One of the great challenges in sustainable storytelling is that brands and causes don’t take the time to understand their audiences in a Godlike way. Their stories don’t resonate because they are too often told from the brand’s or cause’s perspective, rather than  from the world view shared by their audiences.

The Rainforest Alliance’s “Follow the Frog” entertaining story is the hysterical exception. But hysterical for all of the right reasons.

It is a sustainable story that clearly places the viewer at the center of the narrative. The Rainforest Alliance understands that most people would like to make a difference in shaping a better world, but they simply don’t know what to do. Or that saving something like the rainforests is too remote and daunting of a task to believe they can make a realistic impact.

“Follow the Frog” does a beautiful job of defining the hero of its story upfront, and then shows us exactly what we WON’T do to save the rainforest. The misadventures of our eco-savior-wanna-be is riotous storytelling that makes a clear point in an industry of sustainability with information that is often clouded in the consumer’s mind by data, stats and facts.

To tell powerful stories that create real behavior change, turn your data into drama, numbers into narrative, and stats into stories. And start by knowing your audience in a Godlike way.