Aine Lawless, Author at All Good Tales

Passionate about stories–Newspaper Club

Our Passionate about Stories series looks at storytelling from organisations of all shapes and sizes. The series gives us an opportunity to learn from brands we love and develop our storytelling skills.

The way we consume stories day to day has changed immensely over the past few decades. In most people’s lives today it would be a rare thing for them to read a physical newspaper or magazine, most of what we read is on a screen of some description.

One creative UK company is making waves in the print community worldwide and carving out a space for analogue publications to flourish. Newspaper Club was founded in 2009 by two guys who initially just wanted to print a small run of novelty newspapers as gifts for their friends.

Their Story

After discovering that anyone can get a newspaper printed Tom Taylor and Russell Davis decided to make one of their own as a gift for friends entitled “Things Our Friends Have Written on the Internet”. Initially looking for just 50 copies they soon realised it was impossible to get anything smaller than a 1000 piece run of print, so they went with it and ended up giving away the extra copies as a free zine.

There was a great reaction, all extra copies of the zine were snapped up instantly and they realised they were onto something. To most print seemed like it was dying, but people still desired printed materials even if the content was changing–Newspaper Club was born from the idea of grouping small print orders together to make the process more accessible for everyone.

“We believe that reports of print’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Paper is a timelessly accessible and versatile medium and we believe in the power of newspapers to tell stories, in a way that’s tactile and human.”

How they Share

Since its humble beginnings in 2009, Newspaper Club has grown to become a worldwide printing service. They have customers producing high-quality publications of all sizes, from monthly newspapers to once off props.

These publications are colourful and interesting–full of creative genius from every discipline, one of the best ways to get a feel for them is through Newspaper Club’s Instagram account. There they share snippets and snapshots of what their community is printing–a mirage of storytelling through beautiful design and type.

On their own part Newspaper Club also have an active blog where they publish their own stories about the company, printing techniques and the people they have worked with. Their blog gives creative insight into the visions they have brought to life and inspiration to those aspiring to create.

Theirs is a story of bringing life back to one of the most traditional storytelling mediums–The humble newspaper. For many, they are the beginning of a new age in newsprint.

Here at All Good Tales, we believe that storytelling can help your business succeed. We’ve worked with the likes of Ancestry.com, Entekra and DAA in helping them tell their story. We’d love to help you with a free consultation. You can call Gaye on (01) 254 1845 to organise yours today. Alternatively, you can get in touch here.

Why 2019 should be the year you tell great stories

Why do we tell stories? We tell stories to share concepts and ideas. We tell stories to make others laugh and we tell stories to become closer to people.

Storytelling is one of the most natural things in the world. It’s something even the youngest children master before they begin to speak. When it comes to storytelling for businesses, stories can help open up your company. They can help draw people in and win brand loyalty from customers.

We believe that every strong brand has an interesting story behind them. Have a look at our Brand Story Heroes ebook to read some of our favourites. Stories in business do not have to become confined to an account of your company’s history tacked onto the ‘about’ page of your website, they can be incorporated into every aspect of your communications strategy.

So why should 2019 be the year you tell great stories?

Personality

Well, first things first, a good story will help your brand’s personality shine. Often we have this notion of companies as cold and impersonal, faceless entities. But what about the people behind the company, the ethos and values they strive for?

Giving your customers a quick peek behind the facade will promote genuine interest and potential new business. People want to see what your company is really like. Make sure the personality you are putting out there isn’t that of your marketing or social media manager–it has to be that of your brand.

Lengthy material

Something is shifting in the media, this notion of clickbait and fake news is getting to people. Our attention spans may no longer be quite as expansive as they used to be but people are getting sick of empty content and are gradually gravitating back to longer-form material.

This means the time is ripe for you to flesh out your content with some quality storytelling. By writing or producing longer pieces for your website, blog and social media accounts you will encourage your customers to pay attention for longer and see the best bits of your company.

Not just text

In fact it’s easier than ever to begin sharing stories with others, they don’t have to come in the form of lengthy blog posts either. You could use infographics or videos either–two highly engaging forms of visual content that are all over the internet.

Arguably 2019 will be the year of the podcast though. If you think you have enough stories to produce a short weekly podcast why not consider it? You may think your area is too niche or uninteresting for a dedicated podcast, but that’s exactly what people are looking for.

Whether you work in fashion or oil spills, there are almost certainly stories in your field begging to be told. For example, here at All Good Tales we are obsessed with telling stories, our weekly podcast – Media Moments takes intriguing moments from the media over the years and tells the story of what happened and what that moment changed.

So what’s the take away? Today people are getting sick and tired of faceless corporations. We want to do business with companies who we understand, who have a conscience and at a base level who we like. By introducing stories into the everyday running of your business you will get the opportunity to display it’s humanity to the world.

