Hitachi Real Stories - Inspire the Next

Here's a great storytelling microsite from the US division of electronics giant Hitachi:     

These well crafted, high quality docu-stories celebrate Hitachi's strategic partnerships with educators, law enforcement agencies, and health care and social service providers.   The stories reveal the innovative ways Hitachi technology is helping to improve the lives of everyday people all over the United States and a new one seems to appear on the site every several months. 

In addition to this microsite venue, I have no doubt that the videos are used widely to promote Hitachi's products, services, and social responsibility efforts at all levels of the company - internally and externally.  They bring the Hitachi brand to life in a real and meaningful way. 

I must say, stories like this have a way of connecting with audiences in multiple ways - meaning, you don't have to be a prospective customer of high tech solutions to appreciate their brand values.  What better way to communicate your brand to existing employees, prospective recruits, and strategic partners than to reward and recognize the innovators within your community.

Bookmark this site and drop back from time to time to see new material.

Online stories get traction

I’ve been following a great number of storytelling initiatives on the Internet lately. 

If you haven’t already, drop by globeandmail.com to browse some of the stories in their multimedia section. They are featuring a number of long-form documentaries that integrate photos, video interviews and lengthy articles. If you have 20 or 30 minutes to spare and want to tuck into something deep – this is the place to go.

 
If you’re hoping for quick and cheery, Home Depot is diving in with both feet in an effort capture the imagination of do-it-yourselfers of every demographic. The flagship video stories are rich [BIG budget], inspiring, and the Submit Your Story section features dozens of simple text-based stories from customers.

Blackberry, Genworth, Hitachi, and Shell all share stories that bring their brand to life. If you run across anything worth sharing drop me an email.  

Cheers, R

RBC Client First Stories

A few days ago, a friend of mine asked to see some of the many brand stories I directed for RBC. 

I directed her to rbc.com but thought that it would be worthwhile compiling a few of the public versions of the Client First Stories for others to see as well.

In addition to being the creative lead on the initiative, I directed and shot most of the two-minute internal stories.   To date, there have been almost 40 completed.  These included a half-dozen "pilots" for various divisions of the bank - stories that helped to establish the look and feel of Client First, long before the name was formalized. 

They included Steve's Auto, Muttluks, KK Plastics, and the Marshall's.

The first official Client First Story was Hilary and Dennis, the story of a young professional couple from Vancouver and the RBC Financial Planner who helped them get ahead.  

Within a few months, we had completed Abe's Story, Pierre Paquin,  Jack & Laurie and Kate. Recognizing the value of the stories both inside the organization and out, RBC established a client stories page off rbc.com.  But the real return on investment was employee engagement and alignment around the "Client First" brand principles. 

All of the stories are accessible on RBC's employee intranet, and many have been used to open town hall meetings, employee conferences, and training sessions across the RBC network.   A number of recent stories originally developed with "internal-only" objectives, have also found their way to the public site.  Notably, the story of Randy and Neil, the couple from Winnipeg whose story is now available on the Homeline Plan product page.

Grab a coffee, sit down and enjoy.