Think Again Media

And we're off! Time to say farewell to 2011 and jump in to 2012!  If you're like us, getting back in the swing of things has been hectic to say the least but invigorating nonetheless! I am happy to say there is much optimism in the air around Think Again Media and much of it has to do with you, our friends and clients, who have supported us, worked with us and embraced the digital revolution with zest and enthusiasm over the last few years.  We have many of you to thank for trailblazing in your own careers and bringing us alongside to help you think differently about your message, roll out new approaches to  product and marketing campaigns and present your strengths and weaknesses to an audience that is craving an authentic message and format like never before.

As we enter 2012, we thought it timely to share some stats/insights from our friends at MediaPost as to exactly how successful, video driven campaigns were in 2011. From rich media :30 advertising, to product/marketing videos to branded content and evergreen films, the data is compelling and speaks loud and clear - VIDEO - in just about any form - drives outcomes through increased conversions and traffic.

So what does this mean for you and your business? Is video within B2B just as effective as B2C models? We would argue yes. Forbes noted that 80% of top senior executive are watching online video. Couple that with the conversions that video in emails are experiencing and the answer should be a no brainer.

Throughout the fall, our resident Creative Strategist, Josh Johns, explored the elements of Story through an 8 week Storytelling series. We helped you identify your stories, find your heroes and create story arcs that keep viewers engaged. As we look to the first quarter in 2012, we will be rolling out more perspectives on Storytelling but with an increasing focus on VIDEO - how to create it, what works and how we actually do it here at Think Again Media. Glenn Dreher, our Director and Filmmaker, will talk with you about new techniques and emerging technology that can enhance your digital productions and bring a bit of Hollywood to your message. We will bring you along on productions to show you behind-the-scenes from start to finish.

We hope you thoroughly enjoyed your holiday season!  We thank you for your loyalty and patronage in 2011 and look forward to what stories we might tell together in 2012 and beyond!

Happy New Year!

Debbie & the Think Again team.

One last bit of advice is informed by a master of storytelling, Edgar Allan Poe. Poe wrote a famous essay called “The Importance of the Single Effect in a Prose Tale,” in which he argued than in poetry or short prose the “the unity of effect – or impression – is the point of the greatest importance.” A longer tale can meander, but a short tale – or a short film, for that matter – must hang together moment to moment in a taut crisp line. Every choice must be deliberate and precise, and each must build upon another to produce impact:

A skillful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having conceived with deliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out, he then invents such incidents – he then combines such events as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect.

It’s not essential to invent incidents – after all, we are going for some truth in advertising – but it is essential to curate your stories. When you reach for examples, proof points, speakers, and other details, let your intention drive your choices.

Let some of the magic of filmmaking into your project.  It’s okay to let one person represent the voice of many. It’s okay for one story to lift up a larger message. It’s okay to admit some tension into the story.

If it’s the most powerful example, the message will come through.

You have a complex story, or a broad mission. You serve many audiences with many services. So instead of packing as many speakers and messages into your story as possible, break it down.

Step sideways for a second – and this is where we often come in to help you “think again”:

• First: Why are you telling this story (or any story)? Sounds elementary, but it’s a critical question to answer together.

• Second: Who’s it for? Are you inspiring employees, motivating funders, or attracting new customers? What do you want someone to do after they watch this film?

• Third: Who’s in it? Who can best speak about the topic? Who will resonate with the intended audience?

• Fourth: Who else would want to hear from them? And what else can they talk about that’s tied up, even tangentially, in the core subject matter? If they phrase something two different ways, will it then apply to two different audiences?

• Fifth: How will you use it? On your organizational website or a microsite? On an iPad, at sales calls? Virally through social media? Email? All of the above?

• Finally, what’s the story about? Given all the above, what is the takeaway message and the single effect you want to leave people with?

Take a mental note of the big idea and how it’s conveyed, and then sketch a map of how the story – or pieces of it – plugs into your communications channels.

