Reinventing the Wire
In 1978, a small news and pictures agency was founded in Bristol providing news and pictures to local and national press.
Almost 40 years on, SWNS is the biggest independent news wire in the UK supplying some of the world’s most hard-hitting content to major newspapers, magazines, broadcasters and websites employing more than 100 editorial staff across offices in London, Plymouth, Cambridge, Birmingham, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Yorkshire.
The commercial success built on the back of SWNS’s growth is evidenced by the wealth of coverage secured for our clients on a day-to-day basis. Using the first campaign as a case in point, Harris Brushes were able to secure coverage in the Daily Mail, the Daily Express and the Mirror, among others, because national and regional press trust our content and trust that we can supply them with material that works across all their platforms.
But the digital generation has shaken up the media industry. Our research revealed 76 per cent of people now consume media ‘digitally’ and almost one in ten consume more than 16 stories a day, with the average Brit consuming 5.9 media stories a day.
Our thirst for media and our ability to digest various forms of media - 95 per cent of respondents said they consume media on multiple platforms 48 per cent take a multi-channel approach to media - has given birth to a wealth of new digital platforms that aren’t easily serviced by the traditional news wire.
Which is why we reinvented it.
Bloggers, vloggers, digital editors and influencers can now source content on our new digital news wire that caters exclusively for online publications. The emphasis is on rich, visual content and news releases that encourage social sharing, with news copy, images, audio and video bundled into one downloadable file.
The wire has been launched as a one-stop-shop for editors on the hourly hunt for news, with a simple, four-click solution to capturing the story and publishing it. This ensures that we appeal to time-poor bloggers, editors and influencers by delivering content in a timely manner.
Since its launch, hundreds of users have registered with the Digital Hub for survey news, lifestyle content and releases from across the web and social media. With a target to get that number into the thousands in the near future, the hub is steadily becoming the go-to place for digital media outlets.
For 72Point clients, that means that not only do they have a pick of the national press, but also of the increasingly influential online publications that have surfaced in its wake. With the lion’s share of media consumers taking a ‘multi’ approach to media, having all the bases covered is a surefire means of receiving unparalleled coverage.
To find out more about the Digital Hub, click here.
To download our Generation Editor report, click here.
Generation Editor: a report by 72Point
The marriage of social media and mobile technology has opened the door to round-the-clock media in our lives. According to Crowdtap research, individuals aged 18 spend an average of 17.8 hours a day with different types of media, often simultaneously handling multiple media types. But does that indicate a deluge, or an evolution?
Our report, Generation Editor, has revealed we have adapted to the 24/7, immersive media environment by developing editorial controls and filters. Consumers have become agents in the media cycle, choosing who to follow based on the content they’re most keen on receiving and becoming more powerful as a result.
Our survey of 7,500 UK adults shows that the perception that consumers can’t cope with a wealth of content needs to be challenged.
Some 56 per cent of people say they don’t feel bombarded by content or messaging and more than a third (36 per cent) say they feel more in control of the news they receive since owning a smartphone or tablet with only 11 per cent saying they feel less in control. Seven in ten say social media has made it easier to access news, with more than four in five 18-24 year-olds and three-quarters of female respondents saying they feel social media has brought them closer to the media.
The study, based on the responses of 7,500 people, shows that the perception that consumers can’t cope with a wealth of content needs to be challenged. Using avenues such as social media, we have greater control over who our media ‘suppliers’ are. Almost a quarter of people say they have friends or follow people who they regard as authorities for news and almost one in five (19 per cent) say they trust their friends to source news. A quarter still rely on media professionals, but a similar amount (23 per cent) say they rely on a mixture of both journalists and friends.
This is a shift we have termed Citizen Editorship, a movement predicated on choice and preference. Media consumers now demand the liberty of choosing which platform or channel they consume media on. A massive 95 per cent of respondents said they consume media on multiple devices and almost half (48 per cent) take a multi-channel approach to media. On social media, we only wait 22.3 days before unfollowing or unfriending a news source we no longer find useful.
For media professionals, infiltrating these editorial controls means delivering flexible, relevant content that transcends channels and platforms. With social media an increasingly important part of the media mix, it is essential that a variety of media is delivered in order to reach intended audiences.
