By Matthew Medlin, Account Coordinator Science and art. At first glance, it might seem like the two are on opposite ends of the spectrum. But glances can be deceptive. When it comes to PR, at least, science and art are working together, brush and pen in hand. Or keyboard, as the case may be. …more
By Grace Hoffman, Editorial Assistant It’s rare to read a restaurant review that is brutal, compelling and downright strange! Pete Wells dug in and made it happen … but how? The variety of tactics and his unwillingness to “go easy” on Guy Fieri’s restaurant is what makes this review rich material illustrating how storytelling …more
Correcting a statistic in a media story is easy. If a company reduces its workforce by 100, but the journalist accidentally added a zero so the number reads 1,000, you reach out to the publication and they run a correction. Unfortunately, inaccuracies in media stories are often not so black and white. Context, nuance, history, …more
By Elisa Zallio, Junior Account Executive, Hoffman Europe (London) I’d like to tell you about Emilio Salgari. He is a barely known, Italian writer from the late 19th century; he wrote adventure stories for periodic magazines, usually about fallen noblemen turned pirates to take revenge on their enemies — and, obviously, they’d fall in …more
After conducting our storytelling workshop over the years, a certain theme has emerged. By the close of the workshop, participants buy into the concepts. They then jump back into their jobs with renewed determination to communicate with conversational language and a show-don’t-tell attitude only to run into that visible force called stakeholder approval. We continually …more
Turning to the front page of The New York Times business section yesterday, I did a double take. Sitting above the fold found The New York Times taking on the story line of Amazon constructing buildings around oversized greenhouses in downtown Seattle. I wouldn’t exactly call this a puff piece, but it sure does come …more
Failure. Point to a movie or a book that captivates, and I’ll show you failure. Shrek. Absolutely. Something more high-brow, like the best-selling novel “A Little Life.” Again, failure underpins the story. For it’s the failure — something going horribly awry, the more pain the better — that creates the tension in a story. As …more