Here at All Good Tales, we are doing great work for brands like Ancestry.com, Entekra and DAA, to name just a few. We are building brand newsrooms and executing exciting PR strategies. We also train key staff to craft emotional brand stories. For a free consultation, please click here or call Gaye on (01) 254 1845.

Breathe life into your brand

In the age of competitive business, with new names cropping up daily across different sectors, it’s more important than ever to establish a strong identity for your brand.

This means developing your brand personality, connecting with customers and showing off the people behind your story.

To find out how we can help you breathe new life into your brand, request a consultation here.

To take a better look at some of the best ways you can make your brand come alive, we’ve taken a look at two successful brands and what they do well.

Oatly

Oatly is a Swedish brand who specialise in making dairy-free substitutes for products like milk and cream made from oats.

They are not a massive company yet they have a well-rounded marketing strategy that stretches from their packaging to their social media, website and customer interactions.

The Oatly Instagram account is arguably one of the most aesthetically pleasing accounts out there for a grocery product. Their feed is a stream of beautifully captured moments, most of which feature one of their products ‘in the wild’ so to speak. However, it’s the captions alongside these posts which really set them apart.

Instead of banal businessy captions, Oatly brings a unique personality to their products with rambling, humorous posts about what they contain, how you could use them or generally how great they are. In some cases, this kind of approach could be seen as obnoxious or to sales oriented, however, Oatly hit the note just right, showing how serious they are about their oat drink without being too pushy about it.

Oatly barista edition in the wild

Oatly breaking the fourth wall of social media posting.

Instagram post about a mural about an Instagram post.

Something else which Oatly do very well is telling stories with their packaging. Not only is their packaging interesting to look at, it’s humorous, fun to read and there is a great variety of content across their different products. There’s something really energetic about the brand, and you can see that in all of their visuals and communications.

Oat drink packaging (Oatly), Source: http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2014/9/23/oatly

Lidl

There is something about Lidl that just screams warmth and energy.

They are a much larger and more established brand than Oatly, however, they have a similar culture for activity and engagement. They also have an active Instagram account where they share product posts and recipe videos, however, Twitter is the star of their social media show. They tweet regularly about new products, campaign launches and their sponsorship partnerships with the likes of LGFA (The Ladies Gaelic Football Association).

These are all great ways to get customers engaged online, and they have a massive following in both the UK and Ireland. Some of Lidl’s best moments on Twitter have been much more spontaneous though, and it’s moments like those which really show a sparkle of personality in the brand.

A prime example of a moment like that came last March (2018) during one of the most extreme snowstorms Ireland has ever experienced. One Lidl store in Tallaght was broken into using a digger. This was obviously a devastating event that caused a lot of problems for the company, however, on twitter Lidl were quick-witted and brought some humour to the situation.

They then followed up in a similar way when the same thing happened to a McDonald’s branch in Limerick just a few weeks later.

Lidl received so much positive engagement and free publicity from these tweets, that there’s no chance they would have gotten had they issued a serious statement via social media. Two key things to take from Lidl’s twitter jaunt with the JCB:

Don’t be afraid to inject some humour into your communications
Interacting with other brands online will not only accomplish some of the above but will also double your chances of getting seen.

Something else which has to be mentioned when speaking of Lidl and personality is their sponsorship partnerships. In Ireland their most prevalent is with the LGFA (The Ladies Gaeilc Football Association), it forms a key part of their marketing strategy and is visible in all of their stores, on the team’s jerseys and on most of their marketing material. However, there is very little about the campaign that feels too self-promoting like a lot of corporate sponsorships. A lot of Lidls’ campaigns with the LGFA really give the impression that they care about the community and investing in it which is refreshing and much more likely to build a strong and loyal customer base.

Not every company will have €3 million to invest in sponsorship deals, but why not take a look into other community projects you could get involved in or events you could host to boost your brand’s name, energy and standing.

Photo: Eamon Ward, Source: http://clareherald.com/2016/05/st-caimans-wins-lidl-lgfa-store-competition-567/

So what can we take away from this? How can you accomplish what Oatly and Lidl are doing so well and breathe life into your brand?

Create a personality for your brand on social media
Engage with customers and other businesses online
Try out some unique ways of marketing your product (Wall murals anyone?)
Support your local community in whatever way fits your business/brand.

Most importantly, don’t be afraid to take some risks and experiment with what works best for you. Businesses of different sizes, different locations and different products will, of course, all have slightly different audiences, but jump in and make the most of your brand and the tools you have at your disposal.

Here at All Good Tales we are always keeping an eye on the latest trends. Right now we are doing great work for brands like Kingspan, Glandore, Ancestry.com, and daa, to name just a few. We are building brand newsrooms, executing exciting PR strategies, and training key staff how to source, structure and tell great stories. For more information please click here or call Gaye on (01) 254 1845.

Aine Lawless