Multi-Platform Content (MPC) is a must in this current climate, which is why it is at the heart of everything we do at 72Point.
Marketing to the Millennial Mum
Mothers, we've all got one, unless you’re a marmorkreb. Facebook has just reminded me that it is my Mum’s birthday today, triggering the annual panic-order of flowers which is well on its way to becoming a tradition.
Still, between the ‘terrible son’ guilt and the ‘these daffodils are a bit pricey’ remorse I was reminded of this report from Hill+Knowlton on the growing influence of the Mummy blogger.
If you've just opened that link and heaved a sigh at the 11 pages in front of you, fear not, here’s the TL;DR (too long; didn't read) version:
- Mums are responsible for 70% of household spending
- ‘The Mummy Pound’ accounts for $20 trillion of consumer spending worldwide
- 23% of Mummy bloggers think that “a lot of marketing by brands that target Mums is not relevant or ineffective’
- 93% want to work with brands but only 13% believe agencies understand how to approach and work with Mummy bloggers
The Mummy bloggers have earned the trust and respect of their audience, but only a small percentage of brands have cracked how to take advantage of this. How do you effectively market to Millennial Mums?
The first thing to consider is that the modern mother is very different to my dear old Mum, patiently awaiting her belated bouquet of daffs. 75% of new Mums are Millennials, making for a hellish Venn diagram-intersection of tough demographics to approach. Essentially, the tried and tested rules of marketing to Generation X are becoming less effective with every passing year.
And it’s all social media’s fault.
You’re a Millennial Mum. On social media, all your friends are having a better time than you. They’re prettier, wealthier and better-dressed. Their selfies are flawless, they've got 20k followers on Instagram and their latest blog was entertaining yet informative.
Worse still, brands are pushing products on you from their Facebook pages like you’re a confident, well-established Gen X baby boomer. These guys took on the world and won with their entrepreneurial spirit. Meanwhile you were nurtured, educated and set on the world with fragile dreams only to be flattened by the grim reality that ‘not everyone gets a trophy’.
It all comes together to create an ideal perception of motherhood that is unrealistic for the Millennial Mum.
This calls for a more understanding mode of marketing. In a world where new Mums are straining under mounting social and economic pressure, brands that provide an escape are more appealing than those perpetuating the Gen X ideal.
59% of Millennial Mums favoured advertising with a more realistic edge, showing real-life situations using real Mums, while 57% looked for humour in the ads. If you are in the business of marketing to mums then shaping your campaigns around these characteristics could be the key to the Millennial Mum market.
And if you’re approaching Mummy bloggers with your content be sure to do your research first. 71% hear from up to 20 different brands a week yet 80% of the pitches they receive end up going unused. Spend some time exploring each blog, check out their social media channels and consider how you could collaborate with the blogger in the future. All the extra effort will be worth it when your content is posted by a prominent Mummy blogger, perfectly tailored to suit the Millennial Mum audience.
The Joy of Print
Having spent my entire career working in digital media, it may seem like a counterintuitive move to eulogise the great tactile thrill I get from thumbing through my favourite print journal - each new page the ultimate soul-cleansing elixir.
But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my now scarily close to 40 years on this planet, it’s that whatever I’m saying, doing and thinking, there’s someone else in the world going through exactly the same experience – perspectives on print’s function and importance are beginning to converge.
Scratching around for any advantage to being ancient, I can remember the birth of content marketing programmes, when print programmes were being hastily transitioned to ‘all media’ equivalents with a view to binning print altogether.
Though video, visual and bitesize social content has since thrived and become an essential mainstay of any marketing mix, print has miraculously survived, much in the format I hoped it would.
Limited run, custom-bound, meticulously crafted and curated magazines are all around us, ranging from cultural beacons like Oh Comely to hybrid travel and fashion mags like Suitcase and Cereal, via the literary darkness of The Alarmist and Australia’s greatest ever export, Dumbo Feather.
As ever, a large factor in this particular pleasure is the chase, with coquettish glimpses of new titles catapulted into my social feeds on a daily basis – Avaunt being the latest, a beautifully-shot bible for global adventurers.
The key difference between then and now for print publishers is innovation – magazines are being marketed and distributed in ways only the social age could facilitate. This is a true marriage of analogue and digital – and it’s exciting.
