A few months ago, during my first Intel trip to New York for Tech Spa, I had the opportunity to have dinner with the internal Intel PR team and the Ogilvy PR team (Ogilvy is one of the agencies that does PR for Intel). At dinner, we played a brilliant game (thank you, Ogilvy) that gave me the much needed reminder that PR is, down to the core of it, all about story telling.

I think sometimes this point can get forgotten amongst all the noise of phone calls, social media, e-mails, pitching, product releases, etc. But when it comes to getting stories picked up by the press, media is unlikely to write about anything a PR practitioner pitches if the PR person can’t tell a good story around it. Being a good storyteller is key to being a good PR practitioner.

So, if you’re looking for a good PR game (and I know you are!) or you just need a reminder about the importance of storytelling, I highly reccomend this game.

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The game (WARNING!  If you’re not in PR, you may think this is pretty nerdy):

You need a group of people in order to play, so it’s a good game for meetings or “PR parties” (if those exist?).

Every person thinks of a story that they can tell in three minutes or less. The story can be about themselves, a friend, whoever!

The goal is for each person to tell their story to everyone in the room by the end of the hour, or two, depending how many people are playing (telling the whole room at the same time is cheating).

When time is up, everyone goes and puts their hand on the shoulder of the person they thought told the best story.

The top three story tellers (the three people with the most votes, that is) go to the front of the room and tell their stories again, being as captivating as possible.

Then, the room votes on who is the best story teller and that person wins.

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My observations:

1. As time passed, everyone began to tweak the way they told their stories. The stories themselves never changed, but we were able to judge our audiences’ reactions to certain parts of the story and tweak our presentation accordingly. 
2. The stories got better every time they were told.
3. The best stories had a clear beginning, middle, and an end.
4. The best storytellers were enthusiastic while telling their stories.

I know the game sounds simple, and maybe even silly, but it was actually quite educational. It taught me that before picking up the phone and pitching a story, it would be a good idea to try the story out on a friend or co-worker to get some feedback. That way, by the time you actually pitch the story, you’re telling the best and most captivating version possible.

This helps the storyteller know what parts of the story other people think are interesting or important, and which parts could probably be left out.

And most importanly, the game reminded me of the importance of storytelling in PR: If you don’t got a good story for the press, you don’t got nothin’.