Conversational Copy, Creative Superhumans & Better Typography

Happy Friday!

Just one simple ask of you this week. Amartey Golding and Brigthon’s Lighthouse have a really interesting new project, especially given the times we are living in. Imagine a scenario where we suddenly have to find a new national anthem. Who do you call? What artist, band, comedian, composer, DJ, poet or legend? Tweet your thoughts to Amartey.

Enjoy this week’s links. There are some really good stories, videos and reports down below. Have an ace weekend. See you all next week.

Hugh

A Useful Guide to Conversational Copywriting (4 min read)

How ‘The Bear’ Filmed An Entire Episode in One Take (12 min watch)Six Elements That Define a Thriving Work Culture (7 min read)The Rebirth of Magazines (6 min read)The $30 Million Lottery Scam (25 min read)A 5 Minute Guide to Better Typography (5 min read)How a Paranormal Podcast Built a Fanbase of Believers & Non-believers (4 min read)Text-to-Everything - AI in the Age of Creative Superhumans (8 min read)How to Improve Your Marketing With Audience Research (4 min read)

The World’s Top 10 Street Photographers 2022 (Gallery)

How can we help you?

Storythings is a strategy and production company based in Brighton and London. We'd love to help you with some creative and bold ideas. Here are 3 reasons to get in touch. 

1. You want to talk to us about content production: podcasts, videos, animations, illustrations, editorial. 2. You want to talk to us about audience research, content strategy or format development.3. You want to create a brand or an identity that makes it easier to communicate your message.We do other things too. We're very friendly and always enjoy meeting people, so get in touch. 

A Useful Guide to Conversational CopywritingIf you want your copy to sound a little more human, these 10 tips are really useful. Thanks to Josh Spector for sharing this. (4 min read)

How ‘The Bear’ Filmed An Entire Episode in One TakeThe Bear is one of my favourite shows of the year, in a very good year for TV. It’s a stressful and exhausting watch. One of the best episodes of the series is episode 7, which follows the kitchen on a particularly stressful day. It’s a shorter episode, which I was glad of at the time because I couldn’t take much more stress in one sitting. After watching it, I found out it was filmed in a single shot. This is not a new idea. Shows like True Detective, Mr Robot and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia have taken the same approach for episodes or epic scenes. One shot episodes are great for building tension. The technique creates a sense of chatotic urgency and makes the characters feel trapped - never more so than in this superb piece of TV. Obviously this link contains lots of spoilers. (12 min watch)Six Elements That Define a Thriving Work CultureThe 2023 Global Culture Report looks at the current state of work, against the backdrop of the tail-end of a pandemic and a possible recession on the horizon. The report examines issues such as connection, community and fulfillment at work, kicking off with this six elements that define a thriving work culture. It’s a good read for anyone in a leadership role. (7 min read)The Rebirth of Magazines There’s a lot goodness in this Rebooting piece on how magazines are adapting to a new media environment. At Storythings we’ve been doing some research on how people engage with content in this new hybrid world. One of our findings is how people are shifting to considered curation rather than passive stream consumption. So this resonated with us: “Magazines always excelled at giving a more measured view of the world versus the immediacy of the daily newspaper. Right now, we’re living minute by minute. Sorting out the world this way is confusing and chaotic. I have now used Twitter for 15 years, and I’m not sure I’m more informed and aware of the world than I was when I spent that time reading books and magazines instead.”(6 min read)The $30 Million Lottery ScamIf you’re looking for a good story to settle down with over the weekend, this long read from The Atlantic is worth bookmarking. It tells the story of a Michigan real estate broker who became one of the state lottery's biggest winners ever by buying hundreds of tickets a day with money from investors in his Ponzi-style scheme. Con artists are great storytellers. If you’re interested in why we fall for such elaborate cons you’ll really enjoy some of Maria Konikova’s writing. (25 min read)A 5 Minute Guide to Better Typography If you want the words in your decks, essays or other work to look beautiful and easily read, this well presented guide is full of nice tips and examples for you to follow. (5 min read)How a Paranormal Podcast Built a Fanbase of Believers & Non-believersIt’s not easy building an audience that includes people whose beliefs are the opposite of yours. But Uncanny has done an incredible job in developing a format that draws in believers and non-believers. This is why it’s important to think of your audeinces as a patchwork quilt of many small audeiences, rather than a single mass of people with the same beliefs and interests. (4 min read)Text-to-Everything - AI in the Age of Creative SuperhumansAs the author points out, this isn’t written by Generative AI but it probably could be. It’s impossible to overstate how far generative AI has evolved in the last year. It’s now possible to generate photos, video, 3D, and music with just a few simple prompts. With virtually no barrier to entry, becoming a skilled prompt engineer might be the thing future creators invest their time in. This piece is filled with examples and tools for generating everything from videos to creating movie posters for movies that don’t exist. Get practicing your prompting now!(8 min read)How to Improve Your Marketing With Audience ResearchRecent research reports that 50% of B2B content marketers flagged data management and analytics as a priority, yet only 36% of those marketers viewed “getting to know audiences better” as a key area of investment. Internal resources and budget may be a blocker in getting to know your audiences better. But at the same time, investing in marketing without knowing the most recent media habits and behaviours of your audiences is money badly spent. This piece looks at why you need to know your audience, how to do audience research, and finishes with three simple questions to get you started. If you do need help getting to know your audience better, get in touch. We’d love to help you. (4 min read)

The World’s Top 10 Street Photographers 2022 So you think your Instagram street photography is good? You’ll want to up your game after checking out these street photos. (Gallery)

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Thanks for reading. We’ll see you all next week.

Hugh, Matt, Anjali and the whole team at Storythings.