It’s World Storytelling Day, and today we’re celebrating by sharing a story we recently helped bring to life on the big stage.

As a creative team, one of our greatest joys is seeing our clients bring our visual designs to life on the big stage.

We love to create standalone assets that tell stories, like ebooks and videos. But it’s an even greater joy to produce formats that speakers breathe life into, like keynotes and webinars. Lucky for us, we have had the opportunity to work on many thought leadership keynotes in 2023 and so far in 2024.

Although the creative process keeps us busy in the weeks leading up to an event, the most rewarding part of this work is helping thought leaders get their audience talking. That’s precisely what our latest project did! 

This year, we worked with Twilio Asia Pacific & Japan to build out a story and visually exciting deck for a keynote presentation at Power Retail in Melbourne.

The keynote explored the different applications of AI in retail marketing and service centres, and provided some personal insights and suggestions for making AI work on a personal level.

The speaker shared how he uses AI as an asset for personal productivity

The speaker also shared insights on how to approach the many, many possibilities of AI for unique retail businesses, based on how their team and organisation have approached new technology with a mindset of experimentation, yet with structured principles.

It was a conversation starter both at the event and online, and at the end of the day, that’s what storytelling is all about. Human connections.

If you run a retail organisation and would like to see some of the key takeaways from the talk, visit the Power Retail blog to join the conversation. 

A creative agency relies on collaboration and innovation. So how does a firm like PaperplaneCo flourish with a fully remote workforce spread across multiple countries and time zones?

PaperplaneCo was founded in Singapore in 2011, and quickly grew into a team spanning three continents. Ten years on, the agency works with global clients on a variety of storytelling-driven projects.

Today, we’re welcoming you into our virtual office for a tour. You’ll meet some of the team, see a snapshot of their schedules, and hear their insights on all things remote working.

So fasten your seatbelts, because we’re off to Brisbane, Australia where it’s 9am — the start of the PaperplaneCo day.

 

And who better to introduce first than PaperplaneCo founder and CEO, Chrissy Lim?

Hi, Chrissy. How is your morning shaping up?

“Good morning! Today I woke up at about 6, like I do most days. I generally check Slack, email, and Notion straight away, just so I can catch up with anything that happened out of my hours.

“It means that then I have time for breakfast, yoga, tidying up, and hanging out with my partner and puppy. Then I jump on my e-scooter and head to the co-working space where I spend most days.

“I spend the first two hours at my desk doing focused, creative work. That could be writing briefs, art directing, or just some uninterrupted thinking.

“At the moment my working days are dominated by a marketing course we’re working on with our long-standing client Adobe. So right now I’m going over a video script that was filed overnight — well, over my night — by our copywriter, Jess, who’s based in Spain.”

What is your golden rule for providing leadership to a team that you’re not seeing in person every day?

“For me, it starts with hiring. I hire self-sufficient people. That doesn’t mean lone wolves, but people who are entrepreneurial thinkers and like to take ownership over their work. That could be someone straight out of school, or someone 20 years into a career.

“I also need to provide clear communication, support people with constructive reviews of their work, and foster a good company culture.

“But culture is also something that comes about organically with the people I hire. Everyone on our team is different and brings their own personality and skills.

“All I need to do is encourage people to be themselves. Since we’re a creative agency, we need to make sure people know they can have a bit of fun, whether that’s in their work or in how we collaborate as a team.”

 

Nicely put. While we’re Down Under, we must have a quick catch up with Tim Marsh, PaperplaneCo’s Content Strategist and all-round problem solver, who today is working on developing a panel discussion for an event in New Zealand.

Hi Tim. Can you tell us about a few of the tools you use to brainstorm and refine creative projects?

“Hi there. We use a range of different digital tools to replicate the type of collaboration you’d get from office-based work.

“Things generally start with a Zoom meeting. We use Calendly to fit into each other’s schedules, which helps manage time zones.

“When a project needs a lot of ideas noted down and we want these to be dynamic, Freehand by InVision is a great tool. It can be better than some in-person meetings, because everyone can share their thoughts and quieter people don’t get talked over.

“Google Docs is our document editor of choice, since it’s so handy for sharing, tracking changes, and making suggestions.”

You’re also PaperplaneCo’s resident ‘Notioneer’. The productivity app Notion forms the backbone of a lot of the agency’s organisational processes. Why Notion?

“Since we’ve been remote working for many years — before the rest of the world was forced to jump on the bandwagon — we’ve had time to trial and replace systems that weren’t working for us.

