The Genius of Wordle, a Great Storytelling Exercise and Examples of Smart Marketing Copy

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10 stories we've enjoyed this week

Illustration of black woman wearing orange round glasses and an orange top and skirt. The shirt has a print of fruit and seeds all over it. The background is blue with a similar print.

Illustration by Shanee Benjamin - Work with her

Hi All,
I'm going to be doing a talk about formats for Rise and Shine. They do great work in providing free talks and workshops for anyone working in audio, regardless of their income. It's all happening on Zoom and streamed live on YouTube. You don't have to pay but you do have to book a place in the link above. Join us.

We're always scouring social media for new talent to add to our freelancer database. We're making quite a lot of video at the moment so if you're an editor or animator and want to be added just send me a link to your work.

In 2021 we did a lot of work helping clients understand the kind of content their audiences are engaging with. If you wanted to chat with us about how we do this, and why it's such valuable knowledge, get in touch.

OK. Enough from us. Enjoy this week's stories.
Hugh

The Short Story

Formats Unpacked: Wordle
(5 min read)

Reuters: Journalism, Media and Tech Trend Predictions 2022
(Report)

The 200/50 Storytelling Exercise
(7 min read)

Are We Still Living in Andy Warhol's America
(5 min read)

Learning New Skills>Applying Old Skills
(11 min read)

Endless Answers to 49 Questions Asked on MetaFilter
(5 min read)

A Collection of Great Marketing Copy Examples
(Collection)

The 5 Levels of Tech Hype
(6 min read)

Trailer: Dramatic Reboot of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
(3 min watch)

The Story of Why Fruit Was Chosen to Appear on Fruit Machines
(1 min read)

A hand drawn graph mapping out times in poeple's day that could be filled with audio contend. From left (morning) to right (evening), boxes suggest when the New York Times audio might fit into people's days. Starting left we have 'Gym' and 'Commute' in the morning, in the middle it's 'Work' and to the right of that are 'Commute', 'Free Time' and .Chores'. The Gym, Commute and Chores offer the best times to provide audio.

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

Formats Unpacked: Wordle
As 2021 drew to a close, who knew that what was needed to lift the gloom was a simple word game? If you're wondering why Wordle has taken the world by storm then you may enjoy this unpacking: "It’s doesn’t want to be your needy new friend. It doesn’t try to sell you anything and it doesn’t want to know a single thing about you. This, again, makes it feel like a throwback to a more innocent and joyful time messing around on the internet."
(5 min read)

Reuters: Journalism, Media and Tech Trend Predictions 2022
I try not to share too many reports like this as they can be quite overwhelming. However, Nic Newman has been producing this report for years, and compared to some of the others out there, it's pretty solid. There's a great section on how news is moving to audio in a big way, and not just by making podcasts. There's also a great bit on how more diverse editors will look to introduce new formats in order to address the problem of divisive and confrontational formats that have become more popular. It's definitely worth bookmarking if you don't have time to read it now.
(Report)

The 200/50 Storytelling Exercise
I make no apologies for linking to George Saunders brilliant Substack for the second week running. Subscribe now if you want to improve your writing. This piece is about how restraints can really give your stories focus and get you to the action quicker. He noted that his exercises (to write a 200-word story using only 50 unique words) made the stories funnier and more entertaining: "The part of her mind that would usually be thinking about her themes or preserving her style or the piece’s goal or her politics is being kept busy counting words. Which allows another part of her mind to step forward, a less conscious, more playful part."
(7 min read)

Are We Still Living in Andy Warhol's America
I'm currently enjoying Andy Warhol's America, a new three-part series on iPlayer. It has a fantastic soundtrack. This piece in the FT questions whether simply pointing to the was world enough to earn him the place in the artistic pantheon which he so desperately craved? Should we have asked for more? A vision; an insight; a moral judgment or two?
(5 min read)

Learning New Skills>Applying Old Skills
A year ago Kevin McGuire launched a Substack about being a father. To mark the first birthday he's written his 10 learnings about running his newsletter which now has almost 3000 subscribers - many of them paying. If you're considering launching a newsletter that readers will pay for, this is a great read.
(11 min read)

Endless Answers to 49 Questions Asked on MetaFilter
'Ask MetaFilter' is a brilliant resource that you can spend hours browsing. Friend of Storythings, Phil Gyford, pulled together 49 questions he's asked there in 2021. Dive in and find recommendations for all kinds of things, including suggestions for good non-fiction books by fiction writers, how to become an artist later in life, advice for first-time homeowners, how scams work, and more.
(5 min read)

A Collection of Great Marketing Copy Examples
A huge collection of great copy used in marketing. Hover over each example for an explainer as to why each piece of copy works.
(Collection)

The 5 Levels of Tech Hype
This is interesting. Johannes Klingebiel works in innovation and spends a lot of his time reading trend reports, press releases and tech journalism. "Hype is everywhere, oozing out of the headlines of news articles, growing like mold all over my LinkedIn feed, and blinking at me whenever I open my inbox." He's currently working on a project to help him cut through the hype and has begun by developing these 5 levels. Having a scale like this is quite useful at a time when I'm questioning how much attention I give to stories about the metaverse, Web3, crypto, NFTs etc.
(5 min read)

Trailer: Dramatic Reboot of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
I'm loving the look of this.
(3 min watch)

The Story of Why Fruit Was Chosen to Appear on Fruit Machines
Hands up those of you who knew this...
(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 Genius of Wordle, a Great Storytelling Exercise and Examples of Smart Marketing Copy

10 stories we've enjoyed this week

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