Corporate news releases bogged down by fuzzy language, jargon, and men

National Storytelling Week is the Society for Storytelling’s annual jamboree of all things story. And, as for each of the last four years, here at corporate and brand storytelling consultancy Insight Agents, we’re marking the week by publishing some new research. In our line of fire this year? The humble – and often overblown – […]
Is Magnum the new Flake?

Spoiler alert: this blog gives everything away about the new Magnum ad, so if you want to see it ‘au naturel’ and experience it as its writers and directors intended, you might want to watch it first. Here’s a link, with thanks to @Campaignmag. There are so many things to like about the new Magnum […]
Whatever happened to advertising?

When the last episode of the seventh and final season of Mad Men aired in May 2015, it was like the last bunch of grapes being lovingly twisted from the vine. A sign that something good had come to an end, and that a period of retrenchment – and a whole lot of fertilizer – […]
Marc Pritchard: metaphorically speaking

Marc Pritchard is the chief brand officer of the world’s biggest advertiser, P&G. He – and his company – need little introduction. I singled him out in a blog last Friday for the genuine impact he is having in the digital advertising market. If only the PR measurement industry had such a potent force to shake […]
5 brilliant reasons why #ThisGirlCan

On Saturday, my gorgeous, gutsy, sassy wife took her Lewes Ladies veterans football team to Southampton to play in the first round of the FA People’s Cup. They played six, won four, drew one, lost one. Runners up on the day, and through to the next round in March. I couldn’t be more proud. Lewes […]
Stronger stories seed success

This blog originally appeared as a guest blog on the Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce website, here. — It may have escaped your notice, but last week was National Storytelling Week. Run for the past 17 years by the Society for Storytelling, the week is an annual focus for the Society to promote the […]
8 ways to tell better brand stories

Last week was the Society for Storytelling’s annual ‘National Storytelling Week’. Up and down the country, dozens of events celebrated the power and impact of the oral storytelling tradition. In schools, hospitals, workplaces, libraries, and care homes. At Insight Agents – our corporate and brand storytelling business – we support the Society in its mission and […]
Talk human

This is the sixth and final blog in our special series to mark National Storytelling Week 2017, focused on the words companies and brands use to tell their stories. It’s a strange truism of corporate communications that as soon as they’re required to write “for” or “as” the business, perfectly eloquent individuals adopt a register that’s […]
Observe the cocktail party rule

This is the fifth in a series of blogs to mark National Storytelling Week 2017, focused on the words companies and brands use to tell their stories. Corporations that grow and endure over time can be justifiably proud of building a sustainable business. But boasting about how brilliant they are to demonstrate their superiority over […]
Use data and statistics to tell your tale

This is the fourth in a series of blogs to mark National Storytelling Week 2017, focused on the words companies and brands use to tell their stories. In their very readable book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, brothers Chip and Dan Heath quote the following statistic with self-conscious irony: “After […]