY BEHAVIOURS AND WAYS OF WORKING TO SUPPORT THIS MINDSET

IN PRACTICE
Thinking story continuously encourages incubation and iteration,
which can lead to the identification of early data stories to watch out
for and more comprehensive data stories that can evolve over time.
 THE MINDSET AND WAYS OF WORKING FOR A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION 233

As a data storytelling champion, you can demonstrate and role model

this mindset:
●●
Integrate data stories into key marketing documents. Keep the
customer front of mind by integrating the meta story into your
marketing strategy and communication plans. By putting the
customer at the heart of your marketing thinking it will help you
avoid the trap of distractions, tangents and ‘nice to have’ activities.
●●
Create feedback mechanisms. Incorporate learnings from
customers, end audiences and stakeholders into your evolving
meta stories. Developing small virtual groups or communities of
interest focused on the meta story and involving key stakeholders
and partners can provide valuable input and feedback on the story
over time.
●●
Look out for early warning signs. Look out for any changes in the
regular data feeds, as these could be early warning signs of potential
issues or new opportunities. Not every update requires an iteration
of the data story output, but they can be shared informally to gauge
reactions, stress-test relevance and evaluate how they might be
incorporated into future content. These updates and feedback may
in turn throw up more ideas for further investigation.
●●
Celebrate progress in data storytelling. Recognize quick wins or
small achievements in moving the narrative forward. Taking stock
and calling out progress are especially important in ongoing high-
level data storytelling, as they focus the mind on what transformations
in awareness, understanding and influence have occurred to date,
and can motivate and inspire further effort and interest.

Talk regularly about insights. Make sure that you’re finding a story or a
surprising insight or something to have a five-minute conversation about
on a regular basis. It doesn’t even have to be from within your organization.
It can be a stat that’s come from an external source that you might want to
have a conversation about. Just make sure it becomes part of your ongoing
conversations with your team. Try and make it part of the narrative, so it
feels really natural. That will improve your familiarity and engagement with
data, but in a less formal way.
Charlotte Neal, Head of Marketing, Turning Point
234 BECOMING A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION

Mindset #4 – Embrace the mess

When we think about data, about data science, about analytics, it is very
quantitative, performance-focused. Brands tend to focus on measuring
what they do. There is some amazing analytics work being done but it’s
very focused on measuring your ripples through an ecosystem. And that’s
great, but there’s another whole world out there. It’s the messier side of
data, which doesn’t lend itself very nicely to these data science techniques.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not useful and typically it’s falling between the
gaps. The gap is a sweet spot where lots of powerful forces are at play that
are being completely missed. My point is that if you don’t understand the
entire world of the data, you’re going to miss it. There is blind faith in
analytics, which is important, but it’s missing these other elements. You
need insight into why and where people enter a category, and then what
are the stages in that process? You need to make sense of the world aligned
to the way consumers see it.
Jeremy Hollow, Founder and CEO, Listen + Learn Research

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY ‘EMBRACE THE MESS’?

Harford (2020) argues that messiness is essential for creativity and
resilience. He also stresses the importance of accepting that data is
imperfect, and insight is rarely linear. Rather than sticking to the safety
of what you know, including overly simple heuristics and generic
marketing rules, great data stories are generated from more nuanced
analysis and circular interpretation. This means data ­ storytelling
champions need to get comfortable with iteration, uncertainty and
knowledge gaps. You need to be prepared to go around in circles a
little before the answers to your questions reveal themselves. You need
to be prepared to be wrong about hypotheses and actively seek to
disprove existing thinking to generate insights worth telling stories
about. This also means not just relying on reports generated from the
data by experts or other teams but getting closer to the data itself and
observing for yourselves. This hands-on approach to data analysis
and building your own understanding of what story the data is telling
you means less reliance on generic reporting. To break away from
your natural instincts to take the prescribed easy route and force
yourselves to sit with the uncomfortable mess takes practice.
 THE MINDSET AND WAYS OF WORKING FOR A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION 235

KEY BEHAVIOURS AND WAYS OF WORKING TO SUPPORT THIS MINDSET

IN PRACTICE
Embracing messiness encourages immersion, sense-making and criti-
cal thinking skills, which can lead to a greater understanding of the
nuances in consumer behaviour, motivation and perceptions. As a
data storytelling champion, you can demonstrate and role model this
mindset:
●●
Get more familiar with key datasets, definitions and assumptions.
Play with the filters on dashboards and reporting tools yourself or
ask the data product owners or your insight colleagues to sit down
with you and give you a demonstration of a new tool.
●●
Investigate the data from a different angle. Consider breaking
down samples by interesting behaviours, not just standard
demographics, or looking at some of the outliers and what they tell
us about preference.
●●
Conduct interim analysis. Review data at regular intervals, not just
after all the data has been curated and visualized. Getting your
hands dirty with the data early on gives you more time for deeper
exploration around interesting insights to gain a more nuanced
view. It also enables early detection of any data quality issues,
facilitating any necessary workarounds or expectation management
that might be required.
●●
Provide safe spaces for others to experiment with the data. Find
ways to make others – whether your teammates, peers, data experts
or partners – feel comfortable with being uncomfortable, embracing
divergent points of view, managing contradictory data and
challenging interpretations.
●●
Bring in expert support to brainstorm ways to fill knowledge gaps.
Those with research and planning skills can help with any
additional consumer insights, while data analysts can help with
managing any experiments, and data scientists can help with any
predictive modelling to help generate proxy measures where data
gaps exist.
236 BECOMING A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION

●●
Hold or participate in data story hackathons. Working sessions
can be a great catalyst for creativity and innovation. Designed
around real-world customer challenges or business questions and
focused on exploring data and creating data narratives within a
constrained period, they can yield great results in a relatively short
amount of time.

Mindset #5 – Collaborate with purpose

At Aviva we had a customer segmentation, which was all tagged on the

database, but didn’t really live and breathe. So, we brought it together with
the brand strategy to decide on the execution and what we were going to
action for each group as part of a customer strategy. What worked for us
was having a multidisciplinary working group from across the spectrum.
All the disciplines involved were meeting regularly and sharing insights.
The CEO liked it because he could see how it can be used.
Rhea Fox, Digital Director, Ted Baker

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY ‘COLLABORATE WITH PURPOSE’?

