Most corporate videos are watched once, forgotten instantly, and never spoken of again.

I help internal comms and marketing leaders make sure theirs are not.

I’m Joe Hickey, founder of Shatter Media. I work with brands like British Gas, Arriva, Rathbones and Knight Frank to turn strategies, announcements and events into clear, human stories on video.

My focus:
• Messages people actually understand and feel
• Leaders who feel real on camera
• Content that supports your wider comms plan, not just another “nice video”

If you own engagement, adoption or alignment inside your organisation, I help you create video that does its job.

Joe Hickey

My eldest has just captured me!

It's not what you think!

A little throwback to the end of last year, my son's school assignment was to shadow his old man in a days work.

That just so happened to fall in the infamous Budget Day.

His task, document the day, what we're doing, a few tips a long the way, and edit it into a story-driven vlog style video to showcase a bit of the behind the scenes of some of what I do.

How did he do? Let me know and I'll pass on the feedback!!

📽️ 📽️

Joe Hickey 🎥

Turning strategy, change & events into stories your people remember | Video for internal comms & marketing leaders | Founder – Shatter Media

Stories Are Back! 📖

Not LinkedIn Stories, Although, unpopular opinion, I didn’t hate those.

I mean actual storytelling.

The King of Shortform content TikTok, has been quietly pushing micro-dramas,  short-form, episodic content that hooks you, then makes you come back for the next part.

This is feeding the holy grail of metrics, retention time. It is also driving repeat traffic due to content consumers coming back to see the next episode.

So that's great but what can we learn from this?

Simple:
✅ Think in stories, not snippets
✅ Build episodic arcs for your content, not just one-off's
✅ Don't just bolt CTA's at the end, but weave them into the content;
Tease - Demonstrate - Social Proof

This isn't just a trend, it's a consumer's behavioural signal.

And honestly, it’s exactly why I built my BrandStory Video product in the first place, documenting real journeys, showing experience in action, and proving quality instead of claiming it.

If your content feels forgettable, it’s probably because it’s not telling a story.

If you want help doing that properly, you know where I am.

🎬🎥🎬

Longform Vs Shortform 🎥

So which is better?

In a nutshell... 🥜 neither.

Each serves a different purpose. 

Let's keep it simple

Shortform = Attention, visibility 👀

Longform = Trust, connection, authority

Utilising both effectively, deployed at the right time, leads to conversion and action!

If you're interested in how, then let's chat 🗨️

🎥🎥🎥

The importance of flexibility!

Now I'm not one who can do the splits, but I'll give it a go!

Ok, ok, maybe I don't mean that kind of flexibility, god knows I'm not as nimble as I used to be.

Yesterday demonstrated how being flexible cannot only help you go the extra mile for the client, but also save your own arse!

To set the scene quickly, I was running a camera operator job for an event at a racing circuit, classic cars, lots of noise and the smell of fuel, it was a lot of fun!

Not my gig, but a friend of mine so I was assisting him and his team, the client wanted a really simple video of classic cars with some racing and rally drivers flying around the circuit as part of his presentation, which would be shot in the morning, edited quickly after and added to the PowerPoint.

Simple enough until we checked on the hired camera (which for events we hard wire power in) and the batteries weren't working.

3 large batteries, completely dead, a faulty charge, and no way of getting power out onto the track to the camera to capture the footage.

None of us panicked, none of us worried, we ran a couple tests to ensure there was no way of rectifying the hired kit.

Then, as I always tend to, I had some of my own kit with me, including my camera for a "just in case" moment, this was that moment.

We were right in time, I got my camera, got set up, ran out, got the shot. 

Problem solving is all part of the job, it's the fun part.

Video solutions can impact business in a big way, gain attention, build trust and concert clients, reach out and lets see how video can help your business 🎥🎥🎥

A luxury hotel CEO just went viral on TikTok.

With a simple method...

Not because of a marketing campaign.
Not because of ads.
Not because of a trendy hook or jump cuts.

Because she told stories.

✅ Behind-the-scenes moments.
✅ Day-to-day realities.
✅ Human observations from inside a very polished world.

And people loved it.

Millions of views.
Huge engagement.
Increased brand awareness and job applications.

She didn’t just “create content”.
She documented experience.

