A nightmare on Downing Street
A cautionary tale of how to fail at data storytelling – with a few jokes thrown in During the hastily cobbled-together press conference to announce and justify lockdown 2.0 on Halloween, I could tell something strange was happening. At the time, I was watching Liverpool nervously climb back to the top of the Premiership in […]
Theresa May failed because of her inability to talk Human
She is at rest, and no longer Prime Minister. At least after 7 June. What a relief. For her, no doubt. For her spaniel-like companion, Philip. For Tusk, Barnier, and Verhofstadt. For Macron, Merkel, and Conte. But most of all for the country – the one on whose side she claimed she was ON. The […]
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 – […]
Reflections on the state of the art in media research
Bar the gala dinner this evening, the curtain has just fallen on the Media Research Group’s biennial overseas conference in Bratislava. Bringing together media agencies, media owners, and market researchers, the MRG is a tight-knit but very welcoming community, and I was honoured to deliver the keynote speech on the opening morning of the conference. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Beware the Curse of Knowledge
This is the third in a series of blogs to mark National Storytelling Week 2017, focused on the words companies and brands use to tell their stories. When you learn about a subject, you know more than most people. It’s impossible to unlearn what you’ve learned (though it is, of course, possible to forget). The […]
Keep it simple
This is the second in a series of blogs to mark National Storytelling Week 2017, focused on the words companies and brands use to tell their stories. When physicist Richard Feynman was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics, he was asked if he could explain in just three minutes why he’d won the prize. In […]
Why companies need to get their story straight
Digital and social media have transformed communications. This is especially true for corporations and brands. Companies can no longer dictate what’s said about their products and services. Today, many more voices matter. Anyone with a social media profile and a WiFi connection can influence what people think about organisations. We’ve moved from unshakeable, unquestioned brand […]