Making sense of your insights to ensure that they are correct, clear,
concise and compelling is unlikely to happen looking at a screen. It
requires an immersive approach, with collaboration and input from
others. Doing tasks like reading reports or creating presentations
often requires us to be productive, while thinking tasks such as insight
generation and data storytelling require us to let the mind wander,
percolate and bounce ideas around. Purposeful collaboration is not
the same as getting feedback on your data story. It requires clear
goals, roles and responsibilities and effective tools to facilitate the
exchange of insights and ideas. Purposeful collaboration ultimately
needs to offer a win–win to all of those expected to contribute. Poor
collaboration can be a huge time and resource drain – and a massive
demotivator. Purposeful collaboration is a deliberate and structured
approach to working together effectively.
 THE MINDSET AND WAYS OF WORKING FOR A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION 237

KEY BEHAVIOURS AND WAYS OF WORKING TO SUPPORT THIS MINDSET

IN PRACTICE
Purposeful collaboration encourages both creativity and organization,
which can lead to more actionable and valuable insights. As a data story-
telling champion, you can demonstrate and role model this mindset:
●●
Break down the silos. This doesn’t mean demanding a restructure;
means being actively involved in sharing and being interested in what
others are doing. Talk about the insights from your data stories and
encourage others to ask questions or add their perspective.
●●
Leverage your network from across the business. Bring in diversity
of thinking early in the data storytelling process. If you haven’t got
a great network, build one. Then actively encourage divergent
opinions to challenge blind spots and ensure that a range of
perspectives feed into your early story hypotheses and data
interpretation. You may even encourage people to take on specific
roles to avoid ‘group-think’.
●●
Think laterally about collaboration. Often when we are limited
timewise, we tend to collaborate with those we work with and
who are familiar with our work. Gaining outsider perspectives is
hugely valuable so consider whether it is appropriate to bring in
agency partners, subject experts or academics. Can you even
partner with other brands?
●●
Develop a community of interest. Connect with like-minded
individuals, data professionals and potential collaborators to focus
on the development of a specific data story. This network can be
used to explore the insights, draft the outline narrative structure,
and create the storyboard framework. Collaborative working
sessions with the group can also be used to develop prototypes or
drafts of the data story content.
238 BECOMING A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION

At Sainsbury’s we used ‘the power of two’ relationships, where we paired

up analytical people with marketing managers. We implemented ‘the power
of two’ structure throughout the team, so at a senior leadership level there
was power of two and then all the way down to your communications
executives and your analysts on the ground. They would then go off and
influence and educate in the business in pairs, bringing together both
views, and jointly telling the story of marketing performance. That was our
way of getting credibility and building trust.
Lizzie Harris, Customer Director, B&Q

When you think about the end-to-end lifecycle of inspiring a customer to

take action, in getting them onto our website, exploring and understanding
our products, ultimately purchasing, and then building a relationship with
us, that’s a very holistic way of looking at a customer. To make that a ­reality
requires a series of different skill sets and both data and marketing are key
parts of it. They need to work together to a single plan that has the full
customer lifecycle in mind. I think it is very important that you’re part of a
cross-functional squad, working towards a clear goal. What doesn’t work is
when marketing has to come up with a plan and the data team are deliver-
ing models that don’t line up to the plan. And then what you end up with
is a whole bunch of brilliant models that go nowhere and a whole bunch of
amazing marketing that could have been optimized, and we know after the
fact because it’s not really doing very well. I also think it’s worth bringing
the research team in as well as data because there’s so much that we don’t
know about our customers because their world is beyond our company.
Sanica Menezes, Head of Customer Analytics, Aviva

KEY TAKE-OUTS

1 Don’t just focus on developing your skills and capabilities; think about
building a sustainable culture of data-driven business decision-making.
2 Embrace the data storytelling champion role by experimenting with new
ideas, seeking inspiration and role modelling the right mindset.
3 Being a data storytelling champion is most effective and rewarding
when collaborating with others.
 THE MINDSET AND WAYS OF WORKING FOR A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION 239

Coming up next…
In the next chapter we look at shortcuts, tools, checklists and guides
to help data storytelling champions embed the skills and ways of
working in practice.

References
Covey, S R (2004) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the character
ethic, revised edn, Free Press, New York
Gino, F (2018) The business case for curiosity, Harvard Business Review,
hbr.org/2018/09/the-business-case-for-curiosity (archived at https://perma.
cc/5UBP-T7X9)
Harford, T (2020) Messy: How to be creative and resilient in a tidy-minded world,
Riverhead Books, New York
Kirchherr, J, Mayer-Haug, K, Rupietta, K and Störk, K (2023) Archetyping to
create lasting behaviour change in organizations, McKinsey, 23 October,
www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/
our-insights/the-organization-blog/archetyping-to-create-lasting-behavior-
change-in-organizations (archived at https://perma.cc/3UCD-BFBJ)
240

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 241

11

Streamlining your data storytelling

ways of working

In this chapter we will explore:

●●
how to run an effective data storytelling session
●●
how to leverage data storytelling shortcuts
●●
how to continuously improve data storytelling capabilities

We need to all get better at using data, talking about it, collaborating, and
then building the story. But we need to be able to do it in a nimble and
agile way. It can take a really long time to review data, to spot trends, to
create reports, to build out narratives, to socialize them, and it can feel like
you are just figuring it out as you go. That can be really hard. So, a shortcut
can be a good thing. As a result, we can spend more time thinking about
the customer and how to engage them.
Charlotte Neal, Head of Marketing, Turning Point

How to run an effective data storytelling session

As a trainer, coach and facilitator, I have developed an efficient and
effective data storytelling planning workshop that has evolved out of
thousands of hands-on sessions. This is a two-to-three-hour session
242 BECOMING A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION

and allows for focused discussions and collaborative work to develop

robust data stories. I recommend conducting this type of workshop
at the interim analysis stage as part of an iterative process, rather
than at the end of all the data gathering and analysis or after content
has been produced. This ensures the time invested in the workshop
will deliver greater efficiency at the later stages. For a data storytell-
ing champion leading and facilitating the workshop it will involve a
full day of time to do the necessary preparation and pre-work before
the workshop, plus the time taken afterwards to process the outputs
of the workshop and to generate the draft storyboard. In addition to
the data story planning workshop, you might also consider addi-
tional sessions to collaborate on developing the hook, designing new
outputs and building a communications plan.

A guide for a data story planning workshop

Having a workshop guide is crucial for aligning team members and
staying on track. Below is an example plan for such a session.

Expected outcomes (15 minutes):

●●
Reiterate the primary goal of the session and what the end outcome
looks like – this should have already been shared in advance of the
session.
●●
Provide a clear visual roadmap for how you will get there, including
introducing and explaining any frameworks you plan to use to support
the process.

Context setting (20 minutes):

●●
Clarify the target audience for the data story and discuss their specific
needs, using a persona template if required.

Data overview (30 minutes):

●●
Provide background information on the datasets you are using for the
work and the key variables and metrics to focus on.
 STREAMLINING YOUR DATA STORYTELLING WAYS OF WORKING 243

●●
Summarize any significant macro-level trends observed so far at the
interim stage.
●●
Brainstorm task to agree:
●●
What are the key points from the overview that reinforce what we
already know?
●●
What new perspective or angle can we bring to this?
●●
What new news or insights are starting to stand out?
●●
What are some of the conflicts and tensions the overview has
highlighted?

Defining/redefining the killer question (25 minutes):

●●
Either use an existing killer question agreed at the scoping stage or
develop the question in the session itself.
●●
If refining, check against any new insights and ensure a proper killer
question.
●●
If developing in the session, provide a master list of prompt questions
and get the group to sort them into priority groups based on relevance
to different audiences and those that are critical vs nice to know.
●●
Agree consensus on the killer question.
●●
Using the checklist shared in Chapter 5, sense check the killer question
before moving on.

Break (10 minutes)

Sharing key insights (30 minutes):

●●
Present a high-level view of the synthesized themes at a micro level –
you may find using a simple framework can help support this rather than
detailed PowerPoints or dashboard outputs.
●●
Discuss definitions to gain consensus around themes and wordsmith
if required.

