Story Worldwide Awarded 11 Pearls at Annual Custom Content Council Ceremony

The 2011 W3 Award Winners have been announced, and Story Worldwide has once again been honored. Story Worldwide’s Everyman Challenges campaign for Klondike (Unilever North America) scored a Gold Award in the Integrated Marketing Campaign: Food/Beverage category. Everyman Challenges, a multiple-touchpoint, humorous, and entertaining experience, included a YouTube video contest, online video games, flash and rich media banners, an iPhone application, and one of the world’s first iAds.

“This year’s W3 Winners demonstrate the out-of-the box thinking and creative execution that exemplifies what the Web is all about” said Linda Day, the Executive Director of the IAVA. “On behalf of the entire Academy, congratulations to this year’s W³ Award entrants and winners for their dedication to pushing the limits and finding new ways to raise the bar in Web Creativity.

Receiving over 3,000 entries, the W³ Awards honors creative excellence on the Web, and recognizes the creative and marketing professionals behind award winning Websites, Web Video and Online Marketing programs. Simply put, the W³ is the first major Web competition to be accessible to the biggest agencies, the smallest firms, and everyone in between. Small firms are as likely to win as Fortune 500 companies and international agencies.

The W³ Awards honors creative excellence on the Web, and recognizes the creative and marketing professionals behind award winning Websites, Web Video and Online Marketing programs. Simply put, the W³ is the first major Web competition to be accessible to the biggest agencies, the smallest firms, and everyone in between. Small firms are as likely to win as Fortune 500 companies and international agencies.

In 2010, Story took home six W3 awards, including two gold awards on behalf of Klondike.

The largest international content marketing event for 2011, Content Marketing World, has added Storytellers Simon Kelly, COO, and Keith Blanchard, Executive Creative Director, to their esteemed list of speakers.

Kelly will be part of a panel of content marketing experts in a session entitled, The Role of Content and Storytelling in Today’s Integrated B2C. Alongside fellow panelists Ellen Moreau, VP of Marketing Communications at Sherwin Williams, John Gower, VP at Future Plus, and Jeff Rohrs of Exact Target, the roundtable discussion will address what leading brands are doing to set up content marketing for success and will ultimately answer the question, “How do the leading consumer brands structure their storytelling within the myriad of channels?”

Blanchard will be joined by Josh Richman, VP of Marketing for WGN America, Tribune Broadcasting’s national cable network and Story Worldwide client, for a unique hour-long session. Rise of the SuperFans: Growing TV Audience by Empowering Digital Communities will show attendees how managing digital communities can generate productive offline behavior while lowering traditional ad spend. Today, WGNA features “Superfans” in TV spots, tweeters show up in crawls during shows, and fans program the lineup for episode marathons. In exchange, WGNA has been able to leverage each show’s existing online fan base to drive audience, positioning WGNA well for the long-term transition from lean-back-TV to online-interactive experience.

About the Event
Content Marketing World 2011 will be in Cleveland, September 6th-8th. For three days, over 50 of the best and the brightest from the marketing industry will converge in Cleveland to share the latest custom content and social media trends, client success stories, best practices and more.

Over 500 marketing professionals will attend this year, including those from GE, Ciena, IBM, Cleveland Clinic, Hitachi, EMC and marketing professionals from more than a dozen countries.

If you’d like to join Keith, Simon, and hundreds of B2B, B2C, and Small Business/Non-Profit marketers at Content Marketing World you can register online here. Use the coupon code “EVENT42” for an additional $100 the registration price.

Branded Content Publisher and Healthcare Agency Join Forces to Collaborate on Innovative Advertising for Pharmaceutical, OTC and Medical Device Brands

New York (July 12, 2011) — Story Worldwide, a next-generation digital agency telling brand stories for companies like Unilever, Lexus, and Johnson & Johnson, announced today a partnership with StrikeForce Communications, an entrepreneurial healthcare agency that finds “open source” communications solutions for clients like Alcon Laboratories, Teva, Pfizer, Pozen, and Abbott Labs.

The goal: To create customized digital solutions for pharmaceutical clients seeking to leverage cutting-edge digital storytelling to drive business.

The alliance will utilize Strikeforce’s “SWAT Team” approach, which gathers specialist teams to address particular healthcare challenges with unprecedented precision. Says Mike Rutstein, founder and president of StrikeForce: “We believe that linking the right talent—whether individual or agency—to the specific client is a lot more effective than the one-size-fits-all mentality of traditional agencies.”

Similarly, the narrative approach of Story Worldwide will empower pharma brands to sensibly produce executions of genuine value to end users. “It’s a crowded media landscape out there,” says Keith Blanchard, Executive Creative Director of Story. “Brands need to publish truly useful, informative, and entertaining content if they want to reach audiences. We help brands compete and win in that complex environment.”

