How To Reach a News Editor's Desk In 2021
By News Generation Directors Emma Elsworthy and Gemma Francis
In the daily battle for attention that PRs face, many crucial client stories or campaigns can end up never even being seen by the news editors so pivotal to their success. Over the past 15 months, we’ve seen the news agenda go from difficult to downright virtually impossible to contend with.
However, there are some really easy steps to follow to increase the chances of cutting through the noise and getting that all important features editor to take note of your campaign. So, in no particular order:
Smack them in the face with visual assets
Strong visual assets are essential these days and will go a long way to grabbing attention and carrying something into publication. So, if you have strong images / video then put them at the top of your email / message - do not bury them at the bottom and certainly not in an attachment.
All hacks are a sucker for a pun
This is a universal truth, even if they wouldn't dare use a cheap pun in their lofty publication. It will grab their attention, might make them chuckle, and will give them an idea of how to frame / headline the piece. Remember that a good top line with clever wordplay is very often enough to carry a weak story over the line. Make sure your story is as visible as possible in the first two or three lines of copy and include something that will stand out in the subject line of your email.
Put a face to a story
A story that starts 'Man/woman tells how ..." will always beat a story that starts "Company tells how ..." People just love reading about other people and can relate to it. So, if you can 'humanise' your story with an actual person or case study it stands a much better chance.
Drop the branding
We don’t mean altogether, but certainly don’t have branding, logos, and name checks in the first few pars of copy – as that’ll be a turn off straight away. Tell your story first, and then drop your branding in a little lower down – we usually say line five or six, as by that point, editors genuinely want to know where the good story came from.
Don't underestimate the trivial
If something seemingly innocuous sparks a heated debate / banter in the office (or over group chat) then it is probably the starting point of a story. Sometimes a story is simply a talking point, nothing more. And if it can be tied to your brand, then all the better. The most basic example of this is - 'Making a cup of tea - milk or teabag in first?'. Trivial, but always gets people talking.
Go direct if you can
Contrary to popular belief, many journalists are very polite and will respond to a direct approach; it makes them feel special and they are more likely to respond. Whereas if the journo can see they are one of 50 email addresses or a BCC, it's easy to ignore. A personal email which says "Hi, I notice your website / agency / publication does lots of stories on X so I thought this one would work really well for you" is much more likely to get a response.
Use social media
Press releases aren’t the only way to reach publications - most journalists spend their entire working day on social media, and in particular Twitter ... so reach them where they hang out. In addition, all journalists will follow others in their field on social media. If you can't grab the attention of the Consumer Editor of the Sun, you can be guaranteed they will be following the Twitter accounts of all sorts of specialist reporters on smaller publications. So, target the smaller publications and wait for the bigger ones to pick up the story. Or start off in a local paper - it will eventually find its way up the journalistic food chain if it's good enough.
Know your news
It pays to keep abreast of the current news agenda, read the papers, surf the sites, and understand what people are talking about right now. Not only does this help in brainstorms to ensure your ideas are topical and relevant, but it also helps to ensure you are a pitching a story in a timely fashion – and avoid trying to land a story about dream holidays on the day the government announces the traffic light list or restrictions.
We’ve faced one of the most challenging news agendas ever over the past year and it’s often left our industry with the question; do brands still have a story to tell when the nationals are covering such hard-hitting content? The answer is a resounding yes. There will always be room for light-hearted, engaging creative content that provides some tonic and lifts the public’s spirits. And we have the numbers to back it up. Throughout lockdown, we knuckled down and doubled the amount of coverage we secured for our clients. Over the past two months, we have broken our coverage records twice. We have an innate understanding of how the news desks operate and continue to deliver cut-through for our clients.
Get in touch for more information.
Banksy blunder - The benefit of hindsight
It’s not quite as bad as being the man who failed to sign the Beatles but sometimes, as I crawl to work through Bristol traffic on a dismal Monday morning, it feels that way.
In the late 90s, I began to notice funny and subversive graffiti emerging around the city. A rat here, a clown there, a thought-provoking stencilled slogan amid a scrabble of tags.
One particularly striking image appeared overnight on the side of a pub next to our old office on Hotwells Road opposite the SS Great Britain. It was of a screaming clown with Kiss-style eye make-up, toting two pistols. For some unaccountable reason it cheered me up every time I saw it.
While talking one day with a pal who owned a skateboard store off Park Street, I learned that the artist responsible was known as Banksy. I filed the information away and continued to enjoy his work as it cropped up throughout Bristol, experiencing a kind of old school ‘I Spy’ thrill every time I found one.
