Studio Kakapo

Strategic communications

for a livable future

Studio Kakapo helps solutions-focused people and projects achieve faster, bigger impact through strategic communication and storytelling.

We help you get your story straight, engage key audiences, and weave story-as-strategy into your solution project.

Why work with us

  • We turn story theory, audience insights and your project’s special sauce into actionable narrative strategies that get results, and we help you get set up to measure your story impact over time.

  • We clarify your target audiences and integrate insights from neurobiology, behavioral science, psychology, UX design and community organizing to maximize narrative impact.

  • We bring a nuanced understanding of diverse topics—climate, biodiversity, oceans, forests, materials, waste, inequality, democracy, local economies, more.

    We’re on top of the latest science, and we’re versed the ins and outs of impact finance, too.

  • We deliver on time, on budget, true to scope and at the highest level. We like to have a good time along the way, and we do our best to make sure you do, too.

Tory Read, Founder & Principal

  • “In an era of information overload, Tory Read's work breaks through the noise to reach the audience.”

    Janis Alcorn, Garfield Foundation

  • "Tory listened deeply, asked great questions and provided insightful feedback through the lens of a potential investor/donor partner."

    Keoni Lee, Hawaii Investment Ready

  • "I needed someone who understood our target audiences and could work skillfully across six nations, in often demanding conditions. Tory Read exceeded our expectations."

    Maurice Knight, USAID

  • "We wanted to know, are we telling our story well? It's all about visual storytelling now, and Tory brought a savvy, bang-on perspective."

    Erika Gregory, CEO Collective Invention

  • "The stories that Indonesian forest activists crafted in Tory's strategic communications workshop helped them win new child labor protections in Indonesian palm oil."

    Lafcadio Cortesi, Rainforest Action Network

How we work

We work on both a retainer and project basis, depending on your needs.

Our collaboration starts with a conversation to explore your story priorities.

A monthly retainer arrangement works best for people and projects that want creative ideas, editorial feedback and/or story guidance on an ongoing basis.

A project arrangement works best for time-limited engagements that result in specific one-time deliverables.

For a project engagement, we’ll discuss your overall objectives, starting place, timeline, resources and available budget, and then Studio Kakapo will deliver a custom proposal to use as the basis for further refinement .

Possibilities

Landscape Scan

Narrative Frames & Messages

Target Audience Insights

Company Story

Founder Story

Website Narrative

The Pitch

Newsletter

Issue Brief

Video Script

Speeches & OpEds

Report Editing

Story & Influence Training

Communications Coaching

System Change Story Strategy

Communications Audit

Narrative Impact Metrics

and more

Prior clients