Decision-makers don't read 200-page policy reports. They watch video. We turn your most important research findings into strategic video narratives that actually reach the people who need to act on them.
Practitioners fromBrennan Center for Justice·Law Enforcement Leaders·18+ Years in Production · 1B+ Views
The Problem
Great Research. No Audience.
Your team spent 18 months on this report. The launch got 200 downloads and two LinkedIn shares. Meanwhile, a less rigorous organization's video on the same topic got picked up by three major outlets and cited in Congressional testimony.
It's not a research quality problem. It's a narrative translation problem — and almost no one in your sector has solved it.
The sector is pulling back from public engagement. A nationally representative survey by Independent Sector found that nonprofit advocacy and public research release has declined sharply over the last two decades — at exactly the moment when video content and social platforms are becoming the primary way policy debates are shaped. The organizations that learn to translate research into narrative now will have an outsized advantage.
or less — the typical window for a congressional meeting, per the Congressional Management Foundation. Frequently interrupted. Your research needs to make its case fast.
63%
of people say they'd most like to learn about something by watching a short video — more than text articles, infographics, and webinars combined, per Wyzowl's 2024 State of Video Marketing survey
According to Independent Sector's 2023 national survey, 74% of nonprofits have never released research publicly — up from 31% in 2000. The organizations doing the best policy work are increasingly the ones nobody hears from.
Required First Step
Every Partnership Begins With the Narrative Audit.
Every successful partnership begins with a shared understanding of the problem. The Narrative Audit is our required first step for all new clients — and the most direct way to find out whether we're the right fit.
Required First Step
The Narrative Audit
A 2-hour paid deep-dive session with you and your team
$2,500
Fully credited if you continue within 30 days
In two hours, we work directly with you and your team to dissect your most critical piece of research. We identify the core emotional argument, define the narrative, and map out a clear path forward. No extensive prep required — just bring your research and the people who understand it best.
What You Walk Away With
01
The Story-at-a-Glance BriefA one-page strategic blueprint for turning your complex data into a compelling public narrative. The core emotional argument, the narrative spine, and the path forward — all on a single page your entire team can use.
02
Clarity on Your Core NarrativeMost organizations have the right research but the wrong story. After the session, you'll know exactly what argument your research is making — and how to make it land with the audiences who need to act on it.
03
A Clear Path ForwardWhether you continue with us or not, you leave with a concrete strategic direction — including a clear recommended next step if you want to take the work further.
No-risk entry point. If you move forward with the Influence System within 30 days, 100% of the $2,500 Audit fee is credited to your first quarterly payment. It is the logical first step to installing a true system for influence.
A paid deep-dive where we dissect your most critical piece of research, identify the core emotional argument, and deliver your Story-at-a-Glance brief.
2-hour working session with your team
Core emotional argument identified
Story-at-a-Glance brief delivered
Influence System
$25K
Per quarter · ongoing retainer
Ongoing video content strategy and production. We become your embedded narrative team — producing, distributing, and iterating every quarter.
Monthly video content production
Distribution strategy & execution
Quarterly narrative reviews
Performance reporting
Storytelling Workshop
$3K–5K
Half-day or full-day session
Train your internal team to think in narrative. Build the skills to brief video producers, write for video audiences, and recognize what makes research shareable.
Research-to-narrative frameworks
On-camera confidence training
Live scripting exercises
Up to 12 participants
Our Method
What Happens in the 2-Hour Session
Two hours. No fluff. Everything is designed to answer one question: what is the most important story inside your research, and how do we make decision-makers feel it?
01
Research Dissection (First 30 min)
We go deep on your most critical piece of research together. What does it actually prove? What does it disprove? Where is the finding that, if the right people understood it, would change behavior? We find the signal inside the complexity.
02
Emotional Argument Identification (30–60 min)
Data moves policy when it makes people feel something first. We identify the core emotional argument your research is making — the human truth underneath the statistics — and build the narrative frame around it.
03
Narrative Mapping (60–90 min)
We define the narrative structure: the opening hook, the evidence spine, and the call to action for each audience segment. This is the architecture that will drive every piece of video content we produce together.
04
Story-at-a-Glance Brief (Delivered after)
Following the session, we deliver your one-page strategic blueprint. Every key decision from the session, distilled to a single page your team can use immediately — whether you continue with us or take it elsewhere.
Our Work
Research Into Narrative — In Practice.
Law Enforcement Leaders spent a decade building research-backed arguments for criminal justice reform — police chiefs, prosecutors, sheriffs, and corrections officials making the case that you can reduce crime and incarceration at the same time. Here's how we told that story, and why it worked.