Fast forward to 2000, and the announcement that Banksy was making the move towards the more traditional medium of canvas, and marking this with an exhibition at the Severnshed restaurant. I went along. Although many of the paintings bore red ‘sold’ stickers (prices were in the high hundreds, rather than today’s astronomical figures) the event itself, it seemed to me, was sparsely attended.
I met and chatted with Banksy’s then manager Robert Birse, in the course of which I was invited to visit the man’s studio, which I jumped at.
If memory serves, the near-derelict space was tucked away in Bedminster. I’d persuaded my news editor that there was something very interesting going on here, although the Banksy phenomenon was still a long way off.
During the course of the visit, I enthused as was shown various canvasses, including one particularly strong image – an elephant with a missile strapped to its back, against a vivid pink background.
“The frame on that one is slightly off,” said Robert. “If you hold it up you’ll see it’s a bit skew-iff.”
It was. It meant it wouldn’t hang completely flat. “Still amazing though,” I replied.
Robert thought for a moment and then said: “Well, you could have that one for a reduced rate, if you like.”
“So … how much?”
“Say £300?”
Now, at the time I was a pretty hard-up reporter with three children to support and another on the way. Three hundred quid bought a lot of nappies and Wet Wipes. But still …
“Yes,” I said. “But is it OK if I give you a cheque for £100 now and pay the rest over the next couple of months?”
He agreed, and I loaded the piece into the back of my battered Peugeot 205.
Back at the office, I phoned my wife and – having spent the journey back planning the best way of pitching the purchase (investment/it’s beautiful/it’ll cover that dodgy bit of plastering in the front room) – recounted the tale.
An ominous silence. A reaaaalllllllly long, ominous silence. Then: “You know we can’t afford it, so I don’t even know why you’d consider this. It’ll have to go back. And you need to get the bloke to tear up the cheque before he banks it.”
The channel for negotiation had clanged shut. I muttered something about a loan, or perhaps borrowing some money from a parent or a mate, but we were already overdrawn to the hilt, and this was met with a dangerous snort.
So back it went.
I’ve tried to “take a positive” from this over the years, but I can’t. I experience a pang – actually it’s more of a stab – every time I read about a Banksy selling at auction, or something like the wonderful Dismaland opening its rusty doors to the public.
If there’s anything I learned from my own very personal Banksygate it’s this. If you love a piece of art for what you believe it to be – something you love – then buy it, if you reasonably can. Absurd as it sounds now, I genuinely didn’t have the spending power at the time, but I guess I could have rustled up the cash somehow.
The other thing I take comfort and joy from is that I can still see and enjoy Banksys every day, in the streets here in Bristol. He even painted a commemorative flower over the trigger-happy clown on Hotwells Road, which always raises a smile. I see them every day, and they’re free.
Social Media Content: It's a dog's life
Working at a press agency means I’m constantly surrounded by creative, passionate people in an office buzzing with ideas. Every morning my colleagues scour the news pages and sites to see if their stories made. Hours are spent every week brainstorming ideas for clients and writing witty, compelling copy. They deliberate headlines, by-lines and always push themselves creatively. In a competitive market, they are constantly asking themselves the age old advertising question: What sells?
In my role as OnePoll’s online community manager, it is my job to interact with our OnePoll panelists. Whether it’s competitions, answering member queries or just posting an image that I think they might like – the latter of which I like to do on a Friday to cheer everyone up for the weekend. A while back, I posted a picture of a dog. A picture of a wet dog if you want to be specific. Why I hear you ask. Well it had been a long week so work so I decided to Google ‘frazzled dog’, as one does. I saw the picture and loved it. I decided to add a few words to it, to really drive home my message. It turns out that this dog was no ordinary dog. It was internet gold. The image has so far reached 22 million people, been shared by more than 350,000 and has over 50,000 likes.
Who knew those words and that image would resonate with so many people! People have shared stories about their stresses at work, their lives in general and have told me about their beloved pets. They tagged people and those people tagged other people. At first we had a few likes and shares, then those likes and shares doubled, then tripled.
After a week we reached nearly 500,000 people (the most likes a post had got before was 819, and the post was boosted, so beating that was my original goal). I kept refreshing the page until it crashed and refused to update. I left work on Friday feeling super successful….just like Dave from Money Supermarket.
It was pretty surreal seeing my post pop up on my newsfeed because someone I know has shared it, without knowing who I work for, and colleagues (yes you Rick Maughan), telling me their friends are also sharing it. It was just plain odd.
I post on the OnePoll members Facebook page every day, it’s my job, and never before has anything taken off in such a way. So what is so special about this post?
Obviously we need to make something clear. The OnePoll Facebook page is a B2C. This gives it the freedom to feature light hearted, jovial content whether it be memes, YouTube videos, dogs, cats, goats …anything really. It’s the go to page for our panel; it’s the home of OnePoll’s online community. Being a Facebook page for our OnePoll community means therefore that follower numbers are considerably more substantial that other B2B accounts, which means the impression rate is automatically more impressive.
These things don’t automatically mean that content will go viral – an overused buzzword for the 21st century – but they do obviously lend a hand in making them popular.
In the serious world of journalism and B2B marketing there were mixed feelings about the success of the image, or ‘cognitive dissonance’ if you want to be smart (Jay Williams, our Content Director!). On one hand, as Jay puts it, there is a sense of frustration that a picture of a soapy dog has done so well. But, on the other hand, and I’m quoting Jay directly here for maximum embarrassment, ‘Look! It’s a soapy dog! That’s soooooo cute!’ (Yes, he did over extend ‘so’. That really happened).
So why has the image done so well? Obviously no-one can predict what’s going to go viral (there’s that word again, sorry), but in an article for the Guardian in 2014 Buzzfeed’s editorial director, Jack Shepherd, gave the world some insight in to what makes it more likely.
His first piece of advice was to avoid the term ‘viral content’ like the plague, hence my overly apologetic use of the phrase earlier on. Shepherd described the term as sounding ‘like a vomit bag’. Lovely.
His second piece of advice was to share things that people can relate to, or in other words ‘things people share the most are things about themselves’. Shepherd commented that in the modern online world ‘your readers are your publishers’ – sentiments that relate strongly to our own findings from our Generation Editor report. ‘They are more likely to do that if the act of sharing helps them to make a strong statement about who they are.’ That doesn’t mean that the thousands of people who shared our dog image think of themselves as wet dogs, although some of them might and who are we to judge? What it means is that something about this image related to them on a personal level. Maybe it was the sentiments of the text. Maybe all 381, 839 shares were from people who had had the week from hell.
Shepherd’s third piece of advice was that people are more likely to engage with a something if they have ‘a strong, positive emotional response to it’. The guardian article refers to findings of a 2010 study into the New York Times’ “Most emailed” list (an early form of viral content, before social shares) which found that items on the list fell into one of four categories:
- Awe-inspiring
- Emotional
- Positive
- Surprising
Ok, so the soapy dog isn’t awe-inspiring, emotional or surprising but it is positive. The dog has had a rough week and come out fighting! (I know I sound crazy, but please suspend your disbelief for a bit longer).
Last and by no-means least, and this isn’t Shepherds insight, it’s a cute dog. Animal posts do well. It’s an unexplained phenomenon. You just have to look at the rise to fame of the host of internet cat celebrities….wow, there’s a phrase we never thought we’d hear. Since the early days of the internet cat posts have always done well, starting with email and chatroom images, then to the rise of LOLCats (which now has over 100 million views a month), right through to Keyboard cat, grumpy cat and Nyan (who isn’t even a real cat). One of our panelists even commented on a later post featuring a dog, that it’s nice to have a break from cat pictures.
Truth be told, we will never know for certain why this image was so popular. In my own personal opinion, as OnePoll’s online community manager I have come to realise that people take an interest in your post when it’s either humorous or potentially offensive. Also it was a Thursday and people were feeling tired and stressed out. The dog in the picture also reminds them of their own pet, which invokes a multitude of emotions. It’s relatable, both on a personal and professional level and who doesn’t love a photogenic dog! Turns out, from further investigation that it’s a famous dog, called Tusk. You can visit his Instagram and Twitter accounts. Bottom line though…everyone loves pictures of cute animals. It’s human nature and sometimes that’s all it takes.
Written by Jade Easton and Ruth Davison
Truffle Pig: Content Marketing Evolved
It’s a marketing triple entente. Advertising giant WPP, mega-bucks Millennial-magnet Snapchat and the MailOnline have joined forces to form a global digital content agency: Truffle Pig.
The announcement was made on board the swanky MailOnline Yacht during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, where John Steinberg (CEO, Daily Mail North America), Martin Sorrell (founder of WPP) and Evan Spiegel (co-founder of Snapchat) took a select audience through their new venture.
