The Writers Take 16: A FAST Year in Review
How Bobby Wagner and the team at Herø brought graphic storytelling to Monday Night Football
When I started writing, no not writing the writer's take, writing writing, I did not believe it would ever take me to working with a future Hall of Fame Football player, let alone the Seattle Seahawks, the NFL and Monday Night Football. But here we are, writing, a writer's take, about writing I did that made it onto the biggest platform America has to offer. How did it happen? Why did it happen? And what comes next, that's what we are going to dive into today. In short, let’s dive into the intersection of passion and Cause Marketing.
Something that happens when you dive into Cause Marketing…
wait, let me backup for a moment. Cause Marketing is when you use traditional marketing tools and tactics to bring to life a movement, product, or foundation that revolves around a “cause” something that makes the world better. Pretty straightforward, but what a lot of people don’t realize is that Cause Marketing is not always everyone’s full time job. A lot of times, you find companies that take on a project, because they are really passionate about the cause, and they bring a different perspective to the initiative, something that is left of center to how the standard Cause Marketing works.
Ok, now that you know the basics, let's dive into some other key things to know. Causes always have a face, some are the faces of victims, but some are the faces of inspirational people who have been affected by the thing they are trying to educate on.
Why is all of this important?
Why am I telling you this? Because, when it comes to Cause Marketing, what you are doing is ingesting a ton of data points, and crafting it into a story, a narrative that can be used for the greater good. Starting to make sense? When writing stories, they don’t always have to be for games, or films, or books, (though we do love books here at the writer’s take), sometimes, they can be for missions.
Enter Virginia Mason Franciscan Health
the Seahawks and Bobby Wagner. Bobby had lost his mother to a stroke 15+ years ago, and didn’t know the signs at the time that could help her. Now, a legend, Super Bowl Champion and highly respected player in the National Football League, Bobby wanted to give back, to do something to create purpose around the tragic event. He challenged the Seahawks and the local hospital VMFH with the help of Playbook For Health to come up with something that would be fresh and different, that would be impactful, that would make waves and most importantly, something that would resonate.
Now enter Herø Projects, (a company that I founded in 2016 with Pete “Voodoo Bownz” Russo, Jonny Handler, & Morgan Rosenblum) who has helped bring graphic storytelling to the masses with collaborations with Shaggy, Live Nation, Floyd Mayweather and more by using traditional storytelling methods to distill the root meaning of a situation and package it into a beautiful and compelling tale. Elevating Bobby’s message through a medium that, in my opinion, brings the widest opportunity for adaptation has been nothing short of magical. See, when you make an adult feel like a kid again, you spark a level of joy and wonder that many adults lose as they age.
Graphic Storytelling as a medium, helps to tackle and knock down those barriers, bringing people of all ages together to experience something that will make them smile, laugh and most importantly learn.
This came together and we delivered something alongside Bobby that he could not just be proud of, but could use in helping to win ears and save lives. Our partners at Playbook For Health, and Bobby’s team, spearheaded by his manager Doug Sanders helped to elevate the foundation, through incredible media partnerships all culminating in a Monday Night Football interview where we brought FAST54 the graphic story to Lumen field for the interview.
Intertwining art, story, cause, and football into 1 unique expression that now has Bobby up for the Walter Payton Man of the Year award is the effort of a village who are all inspired by the singular force of nature that is Bobby.
All of this is just incredible, and with or without the Graphic storytelling piece Bobby would be on this stage, he is a consummate professional on and off the field, but what we were able to help create was rocket fuel, and that’s what is special about great Cause Marketing.
When you can bring something that is designed for other activations into a cause, it can compound the results in ways that are unexpected and inspired. That's what Herø is all about. But when you take premium storytellers who primarily publish their own works in tv, gaming, film and bound books, and saying,
Let's breathe some creativity into this cause, brings a new way to imagine while providing an asset that is double downed and not minimized.
When you bring sports, a cause, excellent storytelling and art together you get Monday Night Football. It’s a treat that as a writer of comics I would never have thought this possible and it's all thanks to the village that is behind one of the great men in modern day football.
All of this is to say, the biggest take away from this take, is that if you're passionate about what you do, you do it well, and you do it with great people, the possibilities are endless.
That's all for the year folks! Thanks so much for sticking with me across these 15 Writer’s Takes!
Read the 15 Writer’s Takes Here!
Next year we are going to dive into some awesome topics, such as a creative take on The Matrix, Foundation, Silo, Wednesday, The NEW DCU, along with creative treatments for
The Creator
Star Trek: Into The Darkness
Star Trek: Beyond
Buzz Lightyear
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3
Indiana Jones & The Dial Of Destiny
And more!
And lastly, we will dive into tips around topics such as,
When to let your heroes lose, and when to let them win.
Is your story unique enough? Probably not, and that's ok.
How to subvert expectations
Dare to write something.
Consume, A lot. The most INSIGHTFUL creators are the consumers.
Brainstorm ideas, a lot of ideas, and then walk away.
What happens after you create your story?
Enjoy your holidays, your new year, and stay inspired & keep writing, maybe one day your comic book will make it onto Monday Night Football!
Matthew Medney
Herø Projects, Gungnir, and other musings…
I wanted to take a moment during our intermission here to shamelessly and directly promote my two companies. Gungnir Entertainment, a genre-focused publishing company with best-selling titles from yours truly hitting shelves nationwide this Fall. With books focused on classic sci-fi ideas like “What does it mean to be human” and “is the bible right?” “Adventures throughout the stars” are just a few of the prompts for the books you can dive into with Gungnir. Gungnir’s website will launch this summer, and you can stay up to date on the forthcoming titles on my Instagram, @matthewmedney, or at my author page on Simon & Schuster.
And then there is Herø Projects. The Perennial leader in custom comics and animated services, Herø is a state-of-the-art creative studio that has worked with talents such as Floyd Mayweather, Shaggy, Nghtmre, and brands such as Remi Martin, Live Nation, and Rolling Loud. If Branding through storytelling isn’t your thing you can check out our original titles, the Onyx line with books such as Stable, Remnant, and Best Selling Comic The Red. To learn more about Herø Projects visit us at heroprojects.io