Author: Daniel Castro

6 lessons from Apple Events

Posted on by Daniel Castro

What is there to say about Apple that hasn’t already been said? As a brand, as an organisation, as a lifestyle… for so long now, it has been held up as the quintessential example of how a business can not only succeed, but thrive in the most demanding of eras. Search any airport bookshop, and you are bound to find a book or two claiming to share the secrets of its alchemic approach.

But while so much of Apple’s success is routinely ascribed to supreme technology, innovation and leadership, this week the world witnessed another vital element in how Apple achieves such phenomenal, enduring success: the enduring power of the live launch event.

Apple’s product launch events have become the stuff of legend, commanding the attention of a global audience and defining an entire industry. Here at The Storytellers, we believe it is no exaggeration to say that these events are an essential part of Apple’s success. As experienced producers of story-driven events ourselves, we know that there are certain key critical success factors to how Apple makes each year’s event a resounding success. Here are six of the most important:

1. Create a sense of intrigue – the global interest that Apple generates for its annual event is phenomenal. Of course, some of this can be put down to to the sheer industry-leading quality of their products. But get past the hype and there’s a fundamental learning here. As humans, we enjoy suspense, but we also crave resolution. Before the event has even started, Apple expertly keeps the sense of mystery as high as possible, taking its global audience from total secrecy… to revealing key details one-by-one, week by week… to sneak peeks on the latest products… all the way to the big reveal at the event itself, where expectations are both met and confounded. Effectively, the launch event becomes the next chapter in an ongoing narrative about the new Apple product, and about Apple as a whole – and it makes for an incredibly engaging, satisfying experience.

Working with each client ahead of their own Story launch, we know that it is so important to create the same sense of anticipation, to engage the same sense of innate curiosity in our clients’ audiences. A teaser campaign, securely anchored to the big messages and goals of the overall programme and which makes sure everyone is intrigued and involved before the big day, is truly the foundation of a stunning event.

2. Reflect the brand – when you picture an Apple launch event, what do you see? Most likely it’s something like a sparse stage, carefully lit, with a huge image of the new product fronted by a casually dressed presenter, and probably little else! It may look simple, but in fact this entire look is carefully manicured to precisely amplify and echo Apple’s brand values. Whilst the products themselves are the ultimate brand experience, Apple knows that it is vital to ensure that whenever it is in the public eye, in whatever way, the experience reflects everything that Apple stands for.

When it comes to our clients’ own events, we know that by gaining a deeper understanding of our clients (not least through the process of identifying their strategic narrative), we put ourselves in a position as event producers to holistically create an experience that truly reflects not only what an organisation stands for today, but where they need to be tomorrow. And although Apple’s events are predominantly externally focused, it’s just as important to get this right for internal events – especially when you are hoping for a community to take a new change journey to heart. This underlying confidence in the brand, and the fact what is being witnessed visibly reflects who we are, is so key to ensuring that we create the conditions necessary for real change.

3. Serve up a feast for the senses – Apple’s events are distinctly and memorably flavoured by the sensory experience they deliver for its audience. Minutes before the event gets underway, all Apple employees remain tight-lipped, taking the sense of anticipation to fever pitch. Only visual cues direct attendees to where they need to be. Then, as the show begins music, carefully chosen for maximum emotional impact, starts to play. Discussions and on-stage demonstrations follow, all linked together as a cohesive narrative. Finally, rooms are provided for people to get their hands on the latest models and have a play for themselves. As an example, see this wonderful video from the opening of the Steve Jobs theatre in 2017: words of wisdom from beyond the grave, the simple Helvetica font, the emotion of the piano in the background, the screens glowing like candles… Apple knows that to get everyone’s complete attention it is so crucial to engage the heart and the mind.

Without senses, we would have no experiences. Without experiences, we would not have memories. In order to create the most memorable occasion possible, we seek to engage as many senses as possible in the events that we create. In this way, the key messages of our clients’ stories have as many chances as possible to be crystallised as enduring memories that last way beyond the event itself. A stunning opening film that tells the story of the strategic narrative, the perfect lighting for all situations, creating opportunities for rich conversation, getting people on their feet and moving at the right time… choosing the right pieces of music to open and close the event… they’re all vital to ensuring that our events go down as wonderful, rich learning experiences for every single audience member.

