Our Vision for Nonfiction
The essential brand partner for the arts, media, and entertainment industry.
A New Era
The business of storytelling is changing. Every once in a while, there is a shakeup in an industry that changes everything.
Disruptive business models, like the direct-to-fan model, and technology platforms, ranging from streaming and subscription platforms to social media, Web3, and AI, are driving this shakeup.
This evolution will considerably change music, film, publishing, broadcasting, sports, gaming, and cultural institutions.
With Nonfiction, we aim to be an essential partner to the world’s most creative companies and voices, those building the new structures of arts, media, and entertainment. Our mission is to build strong brands and cultivate audiences for companies innovating at the forefront of original storytelling in all mediums.
We have been fortunate to work with many brands in this way, including Apple TV, MLS, Warner Records, and Xbox. But they aren’t the only ones innovating at the forefront of media and entertainment. Far from it.
We know firsthand that many creative companies, big and small, are changing the entire industry. Their unifying characteristics aren’t size, medium, geography, demographics, or length of time in business. What unites them is a commitment to adding more voices to storytelling and culture.
In the coming decade, these companies will bring to life the creations of many more storytellers across an expanding range of formats and channels.
Technology is playing two roles. The current technology ecosystem incentivizes bad behavior, leading to a high volume of low-quality “content” with business models that lack transparency and don’t fully reward the artist.
At the same time, new technology is democratizing access to storytelling, making it possible for more people to bring their perspectives to the world and connect with an audience.
While this is a paradoxically awkward period, great storytelling in all its forms has the power to make our lives richer and more fulfilling. Creative storytelling makes the world around us more relatable.
What we believe
The organizations and platforms that enable artists to bring powerful stories to life and build sustainable careers will prevail. While uncertainty remains, there exists a bright future ahead, driven by three truths.
A world with more storytellers is a better world.
Since humans made fire, we have been sitting around it telling stories. It is how we relate to one another. We are hard-wired to both tell and listen to stories.
Stories, of all mediums, are how we relate to one another and create a shared human experience. When we hear a story, we build a connection with the storyteller that transcends our initial judgment of them. They become relatable and human. As a society, this helps us establish a sense of belonging and connection, ideally transcending connection from a technological perspective and impacting real life.
Today, online media’s demand for oversimplified “content” paints a complex world in black and white, leaving little room for nuanced thought. This has led to tribalism, polarization, and shouting.
At the same time, human stories, as told by creators and artists, are an opportunity to bridge the divide, leading our world back to open discussion and civil discourse.
Artists and storytellers have power.
We all know the feeling of being swept up in a story, transported to another place and time and time, leaving us thinking differently about the world we thought we knew.
There is great power in sending someone on this journey.
As the demand for storytelling accelerates, so does the need for new voices and perspectives that reflect our world.
Collectively, as we fully embrace the beautiful mosaic of the human experience but also discover that through this mosaic, there are experiences that we all have in common, stories become even more powerful.
Individually, for storytellers, the power comes from having something unique to add to the broader human conversation.
With the rapidly changing communication landscape, it has simultaneously never been easier and harder to tell a story publicly that reaches an audience. More accessible, in that there are more tools available than ever before, increasing access for all. More complicated in that there has never been more noise cluttering the airwaves.
As the tools and platforms democratizing storytelling evolve, storytellers of all mediums will have the tools needed to reach an audience and share what they have to say.
People with something to say will find an audience.
In David Bowie’s “Song for Bob Dylan,” Bowie refers to Dylan as having “ a voice like sand and glue.” Sand and glue on heavy paper make sandpaper. Dylan’s voice has always been rough, but his words “could pin us to the floor,” Bowie exclaims a few lines later. There are prettier voices than Bob Dylan’s, but few have had more to say.
Today's internet is full of pretty voices, polished in format and style, but with little to say. Influencers look the part but lack authenticity and originality. This facade leaves us starved for voices with meaning, polished or unpolished.
Storytellers with an authentic point of view will stand out. Despite the increasing noise, fans can now discover the artists operating with purpose and meaning.
New technology and evolving business models allow emerging artists to earn money directly from an audience. Artists can play the long game, driven by passion, in search of their voice, however unpolished. An original style can then be added over time.
As the cultural economy progresses, we believe there will be more time for experimentation, which, when coupled with persistence, will allow more people to master their craft.
Fans, too, can benefit from being a part of this process, both by enjoying the work of an artist's journey and also by becoming inspired to begin their own.
None of this is easy.
The Nonfiction team has been fortunate to to work with brands like Apple TV, Major League Soccer, Xbox, and Warner Music Group. These are big businesses with resources, but we know they aren’t the only ones innovating in arts, media, and entertainment.
We know firsthand that many innovative companies, big and small, are changing the entire industry. These are the companies we want to work with.
