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.

Welcome to the Storymasters Blog

The last several years have been an exciting journey for me.

I moved from an energizing freelance directing career, to a Senior Creative post at a Toronto-based integrated communications firm. From there, I aligned with a handful of like-minded people and opened a creative services firm of my own.  Our collective core genius: storytelling.   

Like the others who have joined the team, storytelling encapsulates of all the things I love to do.  I'm a writer, a cinematographer and a graphic artist who gets a kick out of weaving all those disciplines together in creative, memorable ways.   

Had I connected the dots sooner, I would have drawn a line directly to Storymasters many years ago.  But I'm also a believer that you have to wander down many paths in life in order to land confidently on the one that's right for you.   Experience, no matter what kind, is a good thing.

Since the launch of Storymasters, the progress we've made has been remarkable.  We went from zero to full throttle in a matter of weeks.  The more we talk to people about stories, the more energized we get. 

So, 2008 promises to be a great year on many fronts.  The first and perhaps most obvious indication of forward progress is the birth of the Storymasters Blog.  As version 1.0 of the Storymasters website nears completion, it makes sense to log on and get used to this rather informal, yet revealing method of communication.  

Will the Storymasters Blog endure?  Only time will tell....