No over-produced scripts.
No trying to be an influencer.
Just a real person, in a real role, sharing real stories and real personality.

Authority building at its finest.

And it’s a reminder that storytelling isn’t about drama or viral tricks, it’s about context.

Letting people see how things actually work.

Letting them trust you before you ever try to sell them anything.

This is exactly why polished, generic brand videos are losing their punch…

…and why human-led storytelling is winning.

If you’re a founder, leader, or expert wondering why your content feels invisible, ask yourself this:

Are you posting snippets…
or are you inviting people into a story?

Because stories don’t just get watched.
They get remembered.

🎬

MEET SAM ► Master data storyteller, helping companies and brands make smarter use of data. I’m known for my ability to craft impactful, evidence-based stories rooted in data and statistics that have the power to persuade others to take action. I’m the author of the 'Using Data Better' trilogy of books with Routledge: 2018's award-winning "Narrative by Numbers", 2020's best-selling "How To Be Insightful", and 2022's critically-acclaimed "Asking Smarter Questions". I’m an in-demand keynote speaker, trainer, and podcaster.

DATA STORYTELLING ► Leaders in marketing, research, insight, and analytics come to me when they’re concerned their teams aren’t making data work hard enough for them. Some are frustrated that their data-driven stories don’t engage target audiences because numbers overwhelm narrative. Others are under pressure to surface and articulate genuine insights but end up having to make do with just data points or casual observations. And a few are frustrated that the questions they ask don’t yield relevant, useful data that could drive the business forward.

PUTTING YOUR DATA TO WORK ► There are six Golden Rules of data storytelling which, when applied consistently to the stories you tell, enable your organisation to sound like a person and talk that rare business dialect: Human. Using data to underpin your storytelling requires humanity, empathy, and understanding the data tolerance of your audience. Finding and using only relevant data, avoiding the Curse of Knowledge, and balancing the emotional with the rational are skills that amplify storytelling impact. Analytics + Storytelling truly does = Influence.

SPECIALITIES ► Data storytelling, insightful thinking, asking smarter questions. Best-selling author, Professional Speaker, Trainer, Mentor, Podcaster, Consultant.

WEBSITES ► www.insightagents.co.uk, www.narrativebynumbers.com, www.HowToBeInsightful.com, www.asksmarterqs.com

LET'S TALK ► Ring the bell 🔔 on my profile to get notified about my posts. Message me on LinkedIn, email sam@insightagents.co.uk, follow me on Twitter @samknowles and @insightagents

Sam Knowles

New year, no resolutions, same determination.

Lots written on this – and every other – platform on the folly of setting New Year’s Resolutions.

Why they don’t stick.

How permanent change isn’t a gimmick and takes persistence.

Last Sunday – with not-that-much notice; I hadn’t really been “in training” – I ran the Newhaven 10K. Not as fast as other recent races, but a fair lick faster than when – in the current gloaming of winter mornings – I run a distance like this alone.

I’ve been running for mental (then physical) wellbeing for 15 years now.

And it’s two years since I properly got in charge of my weight, appetites, and exercise.

No jabs, pills, or herbal infusions.

(Also, no moralising, snobbery, or judgement; the road to health and wellbeing takes hugely different paths depending on the individual).

Just commitment, reframing (“I *GET* to go to the gym” not “I *HAVE* to go to the gym”), and swapping out ultra-processed “foods” for foods that actually LOOKS like food.

And incremental improvements adding up to a whole lot more than that.

Strange thing, the geometric progression.

Particularly when writ large on the body and the psyche.

Our world is VUCA, data-drenched, and swilling in AI slop.

How is anyone in any organisation expected to start making sense?

What’s a reasonable, reasoned, intelligent way of cutting through the clutter?

Despite what some politicians may (or may not, eh Guy Corbet) have said or meant, we have very definitely NOT “had enough of experts”.

I’d like to point you in the general direction of Data Malarkey – the podcast about using data, smarter.

This coming Wednesday 21 January, the greatest hits of Season Nine hits the audio podcast airwaves. As usual, our seasons are a farrago or a smorgasbord of a mouse mix-up of different leaders and leading thinkers who make smarter use of data.