“Part of that has meant switching all our project tracking, task allocation, and creative notes onto Notion. It offers a lot of flexibility and gives everyone a clear way to see which tasks require attention immediately, which are upcoming, and which are on the backburner.

“It’s a detailed system that would take a whole article to explain to you properly!”

Okay, we’ll save that for next time. Let’s head to the central part of the Philippines, where by now it’s 11am and the PaperplaneCo working day is in full swing.

 

We’re here to see Monna Munoz, PaperplaneCo’s Project and Operations Manager. That job involves… actually, let’s ask her.

Monna, what does your job involve?

“Welcome to sunny Philippines! My days alway vary as I’m involved with various aspects of the business, but the consistent thing is a lot of calls and meetings to make sure things are running smoothly.

“My overarching job is to check everyone at PaperplaneCo is happy, knows what they’re doing and is on track with their work. I’ll answer questions, put people in touch with each other, do company housekeeping, plan for the future, and record where things are at and what needs to be done.

“Essentially, if PaperplaneCo’s doing it, I’m keeping an eye on it.”

That’s a big task. Where do you get your energy and motivation from?

“Well, there’s the fact that I have a job to get done. But beyond that, I feed off all the colourful personalities in the office. Some are serious, some are silly, and it all works together.”

What are you doing this morning?

“We’re hiring! PaperplaneCo is expanding, and we have several roles open, including Account Director, Art Director, Visual Designer and many more. So this morning I’ve been scouting out some potential candidates on LinkedIn, and starting to prepare for interviews.”

Exciting times. We’ll leave you to it, so we can head for lunch in Singapore.

 

We are met with Account Manager Demi Plettenburg, who’s responsible for creating strong lines of communication between the agency and its clients, and ensuring project goals are met to a high standard. And of course, a key member of the PaperplaneCo team is Demi’s dog Louis.

Demi, what’s on your plate today?

“Literally, it’s a Thai green curry. I work from home most of the time, so I have the flexibility to prepare good food and spend time with Louis.

“Work-wise, I’ve just finished our team planning sprint. This is an important part of every Monday. We all get up to speed and coordinate priorities for the week. I’ve also been doing some planning with Monna and Chrissy for the third quarter.

“This afternoon I need to dry-run an upcoming webinar, and I have a couple of client meetings.”

Sounds busy. What are the skills that are important for your job?

“Definitely people skills. When you’re meeting people for the first time, they need to feel comfortable talking to you. Good planning and organisation skills, since I’m always juggling multiple projects.

“And finally, the ability to inject a bit of humour into the work you do. That’s what can set your agency apart. For example, for today’s webinar, we’ve made sure to include an icebreaker and a game, as well as cheeky things for people to look out for on presentation slides.”

What do you enjoy about your job?

“I meet a lot of interesting people who work in different industries, so I’m always learning.

“Within the team, it’s great to work with people all over the world. We make time for things like Friday Happy Hour’s and informal chats to replace what we’d normally get from catching up in the office kitchen.

“Because we’re so global, the company works 24 hours but we don’t have to. People respect that you sign off at the end of the day. If I have an early meeting with a team member in Argentina, I can sign off earlier to get to a yoga class at the end of the day.”

Thanks, Demi. As the APAC team hits the afternoon, let’s head over to Europe, where we’ll be jumping back to the start of the day.

 

Now we’re in Seville, Spain with Jess Mizerak. She is a content writer who has been a part of the team for a couple of years.

Hey there, Jess. It’s morning, your time, and everyone else is finishing up their day. What’s it like having most of the team in a different region?

“Well, there are a few of us in the Western Hemisphere and it’s actually kind of cool that way, because I get to do some work “overnight” when the rest of the team is sleeping. So, if you ask me, it’s a bit of an advantage when it comes to meeting tight deadlines.

Though I’m definitely not going to wake up at 3am for team yoga anytime soon, we’re not afraid to connect virtually and have video call interactions, so I never feel left out.”

What do you enjoy most about remote content writing?

“I love the variety of my work most. The fact that I’ve been able to work for several PaperplaneCo clients has kept projects fresh and fun. I think learning is the best part of any job. I’ve also been able to do so many different types of writing, which keeps me on my toes.

“Plus there’s my schedule. I have meetings in the morning with the team (my hair is always a mess, ask anyone), but I generally do the bulk of my work at night, which gives me the daytime to go to school, run errands, and enjoy the Spanish sunshine. That’s another major plus about being in my time zone!”

 

Let’s fly north to interview the interviewer, Jenni Reid. Jenni is our PaperplaneCo freelance journalist, based in London.

Hi Jenni, you had a tour of our working process and have worked with many of our team. How did you find working with such a remote group?

“Remote working is quite new to me, so it’s been good to do it with a team that has really honed its system.

“After my initial meetings on Zoom, I was introduced to the PaperplaneCo project management system, Notion. There’s so much information on there, but it’s structured so that you can really get to grips with what you need to know before starting.

“In fact, it’s much easier to work out things like people’s names, job titles and what they actually do than when you start in a new office and have those awkward first weeks where you’ve got no idea what’s going on.

“I was also added to the team Slack, where I was sent nice welcome messages and could DM people with any questions. And I met some more team members on the virtual meeting site Mibo. It comes closer to making you feel like you’re in the room with people than any other service!”

 

By lunchtime in London, most of the APAC team have logged off. How will you let them know what you’ve done this morning?

“I’ll work on my current project in a shared Google Doc and update the project page in Notion. I’ll add a Slack message in any relevant chats if I need to.

“Today I’m working on a virtual tour of the PaperplaneCo office, so I’ll be…”

 

Whoops, let’s cut that off before it gets too meta, and head to Canada to stop off at the final desk on our tour — that of Office Executive Grace Liang.

Grace, you’re an Office Executive without an office. What does your job involve?

“Since our time zones are different, I’m in a good position to support Monna with operations and make sure deadlines are being met and things stay organised. I help with taking meeting notes, proofreading, researching, and other jobs as needed.

“I’m also here to help maintain a team atmosphere. When people join the company or have birthdays, I’ll design e-cards for them. I throw out weekly questions on Slack, like what’s your favourite weird food combination, so everyone can get to know each other. I also run monthly competitions, like photography or Masterchef.”

What has surprised you about working at PaperplaneCo?

“I’m early in my career, and the team has been really supportive. Everyone really encourages me to try new things and grow my skills.

“And it genuinely feels like everyone is friends with each other. I joined the company during the pandemic, and going to work is something I look forward to every day.”

What a nice note to end on. Thanks very much, Grace.

 

And thank you — that’s you out there — for coming on this tour. Of course, there are many more people who make PaperplaneCo run smoothly who we didn’t get a chance to meet. That includes our accounts team, artists and designers, as well as a whole video-production unit based in Argentina.

If you’re interested in working digitally with a great team, you can find out more about current job openings with PaperplaneCo here.

Every story requires change to move the plot along. Change is what keeps the readers—as well as the characters—on their toes.

The PaperplaneCo story is no exception. We are on the brink of change, but before we look ahead, let’s revisit the past to understand what led us here. 

Stories for a New Generation of Children

PaperplaneCo was born shortly after the iPad in 2011.  We were so excited by its potential that we built a business around it.

What we saw in this new medium was an opportunity to create stories that read, and played, like games and would encourage kids to fall in love with reading again.

Our first products were interactive storybooks designed from the ground up for the iPad. They told tales of quirky and unique characters, beautifully illustrated, with animation and interaction woven through the pages. We embedded mini games throughout each story to work with, instead of distracting from, the storyline.  We brought each story to life with colour, sound and play.

PaperplaneCo quickly grew into a full-fledged business. We released four story apps in our first two years, all of them made it to the iTunes’ New & Noteworthy, with one story making it to the Top Ten charts.  

Stories for a New Generation of Enterprise

At the time, “storytelling” as an approach to marketing was also gaining momentum within enterprise.  As our reputation for storytelling began to grow, so did requests to take on commercial commissions.

There was substantial demand for our brand of storytelling based on truth, authenticity and human insight.  Social media was changing the marketing landscape. Brands were being held accountable for their claims. Customers were finding their voice and for the first time, brands were compelled to have dialogues instead of monologues, with their customers. 

Forward-thinking companies were responsive of this shift and started to tune their communication accordingly.

Prior to PaperplaneCo, Chrissy Lim, our founder, had been working with software giant SAP on enterprise mobility initiatives.  They also began to commission us for corporate storytelling. One of the first videos they commissioned was designed to move the conversation away from the practicalities of what their technology could do, to how it could help their customers.  The video was called “Connections” and you can read the impact story here. SAP still play the video to this day.