4. Create a liminal space – ‘liminality’ is an anthropological term that, simply put, means the quality of being ‘at the threshold’. It’s a term often used in reference to rites… and when you consider the zeal and enthusiasm that Apple generates in its acolytes, it’s not a stretch to see their launch events as religious ceremonies of a very modern kind. 

The key to this idea, and where Apple again shows its mastery, is how the familiar and the unfamiliar are blended. So on the one hand, so much of what Apple does at its yearly launch events is repetitive – across most categories, Apple essentially repeats what it did the year before. The theatre-style seating, the look and feel of the staging, going through the product’s key features before giving the audience a demonstration of how it works… the consistency of certain elements brings a satisfaction, and reinforces trust in the brand.

But by varying the location, speakers and the products themselves, the familiar and unfamiliar are blended in such a way that creates a space in which heightened emotional responses are provoked, feelings of creativity and innovation are stoked, and the right setting for people to better absorb and reflect what they are hearing is created. 

At The Storytellers, we achieve liminal space in two key ways – firstly, the act of consistently sharing an evolving story in itself creates a sense of the familiar and the unfamiliar. In this way, consistency of form shifts the focus from less important elements back onto the key messages of the strategic narrative itself: much how Apple achieves maximum focus on its products. Secondly, we work with our clients to find the most impactful venue for their story launch events. Just as Apple may host its events at their headquarters, or at another venue in San Francisco, so we recommend venues that are not just practical, but also meaningful according to the particular client Story that needs to be told. 

Fundamentally, liminal space is all about creating an environment in which learning and development are stimulated, and it’s a critical factor in how we ensure that our clients’ stories are truly embedded in an organisation through powerful live experiences.

5. Get the running order right – in many ways, one of the great marks of success of the Apple launch event has been how it has survived the loss of Steve Jobs. Whereas Jobs would dominate the stage, sometimes taking up the entirety of a keynote speech, we now see Tim Cook adopting more of an MC approach, introducing different speakers, sharing the limelight and on average using up less than 20 minutes of the keynote presentation. Being malleable enough to respond to these challenges and maintain the same strong brand impression, given the vast differences in leadership, is a great achievement. Not only this, but Apple has also evolved to respond to wider social shifts – more women than ever share the stage with what once would be almost entirely men. One has to look no further than the recent recruitment of Angela Ahrendts, previously CEO of Burberry, to see that Apple takes every opportunity and angle to visibly demonstrate to the world that it’s moving with the times.

In another sense, each year’s agenda design also subtly reflects the key messages that are being shared and the focus that Apple wants people to understand. By choosing a certain order for the different agenda items, Apple sends a myriad of messages about how it is evolving, and how it now ought to be perceived. Getting the balance right for the shifting leadership team, and at the same time ensuring that a story is told through the way in which the audience are taken through each year’s new products, is surely one of the more unsung elements in how Apple consistently delivers incredible launch events.

In the same way at The Storytellers, we know that it is imperative to choreograph our different speakers according to the particular leadership style of the team that we’re working with, and to the key messages that are being shared. The time that a leadership team shares with its teams around the business is so precious; carefully co-creating our event agendas with our clients is a vital element in making sure that this is time well-spent.

6. Value solid technical production – so often, the technical production of an event is only newsworthy when it goes wrong: and Apple is no exception. At the 2014 Launch Event, viewers from around the world watching on Apple TV and online were stuck on a blank screen for the first 30 minutes of the event – a PR disaster. More recently, when introducing the iPhone 10 and trying to show off its new facial recognition software, the phone failed to recognise SVP Craig Federighi … and he was embarrassingly asked for a passcode instead. Such events not only impaired the audience’s chance to hear the key messages and understand what the new products were all about, but also came to overshadow the entire event itself. These were of course blips in what is generally seamless, top-drawer event production, but unfortunately it is so often the mistakes that people remember, and for Apple, these moments will go down in history.

