Why yes/no questions can yield surprising answers
Was the Iraq war caused by the West’s desire to control access to Middle Eastern oil? Do you want this man or that woman as your leader for the next four to eight years? Should we stay or should we go? There’s been a lot of soul searching in the past month about the wisdom […]
Timeout: the key to killer ideas
I was impressed to read last week of a bold initiative from ad agency Wieden + Kennedy. The agency – or at least the London office of W+K – has banned email in the evenings and weekends, and meetings can only be booked between 10am and 4pm. They’re doing this because – in the words […]
Why storytelling matters to business more than ever
The maxim ‘content is king’ has been so overused by the marketing and communications community since it was coined 20 years back that it has attained cliché status. Everyone parrots it, it’s accepted as a truism, and as such it doesn’t trigger urgency or action in those who say or hear it. Like a children’s playground […]
Why brands need to #standforsomething
Purpose is the new vision, mission, CSR and employee engagement strategy all rolled into one. Companies and brands that define and articulate their purpose – their why – are more successful than those that don’t. Who says so? Jim Stengel, the former CMO of P&G no less. Brands like Apple, with its products designed to […]
Three steps to better brand storytelling
All this week at Insight Agents, we’ve been marking the sixteenth annual National Storytelling Week with a series of blogs that highlight what gets in the way of impactful brand storytelling. We commissioned our friends at Sussex University’s Innovation Centre to ask those in charge of storytelling at some of the Britain’s biggest retailers what […]
Why brands need to be authentic in their storytelling
To celebrate National Storytelling Week, corporate and brand storytellers Insight Agents commissioned Sussex University’s Innovation Centre to interview senior marketers in the UK retail sector to talk to us about the challenges they face in telling their brand’s stories. In this week-long series of blogs, we’ve been exploring the major themes from this research, as […]
Why brands need to avoid jargon in their storytelling
To celebrate National Storytelling Week, corporate and brand storytellers Insight Agents commissioned Sussex University’s Innovation Centre to interview senior figures in the UK retail sector to tell us the challenges they face in telling their brand stories. Today Sam Knowles, our Founder & MD, takes a personal look at jargon – and argues that brands […]
Why brands need to be consistent in their storytelling
To celebrate National Storytelling Week, corporate and brand storytellers Insight Agents commissioned Sussex University’s Innovation Centre to interview senior marketers in the UK retail sector to talk to us about the challenges they face in telling their brand’s stories. In this week-long series of blogs, we’re exploring the major themes to emerge from the research, […]
Let me tell you a story – a brand story
In the first of a series of five daily blogs to mark National Storytelling Week 2016, Insight Agents’ Founder & MD Sam Knowles reveals the three most important barriers companies face in telling better brand stories. Recent estimates suggest that the average Brit spends almost nine hours on media devices every day. In that time, […]
Storytelling and archetypes around climate change #Paris2015
Starting today, the United Nations Paris Conference on Climate change is taking place. The threat of global warming is, and will continue to be, an issue of primary importance for life on our planet as we know it. However, the environment still remains on the periphery of the international public eye, battling for coverage within […]
