Hello!

Just a very quick ask from us before we jump into this week’s stories. We’re kicking off a new audience research project for a cultural sector client in the UK, and we’re looking for people to interview about how you find and share art and culture stories online. We’re particularly interested in people outside of the sector, so if you’re a bit art-curious and fancy earning some extra Xmas spending money, we’d love your help, starting with this short questionnaire.

OK. Enough of this sales talk. You’re here for the links so here they are. Have a great weekend.

Hugh

Is Creativity Dead (5-minute watch)

The Six New Ways of Communicating (8-minute read)

A Massive File Filled With Trend Reports (huge file)

Thinking of Going Solo? Read This (10-minute read)

Hype Without Substance Always Fails (4-minute read)

A Soft Murmur Ambient Sound Generator (tool)

Marmite, Attractiveness, and the Stolen Thunder Effect (7-minute read)

14 Self-Portraits by Pablo Picasso Show the Evolution of His Style (2-minute read)

Is the Love Song Dead? Boomer Bob Says It Is (interactive)

Inside the Improbable Rise of One of the Year’s Best TV Shows (8-minute 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 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. 

Is Creativity Dead (5-minute watch)
“Everything looks the same. Everything sounds the same.” We’ve been hearing this a lot recently, and we’ve been talking about it in our newsletters in the context of marketing for the last few years. Filmmaker Kirby Ferguson argues that our culture appears to be plagued by a dearth of creativity too. However, beneath the surface of mainstream culture, there is gold to be found if it wasn’t for the ‘powerful force’ suppressing it.

The Six New Ways of Communicating (8-minute read)
This is a good read on how the new rules of communication go against beliefs held by the media for decades: “The Age of the Talking Head is over. Broadcasters will feel the pinch. But so will almost everbody else—politicians, educators, doctors, ministers, coaches, managers, and any other individual who needs to exercise leadership in any group setting whatsoever. Many are not ready for this. Some will believe that they are immune to change, and will keep bullying from the bully pulpit. Don’t be one of them—because their power and influence will erode very quickly. We will revisit this in the future.”

A Massive File Filled With Trend Reports (huge file)
For 5 years the wonderful Amy Daroukakis and friends have been collecting trend reports, dropping them in a Google Drive and sharing them with the world. There’s a trend report for everything and everyone in this year’s file - Gen Z trends, digital marketing trends, colour trends, consumer trends etc. Here’s something fun to do. Pick a trend report on something that you know absolutely nothing about. Add it to Google’s Notebook and ask it to create a short audio summary for you.

Thinking of Going Solo? Read This (10-minute read)
Another lovely bit of generosity comes from Zoe Scaman who has shared this excellent list of tips and advice for anyone thinking about starting out on their own. Thinking back to when I first went solo I would have loved this, particularly Zoe’s excellent advice on charging.

Hype Without Substance Always Fails (4-minute read)
Entrepreneur and Lovie Awards co-founder Nicolas Roope has a new column for Design Week that is worth keeping an eye out for. He kicks it off with this piece about an energy drink brand that zagged whilst its competition zigged, avoiding the temptation to have hype at the heart of his strategy: “For us, it’s always been about two things: creating a genuinely better product and maintaining a true commitment to our communities. That’s the foundation. If there’s ever excitement around the brand, it’s because those values resonate with people – not because we’ve engineered some viral moment.”

A Soft Murmur Ambient Sound Generator (tool)
There are quite a few ambient sound tools out there but this one caught my attention. It has a lovely set of sounds and faders that allow you to mix sounds together. For example, you can mix rain with cicadas and fire or wind with sound bowls and birds.

Marmite, Attractiveness and the Stolen Thunder Effect (7-minute read)
Love it or hate it, you cannot fail to notice it. Marmite is one of the longest-running slogans in advertising and its success is down to the Stolen Thunder Effect. Writer and behaviour expert Richard Shotton uses data from criminal trials to demonstrate the impact admitting to our defects can have on our attractiveness.

14 Self-Portraits by Pablo Picasso Show the Evolution of His Style (2-minute read)
Watching someone’s style develop over time is fascinating. Here we get to see it through a series of self-portraits of Pablo Picasso, the first of the artist at the age of 14 and the last at the age of 90.

Is the Love Song Dead? Boomer Bob Says It Is (interactive)
The Pudding investigates whether the love song really is in decline. According to Boomer Bob it is and the data seems to back his argument up. But that’s if you define the love song as Bob might. Back in the 60s a lot of love songs in the top 10 were serenades. This interactive demonstrates how new forms of love songs have evolved over the decades.

Inside the Improbable Rise of One of the Year’s Best TV Shows (8-minute read)
Say Nothing is one of my favourite books of the last decade so I was naturally a little concerned when I discovered it had been made into a 9-part series for Disney+. It doesn’t disappoint though. It’s probably my favourite show of the year. The book tells the story of two sisters from Belfast who join the IRA during The Troubles. It’s based on a collection of tape recordings of IRA members who told their stories on the basis that they would be locked in a vault in Boston University until they died and only then would they be made public. This piece speaks to the writers and producers as well as cast members Josh Finan (Gerry Adams) and Maxine Peake (Dolours Price).

There you go - 10 links to take you into the weekend. Have a great time wherever and whatever you’re doing, and if you see something you think we should share in the newsletter, send it over by hitting reply.

Till next week!

Hugh, Matt, Anjali and the rest of Team Storythings

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