Take Stack, for example, the subscription service that handpicks the best independent magazines from around the world relevant to your interests and delivers them to your door, but trains its marketing crosshairs on social, digital and radio.
Also consider Airbnb’s initial foray into print, Pineapple, which has been used by the brand to unite its community with an elegance the social web can’t compete with. Hosts and travellers collaborate on stories that form the magazine’s editorial spine, creating an axis of expedition and anthropology that digital publishing would struggle to articulate.
With big names in youth publishing like Hypetrak getting their print on, not to mention Tyler, the Creator and Frank Ocean releasing print magazines alongside their latest albums, I’m beginning to wonder whether print could actually outlive websites?
With social content hosting and custom print in the ascendency, traditional websites have never looked more clunky and anachronistic.
Video content is having its day in the sun.
Video is the media type of the moment. Five years ago your average online news article would consist of text and images, but pay a visit to the Mail Online today, the world’s leading online newspaper, and you will see we have moved on considerably from then.
It is a response to our insatiable appetite for video content. Apps like Meerkat and Periscope are bringing us the ability to broadcast our lives, er, live, to the voyeuristic joy of intrigued strangers. Vine, Snapchat and Instagram give us bitesize video updates from our friends, while most smartphones and tablets are capable of streaming HD video, meaning there’s rarely a reason not to give a video a click.
And what better way to digest information. At the heart of any content marketing strategy is a key message that the content seeks to deliver to its audience, and the right video is more effective at delivering this message than any text or image-based medium. We are lazy beasts after all, and being fed our information through a video stream is much easier than having to deduce our own meaning from pesky words.
For brands, the future of marketing to an online audience will be video-based. Flexible, sharable and engaging, the power of video hasn’t gone unnoticed by Twitter. Their new Promoted Video service (aka native video) has been in beta testing since August 2014 and promises a fast, slick way to promote your video content on the social network.
Previously, promoting video on Twitter required a link to an external site where the video was hosted, such as Youtube or Vimeo, eating into your precious 140 characters and requiring an additional click or tap from the viewer. In an age of shortening attention spans and information overload, an extra click can mean the difference between a solid engagement or a more nebulous ‘impression’. With native video your content is hosted directly within your Twitter newsfeed and is available to be viewed by your audience with a single click/tap.
What is most appealing about this from a digital marketer’s perspective is the analytics this will offer. The new video analytics will be featured within Twitter Ads (alongside the usual metrics and measurements) and will track views, video percentage completion and other data breakdowns. This keeps your entire Twitter campaign all in one place without having to delve into analytics from an external site. This allows for deeper insight and easier reporting, which will help to clearly demonstrate the value of producing video content.
Lessons in Storytelling: Aesop, Samuel Johnson and Prehistoric Life
Storytelling isn’t new – as a form of communication, it’s existed for over 40,000 years.
It’s been a durable format, fulfilling its purpose from rock painting to hoop dancing, mythology to fables - all the way to the printing press and our current marriage of mobile tech and social media.
However, the core principles of telling a good story haven’t changed in all this time, and it’s worth raiding this 40,000 year legacy to see what we can learn from the best and boldest storytelling practitioners
Here are three such examples, with my thoughts on how to apply these creative lessons from history to modern news generation, branded content and publishing strategies.
Cave paintings
Cave paintings date from prehistoric times – the oldest examples, found in Indonesia and Australia, were created over 35,000 years ago.
Though they may have religious or ceremonial connotations, the primary purpose of these paintings were to communicate news, warnings and stories of heroism to the next group of settlers in the area.
In spite of being distributed disparately throughout Europe, Asia and Australasia, most cave paintings are remarkably similar and share characteristics such as drawings of animals, depictions of weather patterns and the use of human handprints.
Cave paintings weren’t always located at the mouth of the cave – they were sometimes found in less accessible locations were only the initiated would know where to find them.
What brand storytellers can learn from prehistoric culture:
Universal truths and commonalities will resonate – young vs old, heroic deeds, the weather, health warnings….certain story angles will always get people talking and sharing. Any story that creatively incorporates these angles will attract more readers, greater shares, higher ad revenues and most importantly, the approval of journalists and editors.
