Above all else, know how to tell a story!

Frank Scherma, President and Founder of Radical media prefaced his presentation by telling us that "you must know how to tell a story." Before getting into his examples of great work and thinking about reaching different audiences he brought it back to the base—that we're story tellers, or at least should be. Too often in advertising people focus on so many things other than a narrative, but at the base of every brand that's what there is. People are drawn to stories. It's how we remember and it's how we communicate best—even Jesus did it, remember parables? Frank Scherma is a master of storytelling, especially through brands, and his agency Radical Media has created some of the most compelling branded content in the world.

Chief among Radical Media's work may be the Tundra Endeavor project. Cities across the U.S. sent in proposals to be the final resting place for the Endeavor space shuttle as it was being retired. The California Science Center in Los Angeles won, launching one of the most difficult deliveries in history. The shuttle had to be moved through residential neighborhoods and over the 405 freeway to get to the Science Center. At some points the wings of the craft were literally flying over people's lawns as it was slowly rolled along with a massive rig of wheels and controls. This rig proved too heavy for the 405 bridge, and engineers weren't sure how they were going to get the Endeavor across. The California Science Center just happened to be sponsored by Toyota, so in one of the meeting discussing the bridge crossing an engineer from Toyota volunteered the Tundra to pull the shuttle across. This seemed ludicrous, a pick up truck towing a space shuttle? But on Oct. 12, 2012 a base Tundra did just that, pulling the shuttle without issue all the way across the overpass. Radical Media had crews covering this 24/7, as it rolled through neighborhoods and made it's way across the bridge with the help of the Tundra. All of this content would be turned into TV ads and even a television series detailing the process with exclusive interviews of the pilots of the craft and many other touching stories. This project is just one example of their work, but provides a gauge of just how crazy they are in bringing ideas to life and producing brilliant content.