Storytelling · narrative · emotion · action
Stories make people care about what facts alone can’t.
Using research, interviewing and narrative strategy, we find the human truth inside complex issues, then turn it into stories people can understand, feel and respond to.
FIND THE HUMAN TRUTH
Understand what people need to feel, not just know.
BUILD THE STORY
Turn that insight into a narrative people can enter and act on.
UNICEF • IMMERSIVE STORYTELLING
The problem wasn't awareness. It was distance.
UNICEF needed donors to feel closer to children and communities thousands of kilometres away. More information could explain the crisis, but it couldn’t close the emotional distance.
The strategy was to create UNICEF 360°, an immersive storytelling platform designed to move audiences from observing a crisis to feeling inside it.
WITH NORAH & SYLVIA · ON LOCATION · KARAMOJA, UGANDA
CARDBOARD VR VIEWER · UNICEF 360°
UNICEF 360° · Platform story
A new way to experience the work.
UNICEF 360° used virtual reality to bring audiences directly into UNICEF programs around the world.
The experience included a custom cardboard viewer inspired by UNICEF's iconic orange Halloween collection boxes. Launched with the Survival Gifts campaign, it transformed supporters' smartphones into a virtual journey where they could join UNICEF in the field.
Instead of asking people to imagine the difference their donations could make, we could put them right there, alongside the children and communities they were helping.
karamoja rising · the virtual reality documentary series
For a moment, you were there.
Karamoja Rising was the first documentary production created for UNICEF 360°, an immersive fundraising platform designed to help donors experience the lives of children their support made possible.
Filmed in Karamoja, Uganda, the documentary follows Sylvia and Lochap, two children whose ambitions are shaped by the challenges of everyday life. Through field research and in-depth interviews, we discovered the dangers Silvia faced collecting water and how access to clean water had changed Lochap’s life. Their stories became the heart of the film.
WITH SYLVIA · ON LOCATION · KARAMOJA, UGANDA
WITH THE ELDERS · ON LOCATION · KARAMOJA, UGANDA
GLOBAL REACH
Screenings and presentations
Karamoja Rising screened at the World Economic Forum in Davos and in New York as part of UNICEF USA's Women and Water installation at the Oculus, World Trade Center. UNICEF 360° was also presented at the United Nations, where I spoke on the future of VR in charities alongside filmmaker and UN Senior Advisor Gabo Arora and Graham Roberts of The New York Times.
73%
lift in donations in face-to-face fundraising
2x
pledge conversion after viewing film
Global Adoption
launched in Canada, expanded internationally
WHAT WE work ON
The right story changes what people notice, remember and do.
We turn complex ideas into narratives that create meaning, build connection and move people to act.
Narrative strategy
Finding the human truth and central idea that makes a complex subject matter.
Research & interviewing
Surfacing the voices, tensions and details that give a story substance.
Story architecture
Shaping structure, sequence and format so the idea lands clearly.
Editorial systems
Creating a coherent language and story system that can carry across channels.
ON LOCATION · KARAMOJA, UGANDA
rotaRy international • IMMERSIVE STORYTELLING
One case is one too many.
Rotary had spent decades leading the effort to eradicate polio. But statistics could not communicate the human effort required to reach some of the world’s hardest to reach children.
The strategy was to make that effort visible. Instead of explaining the final push toward eradication, the experience would place audiences alongside the people doing the work.
TWO DROPS OF PATIENCE · IMMERSIVE DOCUMENTARY
The journey became the story.
Two Drops of Patience follows Patience Asiimwe and a vaccination team into a remote community near the Uganda-Kenya border, showing what it takes to reach children beyond the healthcare system.
Filmed in 360°, the documentary places viewers inside the journey, making the determination behind two simple drops of vaccine immediate and human.
WITH PATIENCE · ON LOCATION · KARAMOJA, UGANDA
2,000+
VR viewers at the International Convention
Global Use
still used in polio education worldwide
Shorty Finalist
Social Good Awards, Virtual Reality
STILL FROM THE COMMERCIAL · ORTHO EVRA
ortho evra · PRODUCT STORYTELLING
Less to remember. More peace of mind.
The insight was simple: one small lapse in a daily routine could suddenly feel much bigger.
For women taking the pill, that split second of uncertainty carried real emotional weight. Ortho Evra offered a different kind of benefit: less to remember, and less reason to worry.
The commercial captured that split second of panic and made the benefit immediately understood.
VOLVO CANADA · BRAND STORYTELLING
The features were technical. The value was human.
Volvo had no shortage of proof: safety engineering, Scandinavian design, all-road capability. The opportunity was to translate those strengths into what they meant in people’s lives. Across the work, engineering became reassurance, performance became freedom, and technology became a more enjoyable drive.
Need people to care before they'll act?
Let's find the story that makes the problem matter.