The Year in Review

At the start of another calendar year, I am taking a few moments to reflect on 2015. A year that began tentatively ended with some exciting projects and interesting way forwards.

Our work last year was mostly around helping clients create and curate strategic content (with a capital C). In Marketing and Learning.

Content playbooks, consumer insights, story-based role plays for complex learning situations, case studies, success narratives for awards and pitches, social media content using storytelling, small business and social entrepreneurship consultations, marketing communication narratives, brand development and cultural insight mapping – have been some of our most important outputs.

In this process, there have been some discoveries.

First, in the current flood of Content, both visual and written, there is a need to put out narratives, which are well researched, strategically aligned and creatively exciting. Most brands are not there yet.

Second, all content does not build your brand. The art of editing is more relevant today and than ever before.

Third, collaboration is more than lip service. Collaboration requires both decisive actions as well as the ability to pick everyone’s best and synthesize into one solution. Nothing new. However, easier said than done.

Fourth, publicly available information is under leveraged for insights. More public data is available today than last year and the year before that. There is a need to use that better.

And fifth, marketing and research are changing in exciting ways. There will be continued pressure on marketers to keep up their learning curves.

At the start of 2016, we look forward to explorations of Strategic Narratives, new partnerships and wondrous continuations of existing relationships.

We wish for our clients to grow and achieve new heights of excellence. And continue partnering them on their audacious journeys of insights and narratives.