According to the Internet Media Observatory of the Polytechnic University of Milan, in 2015 investments in advertising on social networks have increased of 63% and those in video-communication of 19%. At the same time, the importance of big data in developing new communication strategies grows regularly in every field, while new metrics are established, starting with viewability.

These and other data, presented during the last IAB Forum organized by IAB Italia – a network gathering the best operators of the Italian communication field, including Pomilio Blumm starting this year – draw an ever-changing scene where, excluding numbers and figures, the attention for content is proved more and more strategic.

Content is the king, we would say paraphrasing the marketing guru Philip Kotler, but not any content: as Stone recalled, what really works both on the web and at the cinema – a real visual storytelling training ground – are great little stories, those able to start from daily experiences to then redirect to a bigger story or a wider picture, a potentially universal one.

This approach is not distant from the one defined by motivational guru Adrian Webster as “TNT Philosophy”, based on the ability to provide the user with “Tiny Noticeable Things”: small details, but extremely personalized; an approach that may also offer interesting insights to public communication.

Storytelling – as recalled by Stone – works when it succeeds in making people think. Or, better, making them think of their life, of their wishes and – why not? – of broader themes and values underpinning collective life, in a continuous cross reference between micro and macro, one of the greatest challenges of the present age.