Meet London resident Jonno Turner – who for the last decade has been working with some of the biggest brands on the planet, including Twitter, BBC and Red Bull, to deliver compelling and engaging social storytelling.
Turner, who has lived with his partner in Balham, SW12 for the past two years –moved to London in 2013 and has gathered unique experience working internationally at the intersection of sport and sustainability – even leading communications on the Swedish ‘Stockholm Åre 2026’ Olympic bid recently, a bold proposal to deliver the greenest Olympic Games of all time.
We caught up with Turner to chat all things London, and find out some highlights in a career that recently saw him named in the ‘30 under 30’ of British sport in 2019, and also selected by the Clio Awards as one of just 25 creatives to watch globally.
You’ve been living in London for almost eight years – what’s your favourite thing about the city, and what’s your favourite spot?
I love London because anything goes. I really believe it’s the best city in the world, and despite travelling a lot for work, I can’t wait to get back. In terms of favourites, tough to pick – I love the hustle and bustle of Soho just as much as a weekend stroll in Chelsea. I’ve always lived south of the river but would love to explore north – Hampstead, Belsize Park, Primrose Hill – a bit more as I’ve heard it’s great.
What’s the most important thing for brands looking to enhance their social storytelling?
I think authenticity is everything on social. Brands that are honest and relatable are generally the ones that get the wins. I think today audiences expect far more from their favourite brands – aside from purpose – that is, using their (often huge) platforms for good, it’s about building and harnessing communities, and telling great authentic stories, with more behind-the-scenes access. Now, more than ever, we see that the true value of content isn’t in how it looks, but how it makes you feel.
Which accounts or channels do you think do a really good job of social storytelling?
In terms of US sport, I’m a big fan of Bleacher Report – the way they use visuals to tell stories is really creative, especially considering that they don’t necessarily have the broadcast rights that some of their rivals do. In the UK, and specifically London, BT Sport have delivered some outstanding social content over the last couple of years – especially the behind-the-scenes longer cuts of massive football and boxing matches. You really feel the value of being access-all-areas. As a rights holder, shout out to World Surf League who have a really progressive approach in terms of digital and the thing that I really love about their content is that they’re a challenger sport, but they really pull through their unique identity and surf culture into the storytelling, from the imagery, to the tone of voice and even sonically.
You previously worked at Twitter in London. What was the biggest thing you learned during that experience on the inside of one of the world’s most important platforms?
Working at Twitter to help deliver the storytelling around the 2016 Olympics was a really memorable moment for me. I grew up as a huge fan of the platform and it’s played a big part in my life – I got my first paid media job through Twitter, I’ve met a lot of friends through the platform and then I even ended up working there! I think that one of the most interesting things about being part of the flagship Moments team at Twitter as a trained journalist was that it really sharpened up my short-form storytelling ability – and made me think much more about how to build out a rounded narrative using different sources, from authority sources, to media and especially the crowd (or as we’d now call it, user-generated content).