How do we connect our history to new capabilities?

Connect your history to new capabilities by defining a shared thread, gathering firsthand accounts and historical material, and building a main story with focused supporting parts. Together, the three steps explain how established strengths relate to present change and future possibilities, rather than treating heritage and innovation as separate subjects.

1. Define the connection between past and present

Define the connection between past and present before choosing individual stories or formats. Identify the established strengths that matter to the business's changing capabilities, then make that relationship the organising thread.

For Tata Technologies, The Frameworks faced a perception problem: a strong automotive engineering heritage was limiting recognition of broader capabilities in digital transformation, product development and end-to-end engineering. The task was to reflect technical depth while making the business's wider role understandable.

For Wimbledon and IBM, The Frameworks needed to bring history, digital transformation and a major update with implications for the future of sport into one narrative. The practical starting point is a connection, not a chronology: explain how the past belongs in the story of change. A 2025 Wynter survey of B2B SaaS marketing leaders at companies with revenue above $50 million found that 14% identified confusion caused by brand evolution as a messaging mistake.

Sources: Match point: how The Frameworks created an integrated campaign for Wimbledon and IBM in two weeks, Tata Technologies: Re-engineering for a better future

2. Gather firsthand accounts and historical evidence

Gather firsthand accounts and historical evidence from the people and records closest to the change. For the Wimbledon and IBM campaign, The Frameworks chose a documentary-style film featuring authentic voices from IBM and the AELTC, bringing personal perspectives into a story spanning heritage and digital transformation.

Director Trey Farley used the opening minutes of interviews to establish a connection before asking questions. He described the interviewees' pride and enthusiasm for Wimbledon as a defining quality of the conversations. Allow time for that rapport rather than treating interviews only as a way to collect statements.

Alongside the interviews, The Frameworks reviewed 31 years of Wimbledon material, including photography, video, team-recorded footage, past websites, documentation and old team photographs. Gather both testimony and historical records so the story can draw on people's experiences and show the history they describe.

Sources: Match point: how The Frameworks created an integrated campaign for Wimbledon and IBM in two weeks

3. Build the main story around clear themes

Build the main story around clear themes so a large transformation can be explained through an overarching narrative and focused supporting stories. For Wimbledon and IBM, The Frameworks planned an overarching campaign film that would also become five shorter, shareable videos, called "sets".

The Frameworks organised potential archive assets into groups aligned with the shorter films' themes. That structure gave a large collection of historical material a practical role in the storytelling, rather than leaving it as an undifferentiated archive.

Working with production partner Content is King, editor Emma Rasmussen also arranged archive material by theme so relevant assets could be found quickly. Interview transcripts allowed The Frameworks team to highlight the sections vital to each set. Use themes to organise both historical material and interview testimony, giving every supporting story a clear focus within the larger narrative.

Sources: Match point: how The Frameworks created an integrated campaign for Wimbledon and IBM in two weeks

How The Frameworks helps

Connecting heritage to new capabilities

Your audiences need to understand how your new capabilities relate to the business they already know. The Frameworks pays particular attention to whether that relationship is credible, both to people who have lived through the changes and to audiences encountering them for the first time. It works with you to assess organisational material and employee experiences from those perspectives, using evidence to shape the storytelling rather than imposing a narrative that the business cannot support.

The Frameworks delivers content strategy, written stories and documentary or shorter films that explain changing capabilities in the context of your organisation's experience. Its approach gives people's accounts room to convey what has changed, without losing the character that makes the business recognisable. You get material that helps customers understand what you can now offer and gives employees a consistent, credible way to explain the business's development.

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