A Terrible Hotel With a Brilliant Tone of Voice, Smart Visualisation of the Mini-Budget and Why Humour in Ads Works

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10 stories we've enjoyed this week

Three figures are lying down asleep in the foreground surrounded by patterned cushions; behind them is a fragmented cityscape caught in purple flames, with an orange sun centred in the background. The image has a purple border with repeated purple stars.

Illustration by Aude Nasr – Work with Aude

Hi All,
We've been using Mailchimp to distribute this newsletter for almost a decade. It's served us well. But we've decided to switch to Substack. Don't worry, you don't have to do anything. You probably won't even notice. I just wanted to let you know.

We're making the change because Stubstack drives a lot of sign-ups to Formats Unpacked through community recommendations. I want to grow this community and recommendations from readers are the best way to do it.

That's it from us for another week. Have a really wonderful weekend and enjoy the stories.
Hugh

The Short Story

Visualisation of the Impact of the Mini-Budget
(5 min play)

Terrible Hotel. Brilliant Tone of Voice.
(5 min read)

Bill Drummond: the Five Lessons I Learned From Ken Campbell
(9 min read)

Why Brands Shy Away From Humour and Why They Shouldn't
(4 min read)

How to Make Business Stories Look Great
(4 minutes)

How A Political Scandal Brought About Women's Rights in Marriage
(27 min listen)

Richard Edelman on the Future of PR
(3 min read)

Formats Unpacked: Red Table Talks
(7 min read)

How Sign Language Innovators Are Bringing Music to the Deaf
(7 min watch)

Jack Nicholson's Wonderful Oscar Acceptance Speech
(90 second watch)

The image consists of three posters for a hotel. The first features a cleaner's hand wearing a rubber glove opening a hotel door. The background is pink. The caption reads "Sort for being amazing at disturbing you." The second poster is a hand holding a dirty sock between two fingers. The background is yellow. The caption reads "Sorry for being excellent at losing your luggage." The third poster is a hand holding a toilet roll with no toilet paper on it. The Background is brown. The caption reads "Sorry for being the best at ignoring your complaints."

How can we help you?

Storythings is a strategy and content company based in Brighton and London. We'd love to help you with some creative and bold ideas.

Here's 3 reasons to get in touch.

1. You want to talk to us about content production: podcasts, videos, animations, illustrations, editorial.

2. You want to talk to us about content strategy or format development.

3. You want to create a brand or an identity that makes it easier to communicate your message.

We do other things too. We're very friendly and always enjoy meeting people, so get in touch.

The Full Story

Visualisation of the Impact of the Mini-Budget
Just click and scroll. And keep going until you get to the end. This is excellent visual storytelling from Led by Donkeys.
(5 min play)

Terrible Hotel. Brilliant Tone of Voice.
Another outstanding tone of voice case study which I guarantee will make you laugh, out loud, on at least three occasions. This hotel has gloriously embraced its shitness, producing posters and videos that make you instantly want to share, book a room and tell the story of your visit. If you work in comms and don't already subscribe to the always reliable Tone Knob, hit the subscribe button now.
(5 min read)

Bill Drummond: the Five Lessons I Learned From Ken Campbell
I could listen to Bill read a telephone directory and learn something new from it. Here he shares what he learned from the strange wisdom passed on to him by theatre maverick Ken Campbell at the beginning of his career. It's full of fantastic stories about both men and shines a light on why both of their careers are so fascinating. "Is it heroic?" definitely feels like a poster waiting to be made.
(8 min read)

Why Brands Shy Away From Humour and Why They Shouldn't
I loved the Three Kids on Rollerskates ad in this. It took a second, but the pay-off was a nice little brain-tingle. Following on from the Terrible Hotel story above, this is a good read on why brands opt for frictionless messaging rather than risk, and what going for the latter says to the audience: "Humour of this type pays a compliment to people. It implicitly says: 'You? Whoever you are, you’re smart enough to figure this out.' And paying a compliment is a pretty good way of getting someone interested in what you’re selling. And, at the same time, making them feel good about themselves, too."
(4 min read)

How to Make Business Stories Look Great
How you visualise business stories has always been something we care a lot about at Storythings. We always try to steer clear of stock photo handshakes, LinkedIn headshots and all the other cliches of business publishing. There are some great examples in this piece on how Businessweek really shook things up.
(4 min read)

How A Political Scandal Brought About Women's Rights in Marriage
Don't let the current political turmoil put you off wanting to know more about our democratic system. In this episode of How We Got Here, a podcast we make for UK Parliament, we tell the remarkable story of Caroline Norton. Following a political scandal, Caroline went from outcast to activist in pursuit of access to her children, creating the first laws granting women rights in marriage.
(27 min listen)

Richard Edelman on the Future of PR
"We're going to have to do much more through company channels or brand channels, because I see continued shrinkage of media. The amazing statistic from the Edelman Trust Barometer is the most credible source of information is 'my company’s newsletter'. That’s affecting how people think. Our business can be big in employee communications." This was one of a few quotes that caught my attention from this interview. We run a couple of newsletters for clients and would love to talk to anyone thinking about making better use of a company newsletter.
(3 min read)

Formats Unpacked: Red Table Talks
I really like it when a format I've never watched gets unpacked. It always delivers delightful surprises. Before Patricia Yaker Ekall sent me her unpacking, I'd only ever read about the Facebook show. Hosted by one of Hollywood's most famous families, the show has built a huge audience by not steering clear of tough subjects despite their celebrity. Find out why Patricia thinks this show's format works so well.
(7 min read)

How Sign Language Innovators Are Bringing Music to the Deaf
I love it when a viral video of an ASL interpreter working on stage at a concert drops into my stream. It really is an underappreciated skill for those who don't have hearing loss. This video of Amber Galloway Gallego, who specialises in the performing arts and music, really drove home how important interpreting music, not just the words, is. Amber has interpreted for over 400 artists with a specialty in interpreting hip-hop acts like Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Her Whitney Houston example really stuck with me.
(7 min watch)

Jack Nicholson's Wonderful Oscar Acceptance Speech
When Jack won his Oscar for Chinatown he was away filming One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. So, they went live by satellite where Jack received his Oscar on set with the rest of the patients. And Nurse Ratched.
(90 second watch)

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 here and get it direct to your inbox every Friday.

Thanks for reading and see you all next week,

Hugh, Matt, Anjali and the team at Storythings

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A Terrible Hotel With a Brilliant Tone of Voice, Smart Visualisation of the Mini-Budget and Why Humour in Ads Works

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