Hey all,

A quick reminder that we’re hiring! We’re looking for a full-time podcast producer to join the Storythings team on an initial six-month basis. If you’re passionate about audio and know what good audio storytelling sounds like, we’d love to hear from you.

We’re also looking for a project manager. Apart from being wonderful people with superb clients, we offer flexible and hybrid working, two weeks of additional holiday over the Christmas period, a healthcare cash-back plan, plus lots of other benefits. Please share this with anyone that you think fits the roles.

If you are planning on going to SXSW this year we’d love you to come along to our session. We’re going to collectively develop a format from scratch in 60 minutes. It’s going to be very interactive and a change from panels and keynotes. There’s gonna be prizes, props and loads of little bits of fun to make this session feel unlike any other you’ll attend. Let us know if you are going to be over in Austin and want to meet up.

OK. Enough plugging. Here are your stories. Have a brilliant weekend.

Hugh

Formats Unpacked: The Lives They Lived (6-min read)

Jon Ronson’s Things Fell Apart Season 2 (podcast series)

How Publishers Should Respond to Google’s Declining Traffic (7-min read)

10 Mistakes Non-profits Make in Their Newsletter – and How to Fix Them (8-min read)

Strategy on a Page (4-min read)

20 Acts in 60 Minutes (60-min listen)

Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal Test How Well They Know Each Other (9-min watch)

The Smallest and Largest Thing in the Universe (12-min watch)

New Rules of Brand Marketing (5-min read)

Apple’s Vision Pro Advert (40-sec 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. 

Formats Unpacked: The Lives They Lived (6-min read)We’re all familiar with end of year retrospectives that fill our feeds and publications each December. The New York Times Magazine uses its 52nd publication of the year to create a special edition that celebrates the lives of notable people who have died over the last 12 months. But as obituaries go, The Lives They Lived sets itself apart from others by paying particular attention to the design of the format.

Jon Ronson’s Things Fell Apart Season 2 (podcast series)Jon Ronson’s wonderful podcast about the origin stories of the culture wars returns with 8 new stories that start in the most unexpected places. This season is focused on the battlefronts that engulfed us during lockdown and how the experience changed people psychologically and made us more suspicious of our neighbours and institutions.

How Publishers Should Respond to Google’s Declining Traffic (7-min read)Last year we wrote a series on how content discovery is broken which pointed to the challenges faced by anyone hoping Google would continue to be as good a source of traffic as it has. Here Simon Owens makes a good point about the importance of brand building for optimisation: “So in terms of long term SEO optimization, doubling down on original, high quality content is a sure bet towards ensuring that your site can compete in a sea of AI-generated crap. Not only will this reorient you toward better KPIs — things like homepage visits, newsletter subscribers, app downloads, and paid subscriptions — but it will also strengthen your position within Google search results.” 

10 Mistakes Non-profits Make in Their Newsletter – and How to Fix Them (8-min read)A very useful list for non-profits and other organisations that want to ensure their newsletter gets read.

Strategy on a Page (4-min read)This is good read from Neil Perkin about having your strategy on a single page. It makes reference to Salesforce’s V2MOM approach which started out as a strategy written on the back of an envelope. Whilst this brevity may miss some of the nuance of delivery, it provides a lot of value when it comes to communicating the strategy and helping teams deliver their own execution plan.

20 Acts in 60 Minutes (60-min listen)I absolutely loved the format of this This American Life episode that dropped over Christmas. Regular listeners will be familiar with the show’s 4 stories around a theme. Here they squeeze 20 mini-stories in. It really left me wanting more. Occasionally 99% Invisible does an episode filled with mini-stories that are really interesting but not meaty enough for a full episode on their own. I wish all of my favourite podcasts would do this on the odd occasion.

Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal Test How Well They Know Each Other (9-min watch)I’m sharing this here for a couple of reasons. First being that it’s a lovely interview between two actors who clearly get on very well. But secondly, we talk to clients a lot about looking to the world of entertainment and popular culture for inspiration in format design. In fact, not only are we talking about this at SXSW in March, but the structure of our session borrows from the world of games shows. It would be silly of us to go all the way to Austin to talk about formats and not rethink the format of a conference talk, right? (via Video Yes Please)

The Smallest and Largest Thing in the Universe (12-min watch)We love a good explainer and are big fans of Kurzgesagt who use animation to explain complex issues in fascinating ways. This episode looks at how big or small everything in the universe is compared to us humans.

New Rules of Brand Marketing (5-min read)Ana Andjelic takes a look at the new operating system for brand marketing and how important cultural awareness is in it: “Brand marketing transforms non-culture (a t-shirt) into culture (the Beckham’s documentary scene and countless memes that it generated). When a person wears a VB shirt, they show off their cultural awareness, and also see themselves through a new lens: not as a consumer but as a cultural player.”

Apple’s Vision Pro Advert (40-sec watch)This is a great example of how to position a new project using existing cultural references.

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.