Only stories worth telling are worth sharing – impact stories were written in the caves, there was no chit-chat or filler! If you’re three paragraphs into your story and starting to run out of steam, then it’s probably not worth telling. Consider handing it over to a journalist instead, who could help to provide that newsworthy edge.
Identify your audience then locate them – stories were left in caves for future generations, while tailored stories were painted only in areas where specific people (perhaps the young and agile, or the strongest) were likely to go exploring and find them. Before telling your story, think about who you’re talking to, where they are and which of their behaviours you’re trying to affect – then shape and distribute the story to meet these criteria.
Aesop
Aesop was an ancient Greek fabulist and storyteller - a body of work attributed to him is famously collected as Aesop’s Fables.
His existence has been questioned as none of his work survives, but numerous tales credited to him have been gathered across the centuries in a storytelling tradition that continues to this day.
The fables, morality tales that originate from the 5th century BC, have enduring qualities such as relatable characters (often animals with human characteristics) and universal, everyday dilemmas that still form the backbone of many modern movies/novels.
They also provided us with numerous maxims, such as ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ (The Fox and the Lion), ‘one person’s meat is another’s poison’ (The Ass and the Grasshopper) and ‘slow and steady wins the race’ (The Hare and the Tortoise).
Lessons we can learn from Aesop:
Relatable characters endure – find archetypes, case studies and relatable majorities (65% of Brits prefer ketchup to brown sauce) that mirror your target audience and your stories will be shared in greater volume and travel further.
Great stories outlive their sell-by date – uncover a story with a major hook or unearth a new, universal truth that a crowd can agree with, and your story will outlive its shelf-life and earn you more residual coverage.
The joy of the substantiated myth – Aesop may or may not have existed, but tales of his existence were substantiated by some fairly heavyweight sources – not least Aristotle and Herodotus. When creating your story, give some thought to who will endorse it by word-of-mouth in offices, shops, buses and over the garden fence – then shape the story to their taste and publish it in a place they’ll find it
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson – the most distinguished man of letters in British history – was the poet, essayist and moralist whose nine years of research gave us the inaugural English dictionary in 1755.
Though a sufferer of what would now be diagnosed as Tourette’s Syndrome, Johnson, a powerful orator, critic and quick-witted raconteur, attracted many pretenders to his throne.
Each week, Johnson and his entourage would meet at gentleman’s clubs to participate in what was essentially the earliest form of a rap battle, where a crowd would watch fellow academics go anecdote-for-anecdote with Johnson and try to outdo his stories for flair, originality and wit.
However, with payoffs such as ‘a man who’s tired of London is tired of life’ and ‘love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise’, Johnson always retained his crown us the ultimate literary end-of-level boss.
How we incorporate Johnson into our comms strategy:
Wit wins – there’s no two ways about it, the ability to make someone laugh is a powerful tool. Add a little humour to someone’s day with your story and you take a significant step towards engaging them with the brand associated with the story.
Original stories travel – with a proliferation of stories published daily, your angle needs to be unique – uncovering a new trend/behaviour or simply putting a new spin on a familiar tale will give your story cut through against the daily noise.
Great storytellers draw a crowd – Johnson drew a crowd based on reputation alone – tell consistently entertaining stories to the right audience in the right location and they will begin to proactively seek you out in the news.
Advertising Isn't Dead
In marketing and PR circles you are constantly hearing prophesies of the demise of one or the other. Advertising is dead! PR is finished! It’s a little like Monty Python’s renowned parrot scene:
“I wish to complain about this parrot what I purchased not half an hour ago from this very boutique.”
“Oh yes, the, uh, the Norwegian Blue...What's, uh...What's wrong with it?”
“I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. 'E's dead, that's what's wrong with it!”
“No, no, 'e's uh,...he's resting.”
“Look, matey, I know a dead parrot when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now.”
“No no he's not dead, he's, he's restin'! Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, idn'it, ay? Beautiful plumage!
The debate over whether advertising is dead and PR is set to take over is one I recently presented to delegates at the PR360 summit. Although I disagree that advertising is done – predictions are that ad spend in the UK will reach £20 billion this year – I do believe that it has had to adapt to digital, whereas PR has found it to be more of a natural fit.
Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide, said at the IoD’s Annual Convention back in 2012 that in today’s crazy world strategy is dead, the big idea is dead and management is also dead. But that doesn’t mean marketing is dead. It just means marketing as we know it is dead.
Traditionally the ad world was obsessed with paid and owned, maximising media opportunities and activity on brand-owned channels. It gave co-creation and influencer outreach short shrift - or anything outside of the sanctity of the brand – and has thus fallen out of touch with the conversational, interactive nature of digital media that has been significantly influenced by social.
But that doesn’t mean marketing is dead. It just means marketing as we know it is dead.
That means explicit sales messages seldom work, there's no one-size-fits-all solution and provenance and the brand's values have become massively important, making PR a natural fit. Through its reliance on media relations and making connections with journalists, PR has organically recruited skills that met the need of outreach to bloggers, vloggers and influencers, and it owns this area as a result. But ad land is playing catch-up and is catching up fast.
So here’s the big idea.
It would be remiss of PR firms to rest on our laurels and not to learn from the evolution advertising is currently undergoing. We have to take note of what is happening across the pond and learn, else risk seeing the tables turn. PR is winning the race, but advertising is playing catch up. In a digital world, we have to be constantly adapting in order to survive.
If Facebook hosts news, I'm hiring...
Humans are inherently lazy - and product managers are aware of this.
The swiping motion with which we command our phone screens reduces us to the basest of motor skills we learn virtually at birth, while voice commands have superseded even the remote control as our preferred way to interact with entertainment systems in the home.
I mean, why would I read a whole IKEA instruction manual when I can just watch a video instead? (Just kidding - I don't shop at IKEA).
Facebook, never one to miss a trick where the user experience is concerned, is in talks with media groups about hosting news content within the social network, enabling users to consume entire stories without tapping out to external hosts.
While such an alliance presents obvious gains for Facebook and publishers alike, most of which concern economics and reach, it also throws up plenty of positives for content suppliers and the humble reader too.
As a supplier of branded news, I can see demand for our content growing in-line with audience expectations on the channel and the increased needs of the news outlets we provide to – so more video, more visuals, more copy and more stories in general to meet increased publisher outputs. Happy times.
Additionally, and I may be getting a little ahead of myself here, if Facebook were to pull a Vice and launch a standalone Facebook News sub-brand, then it gives me yet another outlet to sell stories in to and potentially partner with - plus they really don’t come bigger in terms of audience size and segmentation.
Back to the user experience and it’s still good news.
Facebook hosting will make shaping content for social consumption mandatory for publishers, ensuring all outputs are visual, digestible, shareable and mobile – marry this to the convenience of consuming content from multiple outlets in a single space (while also doing all of your social housekeeping) and we could easily save 10-15 minutes a day on our reading time.
Finally, and this is of benefit to reader, platform and content supplier alike, Facebook hosting will lead to deeper engagement and all-round satisfaction – longer reads, greater dwell times, more sharing, increased content performance, happier authors and happier clients.
And for those who fear Facebook dominance, there will always be an alternative – there always is.
Just think of this Facebook/publisher partnership as being one of several labour-saving devices delivered over the years, enabling us to open our ever-expanding daily procrastination window to more cat gifs such as this one and Tinder freaks (I don’t use Tinder).
Sledgens and Legends: The 2015 Cricket World Cup in Tweets
At the risk of sounding like a bitter Englishman, the 2015 Cricket World Cup has been a bit of a laborious affair. Ever since that fateful day in Adelaide when England failed to overcome Bangladesh (BANGLADESH!) to reach the knock-out stages I have been huffing and puffing about the long-winded nature (irony of ironies for a cricket fan) of a tournament that has served only to draw attention to the gulf in class that divides India, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand from the rest of the world.
But despite there being a distinct lack of momentous games, there has been no shortage of momentous moments. New Zealand’s Daniel Vettori defied the laws of physics with a spectacular one-handed catch at the boundary this weekend, Windies all-rounder Chris Gayle mirrored Sachin Tendulkar with a double century, Pakistan's Wahab Riaz bowled a mesmerising innings against the Aussies and Martin Guptill’s 237 runs from 163 balls are just a few of many moments that match the gravitas of a World Cup.