Converting insights into your story (40 minutes):

●●
Prioritize key themes in a sorting exercise, and for priority themes
brainstorm key implications for the audience.
244 BECOMING A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION

●●
Structure at a higher order level, aiming for three or four key groups that
will form your points of view.
●●
Draw out the narrative flow visually based on discussions so far and seek
feedback and reactions.
●●
Incorporate any builds into the narrative flow visual.
●●
Discuss any areas of contention and what will need to be managed.

Next steps and action items (10 minutes):

●●
Discuss the next steps in the data story development process and plans
for drafting the storyboard.
●●
Assign responsibilities for reviewing the storyboard before developing
the story content.
●●
Set a timeline for completion and distribution of the draft storyboard.
●●
After the workshop session, draft a simple storyboard using the template
shared later in this chapter, incorporating the inputs and ideas gathered
from the workshop. This should be circulated as an output from the
session and to stimulate any further feedback or contributions.

To access a digital version of the guide, plus supplementary templates

and frameworks to use in a data storytelling planning workshop, go
to the supporting webpage for the book at www.datastorytellingin​
marketing.com.

How to leverage data storytelling shortcuts

Why use story archetypes?
Story archetypes are recurring narrative patterns and themes found
in your marketing or communication-related data stories. These
archetypes can serve as a guide for story development, helping those
creating the story content with a blueprint for constructing engaging
and impactful data stories.
 STREAMLINING YOUR DATA STORYTELLING WAYS OF WORKING 245

There are a number of advantages to generating story archetypes,

including:
●●
providing a clear and structured narrative framework that is
already understood
●●
utilizing familiar narrative structures that are easy to remember
and make the message stick
●●
tapping into universally appealing themes that resonate with the
audience
●●
leveraging tried and tested human experiences that are already
proven to evoke a powerful response
●●
providing consistent structure across different communication
platforms to strengthen the messaging
●●
allowing for flexibility to ensure the data story is adapted for the
specific audience, objectives and communication goals
●●
reducing the time and effort required for story development where
agility of messaging is of the essence

While everyone can benefit from data story archetypes, the role of the
data storytelling champion is to spot these patterns and themes, to
devise the relevant archetype for their function, and to produce
template structures to support the repurposing of the story archetype
in future storytelling.

Common data story archetypes for marketing and communications

Some typical story archetypes to look out for within a marketing and
communications context are set out below.

ARCHETYPE 1: THE PROVEN SUCCESS STORY

This archetype revolves around showcasing positive outcomes and
success achieved through marketing efforts. It typically starts with a
problem or challenge faced by the company, followed by the strategic
implementation of a marketing plan, campaign or initiative. The
conflict resolution normally results in the achievement of a key mile-
246 BECOMING A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION

stone, supported by the data-driven evidence which shows the impact

of the marketing effort on business KPIs, such as sales or market
share.
In this story archetype the brand is the protagonist, overcoming
obstacles and achieving success, while customers play supporting
characters who have benefited from the product or service.

ARCHETYPE 2: THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY

This archetype focuses on the customer’s experience throughout the
purchase decision-making process or the product or service lifecycle.
It typically starts with the customer’s problem or need, followed by
the role of the brand in optimizing the experience over the course of
the journey through various touchpoints. The conflict resolution
normally results in the customer finding a solution to their problem,
supported by the data-driven evidence which shows optimization of
the experience. In this story archetype the customer is the protago-
nist, navigating their way through the marketing funnel, while the
brand and marketing channels play supporting characters looking to
help the customer on their journey. The role of marketing as the hero
in the transformation focuses on the team’s commitment to under-
standing and addressing customer needs and how customer feedback
informs marketing strategies.

If you’re stuck on how to get started with data storytelling in marketing,

always start off with the customer. Put the customer at the heart of your
story. Start with what the customer is doing and feeling and experiencing,
then think about what you want the customer to go on and do. That’s
always going to be a really good place to start. That’s going to give you
a really good spine to hang your story off.

Ruth Spencer, independent data leadership consultant

 STREAMLINING YOUR DATA STORYTELLING WAYS OF WORKING 247

ARCHETYPE 3: THE SHIFTING SANDS

This archetype focuses on changing trends in needs, expectations and
marketing effectiveness over time. It often begins with the identifica-
tion of a market trend, a change in consumer behaviour, or a shift in
competitive landscape. The conflict and tension in the story centre on
how the brand will respond, with the conflict resolution addressing
the new strategies and tactical adjustments required to either capital-
ize on emerging opportunities or mitigate potential threats. The trend
itself is the character in this archetype, with the brand, customers,
competitors and external players acting as supporting characters
influencing the response to the trend. The role of marketing as the
hero in the transformation focuses on how successful campaigns will
improve the brand position, and drive sales and brand growth.

ARCHETYPE 4: THE UNDERDOG

This archetype focuses on key external challenges to the brand – from
competitors, regulators or wider macroeconomic or social factors. It
often centres on the ongoing struggles and obstacles that impinge on
any marketing effort, with the conflict resolution addressing how the
brand has been able to achieve success (even incrementally) against
the odds. The marketer is the protagonist in this story archetype with
the narrative structure highlighting the resilience and determination
of the function to overcome challenges through innovation and
workarounds.

ARCHETYPE 5: THE DISCOVERY

This archetype focuses on innovation and new opportunities to carve
out for the brand. It often centres on the need to tap into unexplored
markets, underserved customer segments or unmet consumer needs.
The conflict resolution focuses on the role of new and novel market-
ing approaches to help reach and fill these gaps. The data is the
protagonist in this story archetype with the narrative highlighting the
key discoveries from the various datasets. The role of marketing as
the explorers in the story focuses on the function utilizing these
discoveries to implement new ideas and drive positive business
outcomes.
248 BECOMING A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION

These different archetypes help marketers craft compelling narratives

that resonate with their audience and facilitate a deeper u
­ nderstanding
of the data-driven insights being presented. They draw on repetition
of known narrative structures to land the message and aid memora-
bility, as well as offering the data storyteller a good place to start
when developing their specific story.
To access our visual guide to finding the right data story
archetype, go to the supporting webpage for the book at
­
www.datastorytellinginmarketing.com.

Why use checklists and templates?

Creating effective data stories requires a thoughtful approach to
ensure that the narrative is clear, compelling and actionable. But
when we are busy or under stress it is easy to default to previous
ways of working. As such, checklists and templates can be a useful
reminder to guide you through the process. While templates can
sometimes be seen as rigid and creatively limiting, managed with a
degree of flexibility they enable the data storyteller to create a consist-
ent approach to sharing stories, including a standard approach to
structure, headings, fonts and colours, etc. A well-designed template
can enhance the clarity of your data story by organizing information
in a logical and easily understandable manner.
In this section we share a number of checklists and templates that
you can adapt for your own data storytelling practices.

