The Forever Story

When TalkTalk asked us to help raise awareness of it’s affiliated charity - Treehouse, the charity that helps children with Autism; we created the Forever Story.

It is a new way to raise money for a charity – it invites people to create something fun and rewarding, and helps the charity at the same time. Using Talk Talk’s area of expertise, mobile and broadband technology, the Forever Story gets people to join in, in the writing of a story that will hopefully go on forever. And in so doing, do no-end of good for autistic children – children who find it hard to join in. 

Everyone can become an author, simply by going online, listening to the story and then continuing it by writing their own 30 or so words at the end. Every contribution to the story generates a one pound donation to Treehouse. 

We asked famous writers like Nick Hornby, Robert Harris, Richard Curtis and Tom Stoppard to write sections, and this has helped launch the idea and attract thousands of would-be-writers. 

Once people have added to the story, they have then found themselves sending it on to their friends, and adding it to their Facebook pages and blogs. Then, those friends have also found themselves wanting to co-author a story with the likes of Nick Hornby, and wrote their own contributions. We also produced podcasts, in which the most interesting developments in the story were discussed by famous presenters. 

All of this has made the Forever Story grow exponentially. 

The fun and interactive nature of this unique piece of literature resulted in over 8,000 co-authors in the first two months of going live, making it already the longest multi-authored story ever written. (Getting into the Guinness book of records has been another attraction to joining in.) 

It has featured in a multitude of blogs, facebook profiles and news articles, attracting whole new audiences. 

The overall result has been to create huge amounts of awareness and money for Treehouse. And an engagement with Talk Talk and it’s mobile and broadband services at the same time. 

All of which, will hopefully keep going….forever.