Hey all,

Thanks to everyone who joined us for Proper Fancy yesterday. It was the best yet! I’m loving getting to know all the people who are turning up and I’m leaving each session with a whole bunch of thoughts and links to check out. Join us next month and let me know if you’d like to co-host with me.

In other news, we’re currently doing some research on public interest in cutting-edge science content and would love to talk to you! We want to speak to people who are personally motivated to engage with science-related content in general. Would you be interested in speaking to us?

Enjoy today’s stories and have a fantastic weekend.

Hugh

How London Overground’s New Names Were Chosen (4-min read)

How I Write: With Steven Johnson (90-min watch)

How the Acquired Podcast Reached 200,000 Downloads Per Episode (3-min read)

Pudding: 140 Performances of The Star Spangled Banner Compared (interactive)

Why AI Will Never Rival Human Creativity (6-min read)

Kung Fu Panda’s 4 Hour Kid’s Meditation Video (4-hour watch) 

Creator Brands: Brands That Make Culture (6-min read)

Hey Ho. Let’s Band Logo (3-min read)

67% of Marketers Say Video Has Become More Important in the Last Year (10-min read)

Lego Movie Posters Made Using AI (3-min read)

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. 

How London Overground’s New Names Were Chosen (4-min read)When I first read the headline I was temporarily outraged at the thought that Transport For London had invited another brand to rename a station or line for a campaign launch. Thankfully I was wrong and applaud them for not only renaming the collection of lines but also choosing six names connected to historic stories and underrepresented communities.

How I Write: With Steven Johnson (90-min watch)Regular readers will know we are big fans of Steven Johnson. He has studied software and AI-based tools for more than 35 years and believes that language models and human creativity aren’t at odds but at their best when they work in harmony. Here he talks to Dave Perell about how to capture ideas without friction, how to seamlessly structure your work, and how to leverage the element of surprise. If you don’t have time to watch all of this, the video is broken down into chapters that you can jump around.

How the Acquired Podcast Reached 200,000 Downloads Per Episode (3-min read)The Acquired podcast has smashed a few myths about making a successful podcast. First, they haven’t relied on social. Second, they don’t believe that short is better. Their latest episode on Hermes is 4 hours long. One look at the graph in this article beautifully demonstrates the value of building an archive when you see what happens when they get to 5 years.

Pudding: 140 Performances of The Star Spangled Banner Compared (interactive)We love explainers and we love to see things broken down in really interesting ways. The people at Pudding are among the world’s best at doing this. Here they look at how the performance of the Star Spangled Banner has taken many forms over the years – from Hendrix to Whitney to Gaga – and map out the difference in pitch between 140 performances line by line.

Why AI Will Never Rival Human Creativity (6-min read)There have been a lot of conversations on the danger of AI replacing jobs – which it will – and artists – which it won’t, in my humble opinion. This piece, which I found via the irreplaceable Rosie and Faris, makes a great point about low-probability choices, the mysterious nature of inspiration and its role in creating art: “It is neither conscious nor unconscious but instead involves a delicate and frequently elusive interplay between the two. It is serendipitous — like standing in a thunderstorm, said Randall Jarrell, and hoping to be struck by lightning. That is why successful works cannot be replicated even by the artists who create them.” 

Kung Fu Panda’s 4 Hour Kid’s Meditation Video (4-hour watch) Outside of Storythings, I’ve been developing a kid’s yoga and meditation brand based on original stories. You can imagine how delighted I was when this fell into my stream. Long-form video channels like Lofi Girl have demonstrated the demand for content that helps bring focus to students so it would be great to see more of this aimed at bringing the benefits of mindfulness to younger children. If you feel guilty about putting an iPad in front of your child, try this every now and then.

Creator Brands: Brands That Make Culture (6-min read)We have a saying at Storythings which is "Don't do comms, do culture." I like this from the always-interesting Grant McCracken on brands that make culture and the problem of embarking on a tour of trend houses as a means for gathering cultural knowledge: "This is a little like asking an astronomer to look for uncharted planets only to discover that he’s spent his time touring observatories chatting up other astronomers. Yes, of course, you can learn a lot this way, but at some point you have actually have to leave the design world bubble and talk to people who aren’t wearing really cool glasses. Anything else is threatening to deliver the provincial and parochial. Anything else is an echo chamber."

Hey Ho. Let’s Band Logo (3-min read)Here’s a Kickstarter to back if you are fascinated by logo design and bands. Band Logos that Rocked the World tells the stories of their design. Did you know the drum-shop owner who designed The Beatles ‘drop T’ logo introduced karaoke to the UK? Or that the Stones ‘Lick’ logo wasn’t inspired by Mick Jagger’s lips, but by the Hindu deity Kali?

67% of Marketers Say Video Has Become More Important in the Last Year (10-min read)Here’s some really interesting research from the Content Marketing Institute on the increasing importance of video in content marketing. What’s interesting is the fact that only 7% feel they are using video to its full potential. We’d love to hear from any readers who feel the same way and have similar issues mentioned in this report.

Lego Movie Posters Made Using AI (3-min read)The awesome Ian Edgar shared these during yesterday’s Proper Fancy. It’s basically Ian playing around with AI to see how much the machine gets about the movies he is prompting it to make. For example, Lego Blue Velvet gets the ear reference in. Included in the series are Lego Raging Bull, Lego Withnail and I, Lego Videodrome and many more.

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

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