And this year Twitter has been there to capture all the action after signing an agreement with the ICC to launch a host of innovative and interactive features. The move, which sets a precedent for future tournaments, positioned the social media platform as a central hub for match commentary, expert analysis and fan insight, transcending geographical and time limits to make the cup a truly ‘world’ affair with fans at the heart of the action.
In true cricketing fashion the Twittersphere responded with admiration and tactical intimidation in equal measure. Old rivalries re-born, fierce competition re-lived and passions personified as the highs and lows of The Imperial Game were played out across Australasia, all of which made great fodder for social media channels.
Here’s a review of how the Sledgend and the Ledgend lit up this year’s tournament on social media.
The Sledge
Australia (gotta love ‘em) initiated the sledging (a form of verbal intimidating) with a campaign by an online bookmaker advertising two cricket balls with the slogan: “Missing, Pair of Balls – if found please return to the English cricket team.” The ad ran before the home nation’s game against England in Melbourne and immediately became a social media success with the hashtag #MissingBalls trending in a matter of hours.
Our Digital Hub team picked up the social media movement and were quick to publicise. The first sledge of the tournament was soon up on the Telegraph, the Mirror and various other online titles who published the story as a good-natured exchange of banter.
But it doesn’t always work out so well. A club cricket final in New Zealand has recently made national headlines after it was abandoned due to one team refusing to play on, citing "bullying" from their opponents as the reason for pulling stumps. As the national team prepare for a feisty encounter with South Africa tomorrow could we see a repeat of the feisty 2011 World Cup quarter-final, or will the intimidating exchanges be left for the Twitterati to administer?
The Ledge
One thing we are sure to see as the semi-finals commence is a good dose of admiration for World Cup legends. The one day format differs from test cricket in that it propels individual performances into the limelight more than the team as a whole, a trait which is conducive to the 140 character limit on Twitter.
This year’s semi-finalists demonstrate this well. Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc is at the centre of social media hype in the run-up to their clash with India who have every chance of upsetting the host nation in their own backyard if the likes of MS Dhoni, Mohammad Shami and Ajinkya Rahane can repeat their heroic performances. And if New Zealand batsman Martin Guptill can #Guptill South Africa tomorrow he will become a social media saint overnight.
With three of the best games of the tournament yet to come, prepare to see a frenzy of social media activity kick off as the sledgend meets the legend.
The 2015 Media Consumption Report: Prepare for MPC
If the minefield that is contemporary media has taught us anything it is that a ‘multi’ approach is the next big evolution for the PR industry with arguably more sticking power than any media shift in the past.
Not only do media consumption habits transcend channels (print, broadcast, online), they also transcend platform (smartphone, tablet, desktop) and the way in which we interact with media has changed irreversibly as a result.
To understand how the digital landscape has impacted media consumption 72Point has commissioned a survey of 7,500 people in the UK exploring what types of content the modern media consumer is likely to read, watch, share and like on which platform(s). The report, due for release in March, looks in detail at how to prepare for the challenges and opportunities presented by multi-platform content (MPC).
Media Platforms and Channels
Generation ‘Multi’ is about capturing large audiences with campaigns that transcend platform and channel, but this offers opportunities and challenges in equal measure. We look at what channels and platforms people are consuming media on and how this impacts the way in which they consume media.
Mainstream media confronts digital
The migration of mainstream media from print and broadcast formats to online platforms has revolutionised the media landscape, but pertinently, it has reformed the way in which mainstream publishers convey news. We look at how.
The rise of Specialist Publications
In the digital age everybody carries a digital news stand in their pocket. Their interests dictate what they read from a seemingly endless bank of media titles which eschew ‘mainstream’ objectives of catering to a wide audience in favour of specialisation. We look at what sort of specialist publications are popular.
Social Media: Traffic and Consumption
Not only has social media altered the way in which media conveys news, it has also altered the way in which people find news, creating a more consumer-led news industry that harks back to the rise of specialist publications discussed in the previous chapter. Some of our results have been published in an article on PRWeek.
In the report, we also discuss the rise of ‘lists, gifs, pictures and posts’ in media and how mainstream media has adopted a social media-led approach and new sites have been born from it.
Organic and Sponsored Posts
Finally we discuss our attitudes towards sponsored posts vs organic posts.
The full report will be published and available to download from this site.