brand storytelling Archives

Aside from running the show at journeycraft.tv, she is the COO of the sequential art and multimedia intellectual property development firm, City Beast Studio, the creator and showrunner of the new steampunk fantasy web experience, Aurelia: Edge of Darkness, as well as the creator of the serial fantasy novel, Rise of the Tiger. Among several other projects.

Like Gaul and The Lord of the Rings, my conversation with Lisa is broken into three parts. In this second part, Lisa tells us about her role as creator and showrunner of the web experience, Aurelia: Edge of Darkness, and gives us her take on the essence of transmedia storytelling.

In our interview, Lisa mentioned a couple of articles that I know you will want to get your transmedia digits on. She also sent along some other links to articles pertinent to our conversation. Here they all are…

“Why Hollywood Needs More Experience Designers Part 1″ from Transmedia Coalition

“Why Hollywood Needs More Experience Designers Part 2

“Resurrecting Multimedia from the Mire of Transmedia” by Mike Jones

“Confessions of a Lone Writer: A Journey into Collaborative Creativity” by Lisa Walker England (this article is per Lisa’s point in part 3 of our interview about collaborating and the core of storytelling–though this article is geared toward individual storytellers, the same principles, Lisa submits, apply to business.)

“Three Irreducible Elements of a Brand Story” by Lisa Walker England

“Applying Storytelling Principles to Marketing Messages” by Lisa Walker England

Want to get in touch with Lisa? Perhaps even participate in Aurelia: Edge of Darkness? Email her at [email protected].

Filed Under: The Comic Muse Podcast Tagged: brand marketing, brand storytelling, City Beast Studio, journeycraft.tv, Lisa Walker England, marketing, multimedia, storytelling for business, transmedia, transmedia storytelling

Daniel McInerny July 9, 2013 3 Comments

Transmedia Mogul Lisa Walker England, Part 1

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Transmedia Mogul Lisa Walker England, Part 1

Lisa Walker England is one busy storyteller.

Like Gaul and The Lord of the Rings, my conversation with Lisa is broken into three parts. In this first part, Lisa takes us on a tour of her transmedia world–a tour which may well inspire your own transmedia efforts.

“Why Hollywood Needs More Experience Designers Part 1″ from Transmedia Coalition

“Why Hollywood Needs More Experience Designers Part 2

“Resurrecting Multimedia from the Mire of Transmedia” by Mike Jones

“Three Irreducible Elements of a Brand Story” by Lisa Walker England

“Applying Storytelling Principles to Marketing Messages” by Lisa Walker England

Want to get in touch with Lisa? Perhaps even participate in Aurelia: Edge of Darkness? Email her at [email protected].

Filed Under: The Comic Muse Podcast Tagged: Aurelia Edge of Darkness, brand storytelling, City Beast Studio, collaborative storytelling, journeycraft.tv, Lisa Walker England, multimedia storytelling, Rise of the Tiger, storytelling, storytelling and marketing, storytelling for business, transmedia, transmedia storytelling

Daniel McInerny June 12, 2013 Leave a Comment

Pearls and Irritants

So yes, as I said yesterday, you want to tell stories of your vulnerability so that others can recognize that you are human just like them and so be inspired to connect with you.

But there’s another reason to tell them. The stories of your vulnerability also contain a precious wisdom that can lead to self-knowledge both for yourself and those you serve.

We don’t usually have a good grasp of this wisdom as we live through the difficulty or failure. But who among us cannot look back on some challenging time in his or her life and say, “I learned so much from that experience. I wouldn’t be who I am if I hadn’t passed through that inferno.”

Such salutary trouble is one of the great themes of storytelling. We see it pre-eminently in Oedipus Rex: a king with noble aspirations but little self-knowledge is brought low and yet gains in wisdom.

Pearls are formed from irritants. There is treasure in every difficulty. We need to dig it out of our messy experience and share it.