When you start thinking sideways, you see how the stories and storytellers can be targeted to different people at different points in the communications process. The long-term value of the investment in the project starts to multiply.

We were asked to create film to help global employees connect with a corporate culture and the attributes of a brand. In the end, we filmed 19 people and captured a variety of perspectives and stories that demonstrated brand attributes in action. Once the first film was created, we inventoried the footage. We were well on our way to the second and third films, but also had substantial content we used to cut short clips for presentations, sales tools, and supplemental website clips. We discovered sales, human resources, senior leadership, and others wanted to share the same perspectives and stories. Then it was just a matter of editing to create the appropriate piece.

Engage in some critical thinking when considering your stories and some lateral thinking when considering how to use them. If you mount a production to capture the stories, you’ll have a plan to guide the shoot.

We hope the storytelling series has shed some light on how you can put this creative approach to work for you. Stay with us in 2012 as we share tips on how to create great film and how to approach the daunting task of planning a production.

Til then, kick back with some egg nog, enjoy time with family and friends (or away from them!), and happy holidays from us to you!

We don’t watch a movie to listen to a sound bite or to be rewarded with a foregone conclusion. We watch a movie because it takes us on a journey. We’ll avoid digressing into the volumes of scholarly theory on the hero’s journey. Suffice it to say that in its simplest terms, this journey takes the hero – and us – somewhere other than where we began.

But there's more to consider:

1.     We meet a hero who goes about his normal life in a particular place, time, and circumstance

            …until one day when he confronts something new that forces him to focus on a goal.

2.     Our hero pursues that goal relentlessly

            …in spite of a number tests, setbacks, and challenges.

3.     Our hero achieves his goal

            …or he does not, but is richer somehow from the pursuit.

The introduction of a hero and a goal, progress toward that goal, and end result are the most elementary elements of the story framework, but what engages us is what happens in those italics.

Those italics are all about admitting tension into the story. Friction between the meeting points of personalities, of present and future, between the status quo and the urge to move forward, between those who resist the pull of change and those who force them to confront the possibility. Even if a hero ends up not achieving his goal, there is something sublime revealed in the effort, thanks to that tension.

Interesting side note: the word tension comes from the Latin tensare, which means "to stretch." Acknowledge that tension, and you acknowledge a chance for growth.

And that means you must consider two critical story elements that can be terrifying for the typical marketing manager, communications director, or brand leader:  conflict and failure.

Conflict. We meet a hero on a given path. A detour is thrown his way, or an obstacle is put in front of her. Something is introduced that upends the status quo and sets the course of the story. Think about your favorite movies:

• Sally is happily coupled and off on a business trip when Harry shows up on the same flight.
• Rick has stashed letters of transit to escape from Casablanca when suddenly…of all the gin joints in the world, Ilsa had to walk into his.
• Clarice Starling is ready to make her career move on the Buffalo Bill case but she needs the cooperation of Hannibal Lecter. 

Conflict is negative in the corporate world – it’s unpleasant, uncivil, maybe even counterproductive. But it’s gold for a story.  It can be internal – e.g., two divergent ways of taking the business at a pivotal moment – or it can be external - your organization is at odds with its competitors, and it resolves to maintain that position no matter what. It’s the tension between opposing forces that keeps us engaged, and that’s why conflict matters.

Failure goes hand-in-hand with conflict. It can work in two ways: it can be part of a series of setbacks that build to success in the end, or it can be the end itself. Back to the movie theater:

• George Bailey wants nothing more than to leave his little town and see the world but he never does, realizing in the end that in spite of it, It’s a Wonderful Life.
• Lane Meyer wants to win back Beth’s affections in  Better Off Dead so he sets out to ski the K-12. He fails on the first try, but that pushes him closer to Monique, who inspires him to succeed.
• In The Breakfast Club, the captive characters take pains to resist revealing what’s under the surface of their stereotyped images. In the end, their truths and emotions have all been exposed but all are transformed.

