Well, in the lobby at the post-Verge drinkfest, it felt like the Moth stories had really resonated with people.

My bet is that six months from now, the stories are what stick. Not that everything else wasn't cool and interesting and informative and useful - but stories stick with people.

I brought my Mossman guitar home from the office tonight - several people stopped me and made me show it off.

cw

David Ogilvy was a paradox of sorts.

He was a strong believer in research, he worked for one of the most metric-oriented companies of his time (Gallup), his motto (and now ours) was "We Sell or Else."

At the same time, he was an advocate of "the Big Idea," that you "can't bore the consumer into buying your product - you can only interest them."

And he believed in the power of "story value," that irrational-but-interesting element of communication that gets people involved in the story of your brand. He called it "Story Value."

At a time when we are all connected by ever more complex and multi-dimensional technology, with the ability to measure and analyze customer behavior in all kinds of ways we never could before, we mustn't forget that at the end of each node is a human being, that human beings are engaged by stories (what is civilization except a long story?) And that brands themselves are stories that need to be retold and refreshed constantly.