Think back to the last time a piece of online content really stopped you in your tracks. Maybe it was a cleverly animated campaign page. Or an immersive video that pulled you in. Or some captivating words in a story that really resonated with you.
Combine all of that, and you’ll end up with scrollytelling: a blend of scrolling and storytelling that uses motion, visuals, and narrative to bring ideas to life online. It’s immersive, emotive, and one of the most powerful tools in creating web design that interacts with the user.
Scrollytelling isn’t a new fleeting trend. Major newsrooms have used it to tell powerful longform stories for over a decade. But as it becomes more mainstream, it’s reshaping how people engage with web content, and what they expect from it. For brands, that shift is worth paying attention to.
What exactly is scrollytelling?
Scrollytelling, also known as dynamic scrolling, is a visual storytelling technique that combines scrolling with interactive design and animation to guide users through the content. As you move down the page, new layers are revealed — images shift, headlines animate, charts evolve, and video content plays inline. It can also include more detailed interactive elements that invite users to click or hover over touchpoints in the story.
It’s not about bombarding users with content or clever tech for the sake of it, but creating a narrative experience that’s carefully structured and intentionally paced. The scroll becomes your script, and as the narrator, you can choose where to direct the reader’s attention, and how to hold it in the most important parts.
This isn’t groundbreaking new technology, either. One of the earliest and best-known examples of scrollytelling is a New Your Times multimedia feature from way back in 2012 called Snow Fall, which used parallax scrolling, videos, and interactive maps to tell the story of an avalanche in Washington State. Since then, we’ve seen the best scrollytelling websites raise the bar even higher. Take this Vogue article about Gen Z’s content habits, this Guardian article about the effects of the war in Gaza, this BBC feature about NBA star Stephen Curry, or this Marketer’s Guide to Twitch ad page by Adweek and Amazon Ads, for example.
Why immersive storytelling works
The attention economy is unforgiving and we’re all in it, whether we like it or not. Web content is fighting for space in a constant feed of emails, social updates, Slack pings, push notifications, and autoplay ads. That’s why immersive storytelling works: it focuses (and keeps) your attention, rather than demanding it, while relying on the human interest of good stories.
Unlike static long-form pages, scrollytelling webpages move with the user and the experience unfolds intuitively. That motion builds momentum, and keeps people engaged for longer. And when it’s done well, it connects emotionally — something you don’t often get from a flat wall of text or a cookie-cutter template.
For marketers, that connection matters. It turns a campaign key message into a story worth sharing, a case study into something customers actually want to explore, or a report into something worth reading.
Where to use scrollytelling to amplify your message
There’s a reason the world’s biggest publishers, brands, and creative agencies are investing in scrollytelling tools and formats. It works across a huge range of digital storytelling moments.
Some of the most impactful uses we’ve seen include:
- Campaign landing pages that break away from traditional ad formats
- Editorial-style case studies that walk the reader through a project, step by step
- Brand storytelling pieces that reveal history, values, or social impact in a more engaging way
- Reports and whitepapers that are easier to digest and more likely to be shared
In each of these, using scrollytelling gives structure and rhythm to complex stories. It helps distill information while also adding emotion and energy to content that might otherwise be too complicated or ‘boring’ to catch your attention.
Here’s how investing in visual and creative storytelling can pay off
All the talk about our increasingly short attention spans has spun a narrative that we don’t want long stories anymore. But that isn’t necessarily true — people simply want them told in a way that earns their time.
This shift in content consumption means brands can’t afford to think of experience as an afterthought. Many brands already invest heavily in the story, hiring copywriters, strategists, researchers, and designers to put it all together. Scrollytelling offers a way to amplify that investment. It transforms the traditional content page into an experience that aligns with your brand, your audience, and your goals. And when it resonates, it can deepen understanding, spark emotion, and drive action.
What you need to get started
In its early days, scrollytelling needed the budget and know-how from the world’s biggest news publications to come to life, but luckily that isn’t the case anymore. You don’t need to reinvent your entire web presence to experiment with scrollytelling. But you do need the right team and tools behind it.
Most scrollytelling formats use parallax scrolling and animation libraries, often built with tools like Shorthand, Webflow, Spline, or custom code. Some platforms offer no-code or low-code solutions, but the magic happens when strategy, design, development, and storytelling come together in one cohesive approach.
If you’re thinking about your next big campaign, case study, or report, consider how the experience could do more of the heavy lifting. Could your story be told in a way that feels more alive? Or are there parts of your content you’re afraid the audience might miss? Or is there a way to add emotion into the story you’re wanting to tell?
Consulting with the pros is a good idea if you’ve got a project or campaign you’d like to bring to life through scrollytelling.
Creating experiences that respect and reward the user
In an attention economy, creating content that’s truly worth engaging should be the priority in every project and campaign you’re investing in.
Scrollytelling is a powerful, strategic approach to modern storytelling: one that blends form and function to deliver more meaningful brand experiences. It meets your audience where they are, and more importantly, it respects their time.
At its core, it’s an approach that rewards curiosity. And in the current content overload we’re all surrounded by, curiosity is a feeling worth chasing.
Curious how scrollytelling could amplify your next project? We know the best scrollytelling tools out there, and how to use them to craft content that sticks. Get in touch if you’ve got an idea you’d like to discuss.
