Hey all,

A big thanks to everyone who joined us for Proper Fancy, our team show-and-tell that’s open to everyone. Thanks to Dheeraj Reddy who co-hosted the event with me. If you like discovering or chatting about interesting creative projects sign up via Eventbrite and join us next month. Let me know if you’d like to co-host with me.

Is anyone going to SXSW? We’re running a session on How to Develop a Content Format in 60 Minutes. We’re also hosting an in-person Proper Fancy. Drop us a message if you’d like to meet up.

OK. The weekend has landed. Have a good one.

Hugh

Inside the New York Times Big Bet on Games (20-min read)

Lights. Camera. But Most Importantly… (1-min read)

“I Trust You Because You Have a Dick” (2-min watch)

How We Make Money on YouTube With 20 Million Subs (9-min watch)

Filterworld and the Importance of Curation (2-min read)

Everything Steven Soderbergh Watched and Read in 2023 (list)

Shocking, Heartbreaking, Transformative (podcast series)

Faris Yakob: The Frequency of Memory (6-min read)

Ideas We Love: Drive to Survive (6-min read)

A Case of Well Justified Shaming Brilliantly Executed (1-min 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. If your content isn’t getting the results you need, let us help you understand why. Here are 3 reasons to get in touch. 

1. Audience Research – We help B2B brands understand modern attention patterns and how they can get more engagement with content.2. Content Strategy – We use our bespoke process to develop unique content formats that hold audience attention, build community, and increase brand salience.3. Content Production – We craft beautiful and diverse stories of impact that capture and hold attention using podcasts, videos, editorial, and newsletters. We do other things too. We're very friendly and always enjoy meeting people, so get in touch for a FREE 30 minute consultation. 

Inside the New York Times Big Bet on Games (20-min read)Do you remember how shocked everyone was when the NYT purchased Wordle for a million dollars just over two years ago? Well, Wordle is just one of a collection of games that is driving subscriptions to one of the publications most expensive subscription packages. At a time when we’re seeing weekly media layoffs, The Times surpassed 10 million subscribers in November, and has a goal of 15 million by the end of 2027.

Lights. Camera. But Most Importantly… (1-min read)A very good ad from ITV Creative that celebrates the extraordinary impact the ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office has had in galvanising support for the subpostmasters who were wrongly convicted.

“I Trust You Because You Have a Dick” (2-min watch)I found this in amongst Vimeo’s Best of the Year Branded Videos – check out some of the others. It made me feel a little uncomfortable in places and chuckle in others. It’s bonkers and weird yet manages to deliver an important message with impact. (via Video Yes Please)

How We Make Money on YouTube With 20 Million Subs (9-min watch)We’re massive fans of this science explainer channel so I was both fascinated and surprised by the details in this breakdown. It’s a great case study for how you can create a successful brand on YouTube using a range of finance models and how you can build a huge audience around complex subjects without having to create short video.

Filterworld and the Importance of Curation (2-min read)At yesterday’s Proper Fancy I talked about my love for Filterworld which came out this week. It’s a superbly written look at how algorithms have flattened culture. Later on, someone mentioned a new beautifully curated Substack called One Thing which points readers to just one thing every Tuesday and Thursday. It turns out that one of the founders of One Thing is Kyle Chayka, the author of Filterworld. So, subscribe to One Think and buy Filterworld – you’ll love them!

Everything Steven Soderbergh Watched and Read in 2023 (list)I discovered Steven’s lists back in the last decade. He was the first person whose media diets I began to follow. He got me into an unknown reality show at the time called Below Deck – it’s very good. Well, true to form it was the first thing he watched in 2023. If you’re looking for something interesting to watch or read, this is a good starting place.

Shocking, Heartbreaking, Transformative (podcast series) If you’re a maker or consumer of documentaries, which many of you are, then this is a fascinating series from Radiotopia about the ethics of documentary making. As the documentary maker Jess Shane believes most documentary makers will have felt weird about their work at least once. The show is a space to reflect on that moment. “The series asks provocative questions about the story creation process, whether ‘sharing your story’ is really as liberating as our culture imagines it can be, and how ‘being produced’ for a show can shift someone’s relationship to their own experience. The series also explores the business side of the equation, such as how the forces underpinning today’s booming documentary marketplace impact whose stories are told or deemed valuable.”

Faris Yakob: The Frequency of Memory (6-min read)A good piece from Faris on the importance of repetition in advertising and the different models used to make memories. He has a theory about why the industry is too quick to move on to the next campaign. As champions of serialised content formats in the B2B space, we’ve always felt that the frequency of formats are perfect for building and refreshing memories, particularly over longer buying cycles.

Ideas We Love: Drive to Survive (6-min read)If you could save me a little bit of awkwardness by skipping over the praise for our other newsletter Formats Unpacked at the start of this post, then you will find a great dive into an idea that has revitalised F1. As Tom and Matt point out, serialised content offers up so much opportunity to create extensions that can hit different audiences in different spaces.

A Case of Well Justified Shaming Brilliantly Executed (1-min watch)Greenpeace uses Greg from Succession to shame the behaviour of Shell. Glorious!

We hope you've enjoyed this week's newsletter. I'm sure some of your friends would love to read it. Sharing it would be really appreciated. If you've received this from a friend, you can subscribe below and get it direct to your inbox every Friday.

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

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