Storytelling is essential to our experience as human beings, as today's brand storytelling experts well know. In fact, storytelling is so deeply woven into our daily lives that we sometimes barely notice it. But it's there, rooted in the world around us, from the best-selling novel we slip into our bags before setting off on summer vacation, to the stories of office triumphs buy email list and hardships with which we regale our friends and our loved ones after our return. Today's marketers and content creators share stories to try to fulfill this deep human need and make an emotional impact with their audience, which in buy email list turn builds powerful bonds of trust that lead to lasting customer loyalty. In doing so, they learn about the double reward offered by storytelling: first to its audience and then, in kind, to the storyteller. The ancient evolutionary origins of storytelling people gathered around a fire Image credit: Phil Coffman Humans have been telling stories in literary form for at least 4,000 years, When the Epic of Gilgamesh was recorded on buy email list Babylonian tablets. Our practice of storytelling may well date back much further than that according to the BBC , if the 30,000-year-old cave paintings of Chauvet and Lascaux in France are any indication. The ancient lineage of storytelling indicates that it has always played a central role in our society, creating bonds of loyalty and trust that drive our civilization forward.