Failure can lead to conflict, it can build conflict, and sometimes it is how conflict is resolved. In cases where resolution is brought about through failure, though, it's done to drive home a deeper, maybe even sublime point.  For instance, if the hero fails, his beliefs or views may have been changed along the way, leading to a new outlook on life - and a new opportunity to succeed.

Two brands have used conflict and failure in interesting ways to tell a story, proving you can embrace your inner drama queen sometimes to create a compelling story for your brand: 

• Failure: another Honda film that presents the importance of failure as a key factor in being successful.

• The Piranha Tank from Ivy Funds throws a spotlight on conflict to demonstrate the rigor a financial analyst must bring to the process of making investment recommendations.

• Impact: A series of films by Mercedes Benz that affirm the brand’s strengths and the product’s superiority when put to the test under the worst-case scenarios

Next up: The "Single Effect" and Where to Go From Here

In our previous post we shared the essentials of a story to help get you in the storytelling mindset. Remember? We acknowledged that identifying how to outline some of the elements would come easily – like setting and circumstance, or the resolution. But teasing out other elements could present challenges.
 
Let’s consider the hero. In a feature film, we have an individual to focus on; in your organization, you may have a person to focus on as well – a founder or your CEO, perhaps. But odds are you’re not looking to single someone out as a “hero” in the classic sense. You want to talk about your workforce collectively, or your brand, or even your culture. They can't be heroes, right?
 
They're not necessarily going to pack the multiplex on Friday night, but yes, they surely can be. The thing is, they're big ideas that don't mean anything without actions - and actors. They are expressed through the actions and behaviors of people. Your workforce is made up of people who exhibit desirable qualities. Your culture is formed in large part by what your people do - and have done collectively - over time. Your brand lives on and resonates with customers because of the cumulative interactions and experiences they have with it - many times, through people - be they employees, leadership, or fellow customers.

And people can represent values, the culture, and your brand. The trick is to think in proxy.

• Does one person have a story that embodies the stuff all employees are made of? A hospital we met with talked about wanting to emphasize its human touch in marketing. Pick the doctor who is the tireless warrior against disease because she has a deeply felt compassion for those who suffer. Highlight the nurse who goes above and beyond the call for patients. Tell the story through the patients who talk fondly of their experience, and let the story rise up naturally out of them to avoid the impression of being too promotional or self-congratulatory in your tone.

• Was there a time when outside forces tested your organization’s commitment to its values—and does (or could) one person’s story exemplify the bigger challenge? One of our clients tells some powerful stories of holding fast to their value of independent perspective in the face of extreme pressure to follow the crowd. We told a story for an internal communications project that turned the spotlight on one team of people who faced this pressure personally on the job. We let these storytellers shine through to represent the bigger picture. 

• Can one person’s story map to one idea or one concept that can be presented in a series, featuring a standout voice – and therefore a hero – to discuss each idea? A project we did to promote conversations about retirement comes to mind. Among the broad audience, there were a number of discrete ways retirees approached conversations about retirement planning, and the client segmented the audience this way. We selected real retirees who aligned with the different perspectives and had them tell their story to others like them. The end result? A video toolbox that financial advisors can use to open the door to conversations with their diverse clients.

You can build on a lone voice with other commentary, but allowing a hero to shine in the story will help create the character viewers can root for, get behind, and engage with. It creates more impact and more resonance - and it's ultimately more memorable.
 
Some of our heroes:

Follow Jonathan Chirunga, a T. Rowe Price municipal bonds analyst who demonstrates the competitive advantage of rigorous analysis and in-depth research in "What Can A Charter School Teach You About Credit Quality?"

Meet Dr. Corey Hebert, a pediatrician in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans who embodies the dedication and commitment the National Health Service Corps seeks in all of the primary care professionals who apply to this program.

Hear Jamie talk about a common fear of retirement: the moment of panic when you make an abrupt shift between career and retirement.

