Spielberg's Secret, Audio and Attention, Learning From Libraries

Hey all,

Every now and then we get a mention somewhere that leads to a big boost in subscribers (thanks and Hello! to all you new readers). So occasionally it’s good to remind everyone who is behind this newsletter. We’re Storythings, a strategy and content company. Our mission is to help all our clients become world-class storytellers. At the moment we’re:

• Developing a YouTube video series aimed at supporting micro-business owners

• Producing a bunch of podcasts for brands and foundations

• Writing and producing a quarterly publication for ADP

• Writing and managing a newsletter and publication for the Rockefeller Foundation

• Developing audiences strategies for films, TV companies and publications

We’d love to show you more of what we’re currently working on but some projects are in development and other are top secret and under NDA. However, check our website for case studies or give us a call if you’d like to chat about work.

Right. Enough of my dirty sales speak. You deserve some stories. Enjoy and have a fabulous weekend.

Hugh

Steven Spielberg’s Secret Ingredient (7 min watch)

Small, Sturdy Networks of Affinity and Interest (2 read)

How High-Performing Teams Lead With 3 Types of Clarity (7 min read)

Meet the Game You Never Wanted to Play (1 min read)

Streaming’s Threat to Pop Culture (4 min read)

Rules For Design in the Real World (6 min read)

New Report Shows Audio Drives More Attention Than Other Platforms (4 min read)

The Last Internet Cafes of Uganda (3 min read)

5 Things About My Audience: Abbie Morris (6 min read)

We Should All Aspire to Create Work This Eatable (1 min read)

How can we help you?

Storythings is a strategy and production company based in Brighton, London, 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. 

Steven Spielberg’s Secret IngredientThis is such a brilliant watch for anyone interested in getting to the heart of what drives people to click a link or buy a ticket to watch something. It looks at how going to see 2001: A Space Odyssey inspired Steven Spielberg to include one particular ingredient in every movie he ever made. (7 min watch)

Small, Sturdy Networks of Affinity and InterestWhat we can learn from bookstores and libraries about life after Twitter. Wonderful. (2 min read)

How High-Performing Teams Lead With 3 Types of ClarityA good read for team leaders on the kinds of clarity you need to build and run a high-performing team. Even in teams that have clarity on the company’s mission, strategies shift, plans change, and teams grow, which can lead to confusion within the team. These three types of clarity will help you keep on top.(7 min read)

Meet the Game You Never Wanted to PlayNo Worries If Not is a beautifully designed board game about the game women hate playing in life: people-pleasing, overthinking, multitasking, over-apologizing, etc. Sounds… fun, right? Can you reach Everyone’s Happy and No One’s Mad Land?(1 min read)

Streaming’s Threat to Pop CultureWe may be living in the golden age of TV thanks to the abundance of high-quality shows appearing on streaming services, but the best cult TV moments are the ones we watch together. TV critic Scott Bryan looks at what’s at stake. (4 min read)

Rules For Design in the Real WorldIf you’re designing for the real world, there are a couple of things you need to consider regarding human behaviour: “If it looks neat, people will want to take a photo with it. If it looks comfortable, people will want to sit on it. If it looks fun, people will play around on it.”(6 min read)

New Report Shows Audio Drives More Attention Than Other PlatformsAs part of its Attention Economy research, Dentsu has partnered with Lumen to produce this first-of-its-kind research. As a company that produces all forms of media for a range of clients, we’ve known for years that audiences connect with and recall messages when delivered via audio only. It’s great to have deep research to show this. Talk to us about our experience of producing podcasts and radio content for delivering messages that really stick. (4 min read)

The Last Internet Cafes of UgandaI really love Rest of World’s stories. Tech companies invest a lot of money in telling stories of how tech impacts people’s lives. But all too frequently they leave me cold and completely indifferent. Rest of World tells tech stories that really challenge expectation. They are human, truly global, and absolutely fascinating. I really liked this story on how access to the internet has changed, told via the stories of the last remaining internet cafes. (3 min read)5 Things About My Audience: Abbie MorrisIn this series we interview people who are trying to reach different kinds of audiences, to understand how they approach audience engagement – and how that’s been changing over the years. This week we spoke to Abbie Morris whose company Compare Ethics uses AI to help retail businesses keep on top of the fast-changing impact regulations. (6 min read)

We Should All Aspire to Create Work This EatableImagine writing something so beautiful the reader’s response is to eat it. We should all aim to be more like Maurice Sendak. (via Rosie and Faris)(Tweet)

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.