True Stories

Ethnographic Research & Documentary Film

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• Ethnography
• Social Networking
• Branded Content
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Vitamin Water

T.A.G. needed to better understand how young people today relate to health, fitness, and body image to inform their
Vitamin Water 10 new business pitch. True Stories designed and executed a research project that combined traditional ethnography with respondent-generated content. Here are three of the thematic films presented.

ESPN: Monday Night Football

As Monday Night Football entered it's fifth year on ESPN, they needed to make sure they had the right strategy to inform all of their communications, from advertising to promotions to sales. True Stories conducted ethnographies with fourteen hardcore football fans around the country, gave them their own cameras to add footage from their own lives, and immersed in Monday Night Football culture for four months to produce this series of films chock full of insights pointing the way forward.

Sprint

Hal Riney and their client Sprint PCS wanted to know how to communicate with wireless customers in a competitive landscape filled with noisy messages around price and promotions. True Stories conducted depth ethnographies and found that the emotional promise of the technology would trump rational features every time.

Miller High Life

Wieden + Kennedy needed to demonstrate to their client a deeper understanding of the High Life target and to inspire more impactful work from their creative teams. They hired True Stories to create a 10-minute documentary about the true High Life customer. This is the introduction to that film.

Compass Bank

When Grey pitched the Compass business, they needed to understand how people in the South were dealing with the economy and their feelings towards small businesses. We immersed ourselves in that culture and returned with these films.

Microsoft

T.A.G. pitched the Windows Mobile business and needed to demonstrate to their creative teams and the client a deep understanding of the emotional relationships people have with their phones today. Following are films about two of the customers we profiled.

Samsung

Leo Burnett and Samsung asked True Stories to create a competitive analysis about Apple, so that Samsung executives in Korea could better understand this uniquely American brand. The objectives were to bring to life Apple culture, both inside the company and in American society, and to speculate on what Apple might do next. To meet these objectives, True Stories produced a 40-minute documentary about Apple.

Dell

True Stories partnered with San Francisco research firm Baccus Research to conduct ethnographic research about the life of the small business owner and medium business IT director. The resulting films brought to life the hopes and dreams of this important target audience. This is one of the many businesses profiled.

Levi's

Levi's was considering a partnership with psychedelic denim designer, Henry Duarte. True Stories was tasked with identifying a young target audience for Duarte's classic designs. The result was the discovery of a large subculture that blends retro and contemporary values.