At the Loeries Seminar in Cape Town last week, themes on storytelling and human emotion in marketing were hammered home. “The intersection between linear storytelling and social engagement is the next big thing,” said opening speaker PJ Pereira, quoting Dreamworks’ CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg.

The CEO and co-founder of Pereira and O’Dell in San Francisco reinforced particularly well the increasingly crucial role that storytelling must take for marketing to be engaging and effective. To create interest around your product it must speak to people on an emotional level, becoming part of a story they want to follow. Looking to film for inspiration, Pereira suggests your product may not be the Forest Gump of the story but should rather opt for the supporting role of Bubba, shining the torch for the character your audience becomes emotionally attached to.

Pereira proposes a new set of rules for the changing landscape of advertising. If you want to keep up you must: “Think like a marketer, behave like an entertainer, and move like a tech startup.”

If you missed out on his inspiring talk, you can watch the version he gave at Cannes this year on YouTube: