"in the end, the organisation with the best story will win."
Why connect people and business with story? Because it is the single most powerful way to drive change, build community, create shared meaning and make brands more human and engaging. Discover more...
Consulting
Work with us to tap into the rich seam of stories within your business – and to communicate them in truly authentic , relevant and engaging ways.
Workshops
Learn how to elicit, develop and craft effective brand stories for yourself. Our hands-on workshops will give you all the knowledge and skills you need.
Copywriting
A great story is just the start. You need to tell it brilliantly. We’ve spent years doing just that for many of the UK’s leading brands. Let us do it for you, too.
Branding
Discover how effective storytelling can help you encapsulate, articulate and communicate a more authentic and inspiring Employer Brand.
Why Powerful Stories?
We help you capture, share and celebrate the stories that matter
Once upon a time, we worked for a global recruitment agency. Then we created Lighthouse Adcomms and spent 18 years making a difference to some of the biggest recruitment brands in the country - Alzheimer's Society, Mercer, Priory Group, Knight Frank and many more. So why have we launched Powerful Stories? Because story and storytelling have always at the heart of what we do. In print...online....through social media...radio...video....ambient marketing...even award-winning live theatre initiatives. We're all about innovative thinking, expert market knowledge and ideas that deliver results. So why not make our strengths part of your story, too?
Recruitment marketing and employer branding specialists.
It's what we've always done - and we're expert at delivering the results you need.
A small creative team used by major brands in multiple sectors.
There's a reason why they chose to work with us. We tell their stories better than anyone else.
multi-channel marketing and internal communication strategies
Creative ideas and solutions - always beautifully executed, on time and on budget.
It's not just what we do. It's the way we do it.
90% of our business has always come via referral. That's the power of having a good story.
Simple Tools for Eliciting and Crafting Stories
Recognising the power of story is one thing. Harnessing and developing that power in a simple, focused and well-structured way is quite another. That’s where our 3D BRAND STORYTELLING MODEL comes into its own.
The “Nine Employer Brand Propositions” tool, for instance, will help you identify the core stories required for a coherent and comprehensive brand storytelling strategy. This wisdom is the result of more than two decades spent in the employer branding and recruitment marketing trenches where we've developed a profound understanding of what works - and what doesn't.
The “Storytelling and Logical Levels” tool will ensure that the stories you select address the deepest and most relevant emotional and psychological triggers in your target audience. This provides a structured and highly practical insight into the persuasive potential of story that lies beyond the reach of conventional employer branding approaches.
And our “Story Structure and Significance” tool will guide you through the entire story elicitation process to help you find and shape the stories that best articulate your values, inspire your employees, engage prospective candidates and give life to your brand. If you want stories that are optimal in form, substance, relevance and impact (and you should) then this format will deliver.
These are just some of the elements in a comprehensive story elicitation and development process that's engaging, simple to use and adaptable to the specific needs of your own organisation. It’s all about reducing complexity and transforming storytelling into the powerful business tool it was always meant to be.
Shaun's thought pieces
Don’t compete for attention. Compete for meaning.
Let me start with a definition of sorts. A good brand tells a powerful story. A great brand gives people powerful stories to tell. And an extraordinary brand – an Apple, a Virgin, a Rolls Royce – IS the story. That’s not just true of consumer and corporate brands. It’s true of Employer Brands, too[…]
Appreciative Inquiry and the Anamorphic Principle
The human being alone among creatures on earth is a storytelling animal: sees the present rising out of a past, heading into a future; perceives reality in narrative form.” (Novak, 1975) What impact can storytelling have on organisational development and growth? As I have tried to demonstrate throughout this series of articles, story is perhaps[…]
Lies, Damned Lies and Employer Brands
When Fortune magazine describes an organisation as “the most innovative company in America” for six years in a row, there’s a good chance it can teach us a thing or two about employer branding. All the more so, perhaps, when the company in question is a recognised leader in its sector and was using the[…]
Employer Branding and Linguistic Mediocrity: Whose Fault Is It?
I have in front of me the brand guidelines for one of the UK’s leading not-for-profit organisations. It contains over 50 pages of detailed rules relating to design, layout, use of colour, typography, photographic principles, illustration styles, grid templates and logo placement. But what does it have to say about the use of language? Well,[…]
Recruiters, Can Your Story Be Trusted?
Imagine a world where the majority of your employees simply don’t trust your organisation…where your business and recruitment marketing activities are viewed with increasing suspicion… and where nearly two thirds of people will question the credibility of statements made by your CEO and other organisational leaders. A nightmare scenario? Sadly not. As the 2017 Edelman[…]
Invisible Stories: Employer Branding and the Power of the Grapevine
I recall presenting some draft graduate brochure copy to the HR manager of a major multinational in the cosmetics sector. “It’s great, ” he said. “It covers everything we need to say about the company, its values and its working environment.” Short pause. “Of course, it’s all crap.” The point is, if he knew it[…]
Appreciative Inquiry: Employer Branding and Storytelling by another name?
What metaphors do you live by? You may see life as a struggle, an adventure, a maze, a canvas, a roller coaster or even a box of chocolates. Whatever your particular metaphor – and however unconscious it may be – it will profoundly influence what you focus on and how you understand and engage with[…]
Employer Branding: Where Story has a Purpose and Purpose has a Story
Do you know what happens when you type the term “Chief Storyteller” into LinkedIn’s search field? Try it. On the very first results page you will meet John Nash at Travelport Labs, Marie Dosier at Architas, Russell Brady at Adobe, Steve Clayton at Microsoft, Stephen Hamm at IBM, Terrence Gargiulo at Accenture and Julie Roehm at[…]
HR Professionals, Employer Branding – and the Art of Losing the Plot
At the risk of stating the obvious, employer brands never exist in a vacuum. They exist in parallel with corporate brands and consumer brands – and the challenge, at the organisational level, is to bring them all into alignment. Which is not quite as simple as it sounds. One reason for this is a long[…]
On Flamingos, Hedgehogs and the Limitations of Employer Branding
Do you recall the game of croquet in Alice in Wonderland? In this story, live flamingos are used as mallets, live hedgehogs are used as balls, and some rather sullen soldiers stand on their hands and feet to make the hoops. The only problem is, none of these actors does what’s expected of them. Alice’s[…]