Leveraging your past – using history in the hunt for the authentic

Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make but about the stories you tell - Seth Godin, marketing expert

Timelines are an expressive and useful tool that illustrate change and continuity. They engage by enabling customers and clients to visually experience the why, how and when of a business or organisation's trajectory. (Source: <https://bit.ly/2OXEbzd>)

Touring the Past appreciates that the pressures of running a business necessitates the gaze of most owners and managers being firmly fixed on the horizon. In this vein of thought the past is regularly ignored or overlooked; deemed irrelevant or inconsequential.

We could not disagree more

In active and imaginative hands, the past can be an invaluable resource. The history of your business and organisation or its relationship to a place, such as a street, suburb or town, is a fertile field for meeting one of the key desires of the modern-day consumer: authenticity.

Mundane, utilitarian spaces can be enlivened through historical interpretation. (Source: Author's collection, Highland Markets, Mittagong)

Tell your story and engage with your area

Humans are inquisitive beings and the past has a compelling ability to stir interest, emotions and connections. So why are you not tapping into this?

This is about accentuating who you are as a complement to what you sell.

Whether you are a startup or centuries old, you have history set within the drama of Australia’s past. This past can be excavated, interpreted and made accessible to promote awareness and enrich customer experiences.

The historic environment offers a myriad of opportunities for engagement. (Source: <https://bit.ly/2Moboqu>)

Here is how we can help…

Through initial consultation, in which Touring the Past works with you to define your goals, we will deploy our considerable research skills to muster, interpret and communicate the history of your organisation and/or location. We do this at a cost you can afford with a dependable, agreed-upon timetable. Whatever the ‘arc’ of our research or the journey it takes us on, we will find ways to keep your story centre stage and co-exist with your values and goals.

Some of the forms in which our histories can be conveyed include:

• books or booklets;

• oral history projects;

• brochures and pamphlets;

• web or digital content;

• panels;

• vivid quotes;

• historic imagery;

• captioned photographs; and

• timelines.

These are either produced in-house or in coordination, on your behalf, with specialist printers, designers and web developers.

We invite you to see where your past will take you – we will produce content that resonates with your customer base and have a lasting impact.

Historic imagery, such as this 1913 map, provides a lasting impression on the 'mind's eye' and can aid in contextualisation of a business or organisation. (Source: <https://bit.ly/2w25y3V>)