Winning the Story Wars

Why Those Who Tell (and Live) the Best Stories Will Rule the Future

Jonah Sachs | 4.10 | 919 ratings and reviews

Recommended by Deepak Chopra, Bill Bradley, Cat Williams-Treloar, and 4 others. See all reviews

Ranked #34 in Storytelling

Does your brand tell a story?

In Winning the Story Wars, globally recognized storyteller, designer and entrepreneur Jonah Sachs argues that only those brands that tell values-driven stories through the right channels will revolutionize marketing. Above that, they may become humanity’s greatest hope for the future.

It’s no surprise that most of today’s marketing messages are swallowed up in a flood of noise the minute they hit the market, with thousands of ads and emails hitting each recipient on a weekly basis. And those recipients, empowered by social media tools and on-demand viewing, will ignore you in favor of something they’d prefer to seek out themselves. Sachs cites a quote from the former advertising chief at Macy’s and Citigroup to emphasize this point: “The irony is that while there have never been more ways to reach consumers, it's never been harder to connect with consumers.”

For those of us who not only want to be heard, but need to be heard to create a better future—the time has come to cross the chasm with the only strategic approach that has ever really worked: telling great stories.

In Winning the Story Wars, Sachs systematically breaks down how communicators can go beyond the sell by creating stories that inspire people not just to listen, but to proselytize. The President and co-founder of Free Range Studios, Sachs has been a David among Goliaths helping hundreds of for-profit and non-profit organizations rise above the din with campaigns built around the internal structures of ancient myth. Even with a modest budget, his first two viral media efforts—The Meatrix and Store Wars—alone yielded forty million viewers. Drawing on the wisdom of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, Sachs will guide readers to harness myth-making powers of their very own. Weaving prescriptive tools throughout the book, Sachs will help communicators:

• Identify and learn the best myth structures at work today
• Find a tight-knit audience of evangelists to spread the word
• Foster the image of their audience as potential heroes
• Watch the message take on a life of its own

This book will speak to the message-makers in any type of company or organization. The Story Wars have long been underway, now it's time for heroic communicators to turn the tides away from simple selling, and towards real inspiration. less

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Reviews and Recommendations

We've comprehensively compiled reviews of Winning the Story Wars from the world's leading experts.

Deepak Chopra Founder/The Chopra FoundationGreat leaders transform the world through stories that inspire hope, stability, trust, compassion, and authenticity. This important and thought-provoking book shows that leadership in marketing will require the living and telling of such stories as well. (Source)

Bill Bradley We know about who we are both individually and as a society through stories. In this brilliant book, Jonah Sachs tells us how we lost our storytelling capacity and how we must regain it, constructing our own myths and living the truth of the stories we tell. (Source)

Cat Williams-Treloar Jonah Sachs "Winning the Story Wars" - without a great story you've got nothing. We are rediscovering this as Marketers that stories win a noisy, digital world. Jonah does an excellent job of laying out all the steps you need to tell a compelling story. (Source)

Kumi Naidoo Winning the Story Wars will convince you that storytelling is the most powerful way to move people to action. And it will teach you to use that power to orient our world to a more positive future. If you're ready to be a great storyteller, read this book. (Source)

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