Storytelling is dead. Long live the storyteller!

All things content and branding at the first #eacd10 in Milan

Authenticity and adhesion were two keywords bandied about at the unusual surroundings of Italian aperitif Campari’s headquarters in a northern suburb of Milan yesterday. The Italian drinks icon played generous host to the first of this year's special events marking the 10-year anniversary of the European Association of Communication Directors (EACD), which focused on storytelling, branded content and curious apathy between marketing and communications. 

(Image: Left to right: GE Aviation's Neil Siddons, Moleskine's Maria Sebregondi, Tim Small of Alkemy, Guiseppe Morici of Barilla and Marco Magli of Avio Areo)

The evening's organiser was Marco Magli, head of media and external relations at Avio Aero (an Italian business unit of GE Aviation) and EACD's regional lead for Italy. Marco invited a diverse selection of talents to bring their own perspectives on the journey from branded content to brand-owned journalism (and where all this leaves the communicator).

Content as change-driver

First to speak was Guiseppe Morici, president of the European region at Barilla Group. Guiseppe's new book Fare Marketing Rimanendo Brave Persone ('Doing marketing while staying good people') examines, among other things, the ethics of marketing and the strengths and limitations of the traditional marketing role: in his presentation at this event he made the case for marketers and communicators to help their brands mobilise their resources to effect positive social change (or, as he put it, to "move from positioning to taking a position") and highlighted the clever use of creative, original brand journalism in making the case for social change.

However, there's a snag: Guiseppe believes that communicators in his business-to-customer, fast-moving consumer goods community are not ready for the paradigm shift to brand journalism. As he expanded in detail to our reporter, the kind of deep-rooted business-savvy demanded of successful marketing communicators – knowledge of the product, of the market share, of number-crunching – makes them a very different professional to the new editorial journalists required in this brave new world of brand journalism: read our interview with Guiseppe here.

I've got one hand in my pocket book

A living, breathing example of partnership between brand and editorial flash came with the next speaker – or speakers, to be exact: Maria Sebregondi, director of brand equity and communication at Moleskine SpA brought with her Tim Small, former Vice Italy chief editor and now director of content at digital consultancy Alkemy. Maria and Tim (who despite the very English name is genuine-proof Italian) were there to talk about their new collaboration, The Towner, an online magazine developed in collaboration with Moleskine, which deals with cities and culture.

According to Tim, when brands do branded content, they fall into the trap of thinking about themselves too much: the strength of The Towner is that it presents writing (coupled with some rather gorgeous illustrations) of interest to Moleskine's natural audience – hip flanneurs who are invested in stories, particularly stories about the cities they visit with their notebooks in their front pocket.

The idea – and as Maria admitted to our reporter, it remains at this early stage a risky one – is that The Towner delivers such high-quality and convincing experience to its audience that it results in conversion rates for Moleskine's online store. Judge for yourself at www.thetowner.com and look out for our interview with Maria and Tim coming soon.

The Campari headquarters is a gem hidden in the suburbs of north Milan

The human touch

Finally the audience heard from Neil Siddons, senior communications manager at GE Aviation, who believes in the power of telling stories about the people in all corners of your company (whether or not HR objects) – he used GE's own emotionally-resonating film of a small group of engineers of engine bit parts being taken onto a Seattle airfield to see their engine power a plane in flight.

He also believes that authentic content is only possible when all the touch points along the consumer journey are coherent and aligned – and the only way to ensure that is for communicators to bury the hatchet with their marketing colleagues and work together to make sure everyone in the company gets the message. So your CEO just announced that in three years time he wants your long-established technology company to be among the top 10 digital software firms in the world? Your job is to get Fred in sales, who's been with the firm for 20-plus years, to live and breathe the new narrative. That is the challenge for communicators – that and learning to speak like normal human beings, something that Neil also believes communications professionals don't do enough of. For more from Neil, read our interview with him here.

Thanks to Enrico Bocedi and Maria Scuto of Campari for hosting the event – and for arranging much-appreciated Campari refreshments afterwards. For videos and tweets of the event, be sure to visit the Facebook and Twitter pages of the EACD. Find out more about the EACD's next anniversary event in Zurich here.