As a content provider – I think I must spend at least thirty percent of my life creating content for clients – I have become pretty good at using content as a digital marketing tool. There are so many ways to tell stories these days and it doesn’t have to be only via prose.

In fact, when my client at iPass wanted to convey how fast wi-fi is growing around the world, we knew we wanted to do it in a dynamic, exciting way. I believe the actual idea came from Kewal Varia – one of the best PR people I have ever worked with – who imagines this active infographic changing with time (and data).

I was responsible for taking the idea and turning it into something tangible. I called on the talented folks at WebEnertia (full disclosure, I’ve often teamed with them on web projects focusing on the front end content architecture). They immediately had ideas about how to bring the project to life.

The result: The Global Wi-Fi Growth Map showcasing how wi-fi is changing around the world in the next few years.

The map proved to be an incredibly valuable PR tool giving us an opportunity for many meetings to discuss the growth of wi-fi (which is tied to the value prop for iPass) and the design and implementation won a Gold Addy Award for WebEnertia.

The moral is: push your data and don’t be afraid to visualize your story for visitors. It doesn’t always have to be told with words. This map is likely to be a useful tool for iPass for the next few years.