THE DATA STORYTELLING CHECKLIST

When coaching data storytelling champions, I work with them to
develop tailored checklists that work for their specific team needs.
Below is an example of a typical checklist.
 STREAMLINING YOUR DATA STORYTELLING WAYS OF WORKING 249

●●
Have you clearly articulated the purpose of your data story, including
the transformation you are looking to inspire?
●●
Do you understand who your audience are and their level of expertise
and interest in the topic?
●●
Do you have a killer question that works as an anchor for your story and
ties the data points together?
●●
Have you developed a compelling hook that sets the stage for the data
story?
●●
Have you included some background information to ensure your
audience understand the context of the data, including the end outcome
you are looking to achieve and some of the issues that are faced? This
could include any relevant industry trends, market conditions or external
factors that may impact the story.
●●
Does the storyline follow a narrative structure that includes the conflict
and resolution?
●●
Have you included actionable recommendations, implications or next
steps in your data story resolution?
●●
Does your story include three of four key points of view that support
your story resolution and synthesize your learnings from the data?
●●
Have you addressed any counterarguments in your narrative and
considered how you will deal with any challenges or questions?
●●
Have you integrated real-life examples such as case studies or customer
stories to make the data story feel relatable and concrete?
●●
Are the data visualizations you have used clearly aligned to the story
and do they make the data more digestible? This means checking labels,
annotations, scales, etc.
●●
Have you tested the data story with a small sample of the target
audience to get feedback?

THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY TEMPLATE

The power of a one-page executive summary lies in its ability to
capture the most critical information in a visually appealing and easily
digestible format. A bespoke executive summary enables us to distil
250 BECOMING A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION

complex data stories into concise insights for specific decision-makers.

This is your short-form version of your content for the audience to
read, listen to or watch, and as such it needs to be restricted to one or
two pages or five minutes of audio or video commentary.
Best practice for one-page executive summaries includes the following:
●●
Distil to the most relevant information only – this is where your
work on your narrative arc and your key points of view will come
into its own.
●●
Start with the most compelling point first – this is what will capture
and hold the attention of the audience.
●●
Use well-structured formats to make reading the commentary easy
for the audience – think like a newspaper and go for portrait for
text-dominant summaries.
●●
Use headings, subheadings and bullet points to break up any
detailed text and draw the eye to what matters most.
●●
Personalize summaries based on different audience needs by
highlighting specific calls to action or recommendations.
●●
Incorporate some visual elements to break up text, such as charts,
graphs, diagrams, icons or images.
●●
Embed hyperlinks to encourage the audience to find out more
about the data story if they wish.

Here are some of the critical elements to include any executive summary
template structure:
●●
A paragraph/column framing the situation:
●●
objective of the data story and definition of success for the topic
●●
key metrics related to the data story and aligned to wider goals
●●
current performance against goals, targets, benchmarks, etc.
●●
A paragraph/column isolating the conflict:
●●
highlight any performance issues
●●
spell out barriers or constraints impacting on success
●●
identify potential risks to progress
 STREAMLINING YOUR DATA STORYTELLING WAYS OF WORKING 251

●●
Clearly state the killer question as the anchor to your story
●●
A paragraph/column highlighting the answer to the question:
●●
actionable recommendations including any proposed changes to
existing plans or initiatives
●●
future outlook – tied to either opportunities to be gained or threats
you might face if you do nothing
●●
high-level commentary regarding timeline, including any milestones
or deadlines
●●
Three or four bullet points covering the points of view that provide the
rationale behind your answer
●●
A closing statement reinforcing the ask or call to action

You may notice that there is very little data itself in the executive
summary, except any relevant key metrics that the audience should
be familiar with. This is deliberate. An executive summary is not a list
of the key findings in the data; it needs to be a well-constructed short
story based on the data interpretation and judgement.

THE HEADLINE REPORT TEMPLATE

This template is for the five-slide version of the story (Figure 11.1).
This is a story version you would deliver in a 30-minute webinar or
as part of a 45–60-minute meeting with questions and debate.

FIGURE 11.1 Headline report template

Hook Exec. summary Scorecard Key insights Call to action

Prime your Summarize the Share the 3 or 4 Top 10 insights Spell out the
audience with high-level data metrics that and implications key ask, next
an emotive story in a visual support the structured steps and quick
hook to bring one-pager data story according to wins
the data story your 3–5 points
to life of view
252 BECOMING A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION

The five-slide template would include the following key slides:

1 The compelling hook to prime your audience.

2 The executive summary that showcases the two-minute version of
your story.
3 A high-level performance scorecard with the relevant KPIs
highlighting trends and comparisons to any benchmarks.
4 The top insight takeaways from the data that informed your
story – five at the most. If more are needed then consider how to
prioritize or organize them into higher order themes.
5 The call to action that is relevant for the audience – this could be
a key ask, next steps or quick win actions.

This version of the data story has a little more data than the executive
summary but is still light touch when it comes to including tables,
graphs and key data points. While the high-level scorecard will
provide some data to support any trends or comparative analysis, the
insights slide will be a visual and text summary of the top takeaways,
rather than specific data visualizations.

THE DETAILED STORY TEMPLATE

This template is for the 25–30 page version of the story. I would
recommend creating this as a readable document, rather than present-
ing something this long. You would typically need a two-hour meeting
to do justice to presenting and reflecting on a 30-page report. It could
be in a digital published format with interactive navigation, but it is
unlikely to be a dashboard, as it needs to be narrative-led rather than
data-led. This will contain more data than our executive summary
and headline report but will not be as exhaustive as an evidence pack
used in the appendix or the detailed dashboard that contains all the
data points. Within a 30-page report using the template structure
below, it is unlikely for data visualizations to account for more than
one-third of the data story.
Again, each template should be tailored relative to the story arche-
type, but I have highlighted below a consistent way of structuring the
 STREAMLINING YOUR DATA STORYTELLING WAYS OF WORKING 253

detailed report. This detailed version of the report would be split into
different sections to aid navigation.

Section 1 (4–5 pages):

●●
Foreword – from a key person of influence sharing an editorial comment
on the data story
●●
Compelling hook – a human story, case study or illustrative example
●●
The executive summary (as above)
●●
Definitions – this might include pen portraits of targets or market maps
highlighting key territories

Section 2 (around 20 pages):

●●
POV 1 commentary
●●
Key insight 1 – visualization and commentary
●●
Key insight 2 – visualization and commentary
●●
Key insight 3 – visualization and commentary
●●
How any of the key insights vary – by market, customer segment
or time period
●●
Illustrative example using a case study of good or bad practice
●●
Implications and actions – specific recommendations for this POV
●●
POV 2 commentary
●●
Key insight 1 – visualization and commentary
●●
Key insight 2 – visualization and commentary
●●
Key insight 3 – visualization and commentary
●●
How any of the key insights vary – by market, customer segment
or time period
●●
Illustrative example using a case study of good or bad practice
●●
Implications and actions – specific recommendations for this POV
254 BECOMING A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION

●●
POV 3 commentary
●●
Key insight 1 – visualization and commentary
●●
Key insight 2 – visualization and commentary
●●
Key insight 3 – visualization and commentary
●●
How any of the key insights vary – by market, customer segment
or time period
●●
Illustrative example using a case study of good or bad practice
●●
Implications and actions – specific recommendations for this POV

Section 3 (2–3 pages):

●●
Summary of learnings and implications
●●
Call to action
●●
Provocative statement or question to fuel thinking and debate

There are additional ways to support navigation of a long form read

aside from a well-structured story. Below are some example features
that can be integrated into your template:
●●
Incorporate interactive elements like a clickable graph that allow
readers to explore the data further if they choose to, rather than
forcing them to look at too may dimensions in a static visual. You
can also use clickable commentary where a video or audio
description goes into more detail.
●●
Include pop-ups to provide additional context or information
when readers hover over specific data points or keywords.
●●
Add a progress bar or page numbers to help readers understand
their position within the data story.
●●
Periodically include summaries or recaps to reinforce key points
and help readers stay oriented, especially in lengthy narratives. The
end of each point of view would be a logical place for these.
 STREAMLINING YOUR DATA STORYTELLING WAYS OF WORKING 255

●●
If the data story is presented digitally, ensure that it is responsive
and accessible across different devices. Consider mobile-friendly
layouts for readers on smartphones or tablets.
●●
Use hyperlinks strategically to provide additional context,
definitions or references to related content. Be cautious not to
over-use them, as it can be distracting.

