Narrative Marketing Initiative
Share your impact. Tell your story.
Business & Arts NL is proud to launch our Narrative Marketing Initiative, a year-long program designed to help artists and arts organizations confidently communicate the value of their work.
Marketing can feel intimidating, but artists are already natural storytellers. This initiative builds on that strength, combining authentic storytelling with the tools and strategies needed to share impact and connect with audiences, funders, and communities in powerful ways.
Initiative de Marketing Narratif
Partagez votre impact. Faites vivre votre histoire.
Business & Arts NL est heureux de présenter son initiative de marketing narratif, un programme d’une durée d’un an destiné à accompagner les artistes et les organisations artistiques dans l’art de communiquer, avec clarté et confiance, la valeur de leur travail.
Le marketing peut sembler complexe, mais les artistes sont avant tout des raconteurs et raconteuses naturels. Cette initiative s’appuie sur cette force, en alliant authenticité du récit et stratégies concrètes de communication, afin de vous donner les outils nécessaires pour mettre en lumière votre impact, renforcer vos liens avec le public, susciter l’intérêt des bailleurs et bailleuses de fonds et approfondir votre ancrage dans la communauté.
Why Narrative Marketing?
Data and metrics matter, but numbers alone don’t inspire. When paired with storytelling, they reveal the real impact of the arts, how they transform lives, strengthen communities, and drive creativity and innovation.
This initiative will help you:
Tell your story with confidence
Connect metrics to meaning
Engage audiences and supporters authentically
Strengthen your case for funding, partnerships, and visibility
Kickoff Forum: Narrative Marketing Live Event
Date: October 9, 2025
Location: Alt Hotel, St. John’s
Time: 9:00AM-12:00PM
Join us for a half-day forum designed to ignite your narrative thinking and strengthen your storytelling skills.
This live event will feature a keynote from Dave Sullivan and a panel discussion with leading arts voices including Jenn Brown, Ife Alaba and Christine Hennebury. Together, we’ll explore how storytelling can shape culture, build community, and move organizations forward.
Participants will leave with actionable takeaways they can apply right away in their organizations or personal practice.
Travel funding is available for this event. Email lynn@businessandartsnl.com for more information.
Key Themes:
What is narrative marketing?
How to cut through the noise and gain stakeholder support
Using the tools you have to tell better stories
Storytelling as a strategy for engagement, decision-making, and fundraising
Get Tickets
Ife Alaba
Founder/CEO, Occupy All Spaces
Ife Alaba is a dynamic professional in the entertainment and film industry, based in St. John’s, Newfoundland. With a multicultural upbringing spanning Nigeria and South Africa, Ife brings a rich, global perspective to her work. She has made significant contributions to both local and network productions, showcasing a keen eye for talent and a commitment to crafting authentic, inclusive stories.
As a journalist for CBC NL, Ife hosts programs such as Being Black in NL and Stuffed, providing insightful coverage that enriches the narratives of her community. Her journalistic work complements her dedication to amplifying diverse voices in the arts. In addition, as the Founder and Director of Occupy All Spaces, a nonprofit organization, she passionately advocates for equal opportunities for Black creatives in Newfoundland and Labrador.
In the music scene, Ife is an eight-time Music NL nominee, further demonstrating her versatility as an artist and creative force. She is also the producer of the Black Creatives Short Film Bootcamp, which resulted in the creation of the short film Faeries, guiding emerging filmmakers in bringing underrepresented stories to life.
Ife Alaba’s trailblazing contributions to film, journalism, and music reflect her passion for fostering talent, empowering marginalized communities, and creating platforms for meaningful, inclusive narratives.
Jenn Brown, Executive Director, St. John's International Women's Film Festival
Jenn Brown is a respected leader in the arts with 20 years of experience driving sustainable growth in the not-for-profit cultural sector. In 2025, Atlantic Business Magazine recognized her as one of Atlantic Canada’s 25 Most Powerful Women in Business. In 2024, Jenn was nationally recognized by Business / Arts as one of 25 leaders shaping Canada’s next wave of artistic development, and honoured with the Circle of Distinction – Equity at Work Award by YWCA St. John’s. As Executive Director of Canada’s longest- running women’s film festival, she has played a pivotal role in transforming it into a thriving platform for underrepresented voices. Under her leadership, the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival has received the inaugural Premier’s Medal for the Arts, the Boundary Pusher Award from the St. John’s Board of Trade, and was named by USA Today as one of the top ten film festivals worth traveling to.
Christine Hennebury, Storyteller, Creativity Coach and Consultant
Christine Hennebury is a multi-disciplinary artist who likes to play with words and ideas and to inspire others to do the same. In her 30 years of experience as a storyteller, writer, creativity coach, and workshop leader, she has guided hundreds of individuals in a myriad of fields to explore innovative ways to develop new ideas and to energize their work.
Through her workshops, presentations, coaching, and consultations, Christine has created a variety of methods to prompt idea generation, exploration thinking, and connection-building to engage preschoolers, teenagers, business leaders, and senior citizens - and everyone in between.
Christine is the founder and chair of the Association for the Arts in Mount Pearl, the past president of Storytellers of Canada-Conteurs du Canada, and the past president of the St. John’s Storytelling Festival. In 2020, she was the proud recipient of the City of Mount Pearl’s Impact in Music, Arts, and Culture Award.
Dave Sullivan is a marketing specialist/writer from St. John’s, NL. Sullivan has been working inadvertising/marketing for over 15 years and — among other roles — has served as Associate Creative Director of Arrivals + Departures in Halifax, NS, as well as Creative Group Head at Target Marketing and Communications here in St. John’s. Sullivan’s creative work has been featured in publications such as Applied Arts Magazine, Lürzer’s Archive, as well as Communication Arts – and has been the recipient of dozens of advertising awards both nationally and internationally.
Most recently, Sullivan paired up with Mary Walsh to co-create, write, and star in the comedy series The Missus Downstairs which recently aired its fourth and final season on Bell FibeTV.
Currently he works as a Marketing Specialist at Nasdaq.
Dave Sullivan (He/Him), Marketing Specialist/Writer
Kickoff Forum: Narrative Marketing Live Event October 9, 2025
Date: October 9, 2025
Time: 9:00AM–12:00PM
Location: Alt Hotel, St. John’s
Join us for a half-day forum designed to ignite your narrative thinking and strengthen your storytelling skills.
This live event will feature a keynote from Dave Sullivan and a panel discussion with leading arts voices including Jenn Brown, Ife Alaba and Christine Hennebury. Together, we’ll explore how storytelling can shape culture, build community, and move organizations forward.
Participants will leave with actionable takeaways they can apply right away in their organizations or personal practice.
Date: October 9, 2025
Time: 9:00AM–12:00PM
Location: Alt Hotel, St. John’s
Join us for a half-day forum designed to ignite your narrative thinking and strengthen your storytelling skills.
This live event will feature a keynote from Dave Sullivan and a panel discussion with leading arts voices including Jenn Brown, Ife Alaba and Christine Hennebury. Together, we’ll explore how storytelling can shape culture, build community, and move organizations forward.
Participants will leave with actionable takeaways they can apply right away in their organizations or personal practice.
