Hey all!

Two things from us before we jump into this week’s stories:

1. Join us next Thursday for Proper Fancy. If you like hanging out with creatives and talking about ideas you’ll love it. Join in or just listen in podcast mode.

2. We’re pretty chuffed to be recognised as one of the UK’s best companies to work for as part of the Culture 100 Award 2024! This follows certification as a B Corp earlier this year. Things like Proper Fancy and First Draft, our pro-bono mentoring scheme for small organisations working with under-represented communities, help shape the culture of Storythings in a small way. We can’t do that without the people who participate. So thanks to you all!

OK. On to the stories. There are some right crackers this week. If you like them and need help turning your brand story into something that excites then hit that button below!

Hugh

The Recipe For Great Content is a recipe (5-minute read)

Unpacking Vinyl’s Remarkable Revival: A Statistical Analysis (7-minute read)

15 Ways to Tell Stories That Thrill (2-minute read)

Illogical and Brave is Better Than Mediocre But Safe (3-minute read)

You Need More Than Data to Understand Your Customers (7-minute read)

This striking short documentary uses voicemails to celebrate Michael Brown’s 28th birthday (8-minute read)

How To Be the Leader of an Emerging Sector (7-minute read)

Quick Summaries of the Decades (6-minute read)

A really useful media tools list (list)

Using Humour Well: The Negative Space Effect (2-minute 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. Here are 2 reasons to get in touch. 

1. “I don’t know what to do” – You’ve been creating content but it’s not having the impact you need. Talk to us about our Content Audit Workshop.

2. “I need something making” – You know what you want to make, but need an agency to make it. We can help make your podcast, video, publication, animation or newsletter. We do other things too. Get in touch for a FREE 30 minute consultation. 

The Recipe For Great Content is a recipe (5-minute read)
The power of formats is a drum we’ve been banging for a long time. Formats are so under-used in marketing that we launched a regular newsletter to share our podcast thinking. So it was great to read Steve Pratt’s evangelism: “The power of a format is that audiences recognize it as something they are familiar with and already enjoy. A great format has already been proven again and again to earn attention. It is not an accident that every episode of Wheel of Fortune follows the exact same pattern.”

Unpacking Vinyl’s Remarkable Revival: A Statistical Analysis (7-minute read)
Stat Significant is a fascinating weekly newsletter featuring data-centric essays about movies, music, TV, and more. Each week, Daniel Parris uses data analytics to answer pop culture’s greatest conundrums. Previous statistical analysis includes Who is the greatest actor in movie history? Why do people like true crime? And Why do people hate Nickleback so much? I’ve read a few articles on the vinyl revival over the years but this is the one with the most surprises in it.

15 Ways to Tell Stories That Thrill (2-minute read)
Nick Bilton is an investigative reporter, New York Times-bestselling author, and Emmy-winning filmmaker, writing and directing movies for HBO and Netflix. He knows how to find great stories and tell them in a way that captures and holds attention. Nick chatted to Dave Perell about his processes which have been distilled to these 15 points. I particularly like point 11: “There are two kinds of stories that work: Big ones about something small, and small ones about something big. Stories in the middle are usually terrible.”

Illogical and Brave is Better Than Mediocre But Safe (3-minute read)
Have you ever wondered why the Angostura Bitters label is too big for the bottle? It’s a wonderful story that’s over 150 years old but will teach you something about the value of being brave and standing out. (via Creative Samba)

You Need More Than Data to Understand Your Customers (7-minute read)
Despite an abundance of data, marketers struggle to understand customers, often confusing information with intimacy. Over-reliance on data can result in a flattening of brand stories. Former Wieden+Kennedy strategist and author of the excellent For the Culture, Marcus Collins shares insights from an ethnographic study for McDonald's, which captured the essence of its fandom through beliefs, rituals, and language. He suggests three questions to help marketers build genuine customer intimacy. As a company that specialises in human storytelling, beginning projects with ethnographic research has served us well over the years.

This striking short documentary uses voicemails to celebrate Michael Brown’s 28th birthday (8-minute read)
1-800 Happy Birthday is an online voicemail, volunteer-based project that honours the lives of Black and Brown victims of police killings and systemic racism. On its website, you can leave a voicemail to a victim on their birthday, which – once screened – will be shared with families. This moving film is made up of voicemails left for Michael.

How To Be the Leader of an Emerging Sector (7-minute read)
Our very own Matt Locke shares what he learned from his time at the BBC and Channel 4 about standing out and getting attention when the pace of change is rapid: “The answer is not to be the loudest voice, but to be the force that brings everyone together in your industry. When an emerging sector is a chaotic noise of competing players, dynamics and speeds, you don’t win by adding more noise. Instead, the most valuable thing you can do is bring order to the noise, and to do that, you need to really understand one of the most overlooked forces in how organisations and businesses work - rhythm.”

Quick Summaries of the Decades (6-minute read)
It’s interesting to take in history at a glance through these entertaining summaries of the decades starting in 1880. Here’s the 2000s: “The rise of Homo Laptopicus. Sitting in a college class, looking at the Macbooks in front of me and not a single person taking notes on the lecture. Everybody browsing. If the walk-and-talk is the communicative modality of the ‘90s, for the ‘00s it’s Zuckerberg at the end of The Social Network refreshing his friend request over and over again for the girl he likes.”

A really useful media tools list (list)
This is worth bookmarking if you work in journalism, the media, tech or content production. It gives you an overview of tools that other media organisations use, lets you evaluate them at a glance and gives you the option to add any of your own.

Using Humour Well: The Negative Space Effect (2-minute read)
I’m a big fan of Paddy Gilmore’s Brands and Humour newsletter. This week he looks at adverts that used humour in brilliant ways to answer the question “What would the world look like if your product didn’t exist?”

So there we are - another 10 creative stories we’ve found for you to take into the weekend. If you enjoy them, please tell your friends/work colleagues/neighbours and ask them to subscribe!

Thanks for reading. See you next week!

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