Having delivered over 5400 articles, worked with 160 clients, and produced 285 videos, Storyation is turning 10.
General Manager Andrés López-Varela says about the agency’s milestone: “We’re in the audience-building business.”
“We create engaged audiences for brands through an end-to-end content service. This includes all types of content – digital, social, print, and other formats including, most importantly, strategy and research. Everything is anchored in the client’s editorial style and our journalistic approach.”
Back in 2013, co-founders of Storyation, Mimi Cullen and Lauren Quaintance, saw the need for story-based content with an editorial focus.
“We’d both had senior experience in major media companies,” explains Quaintance. “In 2013 the mantra was ‘brands are the new publishers’, so we (perhaps naively) thought brands might need help from people who had worked in publishing.”
“Right from the start we invested in commissioning content from only the very best journalists, producers, and content creators,” says Mimi. “Those who are specialists in their field – from cruising to property, mental health to education, parenting to technology – to deliver a better experience for audiences and drive better performance for brands.”
Storyation would ultimately capture the interest of Medium Rare Content, who acquired the business in 2019. The move allowed the former to take advantage of the resources of the latter, with the two working together while operating independently.
“Medium Rare is a phenomenal business that we have a lot in common with, but ultimately it’s a very different kind of content agency than Storyation,” says López-Varela. “Our identity and key to the strength of our brand is to market and leverage our specialist approach.”
Managing Director of Medium Rare, Nick Smith, said the working relationship is “a beautiful, unique approach to the market.” Reflecting on Storyation’s strengths, he cites its leadership position since the early days and ability to reach different audiences and clients.
“They really lead the way in digital branded content from the start,” he says. “That caught the interest of progressive marketers and brands, from big businesses like telcos and tourism bodies, to B2B clients and challenger brands looking for an advantage.
“Storyation has a unique approach in the way it works with clients,” he continues. “From creating benchmarks to presenting dashboards, clients can understand where they are at in terms of audience before they work with the Storyation team to quickly move the dial, whether that’s using social media, digital SEO content, or even print content.”
With Storyation’s continuing impact in the marketing agency landscape, López-Varela expects the decade ahead will be vastly different to its first.
“Sure, we expect to be creating more of the same compelling work that helps build engaged and meaningful audiences for brands,” he says, “but we also expect to evolve and expand the role of content across our clients’ operations. The potential for content to improve a whole range of customer and user interactions and, indeed, the appetite from the audience for that content, means there are new channels and formats that we haven’t even thought of where content will play a leading role in the next 10 years. And our team is pumped for those opportunities.”
See Also: Storyation is appointed as the content marketing agency for Best Gift Group