Hello!

After winning a bunch of awards in October, Phoenixed, a podcast we made for the GPA has now been shortlisted for an International Content Marketing Award. Phoenixed is the story of a payroll scandal that has gripped Canada and has lots of similarities to the British Post Office scandal. We’re incredibly proud to have found and told this story for the GPA. If you’d like us to help you find and tell multi-award-winning stories that help customers understand your value just hit that big button below.

Speaking of stories, here are ten for you. Have a great weekend!

Hugh

How Nick Cave Uses a Newsletter to Create Empathy (7-minute read)

The Banality of Online Recommendation Culture (7-minute read)

Blanding is Still Going Strong (5-minute read)

Do Personas Help Create Better Design (6-minute read)

Unraveling the Economic Disruptions at the Heart of Hollywood’s Future (8-minute read)

How to Use Story Prototyping to Save Money and Reduce Risk (8-minute read)

Why Is This Interesting?: The Luxury Train Car Edition (5-minute read)

Household Surealism: Clothesline Animals (1-minute read)

Netflix New ‘Moment’ Feature (2-minute read)

Making a Marketer Documentary (1.5 hour watch)

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 want to tell better stories” – 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 help making things” – 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. 

How Nick Cave Uses a Newsletter to Create Empathy (7-minute read)
This week’s Formats Unpacked finally gets around to Nick Cave’s brilliant Red Hand Files. It’s a wonderful unpacking by Joel Stein and is a must-read for anyone interested in creating intimacy with your audience. It also contains a brilliant quote about Nick’s three favourite words.

The Banality of Online Recommendation Culture (7-minute read)
The rise of algorithmic recommendations has resulted in a surge of human recommendation formats. As Kyle Chayka points out “In a world of scarcity, we treasure tools. In a world of abundance, we treasure taste,” and with great taste comes kudos. But it’s not without its downsides: “Sharing recommendations online now can present a quandary when it comes to spreading things you are deeply, personally passionate about: if the algorithmic content feeds get hold of it, it’s likely to be blasted to millions of people and erode your personal claim to whatever the thing is that you love. (Or worse, fed into the maw of generative A.I. and reproduced.) A restaurant grows insurmountably booked; a musician’s work gets churned through social-media discourse. It might be safer just to recommend nasal spray.”

Do Personas Help Create Better Design (6-minute read)
Personas spark mixed feelings in the world of design. Some see them as crucial for pushing creative boundaries and crafting emotionally resonant brand experiences. Others prefer to focus on things like behaviors or emotional barriers rather than demographics. This piece looks at two sides of the argument, shows examples to support both, and questions how AI-driven synthetic data might impact the future use of personas.

Blanding is Still Going Strong (5-minute read)
When Paypal recently announced a brand refresh it faced criticism for being bland and unimaginative. It’s the latest in a long line of companies blanding together, sacrificing personality for stripped-back aesthetics that work well on smaller screens. While this look is not going to disappear anytime soon, smart brands like Burberry and a few newcomers are finding differentiation by bucking the trend.

Unraveling the Economic Disruptions at the Heart of Hollywood’s Future (8-minute read)
While Covid and the writer’s strike have impacted Hollywood in recent years, the biggest challenge has come from somewhere else. This two-part series takes a look at the biggest threat to the industry going forward. It looks back through history at the major events that changed Hollywood. Part two also features a 1988 TV debate on the ethics of a new piece of software called Photoshop. This is a great read for anyone interested in how industries navigate change.

How to Use Story Prototyping to Save Money and Reduce Risk (8-minute read)
In the fourth part of our series on how to find your brand’s story, we explore the one thing the media industry does better than marketing - story development. As This American Life founder and host Ira Glass points out, the ability to quickly and cheaply find, develop, and test stories is critical to creating a hit format that people come back to time and time again. This American Life’s capacity to develop stories that might not work is critical to their success

Why Is This Interesting?: The Luxury Train Car Edition (5-minute read)
Our very own Matt Locke recently discovered that in the US you can have your own private rail car. Like a private jet, only it’s a rail car. Naturally, this took him down a rabbit hole that he’s only just reappeared from. Thankfully he’s written all about his findings for Why Is This Interesting.

Household Surealism: Clothesline Animals (1-minute read)
I’ve got a lot of love for this idea. Afterall, if you can make hanging your clothes out a creative endeavour then your day has just got a lot better.

Netflix New ‘Moment’ Feature (2-minute read)
There’s a great article above that questions the value of personas in design. At Storythings, we tend to focus more on behaviours rather than demographics. I love this new feature from Netflix because it is so simple yet built around a behaviour I want to do all the time whilst watching movies.

Making a Marketer Documentary (1.5 hour watch)
Something to bookmark and watch later. This feature-length documentary tackles today’s biggest marketing challenges, featuring insights from Prof. Byron Sharp, Prof. Mark Ritson, Zoe Scaman, Tom Roach, and other industry leaders. It features strategies for small and medium-sized businesses to thrive, and essential tips for marketers aiming to stay ahead.

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That’s it for this week! We hope you enjoyed our curation of stories. Ask everyone you know to subscribe - we’d really appreciate it!

Thanks for reading. Till next week!

Hugh, Matt, Anjali and the rest of Team Storythings