Winning the story wars
This post is written by Social Venture Network's News Program, Sustainable Solutions. It originally appeared on svn.org.
Free Range Studios co-founder Jonah Sachs understood early on the disruptive power the Internet would have on the broadcast era.
Seeing the trend as early as 1997 when he graduated from college, Sachs’ remembers realizing that big media would no longer be the only storyteller; through social technologies people would soon be able to share “their most favorite, passionate and inspirational ideas.”
It was a transition Sachs wanted to be part of.
“I committed myself right then and there to say ‘I want to be part of this wave, I want to figure out how we can take advantage of this cultural moment where people are going to be able to share their ideas and help figure out how to get ideas to really spread to change the world,’” recalls Sachs.
It’s been a 15-year journey for Sachs, whose most recent culmination is a book on the topic entitled Winning the Story Wars.
The book is a deep dive into what makes a good story. While Free Range, a creative design and storytelling agency, has created successful campaigns including “The Story of Stuff,” an examination of consumption that has 2.3 million views on YouTube, Sachs says much of the organization’s work has been based on intuition.
Comments
Brilliant and inspiring. Empowerment vs inadequacy marketing, intuition as a guiding force - all big ideas. As a creative director / brand strategist, this echoes much of my work. It's nice to see it getting traction for other folks as well, though.
Marc Stoiber
Cool words on branding, business, art, entrepreneurship and the Hero's Journey.
You'll enjoy the words and videos here:
http://herosjourneyentrepreneurship.org/
"A vast demand exists for the classical ideals performed in the contemporary context--for honor, integrity, courage, and comittment--on Wall Street and Main Street, in Hollywood and the Heartland, in Academia and Government. And thus opportunity abounds for entrepreneurs who keep the higher ideals above the bottom line--for humble heroes in all walks of life."
The same classical values guiding the rising artistic renaissance will protect the artists' intellectual property. The immortal ideals which guide the story of blockbuster books and movies such as The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, Braveheart, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Star Wars, are the very same ideals underlying the United States Constitution. These classic ideals--which pervade Homer, Plato, Shakespeare, and the Bible--are the source of both epic story and property rights, of law and business, of academia and civilization.
It is great to witness classical ideals performed in Middle Earth, upon the Scottish Highlands, long ago, in a galaxy far, far, away, and in Narnia, but too, such ideals must be perpetually performed in the contemporary context and living language. :)
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