The Power of a Story
You can feel the soul of Paris every time you walk down the street.
Living and working in the City of Lights, you immediately feel the weight of thousands of years of history. There’s a tale to every promenade, a myth to every cathédrale. If you listen close enough, you can almost hear it whisper tales of the past as you stroll through Les Tuileries or Sacre Coeur– joining together in one voice to tell the story of Paris.
On my first day at Les Gaulois, I learned that this agency had quite the history as well. After the merging of two separate agencies, Les Gaulois– named after the ancestral Gauls for their fierce and stubborn spirit– went on to win 14 Cannes Lions just two years after its creation– 10 in 2014 and 4 in 2015.
Let’s all pause and consider that while we hyperventilate in a corner.
Immediately, I wanted to understand how. What is happening here that not only yields breakthrough work, but effective work that resonates with the consumer?
The answer was simple: stories.
Les Gaulois believes that there is power in a story. Stories are the common thread that connect everyone and everything. If you can find a way to use that, to hone it to your purposes, the outcome is undeniably something worthwhile– not only to the consumer, but to the brand.
The evidence of this can not only be seen in the creation of the agency itself, but in its people.
As you stroll through the halls, you’ll notice trinkets line the desks, photos and postcards take claim of almost every wall– my team collects items from every place they visit and brings them back to sit in our corner. It’s a way to pay homage to not only their own stories, but to the places they left behind and their own unique history.
I’ve seen the proof that a story has the power to create change– a behavior, a person…anything. Over the course of this program, I cannot wait to see what my story will be and what it could have the power to change.