Every year, we run many events for our clients – whether taking full responsibility for our clients’ story launch events or working with other production companies, our technical directors work tirelessly to ensure that our clients’ story events are remembered for the key messages and rich conversations that ensued with their colleagues; not that moment when the power failed or the screen went down. The value of an event that runs without a hitch truly cannot be underestimated. One wonders what Tim Cook would pay now to go back in time and avoid the calamities Apple endured in 2014 and 2017. When it comes to technical production, it truly is the case that a stitch in time is worth nine.

In conclusion: it is so telling that the most innovative, inventive, technologically sophisticated company that the world has ever seen continues to use the live event as the central moment in each year in which to share key messages and reinforce the journey it’s on. Despite losing the most iconic business leader that we have seen so far in the 21st century, Apple has unwaveringly persevered with its live events. Each September’s launch event is the focal point for so much of what it does… and there are no signs that this is about to change.

As experienced event producers ourselves at The Storytellers, we know from running countless shows that there are certain factors that will determine the success or failure of a live event. But if there is anything at all to be learned from Apple’s reliance on the live event, that most preternatural format for sharing information, it is simply this: that the impact of a well-produced, story-driven event reinforcing the trajectory of a business is truly limitless.

The 3Ms: shifting the culture of an entire country

Posted on by Daniel Castro

When it comes to shifting culture, here at The Storytellers we know that continuously providing the ‘3Ms’ – motivation, means and momentum – is absolutely critical towards making real change happen. So it is with interest that we hear news this week of South Korea making their own efforts to shift culture, on a country-wide scale – could the same principles apply?

South Korea is known for having one of the most workaholic cultures in the world. Essentially, there is very little balance about it – people there typically work up to 68 hours a week, working around 400 hours extra a year compared to people in the UK. This working culture extends to students too, and South Korea is also notorious for the highest suicide rate in the developed world.

So we can see that there is a great motivation to change – not only will a shorter working week benefit everyone in terms of getting personal time back, but it also stands to establish a healthier culture for generations to come. You might wonder if the people themselves were genuinely motivated by this. Well, the promise was a key part of President Moon Jae-In’s campaign – so while it is by no means the only reason for his electoral success, it surely shows that he struck a chord with this motivating idea.

But what about means? President Moon Jae-In had this covered too – alongside promising a reduction in working hours, the President also promised a massive raise in the minimum wage, a 16% increase – the highest since 2000. This meant that the plan to reduce working hours would not affect the means of South Korean families to continue living to the standards they are accustomed to. Without ensuring that people were materially supported through this massive cultural change, President Moon Jae-In’s promise of a reduction in working hours would simply have been hot air – you have to give people the means to make the change.

Finally, how about momentum? Momentum is perhaps the most intangible of these three critical factors – but again, there is real evidence that South Korea as a country has grasped the cultural change, and run with it. Some businesses have started to turn off computers on a Friday, in order to force people to go home. Other business turn off the lights in an office past a certain time of night, again, to support the wider change. While these might sound like small, insignificant events, they are in fact a sign that people are starting to make the country-wide change their own. These are the green shoots of change that need to be shared and celebrated if momentum and a real sense of a movement is to be created behind a change.

So while applying the 3Ms to a country’s sweeping cultural changes may seem far-fetched… in reality, when it comes to shifting culture, there are some principles that really do apply across the board.

Daniel Castro
Senior Producer

Five defining moments of the World Cup so far

Posted on by Daniel Castro

If journalism is the practice of picking up on the threads of existing stories, exploring how events of today impact those narratives, and exploring where the future could take us, then this year’s World Cup has already been a journalist’s dream.

So far the tournament has been full of twists, turns, and ‘defining moments’ – what we at The Storytellers call the meaningful and memorable moments in a long-term narrative, and that point to big change.

At The Storytellers, we know that ‘defining moments’ are essential towards how companies and organisations shift culture and mindsets – and at the World Cup, we have seen five ‘defining moments’ that have shifted five very different narratives:

Russia: in terms of hosting the World Cup, it is widely acknowledged that Russia has delivered above and beyond what was expected. Prior to the tournament, fears over the country’s problem with hooliganism and clashes with rival fans loomed large – and of course, the West’s frosty relationship with Putin soured the prospect of the tournament for many. What has happened thus far has actually been a carefully staged and violence-free carnival of football. As an event, Russia has gone a long way towards challenging the existing narrative about what kind of a country they are – this really could be a defining moment in the country’s history.

