"Somewhere on an Airplane a Man is Trying to Rip Open a Small Bag of Peanuts"
Stories With Heart – a fortnightly corralling of the best storytelling insights, for people and organisations aiming to win hearts and minds by telling better, richer stories.
Hello, story lovers, Sam Lightfinch here. Welcome to Stories With Heart. As a brand strategist and storyteller, I create narratives that resonate with people and drive organisational success.
Are you nimble-fingered band geeks ready to blow the brassy trumpet of story? Me too. Pucker up.
🏆 Story of the week 🏆
“I Thought I Was Going To Be Exorcised And Then Expelled” | Me | Creative Mornings Sheffield
Oh, the shameless self-indulgence. First newsletter of the year and I’m asking you to watch one of my talks. I won’t make it a habit. Promise.
Buuuuuuut the reason I’ve hoisted this video to the top of the pile is that it’s cram-packed with storytelling tips and insights. Give it a watch if you want to learn how to tell stories that create emotion, add value and change behaviours.
Takeaway: Find out how I fell in love with storytelling thanks to a sweary version of Little Red Riding Hood and how I nearly getting kicked out of school.
Brand of the week
SLATHER | SICKDOGWOLFMAN
Looks like agencies down under like uppercase. Which is fine, when the work’s this good. I was going to write about this video specifically, but digging around I found the whole brand is a beautifully weird fiction.
Check out the website for a lesson in razor-sharp consistency in voice (and stay for the creepy sun character – it’s giving big Chris Simpsons Artist vibes). Here are a few of my favourite examples from the homepage…
“Ozone layer’s open sunroof.”
“Foreign entity cosplaying as a small local brand.”
“We’re officially No.1 in the world for skin cancer. Hooray.”
The real kicker is that SLATHER makes suncream. Nothing fancy about it – the product isn’t different in any way, shape or form that I can tell. It’s the voice and the story around the product that are doing all the work. I mean, it’s the reason I’m talking about a suncream from the other side of the world.
Takeaway: Voice can make all the difference when it comes to telling stories.
Campaign of the week
Unready For Anything | Dove | Ogilvy New York & Ogilvy UK
First out of the creative gate this year was Ogilvy, with this piece running in New York and London just minutes after midnight on New Year.
What I love about this ad is its subtlety. It takes a while (especially if you’ve been on the fizz to see off 2024) and then sud-denly the insight clicks into place.
The line and the image take me right to that moment… hung over the sink, scrubbing away persistent eyeshadow, wishing I had a slice of toast and a Dr Pepper.
Takeaway: Timing matters in storytelling. Delivering narratives at just the right time can make all the difference.
‘Merica of the week
The Legend Rolls On | Harley-Davidson | Carmichael Lynch
Here’s a masterclass in story from the early 00s. Read it and tell me it doesn’t make you feel something (especially with January biting at your ears and fingers).
Every word must have been laboured over and fought off competition from a hundred others. “The voice of a V-Twin” is *chef’s kiss*. I can tell you now, writing like this takes time. So, if you want to tell better stories, don’t share your first version. Keep refining. Keep editing. Keep honing.
Takeaway: That picture is nice, but you don’t need a thousand words when you can tell a short story well.
Dry January of the week
0.0 Reasons | Heineken | LePub
No, I didn’t just pick this because the responsible agency is called LePub. C’mon, I’m better than that. I think non-alcohol drinks are going to have their Veganuary moment over the next few Januarys. And this is the best set of ads I’ve seen so far.
Why? Because their strategy centres work around the shifting attitudes to zero alcohol – traditionally foisted upon people, booze-free booze is no longer the default choice (especially for Gen Z).
But rather than finger-pointing, the directors make their point through whimsy and humour in these three charming shorts.
Takeaway: It’s that ingredient called fun rearing its head again. Fun removes our barriers and makes changing our attitudes and behaviours easier to stomach.
THE END(ISH)
Hopefully, you’re here because you like newsletters and not because you’re new to letters.
If it’s the former, I’d appreciate it if you A) share this newsletter with someone who might like it, or B) check out my website.
If it’s the latter, don’t worry, you’ll figure them out. I recently realised how little of the phonetic alphabet I had locked in. Who knew ‘M’ was Mike?
Love, Sam ❤️