Is it the current storytelling craze, or does it seem that everyone has an idea for something to film? A guy who sat next me on a plane the other week asked the inevitable “What do you do?” question. Once I told him, he got very excited and was eager to share his ideas. “No one I deal with,” he declared, “understands why my company is better than the competition.”  I said it sounded like the place where the great story begins. Turns out he sells and services appliances, and he has the best price, hands down. “You should film me saying that!”

Could my seatmate use a video of him evangelizing about his prices? Maybe. Would it engage? Would it change perceptions? Doubtful.

We love the enthusiasm and the vision of everyone – even you, my chatty seatmate. There’s no one better than the people closest to the stories to get the ideas flowing, and we remain all ears. But that idea has to stand up to the question we talked about in our first post: “and then what happens?”

DETAILS AND DEAD-ENDS

Let us offer some insights on ideas we encounter often that don’t hold up to the scrutiny of that question:

• The Detail: A colorful person, a funny instant, a fascinating fragment that makes a intriguing detail of a much larger picture. It may be a fantastic detail – but about what? How did it play into a larger story about success? Or did it? If not, the detail may be colorful but not a metaphor or a linchpin of a story.

• The Observation: This is the unsubstantiated statement that might yield something promising, if only it were both true and it meant anything significant. It may sound intriguing but it better hold up to scrutiny - and it better have a direct impact on the big message.

• The Non-Starter: This one is tough. It may be important—and it may even be a critical messaging point—but as an idea for a story, it goes nowhere. It’s something that stops any further questioning cold, like my seatmate’s claim of “best prices around on dishwashers.” At best, it’s a line of copy– but not much of a story.

• The TV Commercial: This is an idea so sweeping, inventive, or clever that it’s best left to actors and directors. Of course good commercials tell good stories. But if you start to think about turning your real people into characters, or worse – caricatures – rather than letting their stories and personalities emerge, you’re veering into different territory. Unless you're doing TV spots, you're probably wasting your resources.

Just because it’s a corporate film doesn’t mean we throw away the basics. You just have to be more flexible with them. As you think about the different stories you could tell, don’t forget about the basics. A story just won’t happen without these crucial elements:

We know. You’re thinking: Hero? Conflict? I need a sales tool. I need my global workforce to connect with our corporate values. What do I need with love, death, struggle, and pursuit?

On a literal level, odds are you certainly don’t need it – but you need to keep it all in mind. Even if your story is about a corporate culture, a founder, or a particular point of view, if it’s a story worth telling – and a story worth hearing – it will have echoes of all of the above elements.

Setting and resolution should be easy for most people to identify, but hero, rising action, and conflict can prove troublesome. Next week: Holding Out for a Hero.

First, a clarification of terms. There's much ado about storytelling lately. It's the newest and hottest thing going in marketing - which makes perfect sense given that it's as old as language. We've seen storytelling used in lots of different contexts, with varying connotations and denotations. People talk about the story they tell across their collateral, or through their website, or via tools and social media and graphics. All of these can be considered in storytelling, as they're all channels that "talk" to your audience. There's a story your identity tells, a story your collateral tells, and a story your tweets tell -- and they'd better be pretty similar.

When we talk about storytelling, we're talking about that age-old human urge to tell tales. We're talking about lore...history...examples, demonstrations, illustrations. We're talking about the colorful, descriptive, and engaging stuff that tells people who you are, why you matter, what you value, and more. We think a good story can anchor marketing and communications, and we think a good story can give you a position that's differentiated, unique, and memorable. Obviously, that translates across your collateral. Better yet, your collateral can play pivotal roles in how you tell the bigger story...but that's another newsletter.

Back to the story about stories: As marketers, we tend to consider a story long enough to distill it into some key bullet points. The bullet points are baked into copy, sales presentations, capabilities pitches, and into the framework of your brand itself. It’s not long before the stories are forgotten and the bullets become the story. Eventually, no one knows where they came from in the first place.

