Find out what lands before you build it.

You already know your work matters. The hard part is explaining why in a way that reaches the people who need to hear it.

Organizations Scout Stories has made work for

How it works

Most of the money gets spent on the wrong story.

You’ve done messaging exercises. Maybe you’ve hired an agency. You still don’t know which version of your story your audience will actually respond to.

So the video gets made, it looks great, and it doesn’t move anybody. We start earlier than that.

THE ANGLE
Start here

We ask the questions that get past the obvious. The Angle runs on investigative journalism and behavioral science, so it starts with questions instead of a template.

Then we build digital twins of your audience and put your message in front of them. It works the way a focus group works, except we can run it in an afternoon instead of six weeks, and run it again after we change one line. You find out what lands before you spend a dollar on production.

You get The Angle Playbook: your audience archetypes, your core message in two sentences with the reasoning underneath, what the testing found, your three signature stories written out, and a one-page short version you can forward to anyone.

$3,500 flat, delivered in 3 weeks. Strategy only, and no filming at this stage.

THE ENGINE
Build it

Once we know what needs to land, we build it. Real shoots, real crews, built on what The Angle found. Documentary interviews, brand films, commercials, social cuts, cinematography, whatever the story needs to do its job.

You get the production plan, interview strategy, scripts or talking points, finished films, and the versions needed to put the work to use. Every decision comes back to the audience and the message.

You review, we refine. We don’t shoot a pile of footage and hope the story shows up later.

Every production is different. The scope and budget follow the story, not the other way around.

THE SIGNAL
Get it seen

A great story doesn’t matter if the right people never see it. The Signal figures out who needs to see it, where they’ll see it, and when it has the best chance to move them.

You get a rollout plan built around the moments that matter. Donors before a gala. A board before a vote. Employees before a change. Customers before a decision. Not more impressions. The right people, at the right time, with something they can actually do next.

Then we watch what happens: who watched, who engaged, and what they did next. We use what we learn to make the work smarter as it moves.

The plan can be focused or far-reaching. What matters is that the story gets where it needs to go and earns a response.

Where Life is Sweet
Mexico Beach Sweets · Commercial
Results

The story worked. Here’s the receipt.

$500K Goodwill of
North Georgia

Raised in one night, after we shifted the story from programs to the people they change.

45% Motherhood
Beyond Bars

Increase in giving once donors could see the impact after the story.

2 of 2 Two public
school systems

Closing and combining schools is the hardest news a district can deliver. We built the message that helped boards, teachers, families, and the community understand why. Both plans passed.

Why Scout

Built by people who’ve done this under pressure.

40+ EmmysAcross the founding team
3 national MurrowsTwo for Innovation, one for Hard News
10 laws changedReporting that moved federal and state lawIncluding the federal Fairness for Veterans Act (2016) and Georgia’s Mental Health Parity Act (2022).
What it costs and what it takes

Most video partnerships start around $25K.

Strategy, production and distribution together, with the final number shaped by scope. You’ll know the full cost before you commit, and it won’t change on you.

Your part is 2.5 hours across two calls. The research, the testing and the writing happen in between, and that’s on us. Send over any decks, bios or past press you want us to look at. That’s the whole ask.

The first step is $3,500. That’s The Angle. It buys strategy, and no filming happens at this stage. You get your audience, your core message and three signature stories you can use in a pitch, a fundraising letter, a board meeting or a keynote, whether or not you ever shoot a frame.

And if what we find says a video isn’t the right move, we’ll tell you. You’ll still have the strategy.

Start with the $3,500 step.

Fifteen minutes on the phone and we’ll tell you whether The Angle is the right first move, or whether it isn’t.

Let’s Talk
100 Years of Good
Goodwill of North Georgia · Campaign
One project, start to finish
Goodwill of North Georgia

No one gives to programs. They give to people.

The insight came first. The films were how it got delivered.

Goodwill of North Georgia needed to mark 100 years and raise serious money doing it. Most people knew them for donation centers, not for the workforce programs rebuilding lives every day.

THE CHALLENGE
Where they started

Workforce development doesn’t headline a gala. The risk was a forgettable night, polite applause, and a missed opportunity.

WHAT WE FOUND
The listening

The lens moved off the organization and onto the people it exists for. People like Shirley, on the cleaning crew at the Carter Center. Not a headline name, and the reason the work matters.

Because when you see the person, you understand the impact.

WHAT WE BUILT
The work

A storytelling system for before, during and after the night. Story profiles of real people in the programs. Day-in-the-life films showing the work in action. A recap film that carried the purpose of the evening.

Different formats, one job: make the mission impossible to ignore.

WHAT HAPPENED
The result

More than $500,000 raised in a single night.

Goodwill stopped being a donation center in people’s heads and became a workforce engine changing lives across North Georgia. And when the night ended, the story didn’t.

See more of our work

Partners, on the record

Don’t take our word for it.

MARTA

“Working with a transit agency means a lot of moving parts. Scout handled all of it. They were responsive when we needed them, easy to work with, and genuinely invested in getting it right. What they made isn’t generic. It feels like a love letter to the city we serve. We trusted them with our story and they earned it.”

Stephany Fisher Sr. Director of Communications, MARTA
Clarity Fitness

“We had never really been able to figure out how to explain exactly what it is that we do, how it’s different, and how to say it in a concise, clear, and professional way. Teaming up with Scout Stories helped us really figure out what is at the core of our why and our mission, and then break that down into concise, different pieces of content that we can reuse and replay as we continue to develop our business.”

Abbey Griffith Owner & Founder, Clarity Fitness
Sandy’s Journey
Motherhood Beyond Bars · Documentary
Questions

What people ask before they hire us.

What if the strategy says we shouldn’t make a video?

We’ll tell you. You’ll still have the strategy, and you can use the audience work, the core message and the 3 stories in a pitch, a fundraising letter, a board meeting or a keynote.

Do we have to do the strategy before the video?

Yes. We can’t build anything until we know who we’re building it for and what we want them to do. If you’ve already done some of this work, we can talk about what building it out looks like.

Why isn’t our messaging landing?

Most partners don’t have a content problem. They have a clarity problem. The right message is usually in there, buried under too many ideas, too much insider language, or what the organization wants to say instead of what the audience needs to hear.

We find the point, sharpen it, and make sure it holds when the room pushes back.

How much of my team’s time does this take?

2.5 hours across 2 calls, a 90 minute session and a 60 minute session. The research, the testing and the writing happen in between, and that’s on us.

Send over any decks, bios or past press you want us to look at. That’s the whole ask.

Do you work outside Atlanta?

Yes. We spent years traveling the country covering stories, and several of our partners are outside metro Atlanta.

Let’s find the story worth telling.

Tell us what’s not landing. We’ll tell you honestly whether we can help.

Let’s Talk
Let’s Talk 15 minutes · First step is $3,500

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