Yes, AI can churn out what passes for “writing.”

Email newsletters, blog posts, maybe even some decent website copy.

Here’s what it can’t do: strategize. Look forward. Interview your company or organization’s key people and weave its origin story into a narrative that takes the most vital elements of a marketing blueprint and makes it feel to customers, clients and colleagues like a real yarn. Something with which we can engage, where we can develop real loyalty, and identity. A story that aligns with our own ethos, and values.

A good story is a place to belong.

ChatGPT can’t do that.

We can.

OUR PAST WORK

In 20 years, Winston Ross worked his way from an internship at a tiny newspaper in Alabama to senior writer at Newsweek Magazine, all in pursuit of a good yarn. There are hundreds of reporters in America who understand the basic tenets of journalism. What sets apart the good from the great is identifying an approach to storytelling that weaves together a compelling origin saga and a company or organization’s value proposition, so that the two are in concert.

 The Business Case for Narrative

Since the Agricultural Revolution, humans have wielded the power of mythology — of story — to connect big groups of people.

There is no more powerful tool in business than story.

Companies that understand this build brands that inspire loyalty. And yet, in the modern company, story is often an afterthought. CEOs focus on runway, ROI, sales, growth. Marketing directors focus on clicks, conversion, SEO. PR companies focus on press releases, schmoozing.

Without a compelling, engaging foundation, nobody cares.

Most marketing agencies don’t get story because their executives and associates weren’t trained in it. Same with most public relations firms. So they go for “branding,” for fonts, colors, vibe. They issue press releases that dress up nothingburgers as news.

What differentiates a 10-cent-a-word copywriter from a brand storyteller and content strategist is vision. It’s magic. It’s the ability to take in a volume of data, some practical and some biographical, and weave it into a Hero’s Journey, laced with riveting turning point after turning point, until a salivating reader finally gets the payoff: the “ah hah!” moment that inspired the creation of your company.

WHAT WE DO

• Story Ideation: In a series of interviews, we reveal turning points, ‘ah hah!’ moments, a ‘why?’ that engages the audience. 

•  Content strategy: Content is king. Too often, it is an afterthought. We create high-level strategy and the content itself, from blog posts to videos.  

• Communication strategy: Our approach is the product of 20 years’ in journalism and an understanding of how editors think.