October 27, 2017
On October 27th, during TU AMA’s conference, Fara Warner, Vice President of Customs from Dow Jones, came to talk to all Pennsylvania AMA members about storytelling. After the Temple team was awarded first place in the Wall Street Journal case competition, Warner spoke to the audience about The Wall Street Journal’s goal of breaking down a wall that prevents young people from relating to the magazine.
Warner was a journalist and has worked in various highly recognized companies, but her first brand storytelling project, Cocainenomics at Wall Street Journal, got her interested in customs. Warner states that “we are increasingly a visual society”, so it would only make sense that she started working in customs to bring more visual and interesting content to a newspaper usually known for discussing business topics. To Fara Warner, storytelling is not just about the narrative, it is about creating marketing that relates with the consumers, she calls it a science.
One of the newest projects of the Customs departments of WSJ is for Morgan Stanley, a company most known for investment banking and other financial services. However, in a video called “Capital Creates Change”, WSJ shows how Morgan Stanley cares about the environment and how capital investment will help the environment. The video shows a testimonial video of an island, Kiribati, and the island’s residents, all in danger due to environmental problems causing flooding. This is only a preview of everything WSJ tries to do to make their news turn into something relatable- something consumers will be empathetic towards. Click here to see the full video.
Warner went on to say that WSJ has not won all the prizes because it is “boring, but rather because it cares”. Warner is definitely helping break down that wall. Lastly, she states one way to help newspapers and magazines online is by clicking on the ads, or else they will not get sufficient funds! So if you are an avid reader, you know what to do.