Filed Under: The (More or Less) Daily Muse Tagged: brand storytelling, business storytelling, stories of difficulty, vulnerability

Daniel McInerny June 11, 2013 Leave a Comment

Take Off Your Battle Armor: The Virtues of Vulnerability

When we prepare to submit our “profile” to the world, especially when we’re first starting out, we tend to dress ourselves in battle armor. We tend to wrap ourselves in the flag of our mission and to declare our cause in slogans and vision statements.

It makes a certain amount of good sense. We want to tell the world about our virtues so that we can help the world in its vulnerability.

Unfortunately, this is not how the deepest connections between human beings are made.

Think about your relationship with your spouse or with your best friends. Your connections with these people require that you become vulnerable to them, that you show them your humanity, warts and all. Your best friends need to know that you are just as frail a creature as they are.

Then, in that space created by your shared humility, the strongest of emotional bonds is forged.

Telling stories about yourself, your company, your endeavor, is a great way to reveal your vulnerability. Stories are about failure. Stories are about weakness. Stories are about pride. Stories above all are about the conflicts generated by failure, weakness and pride. But what is a conflict, really? At its deepest level, a conflict is a process of education or maturation in which we are led, sometimes kicking and screaming, out of ignorance and into wisdom.

We need to hear about your limitations so that we can forge a bond with you. We need to understand how your mission statement or your pitch is the result of a hard-won struggle with yourself, with others, with the environment in which you work.

This doesn’t mean that you need to reveal personal failures that have nothing to do with your business–that would be inappropriate. It simply means that you need to communicate to your professional audience some of the ways in which you are human just like they are.

Tell the world about your vulnerability so that we can connect and help one another.

Filed Under: The (More or Less) Daily Muse Tagged: advertising, brand storytelling, branding, content marketing, marketing, personal brand, storytelling for business, vulnerability

Daniel McInerny May 23, 2013 2 Comments

What It Takes to Connect in the Connection Economy

If Seth Godin is right, and I believe he is, that we now live in a post-industrial, connection economy, then it behooves us to learn the language of connection.

Think about it: what do you connect with? What makes you feel like you’ve really established a bond with a person or an institution?

For me, it’s the sense that I’ve been listened to and understood.

The sense that I’ve been valued.

The sense that someone is “speaking my language.”

In a business setting, the sense that a product or service or event taps into my most cherished interests and desires.

The impatience to share the experience with others.

But for a great connection to happen, there must be great communication. Someone has to speak or otherwise convey the understanding and the appreciation and the excitement that is going to create a bond.

This usually doesn’t happen in a PowerPoint presentation. Or a white paper. Or a memo. Or a speech. Or a conventional newsletter. Or standard web copy.

Sometimes, but not often.

So where does it happen?

The customary medium of great communication is that of a story.

In a story, as Robert McKee defines it, idea (a truth) is wedded to emotion (what we are most passionate about) and a connection is made between two or more human beings.

Godin further argues that what drives the connection economy is “art.” Works of “art,” broadly defined, are works that communicate ideas that connect to our most cherished, most human interests and desires.

And what’s the paradigmatic human art? Storytelling.

So this is my syllogism:

We live in a connection economy.

Connections are best made through great stories.

The connection economy requires great stories.

So, how are you adjusting to the connection economy?

What are the media you are using to make real connections?

In what ways is it possible for you to incorporate great stories in your media?

If you would like some assistance in thinking through these questions, I’m here to help you. Don’t hesitate to contact me at 571-419-3990 or [email protected].

* The painting imaged above is “Wandering Storyteller with a Magic Lantern” by Alessandro Magnasco (1667-1749).

Filed Under: The (More or Less) Daily Muse Tagged: brand storytelling, branding, connection economy, Seth Godin, storytelling, storytelling and free content marketing, storytelling and marketing, storytelling for business, The Icarus Deception

A Conversation with Disney Animator David Block, Part 2

A Conversation with Disney Animator David Block

Transmedia Mogul Lisa Walker England, Part 2

Transmedia Mogul Lisa Walker England, Part 1

Pearls and Irritants

Take Off Your Battle Armor: The Virtues of Vulnerability

What It Takes to Connect in the Connection Economy

Master of the Revels

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