The two firms today began development on their first project, a multi-million dollar DTC women’s health campaign for one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies.

About StrikeForce
STRIKEFORCE is an entrepreneurial healthcare communications agency that operates through a unique, open source model called Precision Pairing. This “in-sourcing” approach offers clients greater access to top-level talent and the ability to tailor solutions to meet the individual needs of each assignment – without the overhead and fixed assets of a traditional model. The result is greater specificity, efficiency and a more potent work product.

STRIKEFORCE COMMUNICATIONS LLC is based in New York City. The agency’s engagements include work for the following clients: Alcon Laboratories, Orexigen Therapeutics, Pozen Pharmaceuticals, KCI, Azur Pharmaceuticals, Abbott Laboratories, Ocean Nutrition Canada, Wyeth/Pfizer, Sepracor and Teva.

For more information about StrikeForce, please contact Mike Rutstein at 917-475-1876, or e-mail: mrutstein@strikeforcenyc.com.

About Story Worldwide
Story Worldwide, launched in 2007 and with offices in New York, London, Seattle, and South Norwalk Connecticut, is a next-generation marketing agency that believes every brand has a story to tell, and those who tell it best win. Working in all media channels around the world, Story relies on a narrative-based approach that has produced strong business results for brands like Lexus, Popsicle, RCI/Wyndham, Green Giant, WGN America, and many more.

For more information about Story Worldwide, please contact Chris Parker at 203.258.1588, or email: chris.parker@storyworldwide.com

With Story Worldwide’s help, The Havens turned their film into an interactive experience

The film Where is Your Line?, made interactive with the help of Story Worldwide, has been honored with a Bronze Lion at the 58^th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

The objective of the film was to raise awareness of The Havens, a London based Crisis Center that helps victims of rape and sexual assault, and to foster conversation among young people about what constitutes rape.

The film, conceived and directed by Sara Dunlop of Rattling Stick, London, follows a group of young people on a night out. As the evening turns sour, audiences are asked to consider at what point the line has been crossed. Instead of simply raising the question, viewers were invited to answer it by clicking the screen when they think the line has been crossed.

When audiences interacted with the film they were taken to a hidden video within YouTube and presented with a statistic relevant to the specific point in the film at which they clicked. Tracking user clicks, the film became self-perpetuating, generating new statistics and behavioral insights that actually fed back into the campaign. Using the social functionality of YouTube, the film was supported by a wider seeding strategy, generating over 20,000 views in the first two days of launch. Currently the video has garnered over 50,000 views.

You can see the full award entry here.

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is the world’s biggest celebration of creativity in communications. As the most prestigious international advertising awards, more than 24,000 entries from all over the world are showcased and judged at the Festival. Winners receive the highly coveted Lion trophy, presented at four award ceremonies throughout the week.

Mariner (Holland America Line), Lexus Magazine, Endless Vacation (RCI), and Outlook (Acura Financial Services) all honored

The eighth annual Magnum Opus Awards have announced their 2011 winners and Story Worldwide has been honored with 13 awards across four different publications. This is the fifth consecutive year Story has been honored and the second straight year that Story has received over a dozen awards. This year’s competition included 560 different entries.

“It’s very gratifying to see this kind of grand recognition of our team’s wonderful creative work,” says Story’s Executive Creative Director Keith Blanchard. “Almost everyone on our creative team has significant experience in consumer magazines and websites—we know how to create the kind of content people love, and love to share, and that’s what makes the difference.

Endless Vacation, a magazine custom published for RCI, brought home six awards across print, digital, and email platforms, including two Gold Awards for Highest Response Generation and Best New Publication Launch, both for the innovative Endless Vacation eZine.

Story’s Lexus Magazine, the most awarded custom publication in the world, scored three awards in the Electronic Publication category, including the prestigious Grand Award for a web-based publication, as well as two Gold Awards for Overall Editorial and Overall Design for a web-based publication.

Mariner Magazine, the official magazine of the Holland America Line, garnered three awards in the Print Magazine Category. This included a Gold Award for Best Regularly Featured Department or Column for “New Voyager,” which featured essays by Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley, Presumed Innocent author Scott Turow, and actor and award-winning writer Andrew McCarthy.

Outlook, Story’s magazine for Acura Financial Services, earned a Gold Award for Best Overall Editorial in the Print Newsletter category.

The Magnum Opus Awards are an annual competition dedicated to the world’s top content marketing efforts. The awards are conducted by ContentWise in conjunction with the University of Missouri School of Journalism and are judged upon informational and entertainment value, quality of writing and display copy, creative use of imagery and typography and consistency of color palette and style. The Magnum Opus Awards are the leading custom media awards program recognizing excellence in editorial, design and strategy for organizations using print and online publications as well as social media in their content marketing efforts.

Story remains one of the top 15 Customer Publishing Agencies for the second consecutive year.

