This Week’s Top Storytellers: President Obama, Bad Betches

Each week, Pilot brings you a roundup of the best—and occasionally the worst—examples of brand storytelling in the business. Here are our top five picks this week from around the world:

Walkin’ the talk

Three advertising agency execs in Italy recently walked 200 kilometers to pitch a mobile accessories company their marketing idea—and they used that company’s chargers, selfie sticks, headphones and iPhone covers to document their journey and prepare their presentation. They also managed existing clients from the road. The mini-campaign-within-a-new-business pitch argues that every worker is now a mobile worker (see #mobileworkers). Talk about embodying your message.

Bad Betches

Betches Love This, a highly irreverent millennial lifestyle website, has managed to do what so many publishers in today’s fiercely competitive media landscape can’t—convert steadily growing readership into profit, all thanks to its new online retail store, Shop Betches. The store mirrors its readers’ interests: a fast and easy shop with clothes readers will wear, all written in their own language, such as leggings that say “You can’t spin with us” and a sports bra reading “Bad Betch.” It’s this distinct voice coupled with a deep understanding of its target audience that’s allowing Betches Love This to convert “thoughts that run through girls’ heads” into a profitable retail outfit.

White House opens doors to women in tech  

President Barack Obama is pushing for more diversity in the tech sector by hosting the nation’s most equitable startups at the first-ever White House Demo Day. The President didn’t ask companies to pitch their ideas to investors, but rather the economic benefits of hiring women and ethnic minorities (many of the presenting companies’ CEOs are women and/or minorities). Just one per cent of venture-capital backed startups in the US are led by an African-American, and only 3 per cent are founded by women, according to Obama. Kudos to the President for reminding everyone that social equality and economic prosperity are two sides of the same coin.

New study tells us what we knew all along: communicating brand values increases profit

Business researchers explained the findings of a recent study by paraphrasing every smart communications person ever: communicating clear brand values leads to success. The study discovered that Fortune 500 companies with distinctly stated values perform better financially than their competitors. CMOs everywhere are likely storming their CEO’s offices with the findings.

Three magic questions that’ll help you overcome writer’s block

Dixie Gillaspie writes every day, and in each draft, she aims to give her readers value. When writer’s block hits, she returns to three magical questions that help her unlock that value: What questions did I answer today? What questions do people ask me the most? What questions have I recently answered for myself? Try it yourself next time your confronted with a blank page.