Storyselling Across Every Channel: Nestlé and QuickFire Share Content Strategy Wins

Brand storytelling has always been part of great marketing, but a good story isn’t enough if it doesn’t sell. The process has evolved into something more practical, measurable, and commerce-driven.

This topic took center stage at the 2025 Digital Shelf Summit (DSS) in New Orleans. On the main stage, Scott Ohsman, vice president of digital commerce at Quickfire, and Gloria DeCoste, director of omnichannel marketing at Nestlé, unpacked how leading brands are redefining storyselling to thrive in the attention economy.

Their session explored what it takes to deliver a consistent, compelling narrative across every touch point, from splashy retail media ads and TikTok videos, to product detail pages (PDPs), to the physical shelf in a grocery store.

The message was clear: If your story doesn’t flow across channels, you risk losing consumers in the crucial moments between awareness and purchase.

How Leading Brands Define Storyselling

Storytelling gets tossed around a lot as a term, but at DSS 2025, Ohsman and DeCoste offered clear, practical definitions for what it means for their brands.

Storyselling Connects the Dots Between Narrative and Action

For Ohsman, content that entertains or educates is incomplete if it doesn’t connect the dots between narrative and action. The best brand stories don’t just live in one place, he says — they stretch across every channel.

The same theme that captures attention in a Super Bowl ad should feel consistent when a shopper lands on an Amazon PDP or encounters a retail media placement.

Storyselling Means Being “Seen” and “Selected”

DeCoste believes storytelling starts with deep consumer insight. 
Nestlé likes uncovering tension points and building stories that address them directly. That foundation then guides every piece of content, from brand campaigns down to PDP copy.

DeCoste sums up the company’s strategy as “be seen, be selected.” 
The “seen” part is about visibility and making sure your brand shows up where consumers are searching. Being “selected” is about crafting content that resonates so strongly with shoppers that they choose you over a competitor in those critical decision-making moments.

Why Storyselling Can’t Wait

In the attention economy, every scroll, swipe, and click is a competition.

Research shared during the session revealed that it takes less than three seconds for a consumer to remember what they’ve seen and only nine seconds to influence a decision.

That’s not much time to tell your brand story, let alone convince someone to buy.

This is why PDPs have become such critical real estate. Ads, social posts, and even TV spots can capture attention, but they’re fleeting. A PDP, on the other hand, holds a shopper’s focus for anywhere from one to three minutes. It’s one of the last truly “owned” spaces where brands can shape the narrative and answer questions.

DeCoste says the digital shelf may be the only place where consumers really engage and learn about your product.

At the same time, commerce has never been more fragmented. 
Shoppers bounce from Instagram ads to Amazon searches, from TikTok reviews to in-store shelves. Each channel has its quirks, but the consumer expects to see the same clear story wherever they encounter your brand. If your message is inconsistent, there’s a good chance you’ll confuse or even lose them during those crucial final steps. 

How To Storysell Across Multiple Channels

Big ideas are great, but how do you actually make storyselling happen across the messy sprawl of ecommerce channels? The panelists broke it down into a handful of practical tactics that you can start applying today.

Turn PDPs Into Story Hubs

PDPs are one of the only places where consumers slow down and give you real attention. That makes them prime storytelling real estate.
Ohsman calls PDPs the place where “you’ve got more time to make the story pay off.”

The best brands treat PDPs as story hubs, weaving together everything from quick-hit value props (“why buys”) to explainer videos that show how a product actually fits into someone’s life.

The trick is to connect the dots between your big splashy campaigns and the moment a shopper is deciding whether to click “add to cart.”

Create Consistency Across Channels

DeCoste says that storyselling only works when teams are aligned. Marketing, sales, and ecommerce can’t run on separate tracks; they need to share the same consumer insights and build from the same narrative. Otherwise, shoppers receive mixed messages depending on where they encounter your brand.

That doesn’t mean copying and pasting the same content everywhere. Instead, you want to create a consistent throughline.

Take Nestlé’s Cold Foam product as an example:

• In-store, the focus might be on flavor;
• On a PDP, a video shows how it’s used at home;
• In retail media, the story connects to the coffeehouse experience.

Each execution looks different, but the underlying story — the “why” — is the same.

Take Note of Context and Seasonality

Good storyselling also adapts to context. Shoppers don’t live in a vacuum. They’re influenced by seasons, cultural moments, and even unexpected events. Brands that tap into those rhythms make their content feel timely and relevant.

At Nestlé, seasonal resets are a core part of the strategy. PDPs and campaigns should reflect what consumers are thinking about right now.

Turn Retail Media Into Shoppable Experiences

Finally, storyselling can’t stop at awareness. Ads and retail media need to connect directly to purchase opportunities. Or as DeCoste puts it, “If we’ve taken the time to get someone to say, ‘Yes, I want that,’ we better not leave them hanging.”

The issue is retail media is fragmented and evolving fast. Brands are still figuring out where to spend and what drives the best return. But the guiding principle is clear: every touch point should be instantly shoppable. Whether it’s a sponsored product placement, a TikTok ad, or a display banner, the consumer should be able to act on the story right away.

4 Ways To Put Storyselling Into Action Right Now

So how can ecommerce leaders take these lessons and actually apply them? The panelists outlined a few practical next steps:

1. Audit Your PDPs

Start looking at your PDPs with a critical eye. Do they reinforce the same narrative your ads and campaigns are pushing, or do they feel disconnected? A flashy top-of-funnel campaign that doesn’t pay off on the PDP is a wasted opportunity.

Make sure the product story feels consistent from first impression to final click.

2. Invest In Cross-Functional Collaboration

Storyselling can’t sit in a single department. Marketing, sales, and ecommerce teams all play a role in shaping the customer journey, and they need to work from the same consumer insights and strategic brief.

DeCoste says that alignment is what keeps brands from spinning off into disjointed messaging across channels.

3. Plan Seasonally, Not Just Reactively

It’s tempting to spend all your time putting out fires. But the real lift comes from proactive planning around consumer moments, like seasonal shifts, cultural trends, and even unexpected events like extreme weather.

Storyselling works best when it’s timely, not just reactive.

4. Keep Testing Retail Media

The retail media landscape is still evolving, and there’s no single formula for where to spend. Instead of chasing the “perfect” allocation, try to make every impression shoppable.

Whether you’re on Amazon, Walmart, or TikTok, ensure consumers can act on your story instantly.

The Future of Storyselling

If there’s one key takeaway from this session, it’s that storyselling is no longer optional. You can’t afford to separate your brand storytelling from your commerce strategy if you want to stay competitive.

DeCoste believes that the digital shelf may be the only place consumers really engage with your brand. That makes it not just a place to list features and specs, but a critical stage for delivering a cohesive, compelling story that drives purchase and builds loyalty.