From Things to People

One of the reasons the SAP video “Connections” was so successful was because we shifted the conversation from things to people. This shift was fundamental. Traditional advertising had been all about things. Things that would make up for deficiencies in our audience. They weren’t good-looking enough. Thin enough. Successful enough. And this thing would fix it. 

This ad is a classic!

Today, our clients have conversations with their customers. Sure, they still talk about their products and services. They always will. The difference is: their messages don’t patronise people. They can’t get away with it anymore.

“Connections” also recognised another fundamental shift: customers weren’t a homogenous group of people with the same needs, desires and characteristics.  They were individual and unique, and expected to be treated as such. 

We learned so much from this experience and will always honour our first clients – Jamie, Nicholas and Johann –  as well as the agency partners we collaborated with – Possible Worldwide – for the courage to take this chance with us.

The Ten Commandments of Storytelling

In the last ten years, we have started dozens of conversations that connect brands with their audience for organisations like Magento, The World Bank, Bayer, Ping An and Clear.

We’ve come to realise that there are 10 Commandments of Storytelling based on the founding principle of having honest conversations with your audience:

Be Real
Be Human
Be Relevant
Don’t Be Boring
Be The Expert
Respect Your Audience
Feel Their Pain
Solve the Problem
Keep It Simple
Prove It

We’ll explore these principles in detail in a future post but take our word for it – when we stick to these 10 Commandments, our messages hit home.

From Starting to Sustaining Conversations

We’re fortunate to have great clients and relationships that are very collaborative. We’ve created so many wonderful stories together, and started some great conversations with their customers.

But relationships aren’t built over a single conversation. Understanding your customer enough to start an engaging conversation with him/her is just the first step.  To create a lasting connection, the conversation needs to be sustained over time because what your customer needs changes over time.

We’ve all heard of omnichannel and customer experience (CX).  CX is not about closing a sale faster or at a lower cost. It’s about creating value for that customer in a way that feels personal and relevant. It’s about being helpful, being useful and being of service.

This is often a moving target since customers don’t stand still. They are inundated with information coming from every device and media source. That’s why we think it’s important to tune in to what they need at a specific point in time, and address it then and there.  

Every touchpoint is a stepping stone towards building a lasting relationship, and we help by creating meaningful content every step of the way.

The Importance of Relationships

Over time, we’ve found that there are certain values that resonate. Long-term relationship building is at the top of that list. It doesn’t matter if it’s between client and customer, or client and agency, or agency and employee.  We’re happier in long-term relationships.

Research agrees – acquiring a new customer can cost between five to twenty-five times more than retaining an existing customer.

We’ve always worked as an extension of our clients’ companies. We are partners. We are invested in their success.  Just as we believe that brands exist to serve their customers, we believe that our purpose is to be of service to our client first and foremost, and their company by extension. 

We serve people, not companies.

We feel the same way about our creative partners too. We are invested in their success because we firmly believe that a great business is built on the happiness of the people who support it. We strive to provide our partners with security, community, purpose and mutual growth.  In return, they invest their genius in the work. And it shows.

You can learn more about our values and our team on our new website.

A New Chapter: Creating Content for Effective Customer Journeys

Telling great stories will always be close to our heart and this will never change.  But a tale is only as good as its plot, so we’ve added new products and services that will enable us to tell better, more meaningful stories.

We have designed a new Customer Journey mapping workshop to uncover new pathways to your commercial goals and identify the stories that matter to your audience. Using proprietary tools and an innovative whiteboard game, we bring company departments together and break communication silos down with play. 

We conduct content audits (think mystery shopping for content) across your customer journey for a specific audience segment to identify gaps that need to be plugged.

Then we take these insights and craft narratives that illuminate your brand by connecting your purpose to your customer’s. 

Using powerful, visual storytelling techniques, we bring this narrative to life in magical ways that will delight customers across any channel and any format. 

Finally, we continue working with our clients to track progress, learn, and grow towards repeatable, measurable success.

A New Crew

Saving the best for last – we also welcome a new core team of wonderfully talented individuals, all experts in their field, to serve and inspire the companies that we work with.

We believe in hybrid vigour and the excellence that diversity and open innovation brings.  We have 27 partners from 15 countries with a 46/54 % male/female split across a global value chain.

We don’t believe in hierarchies and are building a new workflow that will place power in the hands of those closest to the job, instead of those closest to the top.

All this means a nimble, incredibly agile, happy and fulfilled workforce. 

Because the happier we are, the better we are.

We look forward to introducing all of you personally to the team, and working on many more exciting projects to come!