In this age of tweets, tags, and what-are-you-doing-now brevity, we worry about attention spans. Keep it short. Get to the point. 140 characters. It would seem to be the perfect world for bullet points. And yet there are more ways than ever for someone to engage with your company, your organization, and your brand. The bullet point may be the appropriate length for grabbing someone, but it sure doesn't say much once you've got their attention.

There’s nothing wrong with distilling experience to an essence and shorthanding that into a talking point. True to its punctuation mark, the bullet can often get its point across. Great for a set-up, an introduction, an elevator pitch. And then what?

And there it is – the question that keeps you engrossed with a good book, the question that keeps you in your seat for a great movie, and the question you’re silently asking when your friend who always tells the best stories is spinning a good yard around the dinner table: And...then...what?

Here’s where you unpack those bullets about why your product or service is better than the competition, why your management team has steered a stronger ship, why your values matter and why customers should care. It's also the perfect time to take a lead pipe to the knees of lazy marketing language: “New and improved” – how? Why? “Industry-leading” – because? tell us more. “Trusted.” How have you earned that, exactly? “Since 1837” – why does your history or legacy matter?

When you're looking for stories, there are a few sure places to find them:  

Audit Your Collateral 

Examine that copy, comb through the PowerPoints, think about the “About Us” page on your website, and talk with the sales team. Can you explain all those bullets in plain English? Is there a reason you rely on them? What stories do people tell around the conference room or on a client pitch to drive home the points? You'll start to uncover what's really interesting. 

Consider the Culture

To what extent does your corporate culture play a role in your business? Can you define it – or even recognize it? Is it crucial to customer satisfaction? Is it a compass for hiring and job performance? Your brand has been – or will eventually be – shaped by your culture. How well understood is it, and how much does it influence what you do every day? Think about the intangibles of what makes your organization and your people unique. You might find a great story to tell.

Accentuate...the Negative?

Think about the challenges your organization or industry has faced. How did you weather the storm or survive a downturn? Were your decisions or values questioned? Was your integrity threatened? Was there pressure to make changes that could have spelled disaster but you held fast to your course and found success? Tough times make for great stories that reveal much more about the heart and soul of an organization, sending a postive - and memorable - message.

Image = Impact

How well defined are your corporate citizenship efforts? Are you active in charitable work, social responsibility programs, or do you have a well-established corporate foundation? All of these activities may reflect positively on perceptions of your brand. Should these stories be shared?

Consider all that, and check out some of our favorite examples of stories worth telling for inspiration.

NEXT ISSUE: THE ESSENTIALS OF STORY.

• Stories to Power Product Marketing: T. Rowe Price: Every Bond Tells a Story
• Stories that Promote Brand Engagement: Honda: The Power of Dreams
• An “About Us” Story: Rambus: A Company of Inventors

We know that each one of you is carrying an untold tale in your organization. We want to inspire everyone we know to consider what storytelling can do for their marketing. So this fall, we’re launching a storytelling series through this newsletter.  We’ll share storytelling basics, insights into developing stories, and advice on how to look at your marketing with a storyteller’s eye.  

Why is storytelling so popular? It’s as old as language, for starters – and there’s a reason. Stories resonate. Stories are memorable. Stories spread. They describe your worth, your impact, your mission, vision, and values. They exemplify your brand. They paint the picture of your culture. They emerge from the people who together are your organization and what they do – or who they serve – every day.

For marketers, stories can differentiate your organization, engage your target audience, and unite your employees, customers, prospects, donors, shareholders, and partners behind the rallying call of a compelling narrative.

During these past three years, our clients came to us with Power Points, lists, free-form email musings, and in one instance, a cell phone video of her mom. The shared request: help us tell a better story. We took it from there. In the past 3 years we’ve tested our theories, hones our approach, and done some exciting storytelling work for clients like T. Rowe Price, American University, Athletes For Hope and others in the process.

