Brands must think more about the quality of the story they are telling, and not just produce generic content, according to Dawn Wall climber Kevin Jorgeson.
Opening the Festival of Media Global event in Rome, Jorgeson told the story of his and Tommy Caldwells journey up the sheer rock face of Yosemite Parks El Capitan.
He discussed the difficulties of being stuck for a week halfway up the rock-face, while partner Caldwell progressed at pace, due to finger injuries sustained on the second day of the climb.
However, at the moment of beginning to fear his dream may be over, the New York Times picked up on the story and created a “media storm” - with the hashtag #whatsyourdawnwall becoming shared globally.
The secret of the success of the climb, claimed Jorgeson, is the engaging nature of the story: ”The global media storm was unbelievable. Its been the biggest transition ever for me. Why did this story get picked up? It was nothing new, we had been sharing our story on social media since 2010.
“They picked it up when I got stuck, so it wasn’t a success story. Then the New York Times started following on Twitter, and started telling human drama. We all put out content all the time the Dawn Wall wasnt just content, it was a story.
“There is so much noise out there. A lot of brands or content creators would love to create that kind of conversation and engagement, but without the story there is no reason for consumers to answer that call.”
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