Introverts, Taste, and Niche Memes

Hey all,

In January, newsletter reader Alexis James got in touch to tell me about his book Unsung: Not All Heroes Wear Kits. It tells the story of the hidden heroes in elite sport. I loved the idea of it and he said he was going to turn it into a podcast. Well. He did just that. This episode about the man who wrote the Champions League Anthem is a great listen. Please support another newsletter reader and give it a listen. And don’t be shy in telling me about your creative projects. Our newsletter network has close to 11,000 subscribers!

Here’s your weekly reminder that our show and tell event, Proper Fancy, is back later this month. It’s happening on Thursday 29th June, 13.00 (BST). If you want to join us, just send us your details and we’ll send over a Zoom link closer to the date.

OK. I’m dog sitting this weekend so I’ll leave you with some photos of dogs mid-flight. Have a great weekend.

Hugh

Can Art Change Attitudes Towards Climate Change? (5 min read)

Steve McQueen x Fleetwood Mac x Greenpeace x Avelino x Will Poulter (7 min watch)

Formats Unpacked: Pre-flight Safety Demonstration Videos (4 min read)

How Hyper Niche Meme Accounts Are Emerging As the Winners on Instagram (4 min read)

How Chat GPT Can Help Jumpstart Creativity (4 min read)

A Deep Dive Into Gen Z Scrolls (5 min read)

Taste: A Radio Series About The Concept Of Taste (28 min listen)

The Absurd Logic Of Concert Tours (14 min watch)

What’s a Podcast Doing At a Film Festival (5 min read)

Advice From Creatives On How To Navigate the Industry As An Introvert (9 min read)

How can we help you?

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

1. Audience Strategy - Do you struggle to understand constantly changing audience behaviours, and what strategies you need to reach them?2. Content Format Development - Do you want to develop and test content formats that give you a direct relationship with your audience? (e.g. newsletters, podcasts, publications, or video series).3. Production - Do you need help creating and running an existing or new content format, and growing loyal audiences around them?We do other things too. We're very friendly and always enjoy meeting people, so get in touch. 

Can Art Change Attitudes Towards Climate Change?We’ve told climate stories in many different ways at Storythings, but not this way – yet. This fascinating study compared people’s responses to climate data in the form of a graph to data in the form of a piece of art to see if their preconceived ideas differed: “The study notes that some evidence suggests that emotion changes the way people think about climate change, which led the scientists to the final portion of their research: Would people be less politically polarized about climate change when they looked at and thought about Burko’s artwork than when they looked at the Keeling Curve? The results verified the team’s hypothesis: People on both ends of the political spectrum moved toward the middle.”(5 min read)

Steve McQueen x Fleetwood Mac x Greenpeace x Avelino x Will PoulterSteve McQueen and Greenpeace take aim at “fossil fuel party” with star-studded Fleetwood Mac cover. (7 min watch)

Formats Unpacked: Pre-flight Safety Demonstration VideosOur very own Grace Dobush looks at a very serious format that has been having a lot of fun recently incorporating songs, celebrities and silliness to capture and hold people’s attention. But is it working? (4 min read)How Hyper Niche Meme Accounts Are Emerging As the Winners on InstagramThis story echoes the result of some research we’ve been doing for a client that we’ve been developing an audience strategy for. Brands have been moving away from ‘big social’ towards more community, connection, and interest-driven platforms for some time but hyper-niche accounts might tell us something about the ways users are finding to make the more ‘traditional’ social platforms work for them. These accounts are great at co-creating content and there’s also some kudos in knowing these accounts exist. So it’s always good practice to keep an eye out for these emerging creators. (4 min read)

How ChatGPT Can Help Jumpstart CreativityIt didn’t take long for most of us to realise that ChatGPT isn’t great for coming up with original ideas. But what I have found is it’s really useful for starting and nudging. Why start with a blank sheet of paper when AI can produce a bunch of bad ideas and cliches that will nudge you in a different direction? This Wired piece looks at an interesting study that demonstrates how a bunch of students have been using it this way. (4 min read)

A Deep Dive Into Gen Z ScrollsA good study that takes a more human approach to understanding Gen Z digital behaviour by asking USC students to log daily video updates about the information they consumed. There is some crossover here with our Scroll Stoppers research. (5 min read)

Taste: A Radio Series About The Concept Of TasteI really enjoyed this first episode of a series about good and bad taste. It digs into the idea of cheese. When does something cross the line into being cheesy? What’s your position on Yacht Rock? Whilst we’re on the subject of taste, here’s another chance to watch this wonderful Ira Glass video on the gap between your taste and the work you create. (28 min listen)

The Absurd Logic Of Concert ToursIf you are fascinated by logistics you’ll love this film that shows how a band performs two concerts in a little over 24 hours. It really is an incredible achievement by teams that work flat out around the clock to make your ticket fee worthwhile. (14 min watch)What’s a Podcast Doing At a Film FestivalTribeca are now including podcasts at their festival which previously focused primarily on films. It’s a good move for indie filmmakers who struggle to get attention in a landscape increasingly filled with bland celeb podcasts. (5 min read)

Advice From Creatives On How To Navigate the Industry As An IntrovertIt’s Nice That speaks to a bunch of creatives who share some really valuable advice on how they have navigated their industry: “Honestly, I’m not really shy, but I don’t talk much in public. It’s ok to be shy, and from the experiences I have learned from, the only way to help is to just focus on what you want to say and find words that are as precise as possible.”(9 min read)

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

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