Make Me Care: Digital Storytelling to Affect Change
Moving hearts and minds, changing attitudes and behavior, takes more than SEO. This session’s speakers and case studies explore how to affect change by evolving the art of digital storytelling.
NPR's Michele Norris created The Race Card Project asking people to share views on race in America in just SIX WORDS. Brevity and candor from people of all races made for powerful storytelling. More than 12,000 people shared their stories through digital channels, sparking national conversation that continues to touch lives and open eyes.
When cause program Ford Warriors in Pink wanted to connect on an emotional level to fight breast cancer and grow its digital platform 365 days a year, it turned to filmmakers at Flow Nonfiction to tell stories of real people. Branded documentary work, from :30 spots to a 15-minute film, drove an integrated campaign empowering its community, turning fans into advocates.
Presenters
Texas Monthly recently named David Modigliani one of the "next great Texas directors." In 2009, he co-founded branded documentary powerhouse Flow Nonfiction. David's feature-length documentary, Crawford, about the tiny Texas town George Bush turned into the Western White House, was a spotlight premiere at SXSW in 2008. He has made national appearances on MSNBC and CNN, and in the Wall St. Journal, to discuss his work. In brande work, he has directed pieces for Skype, Ford Warriors in Pink, Tide, the Houston Rockets, Downy, Sabertec, Texas Children's Hospital and Bing, among others. He has a BA from Harvard University and an MFA from UT Austin.
Joel R. Johnson SVP Director of Account Planning leading brand strategy development. Johnson has a long career developing holistic marketing campaigns for purpose-driven brands, agencies, and non-profits. He has lead brand strategy for many top brands including HP, Pepsi, the Urban League, American Stroke Association, Johnson & Johnson, and Gillette. Previously, he was EVP, Director of Strategic Planning at Porter Novelli NY, Director of Digital Strategy at Sapient Nitro and Managing Director at Spike DDB. Johnson is also a pioneer in the discipline of branded documentary, having produced films that highlight the social causes of Skype, Ford, and Sanofi among others. In his spare time he writes about his fly fishing adventures and blogs about consumer behavior and marketing at Think See Do Differently. Follow him on Twitter at joelrjohnson
About Michele Norris
Award-winning journalist Michele Norris is one of the most recognized voices in radio. She was host of NPR's longest-running national program, All Things Considered until 2012. Norris and All Things Considered received many of journalism's highest honors, including a Peabody Award, duPont Award, an Overseas Press Club Award, and she was named the 2009 Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists, solidifying her as an in-demand speaker on current events and American culture.
In 2013, Norris was named host and special correspondent for NPR. While on sabbatical, Norris spent a time traveling the country and developing two successful initiatives: The Race Card Project and NPR's Backseat Book Club. Her new role will allow her to continue this work while producing in-depth segments for all NPR programs.
Before joining NPR, she served as a correspondent for ABC News, where she reported extensively on education, inner city issues, the national drug problem, and poverty. While at ABC, she earned an Emmy Award and Peabody Award for her contribution to the network's coverage of 9/11.
In her 2010 book, The Grace of Silence: A Memoir, Norris focuses on how America talks about race in the wake of the Obama presidential election, and explores her own family's racial legacy. Tom Brokaw says the memoir makes her personal story a universal one: "Michele Norris takes us on a riveting personal journey from north to south and back again through the tangled landscape of race in America -- and teaches anew about the pain and possibilities of our past and future." It was named one of the year's best books by The Christian Science Monitor.
Susan Feeney brings more than 25 years of national media and public policy experience to developing and executing effective strategic communications. This experience includes strategic planning, positioning, media outreach, coalition building, campaigns, and social marketing. Susan co-leads GMMB’s education work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s U.S. Program and with the James Irvine Foundation, providing strategic counsel, issues advocacy, and communications and media counsel to improve access to educational opportunity. In addition, Susan specializes in communications supporting education technology and digital models. She guides GMMB’s work with the education technology startup 2U, and the USC Rossier School of Education’s online programs. In 2011, Susan led a national earned and social media initiative for Inigral Inc. and its Facebook Schools App, which connects students and raises college retention. She also provides strategic counsel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prior to joining GMMB in 2009, Susan was the senior editor for NPR’s “All Things Considered,” where she steered coverage of national politics, the White House, federal agencies, Congress and the arts, including guiding interviews of many of the world’s top newsmakers. She also covered politics and the White House for the Dallas Morning News and The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.
Saturday, March 9
