What Does “Narratent” Mean?
There is a story behind every brand name, including our agency. When introduced to Narratent for the first time, many people – clients, partners, employees, friends, family – often question the origin of this seemingly strange word. Well, here is the back story to our agency’s name.
“What does that mean?”
Reading has always been a way for me to keep sharp. So when I started my first professional job at Comcast, it was a no-brainer to research everything I could find about the company’s start. This led me to pick up a copy of An Incredible Dream, a book that details the life of Comcast founder Ralph Roberts and the origins of the company. Other than learning about how humble and sincere of a spirit Ralph was, I also discovered in those pages that Comcast was named by combining the words communication and broadcast.
Later on, as Allen and I were brainstorming on names for our agency, I recalled this detail from the book. Knowing that we wanted to avoid the cliche of using our own names or a generic word from the dictionary, it made perfect sense to follow a similar approach.
We created a bank of words to ponder on, in particular words that were relatable to marketing. Eventually, I texted Allen with a suggestion – “I got it! How about we go with ‘Narratent’?” In true Allen fashion, he responded, “Sounds good, bro. But what does that mean?”
Narrative + Content = Narratent
Marketing is finding a reason for people to care. Marketing is an art and science of storytelling. Marketing is crafting a narrative. Essentially that form narrative has to choose a form to live through or content. Simple as it may be, this was the inspiration for our agency name. We believe that without the proper narrative and content to stand on, marketing is a hard, if not impossible, mission to achieve. That's what we stand on.
When Brian Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast, was seeking validation from his father, Ralph Roberts, to commission a book about his life, Ralph’s rebutted with, “who would care enough to read it?”. I remember reading this and thinking to myself, “Uh…I do, sir!” Even as a new college hire, I felt strongly about having such a resource. Now, having named my own company as a nod to his, I feel even stronger and more appreciative that Mr. Roberts was kind enough to share the details of his story with the world.