Hello!

We’re in your inbox a day early this week, as it’s the Easter weekend and here in the UK we get two bank holidays on the Friday and Monday. So I hope you’re getting a bit of a break this weekend as well (and hopefully lots of chocolate).

We’ve had a lovely burst of conversations and requests for proposals from some really interesting new clients around the world in the last few weeks, and we’d love to have more. So if you like the way we think and work at Storythings, and need help telling better stories in your organisation, hit the button below and we’ll organise a chat (after I’ve finished this large Toblerone, of course).

Right then. Here are the lovely links. Have a great weekend!

Matt

Japanese Trading Card Game Based on Middle-aged Men Goes Viral (5-min read)

What B2B Writers Can Learn from Fiction’s Free Thinkers (3-min read)

What Was Quartz? (4-min read)

The People’s Graphic Design Archive (Large archive)

Sweden’s Moose Migration Live Stream  (Live video stream)

Every Marketing Channel Sucks Right Now (10-min read)

The New Cultural Infrastructure (1-min read)

A Chat With Pixar’s Ed Catmull and Jon M. Chu (42-min watch)

Why Marathons Are Hard (5-min read)

How Quentin Blake Draws (2-min read)

Don’t become a B2B zombie. STAY HUMAN.

Storythings is the content marketing agency that helps you STAY HUMAN in a sea of marketing slop. If you think you’re at risk of becoming a B2B zombie, we’ve got the antidote. Click the button below for your free guide.

Japanese Trading Card Game Based on Middle-aged Men Goes Viral (5-min read)
This is such a lovely story. The town council of Sashido in Japan wanted to increase community activity between young and older generations, so they built a Pokemon-style trading card game featuring real older men. It’s really taken off, and they’ve seen young people attending town meetings and community events just for the chance to meet the people on their cards. It’s a wonderful antidote to [gestures around] everything else going on right now.

What B2B Writers Can Learn from Fiction’s Free Thinkers (3-min read)
A lot of the work we do with our B2B clients is about the craft of writing, and this great short post captures some great, practical insights from writers like Cormac McCarthy and Robert Caro. I particularly like the one about World Building from Ursula Le Guin. B2B writing should be all about world-building!

What Was Quartz? (4-min read)
I was a big fan of digital-first news site Quartz when it launched, and we partnered with them on a syndication project back in the day. So this insider account of how the site failed from Zach Seward is an insightful, but melancholy read, especially on his relationship with G/O Media’s Jim Spanfeller, who acquired Quartz: “In the subject line of his email announcing the deal, he spelled our name "Quarts," and that set the tone for the level of care in what he had bought".

The People’s Graphic Design Archive (Large archive)
This is a great project, encouraging people to upload their collections and projects to crowd-source a fantastic archive. Lots of great stuff to inspire you here, and I love their motto: “The Archive is for Everyone!”

Sweden’s Moose Migration Live Stream  (Live video stream)
Slow TV was a bit of a thing back in the 00s, as digital platforms changed our attention patterns. I’ve talked about this a lot on our Attention Matters newsletter, but digital hasn’t just made our attention patterns shorter, it’s made them longer as well. This is a great example - Swedish broadcaster SVT are live-streaming a moose migration, and it’s become a viral hit.

Every Marketing Channel Sucks Right Now (10-min read)
I’m not the biggest fan of A16z, but this post by Andrew Chen is right on the money. It’s aimed at startups trying to build audiences for their new products, but it is still true for just about anyone interested in how we get attention now. Lots of great advice here, but ‘focus on little channels, not big channels’ is probably my favourite.

The New Cultural Infrastructure (1-min read)
Talking of which, this is a great short piece from friend of Storythings James Kirkham, who I worked with when I was at Channel 4 and he was doing incredible work for the teen drama Skins. In this LinkedIn post he lightly sketches the new cultural infrastructure emerging from lo-fi, decentralised and discreet networks.

A Chat With Pixar’s Ed Catmull and Jon M. Chu (42-min watch)
Ok, I’m going to admit I haven’t watched this yet, but it’s in my queue, and I’ve never read or watched anything involving Ed Catmull that wasn’t brilliant and insightful about creativity and storytelling. So queue it up for the weekend and enjoy!

Why Marathons Are Hard (5-min read)
Matt Webb is one of the OG bloggers, and I love the way his writing gives you an insight into how his mind works (and it’s an incredible mind!) Here he shares his experience of running his first marathon, taking a systems approach to really understand his body. I like running, but this reminded me why I will never attempt a marathon!

How Quentin Blake Draws (2-min read)
I absolutely love reading anything about how creative people make things, as the nuance of personal habits and crafts are always so insightful. This example from the god-like talent Quentin Blake is short, but really insightful, especially on the role of failure: “It's not impossible for me to find myself at the end of a session of work surrounded by expensive sheets of watercolour paper with a small face bearing not quite the right expression in the middle of each.”

I really like writing this bit of the email, as it feels like a secret section for our most awesome and loyal readers. So if you got this far, hit reply and tell me what the best thing you’re watching, listening to or reading is right now, as I’m looking for inspiration for the long weekend. In return, I’ll give you a couple of things I’m loving to add to your list.

Thanks - see you next week!

Matt, Anjali, Hugh and the rest of Team Storythings