Hey all,

Wanna hang out with us a bunch of other lovely creatives for an hour next week? Join us for Proper Fancy, on Thursday, May 23rd at 1 PM (BST).

Proper Fancy is a team show and tell that we open to everyone. It’s an hour of us all sharing the things that have tickled our fancy this month. It can be anything from videos, audio, branding, or the simplest, silliest of things that some people might not think worthy of comment but we do. I’ll be joined on co-hosting duties by Required Fields’ Jamie Gower.

If you make content but struggle to understand why it isn’t connecting with your audience we can help. Our Content Audit will give you more certainty on where to place your content production budgets, highlight where you have opportunities to grow, and give you a better understanding of your audience and what they want to see from your brand. Hit that button below if you’d like to find out more.

OK. I’m hitting send and heading off into the weekend. Enjoy the stories and have a good one.

Hugh

Why Movies and Albums Got So Long (7-min read)

Why Creatives Will Win by Thinking Small (8-min read)

How to Find Your Original Voice in This Noisy World (3-min read)

Fixing Work Culture Starts With Calendars, Not Offices (5-min read)

People Want What Others Desire (2-min read)

Formats Unpacked: Game Changer (6-min read)

Creativity Cannot Be Crushed (1-min watch)

Fredrik Bachman on Creative Anxiety and Procrastination (4-min watch)

New Bobby Fingers - Fabio and the Goose (24-min watch)

How We Made: Valerie by The Zutons and Mark Ronson (4-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. 

Why Movies and Albums Got So Long (7-min read)

Whilst commentators have talked about attention spans getting shorter over the last decade, we’ve been pointing people to the idea that attention is a spectrum. In a previous era media fit neat containers, often defined by physical restrictions. An extremely short or long film might only be shown in an arthouse cinema. But now we will binge seasons in a day. This piece by Vox looks at how the album and movies got longer whilst songs and scenes got shorter.

Why Creatives Will Win by Thinking Small (8-min read)

A good read on why 35 of the biggest names in Hollywood have invested in a 93-year-old cinema. It’s not just about preserving it for historic value, but about having access to audiences without anyone getting in the way. As Ted Gioia points out, even the gatekeepers are sick of dealing with gatekeepers.

How to Find Your Original Voice in This Noisy World (3-min read)

Adam Westbrook makes excellent videos for the New York Times. He’s also a graphic novel writer and writes a really good newsletter filled with writing advice. Here he talks about the classic ‘Write what you know’ advice and why he prefers ‘Write what only you know.’

Fixing Work Culture Starts With Calendars, Not Offices (5-min read)

In the last few years, the amount of time we spend in meetings has doubled. Yet some bosses see broken work cultures and declare 'we need more office time'. In this Presence deck Bruce Daisley lays out the case to tackle the big challenge of modern work - designing our use of calendar time.

People Want What Others Desire (2-min read)

Once upon a time, the lobster wasn’t a luxury at all. It was known as the poor man’s meal. But then the railway came along and changed everything. Find out how, and other great stories, via Miguel Ferreira’s Creative Samba.

Formats Unpacked: Game Changer (6-min read)

Our very own Matt Locke unpacks a new kind of game show that is a format all about formats: “It looks like an ordinary, even cliched, game show, with deliberately retro production design and theme music. But there’s a really important twist - the contestants don’t have any idea what game they’re playing. They have to start playing to learn the rules of the game format for each episode, and every episode has a completely different format.”

Creativity Cannot Be Crushed (1-min watch)

Samsung's response to Apple is quite delightful!

Fredrik Backman on Creative Anxiety and Procrastination (4-min watch)

If you watch one video from this week’s newsletter, watch this hilarious talk from Fredrik Backman. The author talks about the highs and lows of being an author, from attempting to get along with the voices in your brain, to the hidden joys of jet lag.

New Bobby Fingers - Fabio and the Goose (24-min watch)

If you’re new to the world of Bobby Fingers, let this video be your introduction. 25 years ago, male model Fabio took a ride on a rollercoaster and was hit in the face by a passing goose whilst traveling at 75 miles per hour. Bobby Fingers tells the story as he creates a diorama of the incident.

How We Made: Valerie by The Zutons and Mark Ronson (4-min read)

I’m a huge fan of this Guardian format. I always read it. Here the Zutons and Mark Ronson discuss making the two versions of Valerie. The last line from Mark about his memory of Amy Winehouse singing her version really got me.

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.