Extreme Birdwatching, Creative Cheat Sheets, and Dystopian 90s Offices

Happy Friday!

First up - Storythings’ own audio magician Chris Mitchell was interviewed for Sidney Evan’s Beyond The Threshold podcast. It’s a fantastic interview, and Chris is really open about his passion for storytelling, and passing on that passion to others. I’m obviously biased, but it’s an inspiring listen. We’re very lucky to have him at Storythings!

This week has been busy with workshops and production at Storythings. I can tell it’s September and people are back in the office, as we’re getting lots of new biz enquiries and responses to the newsletter, including a brilliant research report that we’ve included below.

So please get in touch about anything you want to share! And if you’d like a chat about your content strategy, content production, or content workflow, hit the button below:

Right then - here’s ten inspiring links to see you into the weekend!

Matt

Why Fashion Magazine Covers Are So Boring (5-min read)

The Tech Investor Who Writes Memos Like Short Stories (7-min read)

Return To Real - a Great Marketing Trends Report (15-min read)

Why Your Attention is Slipping Away (6-min read)

The Creative Cheat Sheet (very deep resource)

How We Came To Know The Earth (beautiful scrollytelling series)

LISTERS: An Incredible Movie About Birdwatching (trailer for a 2 hour film)

Why Social Virality Does Not Drive Fandom (downloadable report)

An Online Remake of Christian Marclay’s THE CLOCK (will eventually be 24hrs)

Oakley’s 90’s Offices Were VERY Dystopian (Instagram post)

Storythings is the content marketing agency that helps you STAY HUMAN in a sea of marketing slop. If you think you’re at risk of becoming a B2B zombie, we’ve got the antidote. Click the button below for your free guide.

Why Fashion Magazine Covers Are So Boring (5-min read)
One of the things we ask our clients when we develop formats is ‘what are the cliches in your sector?’ so I loved this article from One Thing newsletter pointing out the uninspiring state of fashion magazine covers. Worth reading to the end for some examples that buck the trend, especially Glen Powell’s extraordinary cover shoot for US GQ.

The Tech Investor Who Writes Memos Like Short Stories (7-min read)
We’ve long been fans of Sarah Drinkwater, who has made a huge impact as a leader, funder and investor in the global tech for good scene. I love the way she describes the role of memos in her work: “There has to be some narrative tension in memos. The narrative tension is: this is extremely risky. There's a lot of magical thinking involved in making any investment. If you were a logical person, you would not bet on early-stage companies. And yet, here I am, sharing the dream of the founder.”

Return To Real - a Great Marketing Trends Report (15-min read)
Huge thanks to Florian Schleicher for sending us his Return To Real marketing trends report. I looked through it nodding my head in agreement the whole way through. And it is absolutely beautifully designed as well. Here’s a great quote to get you to click: “Belonging makes brands truly unforgettable. What looks soft today - gathering people, building rituals, showing up in person - will create long-lasting results tomorrow.” Amen to that!

Why Your Attention is Slipping Away (6-min read)
I’m always a bit sceptical of articles saying that modern technology is changing our attention, but Hugh dropped this in the Storythings’ Slack, and this one is worth your attention for the four exercises it suggests to help you focus. Your brain is a muscle too!

The Creative Cheat Sheet (very deep resource)
If you’ve been a subscriber for a while, you’ll know we love huge creative resources at Storythings, and this is an absolute banger. Darren pinned it to the top of our inspiration Slack channel within seconds of me posting it there. Keep it safe for when you next need inspiration.

How We Came To Know The Earth (beautiful scrollytelling series)
This is another absolutely beautiful scrollytelling series from our friends at Quanta magazine. Their oral history of ChatGPT was one of my favourite bits of science writing in the last year, and this series on the history of climate science is just as epic.

LISTERS: An Incredible Movie About Birdwatching (trailer for a 2 hour film)
I’m been thinking about culling some of my subscriptions to the big streamers, as a lot of their films and documentaries are getting very, well, meh. Especially when there are absolute gems, like this fantastic doc about two brothers taking up competitive bird-spotting, available for free on Youtube. Add this to the queue for your weekend popcorn viewing!

Why Social Virality Does Not Drive Fandom (downloadable report)
You’ll have to enter your email address to download this free report, but it’s well worth it. MIDIA have surveyed 10,000 music listeners about how they discover and become fans of new artists, and the results are exhaustive and surprising. Turns out that social media is nowhere near as big a discovery engine as you might think, and the idea of a traditional ‘funnel’ from discovery to fandom is not that simple.

An Online Remake of Christian Marclay’s THE CLOCK (will eventually be 24hrs)
I’ve posted before about my love of Christian Marclay’s incredible video artwork THE CLOCK, which uses 24 hours of clips from movies showing the actual time as you view it. Jason Kottke also loves it, and shared this Patreon to reconstruct Marclay’s video as an online project.

Oakley’s 90’s Offices Were VERY Dystopian (Instagram post)
Early this year Oakley founder James Jannard listed his uncompromisingly brutalist Beverly Mansion for sale, and let’s just say I don’t think I’ve got enough testosterone to even walk through the front door, let alone live there. And then I saw what Oakley’s offices were like and it all made sense. If I worked there, I’d fill my cubicle with fluffy gonks and ‘hang in there!’ posters, just to spite him.

So there we are, another list of lovely links. Thank you so much to everyone who reads to the end, clicks the links, shares the newsletter or replies with feedback. It’s so nice to hear from you all! So here’s an ask if you’ve made it this far - I absolutely loved LISTERS, so what is the best documentary you’ve seen recently? Bonus points if it’s not on Netflix/Prime/Disney/Sky. Hit reply and let me know!

Matt, Anjali, Hugh and the rest of Team Storythings