THE BESPOKE TEMPLATE

The concept of a bespoke template sounds counterintuitive. But,
managed well, it can provide a level of consistency across stakeholder
and customer communication, while allowing for tailored recom-
mendations and a degree of personalization that the headline report
and detailed reports cannot. By providing support via a template,
alongside training and coaching from data storytelling champions or
capability teams, it enables other relevant stakeholders, such as sales
or category management, to adapt the data story themselves in a way
that doesn’t contradict the marketing story. It also means that the
marketing team are not having to produce multiple versions of the
same story. This is true data democratization!
The template guide for a bespoke version of the story enables other
stakeholders to adapt the story for the very specific needs of the
people they need to influence and ensures all teams are seen as cred-
ible experts in the consumer, customer, market or category, regardless
of their levels of data literacy.
For example, I was working with an industry body representing a
key food sector that was looking to influence retailers to drive cate-
gory growth. To ensure ownership of key insights across the board
we designed a communications plan that leveraged the headline
report to drive engagement with the data story and gauge initial reac-
tions to the key insights. Feedback was sought through key partner
relationships from the specific buyer audience within key retailers, to
ascertain which elements of the story were most relevant to them and
their plans. From this, the industry body and their direct clients in the
256 BECOMING A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION

production and manufacturing end of the sector were able to use the
template for a bespoke presentation to tailor different versions of the
story to share in one-to-one meetings. The template meant that the
key messages were consistent but enabled the end data storytellers to
provide audience-specific recommendations around product and
format mix, as well as key messaging on packaging and in-the-aisle
marketing, rather than generic suggestions that didn’t meet their
specific category plans.
In another example, I was working with a pharmaceutical market-
ing team who were looking to improve the use of data storytelling in
their B2B communications to healthcare providers and generate more
personalized thought leadership. We used the bespoke template to
ensure a seamless and consistent look and feel between white papers
and sales presentations.
To access digital versions of the checklists and templates, go to
the supporting webpage for the book at www.datastorytellinginmar​
keting.com.

How to continuously improve data storytelling capabilities

Measuring success
Improving data storytelling to increase impact requires time, resources
and even sometimes budgetary investment. To demonstrate the return
on investment we need to be able to show the impact on key meas-
ures of success. As data storytelling champions, it is important to
identify what success looks like and how you will measure it over
time. This requires you to evaluate how effective your data stories are
in communicating the insights, engaging the audience and driving
decision-making. Below are a number of tried and tested measures to
consider for your own evaluation.
 STREAMLINING YOUR DATA STORYTELLING WAYS OF WORKING 257

Measure of success: Data story- Measure of success: Data

telling leads to greater clarity and storytelling leads to actionable
understanding of key insights insights
Metric: Audience comprehension Metric: Audience utilizing data story
of the main message for decision-making
Measurement: Audience feedback Measurement: Tracking changes to
and reflections shared in meetings strategy or modifications to plans

Measure of success: Data Measure of success: Data

storytelling communicates useful storytelling empowers the audience
insights that align to objectives to share insights

Metric: Audience engagement, Metric: Audience repurposing and

interest and participation during sharing in conversations with their
story delivery stakeholders

Measurement: Audience asking Measurement: Audience feedback

questions of the data story and and surveys to capture confidence
relating back to goals and capability

Measure of success: Data Measure of success: Data

storytelling results in greater recall storytelling makes insights more
and retention of key messages readily accessible to a wider
audience
Metric: Audience replay key
messages and key visuals Metric: Audience reach and
accessing of data story content
Measurement: Degree of recall in
follow-up discussions Measurement: Tracking how many
people access and distribute the
data story

To access our data storytelling audit tool and assessment tools to

help with defining your own measures of success and collating quali-
tative and quantitative feedback from others, go to the supporting
webpage for the book at www.datastorytellinginmarketing.com.
258 BECOMING A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION

KEY TAKE-OUTS

1 Access proven guides, checklists, templates and shortcuts to help get

you started.
2 Create your own bank of relevant archetypes, output templates and
inspiring examples to provide tangible ideas for others to borrow.
3 Define and measure what successful data storytelling looks like in your
world to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.
 259

12

What next?

A summary of the key data storytelling actions

The 5Rs roadmap has taken you through:

5 key stages in the journey:

1 Plan a relevant data story.

2 Discover a robust data story.
3 Build a refined data story.
4 Create a relatable data story.
5 Execute a remarkable data story.

15 steps to best practice:

1 Identify the story transformation.

2 Align the story to the bigger picture.
3  Focus on a killer question.
4 Access a range of high-quality data sources.
5 Question the data observations.
6 Draw out meaningful insight.
7 Distil insights into points of view.
8 Stress-test your recommendation.
260 BECOMING A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION

9 Weave together into a compelling narrative.

10 Integrate human experience and real-world examples.
11 Add the personal touch.
12 Keep the momentum going.
13  Optimize existing data story outputs.
14 Curate a range of digestible micro-content.
15 Incorporate interactive techniques into the story delivery.

30 recommended tasks:

1 Do your homework on the 14 Go back and answer the killer

audience. question.
2 Reflect on typical transformation 15 Review desirability against
examples. feasibility.
3 Identify the relevant source of 16 Assess commercial viability.
value. 17  Follow a storytelling framework.
4 Define the problem statement. 18 Ruthlessly edit for clarity.
5 Go beyond the objective. 19 Utilize qualitative data.
6 Hypothesize the answer. 20 Incorporate into a story hook.
7  Find out what data sources are 21 Pick a perspective.
available.
22  Tailor specific outputs.
8 Speak to an expert or the data
23 Craft your points of view into
owner.
story peaks.
9 Check the findings are valid.
24  Finish on a high point.
10 Build confidence in your
25 Rethink your data visualization.
interpretation.
26 Create powerful commentary.
11 Dig deeper into the data.
27  Think digital and physical.
12 Interrogate the data for the
‘So what?’ 28  Tap into existing channels.

13 Recode to three to five points 29 Leave space in your agenda.

of view. 30 Spark a conversation.
 What next? 261

Words of advice
Take what you need from the 5Rs data storytelling roadmap. Don’t
feel the need to complete all 30 tasks for every data story. Use it as
encouragement to push outside your comfort zone and experiment
with new ideas.
And don’t wait for the perfect project with the perfect stakeholder
and the perfect data to come along before you start putting it into
practice. You’ll be waiting a long time!