We believe the future of arts, media, and entertainment has more voices, not fewer, so we’re working with companies that are reducing the barriers to creative storytelling in music, film, publishing, broadcasting, sports, gaming, and at cultural institutions.
Nonfiction is here to help those organizations and their creators build strong brands and cultivate audiences. We do this by using timeless storytelling structures, bold creative design and messaging, and modern technology.
We want to work with the platforms, organizations, and artists that eschew the bad behavior and enable the good, surrounding ourselves with the people who share our vision that more storytelling will lead to a better world.
Brand Storytelling for Storytellers and Their Platforms
As sure as the sun rises, new technologies, marketing channels, social trends, and customer expectations will emerge. This reality makes brand-building and marketing challenging for arts, media, and entertainment leaders.
What won't change is consumers’ preference to buy from strong brands and the power of storytelling in building brand strength.
The name Nonfiction represents a philosophy. True stories of creative inspiration live deep within the arts, media, and entertainment community. With our clients, we draw out those stories and tell them to the world to inspire more creative expression. Let’s find those voices.
We have a connected family of services that operate together to do this work. More than campaigns, we build story platforms that adapt to audiences, placements, and formats - so you have what you need to consistently deliver your message anytime and anywhere.
Strategy
Brand strategy is the clear articulation of a company’s spirit. There is no substitute for strategy. Strategy is what allows companies to act with purpose in a changing world. It is vital to remain competitive and build for longevity. Without a clear strategy, action is random and devoid of direction. An advantage, like a superior product or team, is squandered without a strategy.
Strategy provides clarity and drives efficiency. It is the filter through which all of a business’s decisions are made.
Creative
Guided by strategy, creative direction is the visual and verbal embodiment of a company’s spirit. It is the representation or expression of a belief in a tangible form.
In today’s landscape, we see markets saturated by sameness. But what we know is that creativity drives brand success. Art direction and copywriting are an opportunity to embody a company's values in a way that can touch, thrill, or amuse an audience.
Marketing
To tell a consistent brand story and succeed with a message, all brand functions must come together to reach an audience at critical moments and touchpoints. When there’s an unlimited choice of channels and methods and a constant evolution of consumer preferences, precision and efficiency matter more than ever.
Strong brands take full advantage of data science and technology to refine targeting, send a compelling message, and ensure consistent brand delivery.
At Nonfiction, through this unified approach to brand storytelling, we combine the old with the new; timeless storytelling techniques with modern design and technology.
This approach leverages our deep understanding of how messages inspire people to action, the classic story structures that effectively deliver these messages, bold design that attracts interest, and technology that brings all these components to an audience.
We believe that strong brands with bold ideas to support artists will cut through the noise, successfully building an audience of passionate fans and inspiring loyalty that leads to a sustainable business model and longevity.
Bringing Our Vision to Life
Nonfiction is building a small, global team of storytellers - writers, designers, filmmakers, photographers, technologists, and marketing experts.
When clients work with Nonfiction, they know that expertise matters. Nonfiction’s expertise is in both our service offering and industry focus. We focus on building strong brands only, exclusively for arts, media, and entertainment companies.
The more work we do at the intersection of brand and arts, media, and entertainment, the more valuable we become to our clients. Since market data and original in-the-street research are critical to our strategy process, clients will have access to the best audience insights, creative ideas, and guidance that allow them to engage with their audience’s interests and passions—all made more compelling with our approach to brand storytelling.
Nonfiction’s talent model supports all of this work. We are building a network of the best international and independent writers, designers, digital artists, musicians, and filmmakers, our clients gain a creative edge by drawing from emerging and hard-to-find global cultural trends.
Different from our competitors, we are seeking talent from outside of the traditional agency environment. United through an appreciation for originality and a desire to press at the edges of the norm, we seek those with the spirit of a misfit.
This network also allows us to build the best custom team for our clients' jobs. With the rise of international creativity, from K-Pop and Reggaeton to Squid Games, La Casa del Papel, and Major League Soccer, brands need to speak to and reflect global audiences more than ever.
While much of the discourse in marketing lately has been about the value of data measurement and technical skills, marketing leaders know their job is a creative one.
Technologies and technical skills are only promising insofar as they serve a creative purpose. As the economy shifts, marketing leaders need to justify brand value by defining and demonstrating the value of brand investments in a volatile environment.
Nonfiction aligns with these two needs. We are built to deliver bold ideas and equipped to measure their value.
Combining these competencies with our dedicated focus on the arts, media, and entertainment industries makes us a valuable partner to those at the forefront of arts, media, and entertainment.
Nonfiction's mission is to be an essential brand partner for the new cultural economy. We do this work with the spirit of an underdog, a commitment to our craft, and a shared belief that stories have the power to change the world.