Hey all,

It’s Easter bank holiday weekend and we all want to get off to the pub, so I’ll keep this short.

We’ve got this thing if you need it!

Regular reader Ash is doing this!

That’s all. Have the wildest of weekends. Enjoy the stories. And your eggs.

Hugh

I need a content audit

Formats Unpacked: How I Built This (6-min read)

When the client gives Frida Kahlo and Vincent Van Gogh feedback (3-min watch)

A Visual Connection Engine (Interactive)

Writing Advice in the Form of Music (2-min read)

The Death of the Follower and the Future of Creativity (45-min watch)

Why You Should Build Associative Attention and How to Do It (15-min read)

Brilliant Quotes From Daniel Kahneman (2-min read)

List of Aesthetics (resource)

Boredom is a Symptom (4-min read)

Should I Post This on LinkedIn? (1-min 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 and newsletter.

We do other things too. Get in touch for a FREE 30 minute consultation. 

Free 30 minute consultation

Formats Unpacked: How I Built This (6-min read)
"Hmmm. A podcast about entrepreneurs. We need more of them, right?" Well, this is what I thought in 2016 when this new podcast started to fight for my attention. After all, business podcast listening was already peaking with StartUp, Tim Ferriss and more. So how did How I Built This manage to sound different and make a giant splash in such a crowded space?

When the client gives Frida Kahlo and Vincent Van Gogh feedback (3-min watch)
This is very very good! So good it’s museum worthy.

A Visual Connection Engine (Interactive)
The brilliant Ian Edgar shared this at Proper Fancy earlier today and it’s wonderful! Pick something. Anything. Click on it and get lost in a river of visual connections.

Writing Advice in the Form of Music (2-min read)
”This sentence has five words” is a much-loved quote from author and writing instructor Gary Provost that you may have already come across. It’s a wonderful example of how great writing features sentences of varying sizes. I love this link so much because it uses music to demonstrate what the rhythm of sentences sounds like. I’m all for reduction, but some advertising professionals have gone to the extreme and now only write in haikus.

The Death of the Follower and the Future of Creativity (45-min watch)
If you really want to understand how we have got to where we are in 2024, where all the followers we have amassed over the last decade and a half now belong to the platforms and not to you, this talk is worth bookmarking and watching when you have a spare 45 minutes. Patreon CEO Jack Conte explains how the current internet algorithms are killing the traditional "follower" for creators, threatening their creative freedom and livelihoods.

Why You Should Build Associative Attention and How To Do It (15-min read)
A good read on attention and how on its own, it won’t get people to buy your brand. The piece suggests that you need to be more specific and focus on building Associative Attention. Whilst this focuses mostly on campaigns, we’ve been evangelists for serialised content formats for so long. Formats give brands the consistency mentioned that is essential for building and reinforcing those associations.

Brilliant Quotes From Daniel Kahneman (2-min read)
The Nobel-prize winner and Godfather of behavioural economics sadly passed away this week. His wisdom helped me change the way I think in so many ways. Read his books, listen to his podcast interviews and enjoy a couple of his thoughts on thinking.

List of Aesthetics (resource)
This is such a useful wiki for designers or anyone creating visual content. It’s a huge - really huge - wiki filled with information and visual references for pretty much every aesthetic you could think of. Minimalist, Mob Wife, Modernism, Medieval, Maximalism, Mermaid, MS Paint, Mid-West Emo, Metalcore, Metalheart, Metrosexual, Messy French It Girl…and that’s just a small taster of the ‘M’ category.

Boredom is a Symptom (4-min read)
A good read on why you shouldn’t let boredom push you to tear everything apart and start again. We get bored through repetition which isn’t a bad thing; perhaps things just need reframing a little: “Boredom is a symptom of time, then, and quite possibly nothing else! So instead of trashing all your money-making service offerings, maybe just take a fresh look at them, rename them, illustrate them better, try selling them differently, inject some data quantification, or whatever. The idea is to do more refreshing and less starting over.”

Should I Post This on LinkedIn? (1-min read)
Excellent! Actually, I probably should’ve posted this on LinkedIn!

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.