Is Finisterre the leading storytelling brand of the moment?

We speak to CMO Bronwen Foster-Butler to find out their StoryTelling secrets

There are some brands who are storytellers through every element of their being, and Finisterre is one of them. From the stories it tells about the seasons and the elements that we find so alluring as cold water surfers and swimmers, to the story of its community, to the wild swims the team embark on that communicate its unique culture, the list is endless.

So it’s no surprise that Finisterre’s CMO, Bronwen Foster-Butler, is a natural storyteller too, and has so much respect for its importance in marketing and the success of the business overall.

This is the second of our live Story Session interviews with storytellers of all guises, and for this one we highly recommend you grab a pen and paper, because there’s so many nuggets in here for building impactful brands and communications, you’re going to want to take notes.

Bronwen has been at some of the world’s foremost storytelling brands, from Burberry, to LuluLemon (at the height of its success as a community focused brand), to the market-disrupting Pangaia, and now to Finisterre. The latter has forced storytelling to be central to their strategy. As a brand with smaller budgets they’ve had to make them work twice as hard, and to be smart both in how they engage their own community to advocate for them, but also how they reach the fringes of communities that they touch, without losing their relevance.

We talk in the interview about how hard it can be to convince the more commercially focused leaders of businesses to believe in the power of storytelling (and ultimately, dedicate budget to it). Bronwen is lucky to have a founder who is passionate about their power (she believes in the arm hair test, will it give me goose bumps); but has also learned how to connect data with storytelling to demonstrate its impact to the CFO and his team.

This is an in depth conversation about the success the brand has achieved and how, but some of the highlights include:

• The importance of honing your story to its essential parts

• What it means to build a brand with true soul

• Telling stories for your muse (and how it applies to audiences)

• The impact of international expansion on storytelling

• Partnerships as a route to storytelling to new communities

• Retail as a hub for storytelling & expression

• A move away from super polished storytelling, and being fit for purpose

We loved this interview, not least because it’s a brand so close to our own hearts (we are outdoor swimmers, surfers) but also because we think Bronwen and the team are incredibly talented. This is a brand trying to forge its own path with story, not purely focused on commercial growth, but growing in a way that feels true to its roots; and that (sadly) feels incredibly rare in the performance focused world we find ourselves in.

For the full footage, check out our SubStack piece here

—————————

If you want to attend future live interview events, remember to sign up to our newsletter: