Once upon a time we knew how to create meaning.
Stories were passed down, experience was shared, knowledge was gained.
We shared truths – hopes, fears and ideas – that struck collective chords, far and wide.
Our tales made sense of the world around us.
Identity bore connection.
Culture created belonging.
But we grew tired of the labour of bravery.
“More will be more, just bring me more” they cried.
And so it is that we have slipped into the great abyss of mediocrity.
This is a call to adventure.
Now is the time for meaning-makers to become culture-creators.
To stand out you must stand up.
To be talked about you must lead the conversation.
To be valued you must hold values, principles, beliefs.
To be loved you must wear your heart on your sleeve.
The Folklorists is a strategy studio proving that culture is the future of competitive advantage.
Potent prescience. A macro trends workshop sharing the consumer and cultural ideas that are shaping consciousness. We’ll share ideas for how tapping into these trends can rocket your business into a new dimension.
A team workshop to inform portfolio and product roadmaps, brand, marketing and communication strategies and tactics. Inject some inspiration into the equation and bring together product, category, NPD, brand, marketing, insight and sales teams.
Tailored versions available on request, including deep-dive category analysis, globally and domestically.
Powerful premonitions, used wisely, will deliver you competitive advantage for years to come.
Two-hour workshop from $2,500. Bespoke workshops available by request.
Creation of a brand belief system from the ground up.
We diagnose, distill and define the enduring essence of what makes your brand the stuff of legend, today, tomorrow and always.
A blueprint of brand DNA that is so sharp, so specific, so inspiring that everyone will need to level up.
Proposal starting from $800
A catalyst for great change. A provocations workshop that will rattle you from slumber. An opportunity missile finder.
For those whose plan looks and smells like it did last year. For those who quietly suspect that in reality they don’t have a plan. And yes, all for those who think they have it all sewn up. This is your wake up call. Get ready to be poked, shocked, uncomfortable, awakened.
In scriptwriting, the inciting incident is the moment the hero’s world changes forever and they are sent hurtling into a new adventure, a transformative new trajectory. It’s not foreseen. It requires the action of an outside force. Consider this your bolt of lightning.
Proposal from $500.
A marketing plan made of channels and dollars makes no sense. Boxes on a slide, in search of coherence. Tactics in search of a strategy. We see it all the time.
It’s time to plot your brand’s story arc with rigour, develop one plot line thoughtfully and ditch the heaving mass of those distracting sub plots. The Plot Thickens is a storylining method designed to clean up your planning and make your activities makes sense and have impact.
Show your business what annual planning looks like when you use strategy to tell a smart, coherent, focused story to maximum effect.
A critical editorial eye coming your way, sharpish.
Proposal starting at $500.
Should I stay or should I go now? Trouble or double? Sometimes you really can’t see another way forward. You need a vision, a premonition, a glimpse of the future.
Enter the visioneering workshops that will paint new pathways and inspire fresh direction. Cross The Threshold will dramatise two fates - status quo vs imagined future. The same-same pitted head-to-head with a giant leap.
Only when you see what you’re missing do you start to get thirsty for tomorrow. When the protagonist crosses the threshold, they enter a new world, a new era.
This is your call to adventure. The cave you fear to enter hides the treasure you seek. Cross our palm with silver and we will reveal a destiny you could not have conceived.
Personality problem? ‘Confident, down to earth and genuine’ is not a tone and manner that any brand should have. Middle of the road is the middle of nowhere.
You need a personality intervention. A character makeover.
Main Character Energy will make someone of you. Includes archetype analysis, territories and dramatic from-to reveals that would make the boys from Queer Eye tear up.
Proposal from $500.
Mirror Mirror on the wall. Do you really know what’s said about us behind closed doors? What beliefs, limiting or liberating, are shaping your people, your culture, your market perceptions?
See who you are. See how you’re seen. Discover why that is. Uncover the narratives that are driving you, above and below. A qualitative deep dive into what lies below the surface of your brand health. Only when we see clearly can we know what need to change.
A reckoning, a chance to see what lies beneath the surface, confront some monsters and discover hidden gold.
Proposal from $800.