We hope it inspires you to think again when it comes to how you’re telling your story. If we can help, we hope you’ll think again of us.

Keep your eyes on your inbox, and stay tuned for the rest of the story...on storytelling!

We recently delivered the first film of a five-film series about a client's brand. The purpose of the series is to help employees and partners around the globe connect with the values and attributes behind the brand and help them understand what it means to "live" it every day. The series turns on key stories - corporate folklore - that people in the company turn to when trying to make a point about their integrity, client-first focus, and intellectual prowess.

It got us thinking about the richness of the stories behind such a big idea. We saw this post, written by Susan Wojcicki (employee #16 at Google), about The Eight Pillars of Innovation.

There's great food for thought in here. I have worked in organizations large and small that faced the same challenges. Often, it's marketing that exposes them.  If you don't have a mission, how can you make big claims, or demonstrate big benefits to the customer? More than once, I found myself part-marketer, part therapist, asking questions like "Why are we here?" or "What do we believe in?" while mapping out a year-long marketing plan. These are fundamental questions that need answers.

How important are these questions in your organization? How do you convey the answers to a rapidly expanding workforce? How do you keep people focused on your core values and mission when it's so easy to lose sight of the essentials that make a company great? What are the critical stories people can remember when everything's moving at warp speed?

This week, we’re re-launching our website, fresh with recent work and full of food for thought to nourish your own ideas about storytelling and your marketing and communications plans.

As we swelter in the summer sun and celebrate this milestone a few years in the making, it got us thinking about how our story has been unfolding. We'll be sharing ideas for stories, but if you're thinking about the stories you can tell, start at the very beginning. The story of your origins sometimes has a tale to tell that resonates today.

It was another oppressive summer day, not unlike today. Locusts screamed like tea kettles in a stultifying heat – a heat that sends ripples off of every surface and steams the air until even the leaves on the trees shrug and fold in exhaustion. Glenn and Debbie had wrapped production on a TV series after 25 episodes and months of traveling, shooting, and editing. Josh had left a job as a product management director for a video game company. The economy was in free-fall, and we three sat around the table sweating on Glenn and Debbie’s back porch. That was late 2008, quite possibly the craziest time ever to think about re-launching anything…

But a new Think Again was born that afternoon. We combined our expertise to create a hybrid creative shop. We weren’t an ad agency, we weren’t a production house, and we weren’t an interactive design firm, but we brought aspects of all three together to merge storytelling, marketing, and the online experience. We would take our real-people, in-their-own-words style and help clients design an experience around storytelling.

Turns out that summer heat was more incubating than desiccating. In the past 3 years we’ve tested our theories, rewritten and revised our pitch, and done some exciting storytelling work for clients like T. Rowe Price, American University, Athletes For Hope and others in the process. 

Our clients came to us with Power Points, lists, free-form email musings, and in one instance, a cell phone video of her mom. The shared request: help us tell a better story. We took it from there.

From mom's mobile phone to iPad-ready website for an institutional sales force:

Reproduced and used with permission from T. Rowe Price. Practice Retirement is a trademark of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc.

We'd like to thank our clients who have embraced our approach and worked with us to uncover great stories. Without you, our story would certainly have a different ending.

For others, have you thought about storytelling? We invite you to be part of our next chapter. If you've a notion, a question, or even the vaguest idea that you'd like to be telling a better story, give us a call. We love a good collaboration.

In the meantime, check back often for advice, insights, and how-tos to help you think about storytelling, how to use stories, and how to make short films a part of your content strategy.

And while you're at it, would someone fetch us a pitcher of cold iced tea and see what you can do about this heat?

We wondered that as well! But after many months of planning, creating and filming, the Think Again Media team and Corporate Marketing and Brand Identity Team at T. Rowe Price developed a 3-part web video campaign series that shows just that.

Think Again Media captured the Municipal Bond team's approach to investing through a combination of interviews and on-the-road footage. The series will be promoted across media platforms.

Visit T.Rowe Price to learn more.