OUR STORYSCAPING

APPROACH
DARREN DAZ MCCOLL

Our approach envisions content and

experience as parts of a holistic, enveloping
system rather than as components of a
deterministic, linear journey.

Launched in 2014s bestselling book

Storyscaping, our strategic approach
has continued to fuel powerful thinking
about brands and experiences at the intersection of story and technology. Our
Storyscaping approach is a way of
looking at the world that we have refined
into a powerful model for working
with brands, people, and technology.
Storyscapings principles guide how
we create worlds, and we have had the
opportunity to create some great ones
in a huge range of sectors this past
year. Born from our unique expertise
in technology and storytelling, we are
excited by the results that it has helped
us, and our clients, achieve.

The Storyscaping approachs two key

components are the Organizing Idea
and Story Systems. Inspired by the
Organizing Idea (described on the next
page), this approach transforms a great
storyline into an immersive Story System,
where people enjoy connecting with
and participating in brand stories.
It teaches us to delve deeper to
understand consumers and, with that
knowledge, craft opportunities for them
to invite brands, products, and services
into their worlds thus creating Shared
Stories and building brand loyalty.

The Organizing Idea

An Organizing Idea does just what its
name implies. It organizes (see Figure
2). Its a strategic idea that guides and
organizes the interactions between
consumers and brands that transpire
across all channels, to build emotional connections and inspire behavior.
The very premise of what content you
create, curate, or associate ought to be
considered relative to your Organizing
Idea. A good Organizing Idea gives
purpose and tangibility to how a story
is communicated, expressed, delivered,
and experienced. It is built from the
insight and knowledge gathered during
research about brands and their desired
consumers. Without a connection to
the Brand Purpose, the Organizing Idea
is just an idea and probably a random
idea at that.

An Organizing Idea is the statement of

action that defines what the brand must
do to change consumer behavior. Marketing has long been dependent on the
power of a great idea. And while great
ideas are critical, its more important
than ever to create systems in which
ideas can live. The proliferation of
channels, the power of microaudience
targeting, and the necessity of supporting multiple stories by and about every
brand makes having a system essential
to executing strategies. By establishing
Organizing Ideas not just big ideas
and thinking about systems that live
in experiences and stories, brands
can drive effectiveness on all levels of
consumer engagement.

FIGURE01

The core elements of the Storyscaping approach

The Storyscaping approach transforms a great story into an immersive Story System.
Using this approach, brands start with their strategic pillars to develop Shared Stories that live at the intersection of the
brands' and consumers' values and experiences.
To create worlds, the Storyscaping approach uses Organizing Ideas, combined with a deep knowledge of the Experience
Space, to ultimately create the final Storyscape: a flexible, holistic, and enveloping system of experience that brands use to
make their stories real for customers.

Story Systems
The second powerful aspect of the
Storyscaping approach is the Story
Systems emphasis, which enables the
development of complete platforms
for marketing, or as we like to say,
worlds of experience. Organizing
Ideas create great experiences when
they are realized as part of a dynamic,
multidimensional Story System that
stretches across many channels and
touchpoints, with well-tuned variations
and adjustments.
The systems approach envisions
content and experience as parts of a
holistic, enveloping system rather than
as components of a deterministic, linear
journey. This is perhaps best expressed
in the idea of an Experience Space
(see Figure 3). The Experience Space
is a three-dimensional representation
of the physical and virtual places where
brands and consumers meet. It helps
define the role of channels, the storyline
connections, and the types of experiences that matter.
Planning potential connection points
across an Experience Space is key.
Its how marketers map all the
possibilities to then narrow down
the options by identifying the most
effective brand-consumer connections.
This canvas also helps them develop
the technologies and platforms that
connect the many points of the
consumer experience.
By understanding the whole space of
possibility, you can build interactions
that, as the saying goes, end with a
comma rather than a period (or full
stop). A systems aim is to allow every
interaction and connection to inspire
connections to other useful pieces of
content or great experiences.

FIGURE02

The six main characteristics of an Organizing Idea

An Organizing Idea is a key step in creating a holistic, immersive, non-linear Story
System. The Organizing Idea guides and organizes interactions between consumers and brands across all channels.

Exemplary Organizing Ideas

X-GAMES
Activate Awesome
LYCRA
Lycra Moves You
REGIONS BANK
Live and Grow With Confidence

FIGURE03

The Experience Space

The Experience Space is a three-dimensional representation of the physical and
virtual places where brands and consumers meet. By defining the potential Experience Space, you can then develop the actual Story System the chosen points of
interaction that make sense for the brand and customer.

Some exemplary cases

At Regions Bank in North America,
the Agency Integration Team (a small,
multi-agency strategy team) has
adopted the Storyscaping approach
for all work across agencies, with a
very positive response from Regions
and the client teams. Having defined
Organizing Ideas, the activities of each
specialized agency are connecting
more efficiently and effectively.
Using the Storyscaping approach and
working across agencies, Regions
Bank launched a consumer campaign
called The Next Step Project. The
Next Step Project is a platform for
Regions to tell these stories through
the narratives of actual customers.
These go beyond just the banking
relationship. They show the impact that
the right financial guidance can have on
important life decisions and the ability
of customers to achieve their goals.

