For Cultures At Work founder Michael Henderson, connecting with people in person had never been the problem. When Michael spoke about culture, audiences listened.
His ability to explain complex human behaviour, leadership dynamics, and organisational culture in a way that felt insightful, relatable, and deeply human was what made him such a compelling consultant and speaker. But translating that same impact into an online environment proved far more difficult.
Like many service-based businesses, Cultures At Work faced a challenge that is hard to solve through traditional marketing alone.
How do you sell something people cannot physically see or touch?
Culture is intangible. It is not a product sitting on a shelf or a piece of technology you can demonstrate with specifications and features. For many organisations, “culture consulting” can feel abstract, vague, or difficult to define, even when they know culture matters enormously to business performance.
Brand IQ’s task was to help elevate lead generation through the Cultures At Work website by making Michael’s expertise feel tangible, memorable, and emotionally engaging online.
Early in the process, we identified that Michael himself was the key differentiator.
His background as a Cultural Anthropologist was genuinely unusual within the business world, and the way he explained culture already carried a natural storytelling quality. Rather than positioning him as another corporate consultant, we realised there was an opportunity to present him more like a documentary storyteller, someone helping audiences better understand the hidden behaviours and rituals shaping organisations.
Internally, we described the idea as positioning Michael as “the David Attenborough of culture.”
That concept became the creative foundation for the project.
Instead of producing a traditional corporate promotional video, we developed a documentary-style story designed to educate audiences about culture while simultaneously allowing them to connect more personally with Michael himself.
The setting became a crucial part of the storytelling.
To create a sense of timelessness, wisdom, and exploration, we filmed on a wild New Zealand beach rather than in a boardroom or office environment. The landscape helped remove the corporate stiffness often associated with consulting content and instead gave the story a more human and reflective tone.
The video opened with Michael driving his Land Rover across the sand, immediately placing viewers into a more cinematic and anthropological environment. The visual language subtly suggested exploration, observation, and discovery, themes deeply connected to Michael’s approach to understanding organisational culture.
The script itself drew heavily from classic storytelling structures, particularly what we referred to as the “campfire narrative,” the timeless dynamic of a storyteller holding the attention of an audience through insight, meaning, and shared understanding.
Rather than overwhelming viewers with theory or business jargon, Michael used simple visual analogies to explain culture in a tangible way. One particularly memorable moment involved him drawing an arrow in the sand to visually demonstrate how culture influences direction and behaviour. The simplicity of the image made a complex idea immediately understandable.
That balance between wisdom and accessibility became one of the strengths of the piece.
The final video was launched across the Cultures At Work website and social media channels, helping drive both engagement and brand awareness. More importantly, it transformed how people experienced Michael online. Instead of simply reading about his expertise, audiences could feel his presence, personality, and perspective in a much more immersive way.
The response was immediate and highly positive.
Within the first few weeks, the video generated record views and shares, particularly on LinkedIn, where audiences strongly connected with both the storytelling approach and Michael’s distinctive perspective on culture.
The project demonstrated that sometimes the most effective way to sell expertise is not to simplify it into marketing claims, but to tell a story that allows people to experience the thinking, personality, and philosophy behind the service itself.
