Get to Know Vessel Media with Kina Pickett and Michael Heller

Jordan P. Kelley, Content Director, Brand Storytelling

Kina Pickett and Michael Heller come from different backgrounds - one from decades of content creation and experience both in front of and behind the camera and the other from the world of legal, bizdev, and facilitating opportunities for others to tell their stories. But at a Brand Storytelling event, they connected over a common pain point they both saw overtaking brands’ content initiatives - the intersection of content and brand strategy. They saw a landscape in which too many brands were rushing to keep up with what to put on the latest platform, how to capitalize on the latest viral trend, or pursuing the next most talked about thing, whatever that thing may be. Pickett and Heller bonded over the mutual observation that this practice, the chase to keep up with an impossibly fast-moving market, left many of the brands that tried it rootless and unmoored, without strong identity messaging and without real direction. So Heller and Pickett forged a bond and launched Vessel, a consultancy not distracted by the latest way to reach consumers but, rather, focused on a brand’s “who” and “why” first, with strategies to then turn the latest platform into one that works for brands in the long term.

In this conversation led by Brand Storytelling’s Rick Parkhill, Heller and Pickett discuss the importance of building strong strategic brand foundations, and how Vessel aims to make doing so a staple of their work with clients.

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