[The] Storyscaping
[approach] really
helped us take a step
back in the process
and look at things in
a consumer-centric
way. We naturally
have more cohesion
in everything that
weve done using
the Storyscaping
process.
- J. Adams
Regions Bank Senior
Advertising Manager

FIGURE04
The Next Step Project tells people's real stories, highlighting life and financial planning goals by using the Organizing Idea of
Live and Grow With Confidence. The print, OOH, TV, radio, and other promotions all direct customers to branches and interactive channels that present an array of self-service and guided financial tools as part of the Experience Space.

Regions was guided by the organizing

idea of Live and Grow With Confidence, and used that as one input
into creating the platform that utilized
long-form videos, TV, radio, print, OOH,
digital, and social media.

Vice President, Head of Marketing at

Regions Financial Corporation.
Regions is committed to the financial
well-being of our customers and offering
education, tools, tips and calculators that
they may use in making their life better.

Regions challenged all of its agencies

to create more meaningful content
to engage prospects and customers
across a variety of channels to share
the message that Regions can make a
difference in their lives by providing an
array of financial solutions, including
expertise, education, products and
self-service tools to make banking
easier, stated Michele Elrod, Executive

The Storyscaping approach has been

rolled out around the world and in many
other industries beyond banking. In
Australia, for example, it gave a CPG
firm, Dairylea, a new way of looking at
the packaged goods environment with
the Mummy Hacks project.

FIGURE05

Consumer Insight: Understanding the daily needs of a 2- to 5-year-old child

Using ethnography, the Storyscaping approach places a strong emphasis on understanding the customer journey and customer behaviors. In this example of a customer journey, you can see how digital ebbs and flows through a single day.

MORNING
ROUTINE

BREAKFAST

LUNCH

PARENTS
BACK FROM
WORK

NAPTIME

Digital play helps the

parents get ready
in the morning

END OF DAY

DINNER
Outdoor play time
(weather permitting)

DIGITAL
USAGE

BEDTIME

Occasional special
movie-nights, but
otherwise no digital

Digital only if used

collaboratively

We start the story

halfway through,
so its shorter

PLAYING
WITH FRIENDS
& SIBLINGS

PRE-K /
KINDERGARTEN

No digital permitted
at school

One parent bonds with

girl while the other
prepares dinner

Books & stories

at bedtime

ACTIVITIES
THE
ROLE OF
DIGITAL

SUPPORT EARLY
CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

IDENTIFY OPPORTUNITIES
FOR COLLABORATIVE
DIGITAL PLAY

INTRODUCE NEW PLACES

AND ADVENTURES

PARENT
BONDING

CHILD

END OF DAY RELAXATION

Looking forward
In partnership with our clients, we
continue to drive innovation around
the Storyscaping approach. Soon we
will be introducing an add-on to our
approach: a Story System app that
assists with driving business goals,
prioritization, and collaboration through
3-D interactive visualization (see Figure
6). This new tool enables systematic
business goal-setting and scoring of
Story System components. Each and
every touchpoint can be identified
and scored for relative priority or value
against desired business goals. This
provides multiple dimensions for the
application of Storyscaping principles.

The tool also renders a 3-D visual

representation of a Story System with
ways to adjust the images to stimulate
new conversations around the values
of different touchpoints. It enables
marketers to more clearly visualize the
spaces of opportunity.
As you will see throughout Insights,
there are many ways in which we
continue to evolve our thinking across
a wide range of markets, businesses,
and technologies. The Storyscaping
approach continues to grow and evolve
by incorporating new insights, helping
our teams create wonderful results
for our clients brands, and making a
meaningful impact on the world.

FIGURE06
The Story System app will soon be introduced to assist with business goals, prioritization, and collaboration. Shown below is
a Story System with performance metrics for a major travel and hospitality business.

Darren Daz McColl

Chief Brand Strategy Officer,
SapientNitro Miami
dmccoll@sapient.com
Darren (Daz) McColl is co-author of Storyscaping and
Chief Brand Strategy Officer at SapientNitro. Through
insight and strategic guidance, Daz helps create worlds of
immersive stories and experiences for client brands.

INSIGHTS WHERE TECHNOLOGY & STORY MEET

The Insights publication features the marketing intelligence, trend forecasts,
and innovative recommendations of boundary-breaking thought leaders. The
SapientNitro Insights app brings that provocative collection now in its digital
form to your on-the-go fingertips.
Download the full report at sapientnitro.com/insights and, for additional
interactive and related content, download the SapientNitro Insights app.

SapientNitro, part of Publicis.Sapient, is a new breed of agency redefining storytelling for an always-on world. Were changing the way our clients engage todays
connected consumers by uniquely creating integrated, immersive stories across brand communications, digital engagement, and omnichannel commerce. We call
it our Storyscaping approach, where art and imagination meet the power and scale of systems thinking. SapientNitros unique combination of creative, brand, and
technology expertise results in one global team collaborating across disciplines, perspectives, and continents to create game-changing success for our Global
1000 clients, such as Chrysler, Citi, The Coca-Cola Company, Lufthansa, Target, and Vodafone, in thirty-one cities across The Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
For more information, visit www.sapientnitro.com.
SapientNitro and Storyscaping are registered service marks of Sapient Corporation.

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