Storytelling Is Dead. We Build Lore Now

For years, every brand deck in India had the same slide. "Tell your story."

And we did. Over and over and over. Founder origin stories. "Why I started" posts. Behind-the-scenes. GRWMs. The emotional brand film with the piano music. I've written some of those decks myself.

Here's the problem. There are only so many times you can tell the same arc before people know it by heart. The art of storytelling got shrunk down to a template. And once something's a template, it stops working.

Storytelling isn't dead, exactly. But it's no longer enough. The brands and creators people are actually obsessed with right now have stopped leaning on a single story. They build worlds, and they fill those worlds with lore.

First, what do we even mean by lore?

The word comes from gaming and fantasy fandoms. Lore is the backstory and hidden details behind a world, the stuff fans piece together from tiny clues scattered everywhere.

The clearest way I've seen it explained uses Harry Potter, and it works:

• Story is Harry going from the cupboard under the stairs to defeating Voldemort.

• World is Hogwarts and the wider wizarding world.

• Lore is the houses, the moving staircases, the Marauder's Map. The details that mean people still call themselves a Slytherin or a Hufflepuff years after finishing the books.

Nobody introduces themselves by the plot. They introduce themselves by the lore.

Translated for people who don't read fantasy

For a brand or a creator:

• Story = what a single post or campaign says.

• World = the look, voice, characters and formats that make every post recognisably yours. It's more than an aesthetic.

• Lore = the running jokes, references and details that build up over time and reward the people who keep watching.

Why lore beats story on today's internet

Think about how people actually find you now. Not from your first post. From a random video, halfway through your journey, served by an algorithm.

A story needs a beginning. A world can be dropped into at any point. And lore is what keeps people around long after the origin story's been told, because now there's something to figure out, something to be in on.

That's the magic. Lore turns viewers into insiders. And insiders don't just watch, they go back, they explain it to their friends, they defend you in the comments.

Lore in the wild

Some of the best examples are global:

• The Sidemen have built more than a decade of bits so deep that new viewers go back through old videos just to understand the jokes.

• Alix Earle's friends and flatmates have become a cast that fans know by name.

• Ryanair's TikTok gave a plane a face and let it roast its own passengers. Every video adds to that character.

• Fishwife made tinned fish feel cool through illustrated tins and a slightly chaotic tone applied to everything.

• Chicken Shop Date keeps the same setting and the same deadpan questions, so fans track the running jokes across episodes.

But we've been doing this in India for ages, we just didn't call it lore.

Amul has run topical ads with the same girl, the same pun-heavy tone and the same format for decades. You don't read a single Amul ad. You read it as the latest entry in a very long, very funny archive.

Bhuvan Bam built an entire universe of characters on BB Ki Vines, and people quote them like old friends. Fittingly, his series Dhindora lands on Netflix this week. That's lore with a distribution deal.

And look at how Marvel fans dissect every reference in shows like VisionQuest. We did it ourselves in our episode 3 and 4 breakdown. That's lore doing its job: making people work, happily, to stay inside your world.

The three ways in

Lore usually starts in one of three places:

1. A bit. A joke your audience already makes about you. Take it and keep bringing it back.

2. A vibe. Choose a look and a voice and apply it to everything. Packaging, captions, customer service DMs, comment replies.

3. A ritual. One repeatable format, run often enough that references start to stack up.

A lore cheat sheet for your brand

This is adapted from a lore cheat sheet that's been doing the rounds on Instagram, because honestly it nails it:

1. Pick your way in. Is your content already leaning on a bit, a vibe or a ritual? Double down on that one. Don't invent from scratch.

2. Run the ten-post test. Look at your last ten posts together. Do they feel like the same world? If you removed the logo, would people still know they're yours?

3. Plant small details. Recurring characters, references and in-jokes that reward the people paying attention. Don't explain them every time.

4. Keep stacking. Lore builds one post at a time. Consistency matters more than any single viral piece.

My honest take

I think "storytelling" became a corporate word. Something you put in a deck. Lore is the opposite: it's built with your audience, not presented to them. Half of it comes from the comments section.

And that's a bit scary for brands, because you can't fully control lore. You can only start it, feed it and protect it.

But that's also why it works. People don't fall in love with your origin story. They fall in love with the inside jokes. Stop telling. Start building.

Frequently asked questions

What is lore in marketing?

Lore is the running jokes, recurring characters, references and small details that build up across a brand or creator's content over time and reward people who keep paying attention.

What is the difference between story, world and lore?

Story is what a single post or campaign says. World is the look, voice, characters and formats that make every post recognisably yours. Lore is the layer of in-jokes and details that accumulates on top.

How can a brand start building lore?

Find a bit, vibe or ritual your content already leans on, check your last ten posts feel like the same world, plant small recurring details, and keep posting consistently so the references stack up.