Musante Joins Co: as Content Lead, Shares His Thoughts

By Kiran Aditham 

Ty Montague and Rosemarie Ryan have added another creative to their Co Collective, namely Jason Musante, who joins as content lead. What does that title mean exactly? Well, according to a statement from Montague himself, content leads “have to be creative problem solvers first and foremost.” Musante’s role calls for him to address these problems “through innovation.” Very specific indeed.

Anyhow, Musante arrives from BBDO New York, where he served as digital creative director and led efforts for GE among others. Before BBDO, Musante had stints at Saatchi & Saatchi, KBS+P and McKinney. At the last shop, the creative led the Virgin Atlantic account but perhaps most notably was part of the team that developed the award-winning “Art of the Heist” campaign for Audi.

Perhaps feeling a bit chatty, the new Co content lead has also decided to whip up a little item called “Beyond the Buzz” for AgencySpy, which you can read after the jump.

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Humans are born transmedia storytellers. It’s our instinct to use all of the tools at our disposal to tell the stories we want, or need, to share.

As a baby, your story was most likely, “I’m hungry.”  So, you used the only tool at your disposal, your crying voice, to ask for food. You screamed out to tell that story to your parents so they’d feed you. And it was a very important story; it kept you alive. Imagine for a moment if your parents had been more interested in the electronic baby monitor that delivered the message instead of your cries of hunger?

Now, as storytellers for brands, we have more tools than ever at our disposal. Each day, a new technology, application or media is heralded as the future of the industry. However, we must resist the urge to allow these tools to become the story. Rather, we must use them to our advantage to tell more engaging ones.

One of my favorite stories told in the past year was Nike’s Chalkbot. It was the story of teamwork, hope in the face of cancer, and the idea that we’re all in this together. This story was elegantly brought to life through uplifting messages sent from the community sprayed on the ground.  But without the story behind the technology, the chalk-spraying machine would have been as soulless as the material it was made of.

And that’s why technology is so exciting right now. It’s not necessarily about Facebook or Twitter. It’s the fact that these technologies have advanced to the point that they have become a seamless part of our lives. The most exciting thing new mediums can do for us is remove the barriers between the consumer and the story. Not add new ones.

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