A recent article in Marketing magazine lists Story Worldwide among the 31 top-ranking customer publishing agencies for 2009 and 2010. The article, entitled “The Rise of Branded Content” puts Story at #14, up a spot from last year.

The piece makes an excellent argument for something we’ve long advocated: the importance of branded content. It’s further proof that this is the year branded content is truly coming into its own. As the Marketing piece explains, digital communication through apps, emails, and social media has risen in parallel with the custom-publishing industry. Print remains crucial — even digital brands like Google have launched print titles — but print now must work in conjunction with other marketing tools. Through creative integrations of print and digital, brands can execute campaigns that tie one medium to the other and produce a more engaging and well-rounded consumer experience.

We at Story Worldwide are firm believers that creating original content that entertains, informs, or assists consumers is the only way to foster loyalty, create brand advocates, and generate a following. It’s quite an honor to be recognized as one of the industry’s top agencies. It goes to show that in the end, great content really does win.

Story’s Post-Advertising blog gained three spots on Junta42’s Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs list. Up from the fourteenth spot, we’ve now settled in at #11 amid other highly touted blogs like Jay Baer’s Convince and Convert (which nabbed first place) and Jason Falls’s Social Media Examiner. Each was selected based on strength of content, depth, regularity, and, partially, its popularity.

The entire list consists of more than 400 blogs, but only the top 42 are considered award winners. It’s an honor to have PostAdvertising.com included among today’s top content-marketing sites and further proves that, in the end, great content really does win.

Co-presented by Google, exhibit showcases early and influential websites, displayed on vintage hardware of their time

WHEN: June 6-9, 2011
WHERE: Internet Week New York headquarters at Chelsea’s Metropolitan Pavilion
COST: The Internet Week NY HQ Pass provides full access to the headquarters at Metropolitan Pavilion; $25 or $15 if you Tweet about your purchase; FREE with valid student ID
PURCHASE ONLINE: http://www.internetweekny.com/orders
MORE INFO: http://www.internetweekny.com/schedule

New York, NY (May 23, 2011) – The first-ever archaeological dig of the Internet, Digital Archaeology, will bring some of the Internet’s earliest and most influential websites back to life in an interactive exhibition that will make its U.S. debut at Internet Week New York from June 6-13.

Visitors will have the opportunity to surf a total of 28 bygone sites on the vintage hardware and software corresponding to the period of each site’s launch. Highlights include the first-ever website, Project (1991), created by World Wide Web co-inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, as well as such leading lights from New York City’s early digital scene as Word.com (1995), one of the Web’s first e-zines, and The Blue Dot (1995), an art and design playground by pioneering online agency Razorfish. Other highlights include experimental browser The Web Stalker (1997) and the self-destructing website for the film “Requiem for a Dream” (2000).

Now in its fourth year, Internet Week New York has become one of the world’s top events celebrating digital culture. More than 20,000 people are expected to attend over 250 conferences, meet-ups, exhibits, parties and more held at the Internet Week New York headquarters and venues across the city.

…Read more

Story Worldwide, the brand storytelling agency, has launched the Endless Vacation® magazine iPad application for RCI – one of the first travel iPad magazine apps from a customer-publishing agency. RCI is the largest timeshare vacation network in the world and publishes Endless Vacation® magazine, the world’s largest travel magazine.

“Being able to help RCI bring Endless Vacation magazine to the next level is an honor and certainly reflects the forward-thinking and collaborative nature of our partnership,” said Eric Martucci, Director of Marketing Services for Story. “This app not only speaks to the talent of our Story Worldwide staff, but it certainly competes, and in our opinion, stands alone as the best travel magazine app out there to date.”

Covering destinations around the world, Endless Vacation® magazine offers alluring photographs and intriguing content that inspire readers to travel, while its wealth of insightful travel information helps them plan and enjoy their trips. Feature articles are accompanied by sidebars offering informative advice on great places to eat and shop as well as don’t-miss sightseeing trips, cultural events and the best outdoor activities available.

As the official travel publication of RCI, LLC, Endless Vacation® magazine also provides specific information about RCI affiliated resorts, including updates on newly affiliated properties. Having already made vacation and travel priorities in their lives, RCI members are savvy consumers, and Endless Vacation® magazine further helps them to make every day count. This app makes it easier than ever to plan and book your next vacation.

The first issue for the iPad is packed with cool extras, including videos, photo galleries, panoramas and interactive maps. Some highlights of the issue include:

- A complete geographic guide to the mellower, more relaxed side of Ibiza
- A visit to Colonial Williamsburg, from the 18th-century experience to modern-day comforts
- Three day trips in the Dominican Republic
- How to stretch your budget in Mazatlán, Mexico
- The top 10 quintessential English gardens, from the walled gardens of Sissinghurst to the palm-studded grounds of Trengwainton

The application can be downloaded for free here.