Do you know how to make the best of your company’s story? The second edition of the Sofia PR Summit, which took place on 29 April, was a great opportunity to learn more about the practical application of storytelling in PR and its best practices. The event was organised by BAPRA, the Bulgarian Association of PR Agencies and gathered more than 100 PR and marketing specialists from Bulgaria and the region. So, which were the most compelling stories of the Summit?
From good to better stories
Storytelling revisited; Photo credit: PR Summit
The international PR specialist Christophe Ginisty and Damjan Obal from the Slovenian storytelling startup Edgar kicked off the event with in-depth explanations about the power of the narrative. One of the most interesting points made by Ginisty was that when people perceive a story, it becomes theirs and through this act, they come closer to the brand that tells the story. He also revealed details about the emotional effect of storytelling in business and the unique opportunities that this method presents to all businesses and their marketing and PR teams.
While you might already be good at conveying your own story, there is still room for improvement to get people hanging on your every word. Lili Zagorcheva from Infograffiti, an infographics and motion graphics studio based in Bulgaria, gave great insights about the power of visuals in business storytelling. As people’s attention span has drastically decreased – and their focus is eight seconds, while that of goldfish is nine seconds – presenting information visually is the key to future communication.
According to Zagorcheva, visual storytelling is much more effective, as it is perceived much faster. Today it’s turning in the best way to digest and offer complicated data. If you’re not convinced, just look at how newspapers and TV stations have started including infographics in their coverage.
2015 BAPRA Bright Awards
The Bright Awards 2015; Photo credit: PR Summit
Besides offering great presentations on storytelling by international speakers, the Summit was followed by the annual BAPRA Bright Awards. They are a forum created in 2010 for Bulgarian communication specialists to learn and share best practices and to mark the achievements of the best PR campaigns throughout the year.
There were 21 winners of the prestigious Bulgarian PR awards for 2015. The agency United Partners won the Agency of the Year Award, while All Channels Communication Group took the biggest number of awards across categories: for Innovative Campaign, Special Event, Communication Campaign of the Year, as well as second place as Agency of the Year.
The Sofia PR Summit was a great opportunity for communication specialists in the region to learn about the methodology and practical applicationof storytelling in business from some of the brightest minds in the field. We’re looking forward to the next edition – hope you are too.
On stage of CEEDS 2015; Photo credit: CEEDS by Webit
