There’s an old adage about fish: Give a person a fish, and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to fish, and you feed them for a lifetime. Swap fish for professional services, and at Duarte, our agency and academy offerings are positioned to help with both. As believers in upskilling as a pathway toward career advancement and empowerment, we know the value of education.
But sometimes the clock is ticking, and you need the fish.
That’s where our agency’s data storytelling services can help. Duarte’s fearless speaker coaches, blackbelt design experts, and empathetic wordsmiths have propelled countless top brands, leaders, and visionaries to make the most of high-stakes moments. Because when the pressure is on, or you’re staring down some hungry pescatarians, it pays to get the menu right.
Since 1988, Duarte has helped Fortune 50 companies, blockbuster brands, and pioneering trailblazers communicate data effectively and efficiently. Over the years, Duarte’s Agency services have assisted leaders and organizations in telling in-house and industry-wide data stories with proven narrative techniques and ground-breaking design. Not only does storytelling help data linger in audience minds, but centering their relationship to the numbers can spark untold change.
That’s why Duarte’s agency data storytelling services infuse our DataStory methodology into every slide and syllable of client work. This proven approach has been tested on a battery of creative opportunities. Moreover, we continue to push the boundaries of how data can be presented to ensure targeted, measurable impact. While working to refine identities, amplify messages, and even reorient entire industries, we’ve built lasting relationships and helped rack up a few prestigious awards along the way.
Below are just some examples of Duarte Designa’s agency data storytelling services that exemplify what the firm has to offer.
What’s more urgent than planetary survival? This was the question nagging at former Vice President Al Gore when he contacted Duarte with reams of climate data and a burning desire to reverse a troubling trend. Greenhouse gas emissions have been climbing for decades due to inaction toward environmental stewardship. To help raise the alarm and (hopefully) catalyze the global community to cut pollution, Gore needed help presenting his findings in a compelling manner that drove audiences to action.
The former Vice President chose Duarte to help craft a living presentation that met reluctant consumers and climate change skeptics in their comfort zones. Duarte experts poured over Mr. Gore’s research and structured the most compelling climate data into an empathetic pitch. The angle was simple: Why everyone should do their part to save the planet. Working closely with the former Vice President through a lengthy lecture tour, Duarte writers and designers customized the talk to speak uniquely to that studio audience. This required swapping regionally specific photos of climate disasters and mining statistics that made a global movement legible on a local level.
An appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show saw Mr. Gore present a tailored version of the presentation that met viewing audiences more attuned to pithy segments and quick Q&As. But this was far from the apex of the presentation’s reach.
The firm’s ongoing efforts inspired the production of An Inconvenient Truth, the feature-length documentary capturing the result of Duarte and Mr. Gore’s collaborative partnership. After touring the country and reaching vast television audiences, the film succinctly marries existential consequences for humanity with personal responsibility to cut emissions through effective data storytelling. Mr. Gore’s presentation harnessed an empathetic tone, sleek slide design, and sparse theatrics to drive home the staggering ramifications of inaction. An Inconvenient Truth won Best Documentary Feature Film at the 79th Academy Awards and remains a centerpiece of the former Vice President’s post-political career.
When it comes to conferences and tradeshows, Freeman excels at orchestrating everything from big picture takeaways to the smallest attendee experiences. With a pledge to “create moments that matter,” every event is a blank canvas to reassert client values and drive industries forward. After accruing decades of deep knowledge about the events space, it should be no surprise that Freeman possesses a wealth of insights on how to challenge stale norms and continue to innovate. And yet, they remain curious.
In the wake of Covid-19, in-person gatherings were forced to adapt. This restructured strategies and caused organizers to rethink waht it ment to meet audience needs. Alongside their award-winning industry work, Freeman began combining its legacy experience with ongoing surveys of attendees and participants to produce quarterly trends reports on the preferences reshaping the world of events. To keep pace with a fast-moving industry that’s often reluctant to change course, Freeman knew they needed a thought partner that understood the players, how to speak their language, and the necessity of presenting data that sparks action. To that end, Freeman and Duarte have enjoyed a fruitful collaboration producing timely thought leadership that continues to win accolades.
Every quarter, Duarte and Freeman take stock of the events industry and update its findings. These macro- and micro-level changes include:
Freeman’s XLNC Quarterly Event Attendee Trends reports guide readers to reorganize their contributions to where consumer needs are headed. To date, the reports generate Freeman’s largest web activity annually. Moreover, as high as 83% of downloads generate fresh marketing leads.
With rich, textured visuals that translate quickly to a live setting, Freeman found a data storytelling agency partner in Duarte to articulate its bold vision for fine-tuning the future of live events.
Speaking of live events, Duarte’s work for Cisco’s RSA conference plunged the depths of creativity to inform with data. Held on the heels of Cisco’s 2011 World Technology Report, the company tapped Duarte to help reimagine the more eye-watering statistics that appeared in its findings. To breathe life and urgency into the dangers of circumventing company IT policies, a key focus of the report, the Duarte Team felt they needed a multi-media concept.
Cisco’s report aimed to raise awareness around the financial and reputational stakes of lax IT oversight. Rather than let their findings exist in a vacuum, Duarte highlighted the report’s landmark takeaways with visual panache. Reaching for a video camera, the team used a mockumentary style and person-on-the-street interviews to humanize the data. And with the company’s annual RSA conference on the horizon, they had the perfect venue for a premiere.
With audience members rapt to attention, the video presented familiar tropes with a tongue-in-cheek humor that remained clear-eyed about the real-world stakes. Scripted scenes helped make each data point the centerpiece of a compelling on-screen interaction. Each brief, confessional-style exchange featured a fictional worker recounting a shortcut they’d taken that violated a common IT policy. The video’s diverse cast and conversational tone allowed viewers to see themselves and acknowledge temptations they face to evade IT best practices in their workflows.
To heighten the mood, each interview segment was juxtaposed with data points superimposed over the speaker’s silhouette, accompanied by tonal shifts in the music. The final product drove home how seemingly harmless behavior can make users and companies vulnerable to security breaches. To this end, Duarte’s efforts to stylize without diluting the threat level added appropriate levity for conference goers. However, the mock interviews painted a stark picture of the threats Cisco’s services aim to solve.
Presentations that inspire award-winning documentaries. Reports that drive change in a global industry. And short films that marry artistry and urgency. These are just some of the ways Duarte Design applies its agency data storytelling services to elevate global brands. Along the way, we’ve discovered numerous effective pathways to drive audiences of all sizes to embrace needed change. Remember, Duarte Academy is always available for curious learners to find their data storytelling sea legs. But sometimes the waters demand a practiced hand.
If your organization needs a data storytelling thought partner to make serious waves, why wait? Drop us a line.
There’s always time to learn how to fish. But in the meantime, let us help you land the big one.
For additional information, access to free resources, and expert insights to make better, data-backed recommendations, visit The Duarte Guide to Data Storytelling.