Produced for Law Enforcement Leaders — featuring police chiefs, prosecutors, sheriffs, and corrections officials from across the country
Law Enforcement Leaders had a decade of research and real-world results — but the argument needed a human face. This video takes complex criminal justice data and turns it into a story told by the people whose credibility makes it land: the police chiefs, prosecutors, and corrections officials who lived it.
The Policy Context
A Decade of Reform Work, Told in One Film
Law Enforcement Leaders spent ten years working across courts, corrections, policing, and prosecution to advance criminal justice reform — including the First Step Act. This video was produced to document and communicate that work: what they built, why it mattered, and what comes next.
Practitioner Background
Brennan Center for Justice
Video & media production for one of the country's leading democracy and justice policy organizations
Law Enforcement Leaders
Strategic video content for a national network of police chiefs and prosecutors advocating for criminal justice reform
Live & Recorded Production
10+ years across policy briefings, advocacy campaigns, podcasts, and live streaming
WNET / Public Media
Production for one of the country's leading public broadcasting organizations — editorial-quality, mission-driven storytelling
PEN America
Video work for the leading nonprofit defending free expression and literary culture in the United States
We're taking on a small number of founding clients to build our first case studies. If your organization is working on important research that isn't reaching the people who need to act on it, we'd like to talk.
This Is For You If
Is the Narrative Audit Right for Your Organization?
You're a Communications Director or VP at an advocacy org, think tank, or policy-focused nonprofit
Your organization produces research and reports but struggles to get decision-makers to engage with the findings
You have a $500K–$50M operating budget and need to show impact from your communications spend
You know video is important but don't have a clear strategy for how to use it for policy influence
You have a specific report, campaign, or policy moment coming up that you need to win
This Is Not For You If
Who We Can't Help
You're looking for basic video production without strategic framing — we're not a production house, we're a narrative strategy firm
Your organization doesn't have research or data — our work is built on evidence, not on creating impressions from nothing
You need a finished video delivered within a week — the Audit is a 2-hour session, and production planning follows from there
You're not willing to have direct conversations about why your current communications aren't working
NIS
Narrative Influence Studio
18+ Years in Production
Video Production · Live Streaming · Narrative Strategy
Why Us
We've Sat in Both Chairs.
We built this practice from the inside of advocacy organizations. We've been the video producer watching a brilliant researcher struggle to explain why their work matters in under two minutes. We've seen the communications that fail to translate data into a story — and we've built the practice of fixing that.
Our background spans 18+ years of production experience across broadcast television, social video, and policy media — including work for the Brennan Center for Justice, Law Enforcement Leaders, WNET, and PEN America. Our social video content has generated over a billion views. We brought that production depth into the advocacy sector, and that combination is rare.
10+
Years across broadcast, social video, and policy media production
1B+
Views on social video content — we know what makes people watch, share, and act
FAQ
Questions Before Getting Started
The Narrative Audit gives you a Story-at-a-Glance brief you can execute at whatever budget you have. We'll tell you exactly what to prioritize if you have $5K to spend and what the roadmap looks like if you have $50K. The brief is designed to be useful regardless of production scale — and it's yours to keep whether or not you continue with us.
Absolutely. The Narrative Audit produces a Story-at-a-Glance brief that any competent video production team can execute. Many of our clients use us for the narrative strategy and their existing vendor for production. We can also review and direct your vendor's work against the strategy we've developed.
Most communications consultants work in press releases, op-eds, and messaging frameworks. We work specifically at the intersection of research, narrative, and video production. We understand what makes a research finding shareable on LinkedIn versus what makes it worth a 10-minute documentary treatment. That specialization is hard to find in a general-purpose comms consultant.
We're designed for organizations with $500K–$50M in operating budgets — large enough to have a dedicated communications function and serious research output. This typically means mid-size to large advocacy organizations, think tanks, policy-focused nonprofits, and foundations with communications programs.
Many Audit clients move into the Influence System ($25K/quarter), where we execute the strategy we've built together. If you decide to continue within 30 days, the full $2,500 Audit fee is credited to your first quarterly payment. There's no obligation — the Story-at-a-Glance brief is yours to take anywhere. If you prefer to work with your own team or another vendor, everything is fully documented and transferable.
We have limited capacity and typically take on 2–3 new Audit clients per month. If you're working toward a specific policy moment, campaign launch, or legislative window, let us know in your intake and we'll confirm whether we can accommodate your timeline.
For Advocacy Organizations & Think Tanks
Your Research Deserves to Be Understood.
The Narrative Audit is a 2-hour working session where we dissect your most critical research, identify the core emotional argument, and hand you a one-page Story-at-a-Glance brief. Book a 20-minute discovery call first — no pitch, just a conversation to make sure we're the right fit before we begin.