Finding further inspiration

Finding inspiration for data storytelling can come from various
sources and provide you with plenty of hints and tips you can adopt
or adapt into your own work. As well as sourcing examples, remem-
ber to critically analyse and deconstruct why the data story resonates
with you, and share this with others. Inspiration can come from a
diverse range of sources and below are suggestions for where to start
looking:
●●
Follow data-driven journalism websites like The Guardian’s
Datablog, FiveThirtyEight, or the New York Times’ The Upshot.
●●
Read books on data visualization and storytelling.
●●
Explore infographic websites such as Visual.ly or Information is
Beautiful, where they showcase different examples to help spark
your own creativity.
●●
Engage with the data storytelling community on social media
platforms by following hashtags such as #dataviz or
#datastorytelling to discover new trends and innovative approaches.
●●
Draw inspiration from art, design, photography, museum curation
and interactive experiences – ask yourself what you can bring into
your world.
●●
Study case studies of successful data storytelling projects.
●●
Ask for training to ensure you have a toolkit to draw on for your
different data storytelling projects.
262 BECOMING A DATA STORYTELLING CHAMPION

To access public domain examples, our recommended reading lists

and ‘who’s who’ to follow on social media, go to the supporting
webpage for the book at www.datastorytellinginmarketing.com.

A final word
Thank you for embracing the topic of data storytelling and for allow-
ing me to take you on this journey. I hope you have found this book
an insightful and helpful guide to developing great data stories.
Whether you are looking to use the learnings from this book to tap
into new ideas to support existing capabilities, or you aspire to become
a world-class data storytelling champion, I wish you good luck in your
data storytelling endeavours.
To gain access to more content please go to www.datastory
tellinginmarketing.com or for regular inspiration follow our company
page on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/insight-narrator-ltd
and sign up for the newsletter.
Finally, as you put the roadmap into practice, I would love for you to
share your own case study examples. You can share your thoughts and
access additional content by going to www.datastorytellinginmarketing.
com and joining our champions’ community.
Until then…
 263

INDEX

Note: page numbers in italic indicate figures

A/B testing 209, 231 beauty market 43, 48

account-based marketing 181–82 ‘begin with end in mind’ 228–29
accountability 104, 213, 217, 218, 224, 225 beginnings (storyboards) 188–89
acquisition goals 105 benchmarking 110, 182, 252
action items (workshops) 244 bespoke templates 255–56
action objective questions 110 bias 38, 66, 98, 113, 125–26, 171, 172, 183
actionable insights 5–6, 54–55, 78, 111, 257 biochemical responses 174
active listening tasks 217 board reports 143, 144, 194–95, 196
Acxiom 4 booklets 211
ad hoc data stories 195, 197 BookTok 46
advertising 52–53, 114–15, 124, 149, 157 brainstorming 95, 114, 195, 235, 243
aggregators 4 Brand Blog, The 48
agility (always on apos marketing) 29, 45, brand management 30
53–54, 57, 63, 241, 245 brand perception 95, 194
alliance building 226 B2B market 55, 178, 179, 182, 256
alphabetical information 204 budgets 44, 48–49, 63, 101, 106, 114–15
Amazon 46, 123 bullet points 158, 194, 205, 250, 251
anchoring bias 126 business schools 72–73, 230
annotations 206, 249 business understanding 229
anxious data storytelling consumers 12–13 see also context; strategy
archive data 229 business value 105–06
area charts 204 buy-in (engagement) 47–54, 101, 121,
Art of Persuasion (Aristotle) 22–27 143–44, 213, 257
artificial intelligence (AI) 31–36
generative 7, 180 calls to action 23, 108, 187, 252
attention (concentration) spans 173, 185, campaign data 4–5, 44
215 Campaign for Real Beauty 48
see also memory (recall) Canva 202
audience 99–100, 169–70, 179, 180–81 case studies 146, 261, 262
motivation of 102 category information 204–05
primary 27, 103 CeraVe 43
understanding of material 217, 257 challenging status quo 58–59, 78–79
see also customers champions 66, 223–39, 245
audio data 36, 184, 196, 250, 254 change, resistance to 102
auditory learners 201 charity sector xxi, 44
augmented reality 36 charts 204–05
authenticity 96, 154, 175 bar charts 170
automation 7, 75, 144 Chat GPT 33
automotive sector 194–97 checklists 206, 227, 248–49, 256
averages 132, 183 chief executive officers (CEOS) 50–51, 181
chief financial officers (CFOs) 50–52
bad news 147–48 ‘choose your own adventure’ endings 186
bar charts 170, 205 Christmas advertising 53
264 INDEX

chronological ordering 151 critical thinking skills 58, 73–74, 75, 88,
chunking 43, 57, 148, 160, 167, 216 109, 149, 235
churn (retention) modelling 13, 46–47, 105, cross-functional teams 74, 213, 238
108, 120 cross-selling 105
click through metric 3, 45 cultural analysis 145
co-authors 31–32, 33, 35 cultural bias 125
co-creation 37, 87, 186–87 culture, organizational 62–72
coaching xxiii–iv, 226 curiosity 65, 159, 229–31
Coca Cola 231 customer-centricity 29, 45, 180
cognitive bias 172 customer experience 45, 142–44, 194–97
collaboration 37, 45, 56, 65, 87, 121, 225, customer insights 5–6, 44, 48, 52–53, 87,
236–38 120–21, 134–37, 243–44, 257
collegiate approach 66 see also actionable insights
commercial viability 156–57 customer journey story archetype 246
communication 56–57, 76, 80, 90–91, customer relationship management (CRM)
120–21, 194–97, 212 systems 3, 4, 9
see also conversations; language; town customers 42–43
hall forums churn (retention) 13, 46–47, 105, 108, 120
communities of interest 37, 128, 233, 237 feedback from 142–44, 148, 172,
comparative analysis 132, 252 233, 257
see also dashboards lifetime value 238
comparative ordering 151 segmentation 13, 46, 110
competent data storytellers 13–14 see also actionable insights; audience;
concentration (attention) spans 173, 185, customer experience; customer
215 insights; surveys
see also memory (recall) customization 8, 14, 32, 37, 44, 169,
confirmation bias 125 178, 181
Confluence 37 see also personalization
conjunctions 151
consensus building 198, 213, 243 dashboards 31, 65, 72, 120, 135, 168, 169,
consistency 48, 54, 167, 195, 207, 245, 196, 235, 252
255–56 data 2–5, 9, 30–31, 70
content creators 43 fear of 71–72
see also co-creation first-party 67
context 70, 87, 97, 103–08, 242 synthetic 32, 36, 38, 71, 76, 79,
see also business understanding; strategy 88, 143, 167
continuous improvement 29, 225, 256–57 data accessibility 28, 42, 68, 89, 100
see also metrics (measurement) data accuracy 87
continuous storytelling 231–33 data aggregators 4
contradictory data 14, 124–25 data analysis 76, 87, 235, 242
controversy 180 comparative analysis 132, 152
conversations 216–18, 233 cultural 145
difficult conversations 147–48 see also root cause analysis
conversion rates 14, 43, 44, 45, 63, 78 data analytics 44, 57, 70–71, 74–76, 234
conviction 101, 102 data analytics teams 29–30, 64–66
core story themes 55, 195 data democratization 21, 28, 64, 255
correlation 23, 79, 133–34, 143 data distillation 88, 95, 148–53, 250
cost-per-click metric 135, 137 data distortion 122–23
cost savings 105–06 data gaps 70
creative thinking 89 data insights 5–6, 44, 48, 52–53, 87,
see also ‘messiness’ 120–21, 134–37, 243–44, 257
credibility (ethos) 22–23, 24, 26, 52, 58–59, see also actionable insights
125, 127, 170 data interpretation 9, 76, 131–34
 INDEX 265

