Iron Man costumes at the Tony Stark base at the Avengers experience in Las Vegas.
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You are not the hero. Why brands need to step out of the spotlight

ByJohanna

Most brands write themselves into the story like they’re Iron Man. But no one likes a hero who won’t stop monologuing about their own brilliance. Especially when what your customer actually needs is a J.A.R.V.I.S. Brand storytelling has become a strange kind of theatre. Everyone wants to be the protagonist, the visionary, the world-changer. And…

A winding path, symbolizing transformation and inner movement. The scene evokes both journey and choice.
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Beyond the call. The Hero’s Journey as a marketing framework (that still works, sometimes)

ByJohanna

A story is never just about events. It’s about movement through change. That’s what makes it useful in marketing and why we still reach for the hero’s arc, even when it doesn’t quite fit. Every time the Hero’s Journey is declared passé, it stages a comeback. Rebranded. Repurposed. Recast. From origin stories on startup landing…

Storytelling that moves and lands. A visual breakdown of the arc behind memorable stories: tension, turning point, transformation. Communication meets craft.
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No more content without shape. Storytelling needs arcs

ByJohanna

Motion isn’t meaning. Shape is. Things are moving. Your business is pivoting. Your content is being posted. Your strategy is shifting, launching, optimizing, reacting. But is it moving in a way that matters? Motion without shape isn’t strategy. It’s just noise with good branding. The difference between a marketing machine that builds trust and one…

Block letters spelling out the word "failure" to feature a blog on how to recover from marketing failure with the help of narrative or storytelling.
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Fail fast, story harder. The strategy that makes failure marketable

ByJohanna

If your marketing failed, maybe it wasn’t the idea. Maybe it was the storytelling. “Fail fast” left out the best part We’ve absorbed the Silicon Valley gospel like scripture: Fail fast. Fail often. Learn and move on. The part they forgot to teach us was what to do with all that failure. So, we bury…

The Dark Night of the Soul can be scary for fictional characters, individuals, and brands alike, like the face of this ghost in the dark.
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The Dark Night of the Soul in marketing. Why you must break before you rebuild

ByJohanna

At first, everything worked. The engagement was steady. The revenue followed. The strategies that once felt sharp and innovative became routine. Predictable, even easy. There was a time when your brand had momentum. A time when marketing felt like forward motion, not just maintenance. But then something shifted. The audience stopped responding the way they…