From economic doom and gloom
to business growth through great storytelling
Background
There is a common thread through out our work at The Allotment. We believe passionately that storytelling is the ‘key’ to effective brand communications and future growth for our clients. This is why we have produced the sequel to Jack and the Beanstalk. Stories, based around a strong creative idea magnify opportunities for businesses and, more importantly, if they touch people at the emotional level they will be memorable and have lasting value. Our skill and craft is to bring clarity to the strategic direction of businesses, to ask searching questions, to take a story that on the surface seems ordinary and make it extraordinary by looking at it from a different angle.
The brief we set ourselves
Communicate our own story and approach in the most convincing and compelling way possible to drive new business and grow our network.
Create a piece that proved our skills, craftsmanship and effectiveness in the art of great storytelling.
Create something that people would cherish and keep, not just file in the bin.
Our Solution
Our first memories are more often than not of fairytales; they are powerful because they have a deep emotional context. An element that is so often missing from small and big business communications.
We therefore chose to tell a new fairytale but with a different angle. It seemed natural to the team at The Allotment that Jack and the Beanstalk should be brought up to-date as a modern fable.
Working with writer Scott Perry (Bard of Bray) and legendary illustrator, Geoffrey Appleton, ‘Jack and the Giant Recession’ was born. The story starts with Jack, now grown up but without the benefit of his golden goose, wanting to start his own business but not quite knowing how to find his market. While searching he meets the Old Man again (uncannily looking like Lord Sugar), who persuades him to part with his business for a handful of beans. These beans, as you can guess, are special and lead Jack to enlightenment and to his market. On the way he meets the giant who has become more bitter and now eats businesses instead of little boys. He has already eaten Woolworths, Northern Rock and has a taste for Greece. He is not just a giant; he is a ‘Giant Recession’.
Jack is the giant’s saviour and in return the giant shows Jack the market for his business idea - a firm that helps businesses tell their stories more effectively.
We created
A book which has been beautifully crafted and modelled on traditional fairytales – something to be treasured.