Germany: it’s pretty clear what poor Germany’s defining moment has been: this is the first time that Die Mannschaft have exited the tournament at the group stage, ever. As a team, the next four years will undoubtedly be a process of resetting the journey that they are on. In storytelling terms, they are certainly ready for the ‘Next Episode’ of how they achieve success on the global stage – and most likely, a new leader to give new meaning to those old objectives that once seemed so straightforward.

England: the fascinating thing about England’s campaign so far is the quietly shifting nature of how the public interact with the national team. There is the palpable sense of a nation finally reaching the final stages of grief after years of agonising losses and crushed optimism. Of course, as you read this, England may have already exited the tournament – but there is a sense of belief that under Gareth Southgate’s leadership, English football has quietly begun a new kind of journey towards success.

Messi and Ronaldo: after years of two players dominating the world of football, we have most likely seen the last of the mercurial Ronaldo and magical Messi at a World Cup. Tantalisingly, we might have seen a very different kind of defining moment, as the match between Portugal and Argentina – and a chance for one final showdown – was narrowly missed. So instead the story is that of a glorious era coming to an end – and just as they shared their years of success, how fitting that they both bowed out of the tournament on the same day. Truly a defining moment for these two giants of football.

VAR: after mixed successes at the domestic level, one gets the sense that this is a defining moment for how football uses technology to enhance the actual game itself. After years of controversial refereeing decisions, VAR (Video Assistant Referee) has put the thousands of different camera angles at the disposal of the referee and their team, to more accurately judge what has happened. The human touch remains of course – and while this is certainly a defining moment in that VAR is probably here to stay, the wider narrative of how humans interact and make best use of technology continues.

 

Daniel Castro
Producer

Episodic storytelling: beyond the myth

Posted on by Daniel Castro

“Life is a spiral staircase… the journey is both repetitious and progressive; we go both round and upward.” – Y.B Yeats

When it comes to understanding the power and influence of episodic storytelling, there are perhaps few better examples than Star Wars. For over 40 years, Star Wars has delighted and entertained billions of people across the world, and the franchise shows no sign of stopping. So far: we have had two complete trilogies; we await the finale of the most recent, third trilogy; and there is another subsequent trilogy planned. There is a Hans Solo spin-off in the cinemas right now, and there are at least three other ‘anthology’ films in development. From its humble beginnings in the 1977 film ‘Star Wars’, the story has grown to a point that surely was beyond even the wildest dreams of its creator. It truly is storytelling on a grand scale.

So what has made Star Wars so successful, and given it such incredible longevity? The answer can be found in the art and science of a particular kind of storytelling: episodic storytelling.

In the broadest sense, one could define episodic storytelling as the art of telling the story of an epic journey via a series of interconnected, smaller episodes that link together thematically, and that each have meaning and value in and of themselves.

The original Star Wars trilogy is a crystallised example of how this works: each individual film has its own ups and downs, trials and tribulations, and evolving cast of characters. But over the course of the trilogy, there is a more profound narrative that emerges: a battle of good and evil on the grandest of scales… and of course, a particularly difficult relationship between a father and son.

As each episode adds a new layer of meaning, the story gradually unfolds before our eyes – it’s incredibly engaging. The challenge that Luke Skywalker faced in the first film was real, but the true test only revealed itself in the second – and the compelling nature of what it meant to overcome this challenge was only meaningful by the time we arrived at the third, concluding film, when we finally came to know who Luke had now become. To put it bluntly, without ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ and ‘Return of the Jedi’, Luke is a pretty forgettable hero. But by the end of the trilogy, we understand that he is someone who has not only overcome mortal and existential challenges, but who has also come of age.

As an audience, this kind of understanding and meaning is only possible through an evolving, episodic journey. Each of the three films in that original trilogy has a beginning, middle and an end. The beauty of episodic storytelling is that as we follow the mini beginning-middle-end of each chapter in the overall story, the key messages become both focused and magnified. In this way, episodic storytelling takes an original, monological ‘myth’, and makes it real, meaningful, deeper and altogether more human.

