Impact Communication and Data Storytelling
In January 2026, we worked with Klassik Stiftung Weimar in an interdisciplinary workshop to connect impact, data and strategic communication more closely. The process resulted in two concrete tools - a Data Storytelling Canvas and a Resonance Radar - to rethink the relationship between reporting, activities and strategic narrative.
The Challenge
Many institutions already have reports, key figures and data points. What is often more difficult is to turn these into communication that creates strategic clarity, makes priorities visible and tells impact in an understandable way. This was exactly the point of departure for our work with Klassik Stiftung Weimar. The challenge was to treat data not simply as reporting material, but as part of a broader process of orientation, meaning and institutional understanding.
Our Approach
Our approach was an interdisciplinary workshop setting bringing together colleagues from strategy and audience development. Together, we reviewed existing reporting structures, discussed international best-practice examples and sharpened the question of how impact communication can move beyond conventional reporting. Our focus was to understand data not in isolation, but in relation to strategic communication, institutional practice and resonance. A key aspect was the early phase of the customer journey: inspiration, interest and the first points of contact with an institution. This is often where communication either becomes memorable or fades away. For us, impact therefore had to be understood holistically - through the connection of research, audience development, communication and strategic direction.
The Solution
For Klassik Stiftung Weimar, we developed a Data Storytelling Canvas and a Resonance Radar. The Data Storytelling Canvas helped frame data points not as static information, but as material for strategic communication: What story do the data tell? Which images emerge from them? And how can these insights be connected back to the institution's day-to-day work? In this way, numbers became a starting point for narrative clarity and institutional reflection. The Resonance Radar was designed to examine activities more closely, organise them and frame them in terms of impact and communicative relevance. Both tools were deliberately tailored to the foundation. This reflects our way of working: not by applying standard solutions, but by developing instruments that make complexity manageable while remaining usable in the specific institutional context.
Impact & Transfer
The workshop was a showcase for our approach of bringing together audience development, impact analysis, data preparation and strategic communication. It shows that impact should not only be measured at the end of a process, but already begins with the way an institution communicates its goals, images and priorities. For us, the key insight was that data become powerful when they do not merely document, but provide orientation. The project therefore highlights one of our central strengths: developing tailored formats that do not separate research, strategy and communication, but connect them productively. The Data Storytelling Canvas and the Resonance Radar can thus also be understood as examples of our broader way of working.