1. 2018 NRF Student Challenge

2. Examples - PR and Marketing
Marketing is a natural byproduct of most of the STORIES
Jet.com wanted to spread the word about their fresh food and produce delivery service
STORY created a conversation about Jet.com and the services they offer – for example, they brought in influencers who held conversations about healthy eating/cooking
STORY designs strategic press events and invites specific influencers so that the sponsor is talked about in the right way
STORY can’t guarantee the exact number of press mentions or impressions, but they do guarantee that they will get people in the room and create an environment for conversations to occur
Theme: Fresh
Sponsor: Jet.com
Objective: Spread the word about fresh food delivery

3. Examples – R&D Theme: Home for the Holidays Sponsor: Target
STORY doesn’t generally provide specific metrics (i.e. 40% of men who tried it ___ ) for research and development, but do offer some metrics: heat mapping in the store & perch interactive
Target wanted to challenge themselves with how nimble they could be as a large company – the STORY was put together in 2 months
They also wanted to showcase the back stories of the 50+ private label brands they carry and A) see if customers would take interest in those stories and B) see how customers react to the products outside of Target stores
Theme: Home for the Holidays
Sponsor: Target
Objective: A) Identify customers’ interest in back stories of private label home brands & B) identify what products look like outside of Target stores

4. Examples – Product Development
Worked with Nickelodeon's licensing department – one of their challenges (as retail is changing) is that retailers constantly want innovative products – it’s then Nickelodeon's responsibility to create products that will keep retailers engaged, because retailers are a major source of revenue
STORY had to create about 120 innovative products across about 50 brands that the company had not previously worked with. STORY then developed custom patterns based on their iconic characters to bring the company’s art to life
Nickelodeon then met with retailers in the STORY space to show them how they are working to innovate in the retail space
Theme: Remember When
Sponsor: Nickelodeon
Objective: Create innovative products that will keep retailers engaged with the company & use the space as a meeting place for their retailers

5. Examples – Content Creation
Cigna needed to find new ways to engage with customers – brand name alone is no longer sufficient to survive in the crowded healthcare space
Cigna wanted to target younger demographics and show them what they are doing to help them and to provide them with the proper coverage
STORY created the ‘feel good’ theme based on 3 propositions that CIGNA brings to the market: mindfulness, prevention, and healthy eating
STORY split the store into those 3 sections and held event programming (about 25 panels) around those three areas
Cigna then captured audio and video footage of each program and did a virtual tour of the store
Cigna took all of the content and used it for their internal marketing and sales teams so that their employees could understand:
what kinds of questions are being asked
how people are contextualizing healthcare
what conversations are being held around healthcare
Theme: Feel Good
Sponsor: CIGNA
Objective: Create a content toolkit for internal marketing/sales teams to use for customer outreach and engagement