What's on our M!nds.

In his fantastic book A Whole New Mind, Daniel H. Pink writes simply, “We are our stories.” His point? We compress all of the experiences, emotions, facts and information about ourselves into narratives that convey who we are and give life meaning.

He’s right. If we couldn’t tell our own personal stories, the facts and figures about most of our daily lives would be, frankly, kind of boring.

This same concept is increasingly more important in our business today, when no matter what we say about brands, people can go online within seconds and find out the truth. As a result, Transparency has become a buzzword du jour. But just as important as Transparency is taking those facts and features we’re making transparently available and crafting a compelling story. Or even better, allowing people to craft their own.

Google (yes, we like them) is doing just that with their Google Search Stories tool. Building on the idea behind their excellent “Parisian Love” Superbowl commercial, this tool lets anybody turn their own Google searches into stories they can share with the world. The finished videos are also stored on the Search Stories landing page, and my favorite so far (perhaps not surprisingly) is called “Out of Office”.

Does it get much better than this? Google has essentially given people a way to use Google to tell other people why Google is such a fundamental part of people’s lives. Plus, it’s simple, fun, shareable and literally makes the Internet itself a more interesting place. Genius.

I’ve not seen a better example of what the new “advertising” can and should be. And I’m inspired to let this be the new bar for success when crafting our clients’ brands’ stories.

Very much interested in thoughts – on this subject and on storytelling in general. And if you have your own Google Search Story, share it with us. We’d love to watch and learn.

This video isn’t new. But it’s a good thing to watch every now and then just to put your day in perspective.

I’ve written recently about Google Earth Deforestation Maps. The latest update to Google Earth contains Sea Floor Maps. Scientists, such as Sylvia Earle, are using these maps to monitor the health of our oceans. In 2009, Sylvia won the Ted Talks with her speech about the oceans. She questions why land spaces are being preserved but not water spaces.

Not just for scientists, surfers are in on the game too. The Surfrider Project “Rise Above Plastic” focuses on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an area in the Pacific Ocean that contains 100 million tons of plastic and kills one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals globally each year. Scary.

Take the Plastics Pledge by simply eliminating/reducing plastic in your life, and you will make a difference.

Read Crowd-Sourcing Solutions to Plastic Filled Oceans for more info.