data literacy 8, 12, 28, 30, 51, 58, 74–76, emotions (pathos) 23–24, 27, 99–100,
134, 196 171–78, 183–84
data manipulation 129–30 empathy 88, 102, 171, 174
data observations 129–34, 135 empathy maps 187
data overload 69–70 endings (finishes) 184–87, 189
data overview (workshops) 242–43 engagement (buy-in) 47–54, 101, 121,
data privacy 22, 123, 199 143–44, 213, 257
data regulation breaches 123 ethics 22, 25, 38, 75, 123, 175
data security 199 ethos (credibility) 22–23, 24, 26, 52, 58–59,
data sources 127–29 125, 127, 170
data storytelling, defined 6–11, 38, 56 evaluation 44, 225
data storytelling experts 11, 14–15, 72 executive summaries 182, 189, 190, 195,
data storytelling sceptics 11, 12, 101 201, 216, 249–51, 252
data synthesis 31, 32, 36, 38, 71, 76, 79, existing communication channels 212
88, 143, 167 existing data stories 200–08
data uplift 132, 134, 176, 181 Experian 4
data validity 78–79, 127, 130–31 experimentation 126, 134, 209, 231, 235
data visualization 7–9, 97, 146, 167, expert persona 11, 14–15, 72
168–69, 184, 189, 203–06, exploratory objectives 109
224–25, 250
see also dashboards; Microsoft FAQs 217
PowerPoint; storyboards fast-moving consumer goods market 156
database marketing 30 fear of data 71–72
Datablog 261 feasibility 155–56, 157
De Beers 53–54, 181 feedback 142–44, 148, 172, 233, 257
deadlines 189, 207, 232, 251 female purchasing power 53–54
decentralization 29–30 Fielding, Daryl 48
decision-making 31, 62, 63–64 finishes (endings) 184–87, 189
definitive endings 187 first-party data 2–3, 67
democratization of data 21, 28, 64, 255 first-person narratives 172, 175
desirability 155–56, 157 5 Whys 137, 138
detailed story templates 252–55 5Rs roadmap 85–91, 259–61
difficult conversations 147–48 FiveThirtyEight 261
digestible content 89, 208–12, 249 flexibility 90, 209, 245
digital content 210, 255, 256 flow maps 203
discovery objectives 109 flowcharts 204
discovery story archetype 247–48 focus 87
distillation 88, 95, 148–53, 250 food sector 55, 255–56
distortion of information 122–23 4Us principle 206–08
divergent thinking 186, 235, 237 Freytag, Gustav 159–60
Dove 48
dramatic arc (Freytag) 159–60 Gantt charts 204
Dun & Bradstreet 4 General Data Protection Regulation
dynamic content 182, 197 (GDPR) 4, 123
Generation Z 43
early warning systems 71, 144, 233 generative AI 7, 31–32, 180
editing 161, 188, 196, 206 generic content 96
educational content 181–82 generic statements 151
Ehrenberg-Bass theory 47–48 geographic information systems 203
elevator pitch approach 158 good-to-great companies 41–42
emails 3, 128, 179, 181, 201 Google 38, 44
‘embrace the mess’ 234–36 Google Ad Manager 5
emotional intelligence 89 Google Analytics 4, 79, 227
266 INDEX

‘Google Maps hack’ 129–30 Keynote 202

grocery sector 94–96 killer questions 108–17, 143, 147, 151,
Guardian, The 261 153–54, 160–61, 167, 224–25, 243
killer stats 174, 175–76
hackathons 236 kinaesthetic learners 202
headings 201, 248, 250 knowledge gaps 231, 234, 235
headline report templates 251–52 knowledge management systems 68, 128
headline titles 188, 224 knowledge sharing 37, 225
hierarchical information 205 KPIs 75, 78, 94, 121, 131, 178, 246, 252
HIPPO effect 97
holistic content 90–91, 101, 172 landscape analogy 166–67
hooks 173–78, 189 language 32, 130, 134, 184, 207
‘how’ questions 110 see also conjunctions; metaphors; verb
‘how might we?’ question 187 usage; word usage
Hull, Janet xxv–vi LATCH visualizations 203–06
human attention (concentration) span 173, line charts 204
185, 215 LinkedIn 33, 34, 262
see also memory (recall) listening tasks 217
human co-authors 31–32, 33, 35 location (place) 110, 203
human cognition (processing) 148 logos (logic) 23, 24, 25–26
human experience 171–78 Looker Studio 37
human motivations 25, 57, 100, 172, 181, loyalty programmes 2, 3, 30, 96, 115
185, 196, 235
human stories 174–75 macro-level problem statements 107
hybrid working 212 maps 203
hyperlinks 250, 255 market data 3, 166
hypotheses 113, 114–17, 126, 231, 234 market research 3, 33, 73, 149
marketing documents 233
IGD 3 marketing function 29–30, 45, 56, 63
indented lists 205 marketing plans 54–55
see also bullet points marketing programmes 72–73
influencers 43, 46, 63 matrix charts 204–05
influencing skills 58 meaningful insights 134–37
Information Commissioner’s Office 123 meetings 214–15
Information is Beautiful 261 virtual 212, 217, 233
Insight Narrator xxiii–iv memory bias 183
insights 5–6, 44, 48, 52–53, 87, 120–21, memory (recall) 148–49, 183,
134–37, 243–44, 257 185, 257
see also actionable insights see also concentration (attention)
Inspirient 33–35 spans
integrated marketing plans 54–55 messaging 100, 144–47, 185
interactive techniques 212–17, 254 primary 206
interim analysis 235, 242 retention of 257
interpretation techniques 9, 76, 131–34 socialization 198–99
interviews 169–70 see also data distillation
IRI 3 ‘messiness’ 234–36
iteration 87, 232–33 Meta 123
meta stories 143, 230, 232, 233
jewellery sector 53–54, 181 metaphors 174, 176–77
journey maps 187 metrics (measurement) 44, 63, 70, 75–78,
95, 123, 124, 234, 256–57
Kantar xxi–ii, 3 click though 3, 45
Keen as Mustard Marketing 33–35 cost-per-click 135, 137
 INDEX 267