So what does any of this have to do with The Storytellers? Is there anything we can learn from Star Wars in this sense?

At The Storytellers, one of our main goals is to perfect the art and science of storytelling in business. For over fifteen years, we have developed and refined narrative frameworks that help our clients answer a primary, yet deceptively simple question: ‘where are we coming from… and where are we going?’

Our experience in engaging people in these ‘strategic narratives’ tells us that the key to how an organisation moves towards its goals and destination can almost always be found in the centre of that story – whether it is a key opportunity that must be seized, or a crisis that must be resolved.

However, in an era defined by constant and continuous change, we are seeing an ever growing need for clients to be increasingly agile, responsive and compelling in how they describe the changes that are happening around them – and it is only really through episodic storytelling that this is achievable.

What constitutes the central challenge of any journey is constantly and subtly shifting, and this can only truly be countered by consistently updating what that journey really means now. Deciding to climb Everest is one thing, but does the journey look the same when you arrive at Base Camp, months after that initial decision? Does it look the same when you are 100ft from the summit? The destination may be the same… but the motivation that took you from your home to Base Camp – and the true meaning of that journey – is constantly in flux.

To put it simply: it is how we continuously and compellingly redefine what the journey to our destination looks like that makes climbing the mountain possible.

Perhaps more importantly, episodic storytelling also provides a meaningful opportunity to connect the overarching journey to what people are experiencing on a collective level – breathing a new kind of life into that same journey. And again, Star Wars provides us with a great example.

One of the most high-profile decisions in ‘The Force Awakens’ (Episode 7) was the casting of one particular role. Every single Star Wars film before it had a man playing the main hero, but in 2015, for the first time in seven Star Wars films – the hero was played by Daisy Ridley, a woman.

It’s fair to say that we would not have seen a female hero in a film of this size and scale in 1977 – but in 2015, the time had come for a female Jedi. In this one casting decision, Star Wars showed that it was moving with the times, choosing to better reflect reality – and bravely making progress on a very different journey.

Of course, some people were unable to get past the decision to have a woman play a Jedi hero. Unbelievably, one fan took it upon themselves to make their own ‘cut’, and entirely removed all women from the film. This act was met with a withering response on Twitter, with even the film’s director and stars responding directly to voice their dismay.

The point is that while the events of the 7th episode in the Star Wars saga take place ‘in a galaxy far, far away’, down here on Planet Earth another story was unfolding on social media and in everyday conversation that arguably had a much more pertinent lesson. Effectively, episodic storytelling had taken Star Wars beyond a mere parable of good vs. evil, and to a point where, for a brief moment, it became a bonafide force for progress in society.

The decision to go against convention by casting a woman as the hero; the conversation that took place on a global level in response to the casting of Daisy Ridley; and the actions of the filmmakers in defending that choice could well be regarded as the most important achievement of the Star Wars franchise to date. Arguably for the first time in this galaxy, Star Wars had truly shown us what good looks like.

So the power of stories is not only in how we tell them, and in telling the ‘right’ story; but also in the conversation that happens when a population is engaged through storytelling. In and of itself, a story has the power to motivate people to act in service of progress, to move as one towards a common goal – but it also has the power to spark an invaluable conversation about who we are and who we want to be; and therefore, to directly influence reality. In this sense, as a methodology for real change and progress, it is quite unparalleled.

In conclusion, I come back to that wonderful quote from Yeats: it’s true, the journey really is repetitious. Just as in Star Wars, we all know that in life, we tend to circle back round to the same characters, the same themes. The big question is: how exactly do we make sure the journey is progressive?

It is in how a new story builds on the one we told yesterday; it is in how the conversation around the journey evolves in response; and perhaps most importantly, it is in how, as leaders and as individuals, we choose what should stay the same on that journey, and what should maybe be different this time.

At The Storytellers, our aim is to make sure that our clients don’t go round in circles, but that they see real progress. In an era of constant change and shifting values, it is only through episodic storytelling – the continuous connection between the epic, evolving stories that we tell, and the reality around us each day – that real progress begins to become truly possible.

Daniel Castro