For any hard-pressed comms person in the public or third sector who just needs a bit of inspiration, handy learning or fascinating facts (there really is a New Fave Fact section). Campaign and creative inspiration you can steal. Storytelling and comms tips and insight to pass off as your own.
Dogs and babies
Sell the benefits, not the featuresIt's always there. Everyone knows it. But no-one says it. I've just finished a messaging refresh with a national charity. It covered a really important initiative for them, one they wanted employers to jump on board with. On the surface, there was nothing hugely wrong with what already existed. But then I put on the glasses of the intended audience, which always helps to reveal the most important factor - will they care? There was plenty in there about what the initiative was and what you needed to do to join in. But did it straight up tell them how it was going to improve their audience's world, scratch an itch for them? It didn't take long to surface it. A workshop with a group of key people, asking what was actually going to change for the employers if they joined in, and they reeled off a whole load of answers. It just needed the right question and framing. It comes back to the old advertising mantra - sell the benefits, not the features. The Ikea ad below is a great example. It doesn't tell us how many drawers the unit has got or how big they are. Instead: tidy room. End of. Or to put it another way: what's in it for me? Tell them what they want to hear. WEBINAR CATCH UP: Lore - the new storytelling and how to do itIf you came along to our webinar looking at lore and how we build it in our organisations, then I hope you found it useful and interesting. A massive thanks to James Bird, Social Media Manager at Ealing Council, for his brilliant examples and stories about the great work they've been doing on social. Catch up on the webinar (and others) on the link up there 👆. USE THIS: content and campaign ideasI usually share content here with an interesting idea that could be adapted to help you shortcut to creative ideas if time is short, but I thought this was a great way of also collecting creative ideas quickly. They call it a Copy Safari but I think you could rebadge it as an Ideas Safari - there's so much stuff to take inspiration from all around us and it might only need a 10-minute walk around the block. (Get this type of creative and content inspiration first on the Creative Catch of the Day WhatsApp channel.) AUTHENTICITY: no, WE'RE more authentic than youI've banged on about authenticity a lot in this newsletter of late and the race to be the MOST authentic seems to be in overdrive and so this is an interesting raising-the-stakes move from a beer brand. STORY TIPS: the quote behind the most important storytelling adviceThere is one piece of storytelling advice that probably comes out on top of all others and there's a very famous quote from a very famous writer behind it. SOCIAL: The Round-Up
THIS IS COMMS: precarious balcony balancingI love posts like this that show the breadth, variety and sometimes downright perilous types of job a comms role takes in every day. CONTENT: dogs and babiesI'm always fascinated by the emotional tracking of ads and content done by this company but also in this LinkedIn post, some insider proof, were it needed, that if you want your content to soar, it's all about dogs and babies. PUBLIC SECTOR COMMS SURVEY 2026The largest benchmarking survey of local public services in the UK is live, so help provide valuable data to help improve communications across the sector. FREE LEARNING: UnAwards winner webinarI was lucky enough to nab a seat at the UnAwards winners' Masterclass this week and, as ever, it was a brilliant learning event. If you weren't able to get a ticket, make sure you sign up for the online edition this year - April 28, 12.30pm. ABOUT USTurn The Page is a story-led communications consultancy, using the power of stories to create memorable, measurable campaigns, strategies and narratives. Campaigns and comms led by stories are measurably more successful and improve engagement and trust.
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The Page Turner - creative comms and storytelling gold
For any hard-pressed comms person in the public or third sector who just needs a bit of inspiration, handy learning or fascinating facts (there really is a New Fave Fact section). Campaign and creative inspiration you can steal. Storytelling and comms tips and insight to pass off as your own.
The underrated art of acknowledgement My brother does nature conservation. No real reason for you to know or care about that, but he does. What I'd completely forgotten about was how a letter from Sir David Attenborough had played a large part in that, until he was recounting the story around the great man's 100th birthday celebrations a few weeks ago. When he was 12, Paul sent him a letter about reptiles he was rescuing near our house (our shared bedroom was always full of snakes and lizard...
They don't teach you that at college No matter what type of comms qualification or experience you have, some things you just can't train for. You may have either got along to the UnAwards Masterclass event in Birmingham (well done if you bagged a ticket) or been able to join the online webinar last week. And, as always, it was brilliant to hear the stories behind the award-winning work - how it was planned, created and executed. (By the way, one of the top comms hacks out there is the Comms...
Real people. Reel results Timing is everything, isn't it? I've been knee-deep in a social media review for a fire service this month, with brilliant comms data guru Alex Waddington. And having analysed their most successful posts, we found their top content featured real people - staff, volunteers, animals (always animals). Everyday hero content, as Alex terms it. Then dropped a brilliant study to explain why. Emplifi's recent research on Facebook Reels showed: Videos that include human...