Navigating trends is a challenge that every industry faces. And when things change, important questions naturally surface. How will my future be impacted? What’s my strategy to respond?

Without clarity, key stakeholders across an organization are unable to act. So that’s why smart companies take the lead on communicating how those changes will impact everyone inside and outside of their organization.

At Sheffield, we help our clients explain important trends and what they mean. And we rely on our Whiteboard Narrative narrative format to get the job done. A Whiteboard Narrative is a unique visual approach that perfect for explaining complex or overly conceptual issues.

A perfect example comes from our client iDirect, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of satellite-based IP communications technology. Over the next several years, the launch of a new class of high-throughput satellites is going to fundamentally changing the way the satellite industry operates. Many of iDirect’s partners were concerned about how this would affect them. They wanted to know how iDirect was preparing for high-throughput satellites, and how were they going to support their partners during this period of change.

To help iDirect communicate that this change represented an important opportunity, Sheffield worked with iDirect to produce a unique Whiteboard Narrative. The result, which you can watch below, summarized the changes in the industry in a clear and straightforward style that has received tremendous feedback. Check it out for yourself below.

iDirect showed this video to 100 of its service provider partners this past week at the company’s annual Global Partner Summit. Now, rather than being confused or apprehensive about the coming changes, iDirect’s partners are now excited about them.

Anytime you need to explain how an industry trend or new development in your organization is going to impact your business, you can turn to a Whiteboard Narrative to tell your story. If you’re interested in learning more about Sheffield’s Whiteboard Narrative product, drop us a note.

In our ongoing Sheffield Spotlight series, we take a look at one of the key leaders at Sheffield who is contributing to our growth and success. Say hello to Angelo Pileggi, Sheffield’s Vice President of Operations and Strategy. (By the way – the ‘Cleveland’ that Angelo’s talking about in the video is Sheffield Account Director Joe Cleveland, who you’ll meet at a later date.)

Who are you and what do you do?  

My name is Angelo Pileggi.  I am the Vice President of Operations and Strategy at Sheffield.  My role covers a lot of ground including Finance, Accounting, Strategic Planning, Process Improvement and Human Resources.  In short, I try to structure and manage the business so that our Client Services and Creative Services teams can do what they do best.

Why do you think stories are the best way to communicate?  

Stories resonate with people in a way that few other things can.  They are not confined to what we hear or what we see.  Since they engage the imagination they can speak to us through all our senses and that is very powerful.  We grow up on stories, from the ones we hear about families to the ones we read to the things we see in the theater, so they become an intuitive to communicate.

Stories are versatile.  They can communicate data, teach moral lessons and entertain us.  Or they can do all three at once.  The rise of the “business parable” in the last two decades is a good example of this intersection.

Stories are our common “language”.  They are essentially universal to human beings.  Every culture, be it business or social, has stories and uses stories to create their identity and communicate it.  The famous Nordstrom “snow tires” story or the 3M “Post-It Note” story are no less real or less valuable than the parables I learned as a boy.

A tradition at Sheffield is to share an “artifact” – some kind of distinct object – that is significant to you and your role within the company. What’s your artifact?

My artifact is a tuning fork.  I chose this because Sheffield was the first company where my personal values and the work I did truly resonated with one another – like the two prongs of a tuning fork.  I have enjoyed aspects of all my previous jobs and have learned valuable lessons from each of them but Sheffield is really where it came together.

What’s your favorite story?

This is a tough question for me.  I have been a story junkie since I was a kid.  I have been an avid reader of books and comics and a film buff for as long as I can remember so to pick is a real challenge.  I would rather pick a favorite book and movie, and even then I’d want one from every genre.

It would definitely be fiction.  As a kid I really liked The Pushcart War and The Hobbit.  I am a fan of Frankenstein and Dune, and I enjoy thematic science fiction.  My favorite story, though, is the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.  My preference is the John Ciardi translation.

From your perspective, how do you see narrative marketing evolving?

This is where things get exciting.  Stories are universal and the structure of a good narrative doesn’t vary that much.  What is changing, though, is how people tell stories and how they experience them.  Technology is enabling narrative marketing to come to life in new ways and I think this trend will continue.  I imagine audiences won’t just hear, read or watch stories unfold but instead they will interact with narrative.  They will participate in the story, and potentially even help shape the creation of future narratives through immediate feedback loops.

A good narrative has a strong central theme and that theme may manifest itself differently to different audiences.  I expect in the future that narrative marketers will have ways to personalize and customize the expression of their narrative to the audience member experiencing it.  A particular narrative may need to be experienced differently by a person in the medical profession than the same narrative would be by someone in the insurance business, for example, even though the narrative is relevant to both of them.  And geographic or cultural differences in audiences can be anticipated and respected.  Context is always important and narrative marketers will be better able to anticipate and adapt to those differences.

One of the great things about Sheffield is that everyone in our company brings unique talents, skills, and interests to their work. To help capture these insights, Sheffield Senior Account Executive Amanda Schuneman recently interviewed the entire staff via iPhone. We’ll be rolling out these videos over the next few months on our blog, and today we’re going to start with Sheffield Content Marketing Manager Rob Frappier.

In this iPhone interview, Rob talks about one of his favorite topics, comic books, and why B2B marketers might want to draw inspiration from this often overlooked genre.

In the world of corporate communications, strategy is important. When you’re rolling out a new message, you want to make sure that everyone, whether they are an internal or external audience, understands it clearly and can communicate it effectively.

Unfortunately, for many organizations, “strategic” communications simply involves buzz words, jargon, and business cliches. It’s as if the goal is to make the message sound important rather than making it relevant and impactful.

At Sheffield, we believe that strong corporate communications begins with a good story. To this end, we think that corporate communications professionals should think less like marketers or PR people and more like movie directors. Check out this video on our Message Activation Program to see what we mean.