Lights, Camera, Action: Contentful’s Film “The New Art of Storytelling” Focuses on the Composable Future

“We all enjoy a good story. And we keep coming back to really good stories, regardless of whether or not we know how they end.”

In the first minute of the documentary-style film “The New Art of Storytelling: A Look at the Future of Content,” Dr. Jodie Whelan, Associate Professor of Marketing at York University, sets an undeniable tone with these words. It’s an observation that resonates throughout the masterful 15-minute production released by Contentful, a leading composable content platform.

Launched in conjunction with the Contentful Storylines Tour, “The New Art of Storytelling” illuminates the connections between technology, content, and the humans that create and consume it. While the central theme is that stories matter, the film explores how stories are told and the ways audiences interact with them.

In the film, members of Contentful – along with industry thought leaders and global agencies such as Valtech – are interviewed about key trends, citing examples of transformation across the content space. Through their voices, the film projects its own narrative about the future of content – and how that future is composable.

Omnichannel is now omnipresent

In the film, Dr. Sam Maglio, Associate Professor of Marketing and Psychology at the University of Toronto, conjured the late great media philosopher Marshall McLuhan with this famous quote:

“The medium is the message.”

Indeed. Maglio reinforces how pertinent this is in an omnichannel world. Gone are the days when brands could craft one version of content to be used in most traditional media settings. Whether a brand is attempting to reach an audience through a quippy tweet or to unlock the Web3 marketplace in a major metaverse launch, the limits of reaching a consumer are growing larger – and the stakes are higher. 

“Content has come a very long way in a very short period of time because there [are] so very many ways that consumers access content nowadays,” Maglio said.

So what does that mean for brands? Everything.

Along with his peers, Maglio’s commentary in the film zeroes in on the evolution of consumer behavior and how brands are changing to meet consumers across multiple channels. Touching the customer cannot happen once or twice through ad interruptions or a sponsored Facebook post – the touch points must feel organic, and they must come often. It’s a fantastic account of where things are heading.

Why composable content?

The term “composable” is driving significant interest across the digital experience space. Many enterprises are looking to MACH (Microservices, APIs, Cloud-first SaaS, Headless) and composable as key activators for reaching markets faster and responding quickly to change. It also mitigates the challenges of vendor lock-in and painful “rip and replace” upgrades or migrations.

On the content side, composable is enabling omnichannel strategies with structured components that can be used consistently across multiple frontends or endpoints, from web to digital signage to IoT devices. 

“Composable content seems like a win-win for everyone involved,” Maglio said in the film. “On the brand side, it makes sure they are delivering a consistent message across all platforms. They can author something once, create the content, and make sure they can have a consistent message delivered to all potential customers through all potential channels.”

In a news release earlier this month, Contentful announced new capabilities to simplify and accelerate the delivery of digital experiences at scale. Some of the features mentioned include new pre-built integrations, a Live Preview feature that offers enhanced content visualization and optimization, and an AI Content Generator.

In the film, Nicole France, Director of Content at Contentful, discussed how this use of composable technology influences developers, marketers, and ultimately consumers.

“There’s another really important aspect to composable content as well,” she said. “It’s as much about how we are using and structuring content to be reused and recomposed across any variety of channels and any number of permutations and combinations. But the flip side of the coin is it’s also about how we create the work environment in which the job of doing that actually takes place.”

With brand new features recently announced, a stellar lineup of speakers and workshops at the ongoing Storylines Tour, and now a beautifully executed documentary film showcasing exactly how Contentful and their partners are telling stories in new and compelling ways, the “future of content” looks robust.

Content-full, even.

You can check out the film at https://www.contentful.com/the-new-art-of-storytelling/.

About Contentful

The Contentful® Composable Content Platform brings the building blocks of content together to create once and reuse for any digital experience. The API-first platform integrates easily with data sources and new functionality as digital experiences and technology evolve. With built-in orchestration, a robust app ecosystem, and app framework to easily extend the platform, Contentful frees teams across the business to work together to connect, create, and extend content more efficiently. Contentful helps companies unlock the power of digital content so they can build faster and deliver at scale, making their content a strategic business asset. Nearly 30% of the Fortune 500 and thousands of companies around the world rely on Contentful to help them bring their best ideas to life. For more information, visit www.contentful.com.