Wall Street Journal brand strategy, animation & podcast
The brief:
Convey the new WSJ brand strategy to stakeholders in an informative and engaging way. Demonstrate how the strategy is closely aligned to the WSJ audience psychological drivers.
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The solution:
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An animation that introduced the new brand and verbal strategy. The animation had to convey enough complexity to convince the audience of its value, without getting bogged down in detail
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A podcast that discussed the strategy in greater detail, allowing stakeholders to dip in and review at their convenience
The development:
After creating a skeleton narrative, I worked closely with our script writer to ensure each section had the right kind of information we could turn into something visually interesting. We aligned the writing and the visuals to one of our audience drivers, a 'high need for cognition' (a drive to solve problems and understand complex issues). This meant we packed the language full of meaning and visual imagery that led the viewer to make conceptual connections, giving them a little intellectual dopamine hit each time. Then we carefully designed each scene to a high standard, building in enough information and leeway to allow the animators to bring each scene to life. This way we knew precisely what each scene would look and behave like before entering final production.
We aligned the writing and the visuals to one of our audience drivers, a 'high need for cognition' (a drive to solve problems and understand complex issues). This meant we packed the language full of meaning and visual imagery that led the viewer to make conceptual connections, giving them a little intellectual dopamine hit each time.
The podcast:
Finally we moved into the recording studio for a day to produce a half-hour podcast featuring a discussion between key developers and stakeholders that explored the brand strategy in finer detail.
