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- 01 | Brands Playing Journalist
01 | Brands Playing Journalist
An idea that needed evolving.
BRANDS PLAYING JOURNALIST
So here’s the pattern: Each of these will include a mini column at the top that sets up useful links and stories for you, the audience.
A “mini column” is the way I’ve defined it for myself. Because when embarking on a new phase of professional life that requires you to be shouty and “creator-first” in a way you’re not quite comfortable with, you draw on the vernacular of the industry that shaped you. In my case, newspaper journalism.
Well, look at how smoothly I dated myself there. Newspaper journalism: the halcyon days of top-down storytelling and guaranteed audiences, before Craigslist ran roughshod over the classifieds and media became unbundled.
And yet see how that top-down approach endures in the brand world. Watch as they nudge “stories” tabs onto their home pages as destinations for all that paid (and unpaid) social traffic (and does it arrive?). See them tackle deep topics in the communities they serve.
Church’s loves St. Louis.
Are any of you aware of Church’s Chicken’s (’s’s) nicely executed but bizarre arthouse short-docs on the neighborhoods where their restaurants are located? How about water cooler company Yeti’s sumptuous content house that produces upper funnel films that reflect their values and desired audience?(And how they keep getting funded I don’t know)
The examples are many - especially during the content-at-all-costs salad days of the 2010s. Brands, emboldened by the outsized role they play in public discourse, have funded all sorts of journalistic(-ish) storytelling and hired editorial types from a contracting media industry to help them.
I was one of the chief beneficiaries. For many years, the piece I commissioned on skateboarding on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation was a proud calling card for me. Now, I’m no longer sure about it. Did the release of that story on Red Bull’s YouTube preface a long-term commitment by the brand to the kids of that reservation. No, it didn’t. It was beautifully shot, and earnestly reported by filmmaker Danny Lee. But it lacked follow-through.
It got me thinking about when a brand should tell stories about the communities in which they want to be active.
And my short conclusion: Not often.
But if I would stretch it over a (comma-filled) sentence? When the storytelling involves offering tangible support, uses brand platforms to elevate those they are serving, and strengthens the community of which they are a part.
👇🏼 some nice examples
DROP SCHOOL by WeTransfer, 🎧 a brand whose product has solidly embedded itself in the creative community, the podcast follows a young East London designer organizing his first drop (of some pretty wild trousers). The file-sharing service supports by connecting him to strategists and makers that can help, and brings mics along for the journey. As it’s a very visual story, there’s a TikTok. They might have integrated their own product a bit more (signing up to get Jordy’s looks dropped in your inbox via WeTransfer) but overall this felt very much by the culture for the culture.
TURN THE DIAL by BOSE, 📽️ which provides production software and headphone kits to up-and-coming female producers as part of an initiative that seeks to address the gender imbalance in music production. Their stories: 3 women, 3 hours, one song from scratch. The pieces run on their IG platform (a shimmering mood board of high-gloss athletes and artists otherwise, the content sticks out in the best way). Accompanying it is a specially designed content hub tucked somewhere in their URL. It will be interesting what sort of follow-through comes from this (like a mini-campaign to launch the final songs, or extending the program to additional underrepresented creator groups).
🌊 Flotsam & Jetsam 🦀
Random links from this week’s haul
🎧 Rick Rubin has a podcast and it’s good. He has the usual suspects as well as randoms on, and he lets them talk. This one with independent publishing survivalist Jamie Byng was especially inspiring.
💾 The delight in alighting in a foreign city and rushing to the local Internet Cafe to dash off a missive home about it. An experience — like so much IRL — on its way out. Here’s a requiem from the very underrated Rest of World site.
🖼️ The kids are collecting again, which means there’s a business in democratizing access to gallery-level art. Here’s Nylon (still around!) on an interesting trend.
Hey, what is this?
BRAND NEW STORY highlights smart strategies and good stories told by brands and humans. It’s penned by me, Andreas Tzortzis (or, simply, Dre) and draws on insights from my career at Red Bull, Apple, and in my own brand consultancy Hella. Every week or so I write on a theme and curate links of brands doing it well, along with just great stories from the worlds of culture, tech, and, um.. humanity. Sign up here.
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