Why Every Agency Needs a Dungeon Master
Let me start with a single truth: if your creative team can’t describe a character’s backstory in vivid detail, they probably can’t describe a brand’s either.
I recently stumbled into a late-night rabbit hole of Dungeons & Dragons livestreams. It began as background noise. Harmless nerd fodder. Then something clicked. These Dungeon Masters weren’t just rolling dice and doing voices — they were worldbuilders, storytellers, tacticians and improv comedians squeezing narrative juice from the tiniest character trait. Sound familiar?
We talk endlessly about storytelling in marketing, yet half the work out there feels soulless. Strategy decks full of personas that might as well be ghosts. Ads that define tone of voice but forget to give the brand something to say. A good Dungeon Master starts with a single spark (a character's fear of seagulls, say) and builds a whole world from it. Good agencies should too.
So hire the nerds. Or at least, ask yourself if your next campaign could survive three rounds of combat with a gelatinous cube. If not, maybe it needs better worldbuilding.
I recently stumbled into a late-night rabbit hole of Dungeons & Dragons livestreams. It began as background noise. Harmless nerd fodder. Then something clicked. These Dungeon Masters weren’t just rolling dice and doing voices — they were worldbuilders, storytellers, tacticians and improv comedians squeezing narrative juice from the tiniest character trait. Sound familiar?
We talk endlessly about storytelling in marketing, yet half the work out there feels soulless. Strategy decks full of personas that might as well be ghosts. Ads that define tone of voice but forget to give the brand something to say. A good Dungeon Master starts with a single spark (a character's fear of seagulls, say) and builds a whole world from it. Good agencies should too.
So hire the nerds. Or at least, ask yourself if your next campaign could survive three rounds of combat with a gelatinous cube. If not, maybe it needs better worldbuilding.