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Hello!

Thanks to everyone who joined us for Proper Fancy last Thursday. As usual, it was a really fun, creative conversation that went in lots of fantastically interesting directions. If you want to join us next month, click the link above. See you there!

This week we won a fascinating new piece of audience research work from a new client, published the latest in our series of podcasts about global payroll for ADP, and I wrote the latest in our Attention Matters series about how to find great stories. If you’d like to talk to us about working with you on audience research, finding great stories, or making hit formats, click the button below - we’d love to talk!

It’s Friday, so here’s 10 interesting things to look at that completely, totally count as work. Whatever your job is. So close that spreadsheet/word document/keynote deck and give your brain something to think about.

Have a great weekend!

Matt

A Really Simple, But Innovative, Film Trailer (1-minute watch)

Why Broadcast Journalists Look The Way They Do (7-minute read)

What Makes A Good Newsletter? (5-minute read)

The Real Job Of B2B Marketing Is Getting People To Agree (10-minute read)

The Lost Art Of Wes Cook (20-minute watch)

The Age of SUPERCONTENT (10-minute read)

Welcome to Branded Content 3.0 (5-minute read)

TikTok Shop And The End of Content (8-minute read)

The Pudding on Who Gets ‘Shipped’ (Scrollytelling data)

A Great Film About Why You Should Join A Club (1.5 hour watch)

How we can help you

Storythings is the content marketing agency of choice for some of the world’s most forward-thinking B2B brands and organisations. Here are 2 reasons to get in touch. 

1. “I want to tell better stories” – You’ve been creating content but it’s not having the impact you need. Talk to us about our Content Audit Workshop.

2. “I need help making things” – You know what you want to make, but need an agency to make it. We can help make your podcast, video, publication, animation or newsletter. We do other things too. Get in touch for a FREE 30 minute consultation. 

A Really Simple, But Innovative, Film Trailer (1-minute watch)
The new trailer for the movie The Brutalist does two extraordinarily simple things. The first involves the way the text scrolls - it’s really simple, but it completely changes the dynamic of the trailer. The second thing is really subtle, and I only really noticed it on repeat viewings. Look at how they do the review quote. Very clever!

Why Broadcast Journalists Look The Way They Do (7-minute read)
One of the things we focus on with our audience research projects is the idea of the ‘imagined audience’ - who do you think your audience is? Most organisations, regardless of what their data tells them, have deep, ingrained cultural assumptions of who their audience is. This great article by Ella Powers shows that this isn’t just a quirk of internal culture - it affects the way organisations look on the outside as well.

What Makes A Good Newsletter? (5-minute read)
I loved this from the brilliant One Thing newsletter. It isn’t one of those clickbait content strategy pieces telling you the one thing you must do. Instead, it’s a smart conversation by a smart group of people about how newsletters play different roles in their lives. Understanding the value your newsletter brings to different people is probably the most important thing you can find out. So - where does this newsletter fit in your world? Hit reply and let me know!

The Real Job Of B2B Marketing Is Getting People To Agree (10-minute read)
I was at the IAA B2B conference this week, and saw Jann Schwarz and Mimi Taylor from LinkedIn present this research on the key difference between B2B and B2C marketing - with B2B, you have to get a group of people to agree. This means addressing both your target audience of the main buyers, but also the hidden buyers - the finance teams, C-suite and other people who ultimately need to be convinced as well.

The Lost Art Of Wes Cook (20-minute watch)
I’d seen this talk at the XOXO conference in a few other newsletters, and finally got around to watching it this week. It’s incredible, and a brilliant story about the value of preserving your work and the story of your career. Make sure you watch right to the end.

The Age of SUPERCONTENT (10-minute read)
We love Ana Andjelic’s newsletter. Her world of fashion and luxury marketing is very different from our clients at Storythings, but her essays are still full of valuable lessons. In this one, she breaks down how brands use content to own their audience: “These brands used content to create a community. They aggregated their audience instead of targeting their customers and prospects. At any given time, a brand’s audience is much broader than its customers. It includes cultural observers, commentators, critics, fans, and hangers-on. Content is a way to address all of them.”

Welcome to Branded Content 3.0 (5-minute read)
The second link in today’s newsletter about the current state of content marketing. This one points to the rise of brands working on their own high-end content formats, or partnering with broadcasters and streamers on formats. I remember this happening in the late 2000s when I was commissioning at Channel 4, so it’s interesting to see it coming around again.

TikTok Shop And The End of Content (8-minute read)
And to complete the trilogy - a counter-take that argues the adoption of native formats on social video platforms now makes it impossible for users to work out what is an ad, and what is organic content: “Since these ads appear as TikToks as you’re scrolling, even with the disclaimers that the FTC and TikTok ensure are in the correct places, it’s sometimes difficult to tell what’s an ad and what isn’t until you dig around. How many users between 13 and 21 are doubling down into an investigation for a paid product or for a deal that exists between a few different companies?”

The Pudding on Who Gets ‘Shipped’ (Scrollytelling data)
Ok - thats all the heavy reads about the future of content done. As a treat, here’s a fantastic, and typically playful, data storytelling piece from The Pudding on the most ‘shipped’ relationships in fandoms.

A Great Film About Why You Should Join A Club (1.5 hour watch)
We’ve posted about this documentary on Robert Puttnam before, but it’s now on Netflix, so there’s no excuse not to watch it this weekend. Puttnam wrote the book Bowling Alone, suggesting that America’s isolation and partisan culture is partly down to the fact we don’t get involved in local community groups any more. As someone who has spent the last 5 years coaching a baseball team (in the UK!) I whole-heartedly recommend getting involved in your local community. Watch this on Netflix. Then go join a club.

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That’s it for this week! We hope you enjoyed our curation of stories. Ask everyone you know to subscribe - we’d really appreciate it!

Thanks for reading. Till next week!

Hugh, Matt, Anjali and the rest of Team Storythings