As trendy buzzwords go, if AI dominated conversations in 2025, storytelling has claimed its position among the top contenders for 2026.
The Wall Street Journal reported that companies are desperately seeking "storytellers" as brands try to control their narratives:
Some companies want a media relations manager by a slightly flashier name. Others need people to produce blogs, podcasts, case studies and more types of branded content to attract customers, investors and potential recruits. All seem to use the word differently than in its usual application to novelists, playwrights and raconteurs. "As storytellers," a Google job ad said last month, "we play an integral role in driving customer acquisition and long-term growth."
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The percentage of LinkedIn job postings in the U.S. that include the term “storyteller” doubled in the year ended Nov. 26, to include some 50,000 listings under marketing and more than 20,000 job listings under media and communications that mentioned the term, according to the professional-networking platform.
Executives meanwhile said “storyteller” or “storytelling” on earnings calls and investor days 469 times this year through Dec. 11, compared with 359 times in all of 2024 and 147 times in 2015, according to FactSet.
Google, Microsoft, Marks & Spencer, marketing and technology companies—every company wants storytellers. As traditional news media shrinks and AI-generated content erodes trust, brands no longer just need press releases. They need a content strategy that builds credibility.
However, notice the details. "Storyteller" has become a role that brings together branding, marketing, product communication, and public relations. What corporates are saying is that they need someone to curate their identity, their purpose of existence, and their role in the lives of their audiences—customers, investors, and talent—expressed across mediums and messages. They need all the branches and leaves of the metaphorical tree to have a trunk, and that trunk, they believe, is the narrative.
What they've forgotten is that this tree is built on the truth of the leadership's own identity, purpose, and relevance. That's the root. Without roots, the trunk, branches, and leaves won't work.
The Guardian pointed out the cracks in this approach through a satirical Q&A:
Hmph, not really storytelling then. The Microsoft job is described as part cybersecurity technologist, part communicator and part marketeer.
Marketing, that’s what we’re talking about right? And copywriting? And so much more. The productivity app Notion has just merged its internal comms, external comms, social and influencer teams into …
I’m guessing the storytelling team? Correct. It’s about taking control of a corporate narrative. And it’s good for the environment too, because there’s no need to gather round and light the fire.
When Jobs Told Stories, He Didn't Hire Storytellers
Even though stories are as old as time, Steve Jobs famously acknowledged the power of the storyteller in business: "The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller."
However, unlike those looking to hire storytellers, he showcased how storytelling flows seamlessly through product design, Apple stores, product launches, advertising, sales, marketing, branding—every single aspect of a brand. It is led by the leader. Apple didn't hire a storyteller. Jobs built the company as a storyteller crafts a story.
It was an earnest execution of the narrative he believed in.
But corporates are looking for a dangerous shortcut by combining marketing with storytelling. Marketing guru Seth Godin has warned against the top-down mindset in storytelling:
People have pretty good BS detectors. The very moment your story begins to seem fake or phony is the very moment your audience will tune out and turn off. If your story is not believable, it's going to fall flat on its face, and it won't make an impression.
“Getting out of a top-down mindset is key to building a story for your organization that works,” Godin explains. No one likes a story lacking authenticity, so Godin recommends that these stories always come from “someone in the trenches” who actually knows what they are talking about.
He's been saying this since 2005, when he wrote All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World: "Lying doesn't pay off anymore. That's because when you fabricate a story that just doesn't hold up to scrutiny, you get caught. Fast."
Consumers Are Calling It Propaganda
This year, consumers began calling this approach exactly what it is: propaganda. The trend went viral on TikTok.
The "Propaganda I'm Not Falling For" TikTok trend quickly amassed significant popularity online. The trend called out the marketing tactics they thought were ‘misleading, manipulative, or problematic’.
While corporates assumed that if they amplified their messages across mediums consistently and personalised them, they would be heard, consumers spoke out. They know that everyone is trying to persuade them to buy something. And they're not falling for it anymore. They called it propaganda—a word often associated with Nazi Germany.
Marketers acknowledge that the line between truthful storytelling and propagandist persuasion is blurring:
In the era of hyperconnectivity and omnipresent media, the distinction between persuasive marketing and outright propaganda has become increasingly blurred. Both aim to influence behaviour, shape perception, and drive action.
While marketing is typically associated with promoting a product or service, propaganda carries the weight of manipulation and agenda-setting, often accompanied by ethical concerns. So, when does a marketing campaign cross that line?
At the heart of the distinction is intent. A legitimate marketing campaign aims to inform, persuade, and engage, ultimately empowering consumers to make informed choices. It might evoke emotion, appeal to aspiration, or highlight a problem the product solves. But it does so with some degree of transparency.
This trend echoes Edward Bernays, known as the father of public relations, who described propaganda in his book Propaganda as the subtle mechanism that influences how people make collective decisions. All propaganda does, he argued, is shape perception.
The Trust Crisis Corporates Are Ignoring
While corporate storytelling has the indirect focus of selling the brand, product, or service, it needs to balance persuasion with tremendous amounts of integrity to stand out in a world where everyone is telling personalized stories to audiences.
Report after report establishes that consumer skepticism and trust issues are at an all-time high. Some suggest that 90% of Gen Z need trust and would pay more for brands that are reliable and fair. They also value privacy. In the age of hyperpersonalization, they're merely tolerating the marketing coming at them from all directions. They can easily spot insincerity, and once lost, regaining their trust won't be simple.
But most brands are missing the big picture. In their quest to be heard, they focus on message length, the medium it appears on, who delivers it, and customisation. They want their messages to be interactive, multi-sensorial, and emotional.
PR companies are pitching "narrative as infrastructure" to go beyond metrics, engagement, and virality—building brand stories that are clear, cohesive, and consistent to become memorable, authoritative, and develop a backbone for marketing.
Narrative becomes “infrastructure” when it serves as the backbone of all your marketing efforts. Your website copy, your videos, your pitches, your press interviews—they should all align with the same story.
The goal of PR is to strengthen a brand’s public reputation, and narrative development is the most effective way to do that. Brands blur into each other in today’s information-saturated world, but narrative development distinguishes you from everyone else. Many are seen, but not all are remembered, and public relations helps make your story memorable.
On a personal note, as a storytelling coach, I should be glad that businesses are acknowledging the need for telling stories. But at two recent events—one at a university in NCR and another at an MSME entrepreneurs’ business networking event—attendees confused storytelling with creating propaganda. An exaggerated truth or a manipulative lie.
This is because most brands have forgotten that the root of a lasting narrative is truth, transparency, and trust. It's what customers are asking for, but only a few are tactically offering objectivity, curiosity, and empathy like a journalist.
We are entering a year that will ask deeper questions about the role of truth in the age of AI-generated content. How, then, can brands stand out by being transparent and expressing who they are and what they're building? Who will win as governments, citizens, and businesses globally start relying more on storytelling?
As we enter the era of storytelling, I have a gift for innovators who could use some storytelling guidance from a journalist. This free guide is based on my experience coaching nearly 200 leaders in business storytelling. Please share it with anyone who could benefit from it.
Have a wonderful holiday season.
Cheers,
Ruhi