The Most Effective Content Formats in 2021, Worry as a Form of Craft and the Greatest Slogan That Never Was

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10 stories we've enjoyed this week

Three illustrations of a woman with a white afro. Her head is popping out of the top of an ice cream cone. In the first picture sprinkles are falling onto her hair. In the second picture the sprinkles are on her hair and she has an afro comb in her hair. In the third picture some kind of sticky topping is being poured on to her hair.

Illustration by She is This - Work with her

Hi All,
Hope the first week back has treated you well. Did everyone else kick a load of jobs from that last week of work into the first week of the new year and end up regretting it like I did? Or just me.

Anyway. That's my excuse for not getting a Formats Unpacked out on Wednesday. Normal service resumes next week. I did, however, manage to pull together some stories for you today though.

Enjoy them all and have a fantastic weekend.
Hugh

The Short Story

Worry as a Form of Craft
(9 min read)

The Greatest Slogan, Mission Statement and Brand Value That Never Was
(5 min read)

What is Deep Narrative Change?
(Twitter thread)

A Series of Posts About Brand Strategy
(11 min read)

The Controversial New Apple 911 Watch Advert
(1 min read)

The Three Musketeers and the Danger of Poorly Set Targets
(1 min read)

Report: The Most Effective B2B Content Formats in 2021
(4 min read)

A List of Everything Steven Soderbergh Watched and Read in 2021
(List)

The Betty White Timeline of Human History
(2 min read)

Talking Heads 'Naive Melody' as a 1950s Housing Development Advertisement
(1 min read)

1950s style poster featuring a couple and a small child on a tricycle entering a new, 1950 style home. The poster features quotes from the song as advertising slogans.

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

Worry as a Form of Craft
I loved this piece from George Saunders Story Club about how worrying about our creative work is a form of craft: "Sometimes, maybe, worrying can be a form of off-the-page revision. That moment described above, when I 'solved' my story 'Bohemians,' happened when I wasn’t actively working. I was just…worrying. And in the process of worrying, I had a moment of real honesty about what was ailing my story. This is what makes writing so perplexing and so fascinating. Any concept we have about it will get destroyed. It has to. Art doesn’t run on concepts. The thing is too big to be reduced or phoned-in; it hates the stink of AutoPilot. So, here’s a thought: 'craft' might just consist in cobbling together an approach that allows us efficient access to our sub-conscious mind."
(9 min read)

The Greatest Slogan, Mission Statement and Brand Value That Never Was
In the first Tone Knob of the year, Nick Parker asks 'Can you sum up a brand in one word?' and looks at Zodiac Entertainment's missed opportunity to give themselves the greatest slogan ever.
(5 min read)

What is Deep Narrative Change?
A great Twitter thread, which includes a really interesting paper, on deep narrative change. Deep narratives are those that sit beneath other more specific narratives - ones that we often talk about when discussing particular social and environmental issues. Deep narrative change can be encapsulated in three broad approaches; understanding that we are more than the sum of our parts, finding a common cause, and deep narrative immersion.
(Twitter thread)

A Series of Posts About Brand Strategy
Richard Huntington has been doing brand strategy since the early nineties. In that time he has helped share the story of brands such as Tango, the AA, First Direct and EE. To kick off a new year he is sharing what he's learned about strategy through a series of posts via his excellent Adliterate blog. If brand strategy is your thing, it's worth keeping an eye on over the coming weeks.
(11 min read)

The Controversial New Apple 911 Watch Advert
Using genuine 911 calls doesn't sit well with me, or using fear as an incentive to sell watches. I'm delighted Jason, Jim and Amanda were rescued. But the simplicity of this tells us something about the power of audio in a visual world.
(1 min watch)

The Three Musketeers and the Danger of Poorly Set Targets
As we set targets for the year ahead, here's a reminder of why we need to pay close attention to what we measure.
(1 min read)

Report: The Most Effective B2B Content Formats in 2021
The Content Marketing Institute’s 12th Annual B2B Content Marketing report has been published. It breaks down which content assets were most used by marketers over the past year and which content assets produced the best results for marketers in the same period. The people at Revmade broke down all the formats into 4 useful categories and plotted them on a graph. Useful for anyone planning their content formats for the next year. If you do need any help planning or developing your content formats, you know where we are.
(4 min read)

A List of Everything Steven Soderbergh Watched and Read in 2021
Our end-of-year media buffet went down very well with you all. Steven Soderbergh was the first person I saw doing this kind of thing. Here's his list for 2021. It's great to know that in amongst all the high-quality viewing, he's still keeping up with the latest episode of Below Deck.
(List)

The Betty White Timeline of Human History
It's crazy to think that the Renaissance was only 5 Betty Whites ago or that the Enlightenment was just 2 Betty White's ago. This excellent idea was posted on Twitter the week before her death and a couple of weeks before her 100th birthday. Regardless, I think I'll always think of history in terms of how many Betty White's ago that was.
(2 min read)

Talking Heads 'Naive Melody' as a 1950s Housing Development Advertisement
Todd Alcott gives the Talking Heads classic his poster treatment and it's wonderful.
(1 min read)

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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The Most Effective Content Formats in 2021, Worry as a Form of Craft and the Greatest Slogan That Never Was

10 stories we've enjoyed this week

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