Season Nine brought together:
* Kelly Beaver MBE who runs Ipsos in the UK & Ireland
* Angela Balakrishnan, Executive Director of Strategic Communications & Public Affairs at the UK’s Information Commissioner's Office
* AI Pathfinder and TED Talker Susan Etlinger
* Stephen Waddington, founder and lead counsel at Wadds Inc.
* Kerry Watkins, founder of Brighton-based Social for Good | Certified B Corp™
* And Angus Fletcher, Professor of Story Science at The Ohio State University where he runs Project Narrative

Frankly, that would make a pretty darned fine dinner party guest list. And rather than try to get them into the same time zone at the same time at short notice, at Insight Agents towers, we’ve selected some of the choicest morsels from our six most recent episodes for the Greatest Hits of Season Nine of the Data Malarkey Podcast.

In our bigger and bigger data, AI-dominated world, I’d wager London to a housebrick – or Lewes to a mathematical tile as they say down my way – that this latest, greatest hits episode can help you do something pretty special, by standing on the shoulders of my experts.

And that’s to start making sense.

There are links to all formats of the show in the first comment below. If you’re not already a Data Malarkey aficionado, follow the link to your favourite podcast platform, hit subscribe, and wake up to our latest, greatest hits episode first thing on Wednesday.

I’ve never worked in advertising.

(I’m a “reformed PR man”, after all, a different kind of hidden persuader altogether).

I’ve never earned my crust from an ad agency.

But for the past 12-plus years that I’ve run my data storytelling consultancy, Insight Agents, the more contact I’ve had with the advertising community, the more welcome I’ve been made to feel at the top table of the world of commercial communication.

Data storytelling has never mattered more in advertising. The ability to blend narrative and numbers – to ask smarter questions to surface the data we need to make great ads; to use that data to unearth genuine insights, and to communicate data with empathy, humanity, and a respect for the data tolerance of the audience – well, they’re all must-haves in the modern ad exec’s quiver.

At the start of this month, it was my very great pleasure to attend the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising)’s President’s Reception, where the brilliantly plain-speaking Karen Martin, welcomed adland to the excitement on offer from 2026.

And, because the reception was at IPA Towers, I took the opportunity I always take when I’m at the advertising practitioners’ HQ. Of course, I took a selfie with my childhood friend, Smashie, star of my tweenage immersion in advertising.

In the teeth of the first storm of the year (Goretti), I also took the chance to give my new Christmas fedora an evening’s run-out in the rain. Promise I’m not trying to usurp you as the Man in the Hat Tim Johns.

And I came away with (i) a guest lectureship on an MBA course, (ii) the kind offer to chair a panel of the great and the good of advertising planners at the IPA’s ‘Touchpoints at 20’ conference in July – which of course I accepted – and (iii) a guest slot on the IPA’s new Making Sense podcast. More to follow in the months ahead on all of these.

Not a bad return for an evening eating canapés and supping the odd glass of bubbles.

Thanks so much Simon Frazier for inviting me.

(One for you Susan Frade - and we should talk when you get a moment ...)

New Year, new impetus, new perspectives.

Earlier this month, it was my very great pleasure to attend the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising)’s annual President’s Reception.

The room was fizzing with ideas and buzzing with the great and the good of adland. I particularly enjoyed spending time with old friends and new, from Orlando Wood of System1, Akhila Venkitachalam from Ekimetrics, and WARC’s Catherine Driscoll, to Dr Chris Jones from Ravensbourne University London and the living marketing effectiveness legend that is Les Binet. Not to mention the straight-talking IPA President, Karen Martin.

The canapés and champagne were every bit as refreshing as the guest list, rooms full of decades of smarts, all of us sheltering – and none of us deterred – by the first storm of 2026 in the form of Goretti.

I’ll bet some of us may have been delayed by the lashing rains and roaring winds on the way home, but it was more than worth it.

Thanks so much to Simon Frazier for the invitation. The IPA feels like such a natural and receptive home for our asking smarter questions / data to insight / data storytelling shticks.

And ICYMI, in the first comment below there’s a link to the ‘blog wot I wrote’ last year, based on my closing keynote at the IPA’s 2025 Insight Summit. The 2026 event is just around the corner on 5 March, with details on the second link below.

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The Battle

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Joe Hickey's LinkedIn Performance

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