see also conversion rates; correlation; platform technology 7, 37–38

KPIs; probability; return on pop-ups 254
investment (ROI) portrait formats 250
micro-content 89, 196, 208–12 positive outcomes 110
Microsoft Power BI 37, 71 Power BI 37, 71
Microsoft PowerPoint 33, 97, 196, 202, ‘power of two’ relationships 238
210, 215, 243 PowerPoint 33, 97, 196, 202, 210, 215, 243
middle section 189 pre-meetings 198, 215
mind maps 205 presentation preparation 198–99, 211, 215
Mintel 3, 210 presentations 58, 125, 144–47, 202, 216
Minto’s Pyramid Principle 159–61 primary audience 27, 99, 103
misinformation 171–72 primary messages 206
mobile devices 255 primary sources 36, 55, 227
momentum 182–87 priming 173, 214, 215–16
motivations 25, 57, 100, 172, 181, 185, probability 133
196, 235 problem statements 107–08, 114–17
progress bars 254
narrative structure 158–61 progress updates 182, 187, 195, 233
National Lottery 47–48 project management processes 143, 204
negative outcomes 110 promotions 14, 46, 54, 95–96, 115–16, 195
net promoter score (NPS) 142 proof-of-concept data stories 143
networking 128, 231, 237 proven success story archetypes 245–46
New York Times 7, 37, 158, 210, 261 provocative questions (statements) 89, 167,
Nielsen 3 217
non-digital micro-content 211 purposeful collaboration 236–38
‘not invented here’ bias 125 Pyramid Principle 159–61
nudges 102, 173, 214
Q&A sessions 216–17
observations 134, 135 Qlik 37
Ogilvy 48 qualitative data 67, 170, 172–73, 230–31
1:10 principle 198 questioning 97, 128–34, 185, 186, 217
open-ended stories 185–86 5 Whys 137, 138
open source data 4 ‘how might we?’ question 187
organizational structure (culture) 62–72 ‘how’ question 110
over-justification 144–47 killer questions 108–17, 143, 147, 151,
oxytocin levels 174 153–54, 160–61, 167, 224–25, 243
quick wins 224–25, 233
pathos (emotions) 23–24, 27, 99–100,
171–78, 183–84 random chance 133–34
peak-end rule 182–87 read/write learners 201–02
peaks 183–84, 189 reading 231
performance marketing 51–52, 63 real-world examples 171–78, 225
performance scorecards 143, 251, 252 recall 148–49, 183, 185, 257
personalization 44–45, 54–55, 79–80, 88, see also concentration (attention) spans
178–82, 184, 186, 207, 250 recoding 149, 150, 167
see also customization refined data storytelling 86, 88, 141–63, 213
personas (audience) 181 reflection points 216, 217
persuasive storytelling 22–27 reframing 72
pharmaceutical sector 256 regulation breaches 123
pie charts 205 relatability 86, 88–89, 165–91
place (location) 110, 203 relevance 86–87, 96, 100
planning 93–117, 197–98 reliability 87, 127–29
marketing 54–55 remarkability 86, 89, 193–220
268 INDEX

repetition 184, 185 story archetypes 229, 244–48

reporting 7–9, 146 story hooks 173–78, 189
board 143, 144, 194–95, 196 story peaks 183–84, 189
reputational risk 157 story plans 93–117
retention (churn) modelling 13, 46–47, 105, storyboards 187–90, 244
108, 120 strategic thinking skills 87
retrofit data 98 strategy 145
return on investment (ROI) 48–52, 106, 122 see also business understanding; context
reviews 125 stress-testing 88, 113, 154–58, 167
risk reduction 106 strong points of view 151, 152–53
roadmaps 242 structural ordering 151
robustness 86, 87 subheadings 250
role modelling 226 subject matter experts 125, 128, 235
root cause analysis 136–38 subjectivity 50
Royal Mail xxii–iii success
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds xxi measures of 228–29
updates 187, 226, 233
Sainsbury’s 238 see also quick wins
sales teams 2, 52–53 success story archetypes 245–46
sample sizes 132 summaries 167, 254
scatter plots 203 executive 182, 189, 190, 195, 201, 206,
scenarios 177–78 216, 249–51, 252
sceptic persona 11, 12, 101 surveys 3, 80, 124, 257
scientific misinformation 171–72 synthetic data 31, 32, 36, 38, 71, 76, 79, 88,
scorecards 143, 251, 252 143, 167
SCQA tool 114–17, 159–61
scraping 4, 204 T-shaped communication plan 195–96
second-party data 3–4 Tableau 37
segmentation 13, 46, 110 tables 204
shifting sands story archetype 247 target group focus 110
shopper research 3 teams
silo mentality 237 cross-functional 74, 213, 238
simplicity (specificity) 167, 207, 208 data analytics 29–30, 64–66
simulations 36 technology platforms 7, 37–38
situation (SCQA) 114–17 see also artificial intelligence (AI);
skills 11–15, 77–80 automation
creative thinking 89 TED talks 198, 203, 215
critical thinking 58, 73–74, 75, 88, 109, templates 169, 196, 197, 225, 244,
149, 235 245, 248
influencing 58 bespoke 255–56
strategic thinking 87 detailed story 252–55
skills gaps 10, 64, 72–74 executive summary 249–51
Snow fall: The avalanche at Tunnel Creek headline reports 251–52
(apos) (New York Times) 37 tension 158–59, 184
social media 4, 29, 37, 44, 68, 204, 261, 262 TGI 227
see also LinkedIn; Meta; TikTok; Twitter ‘think back’ exercise 217
sources 127–29 ‘think story continuously’ 231–33
primary 36, 55, 227 third-party data 4–5
sponsors 143, 196, 215, 227 thought leadership 55, 182, 256
stacked bars 205 three Post-It notes challenge 25–27
stakeholder engagement (buy-in) 47–54, TikTok 43, 46, 63, 68, 74
101, 121, 143–44, 213, 257 time information 110, 204
statistics 124, 134 time management 59, 197–98
killer stats 174, 175–76 town hall forums 211
 INDEX 269

Toyoda, Sakichi 138 visualization tools 7–9, 97, 146, 167,

training 74, 226, 261 168–69, 184, 189, 203–06,
transformational stories 86, 98–103 224–25, 250
transmedia storytelling 36–37 see also dashboards; PowerPoint;
tree diagrams 205 storyboards
truisms 151 Visual.ly 261
Twitter 52–53, 211
Waterstones 46
ultra-simplicity 167, 207, 208 weak points of view 151–52
underdog story archetype 247 web scraping tools 4
Unilever 48 Weckert, Simon 129–30
uniqueness 207, 208 ‘Where’s Wally’ metaphor 177
updates 182, 195, 233 white space 206
uplift 132, 134, 176, 181 word clouds 204
upsellling 105, 230 word usage 206–08
Upshot, The 261 WordPress 38
urgency 94, 102, 206–07, 208, 213 workshop outcomes 242
usefulness 207, 208 workshop preparation 242
user experience (customer experience) 45, workshops 241–58
142–44, 194–97 Worldwide Independent Network of
user-generated content 37, 43 Market Research and Opinion Polls
see also TikTok (WIN) 33–35
write/read learners 201–02
validity, of data 78–79, 127, 130–31 Wurman, Richard 203
value 105–06
VARK model 200–02 younger customers 44, 46
Venn diagrams 204–05 see also
verb usage 151, 207 Generation Z
videos 36, 184, 196, 197, 210, 211, 250, 254 YouTube 43
virtual meetings 212, 217, 233
virtual reality 36 Zak, Paul 174
visual learners 200 zero-party data 2
270

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