Here are the takeaways:
- Truffle Pig will focus on native advertising
- This means they will specialise in socially sharable stuff, namely video content, images, GIFs and infographics, as well as developing audiences on social media for brands
- There’s an emphasis on delivery. Initially the test grounds for content delivery will be the MailOnline, Elite Daily and Snapchat
- They’re going after Millennials in particular. Snapchat, with its established base of younger users, will play a key role in reaching their targeted demographic.
“It’s an evolution not a revolution”
WPP and the Daily Mail are the safe, solid foundations; established clients to give Truffle Pig a strong launch, expertise in advertising and news delivery and, in the case of the MailOnline, a deep understanding of creating shareable, compulsive content (let’s face it, we’ve all fallen prey to the sidebar of shame).
Steinberg describes Truffle Pig as “an evolution not a revolution,” an incremental improvement in how content agencies should operate. Having advertiser, content creator and distributor working together as one will surely refine the blueprint on how digital agencies work internally. But the exciting side of things, the delivery of the content, is where Snapchat has the potential to make a real impact.
Earlier this year Snapchat became an advertising platform for brands. If you have the app downloaded and check your snaps now, chances are you will have a branded snap waiting for your long-press. Accepting branded content was a major step in monetising the platform. Truffle Pig represents the next stage, adding news content and opening up the service to even more brands.
And it won’t just be the way content agencies work undergoing a process of evolution. If Spiegel gets his way the Snapchat platform will continue to evolve to suit its new business purposes. Particular emphasis has been placed upon use of “the vertical format” aka. vertical video. This is full-screen video viewed on smartphones and devices. The team at Snapchat are already devising ways to maximise this screen real estate, including the ability to host multiple video feeds on the same screen at the same time.
Increasingly news is being placed in the hands of the consumer. We have become more discerning about the content we consume. The news we choose is curated to our interests and viewed on the platforms we prefer. Facebook has implemented native advertising for years and has an integrated news project in the works, Apple is planning to launch its own news curation product, and now Snapchat has been recognised for its potential to place content.While video is having its day in the sun Snapchat is poised to be an important format for audience/newsroom collaboration. You need only look at the events in Charleston last week to see the potential of Snapchat in frontline reporting, an aspect that will undoubtedly feed into their work with WPP and the MailOnline in the future.
Apple's Swift response to Taylor provides mutually beneficial PR
Yesterday, in an unexpected turn of events, Apple caved after receiving a bold request relating to its new franchise, Apple music. The most successful and valuable company on the planet submitted to an open letter from a 25 year old ex-country singer from Reading, Pennsylvania. But Taylor Swift isn’t any 25 year old. With over 100 million followers on social media, a back catalogue of annoyingly catchy tunes and millions of YouTube views, Taylor Swift had the power to go head to head with the $700 billion company with the support of other artists.
Swift’s open letter on Tumblr requested that Apple do a U-turn on their decision to not provide artists with any royalties from the first three months of the new Apple Music streaming service. Apple responded via social media within a matter of hours agreeing with Swifts stance and undergoing a complete U-turn on their original trial period policy.
Three things strike me about this story. First how quickly Apple responded; second that they gave into the request, and third how much decent exposure (sorry to steal 72Point's marketing slogan here) this has given both parties involved.
Firstly, let’s look at the speed of the response. I truly believe this is the key to what has ultimately led to such good public relations for both Swift and Apple. The rapidity of the response shows a total commitment from Apple to get things right and to emphasise the fact they want to be on the side of the artists from day one. It’s a shame they didn’t make this decision initially, but I don’t think going from bad cop to good cop has harmed their latest venture. In fact I think it’s done them every bit of good.
Perhaps the response was quick because Apple was already expecting it. Also, there’s a case to be made that Swift’s record label (Big Machine Records) may have been a driving force, as contractually, record labels generally have at least some power over what artists can do. The cynical side of me thinks that this publicised agreement could have been a pre-planned way for Apple to publicise Apple music, especially because Swift has previously indicated that she’s not keen on streaming, making her the perfect candidate to make this story viral.
Similarly with Swift, had this episode drawn out over a few weeks, we may have forgotten all about the fact it was her that complained in the first place (further promoting the idea that it's one big PR stunt). However, the pixels on news sites had only just loaded onto our iPads and iPhones with the news that Swift had taken Apple on,when almost immediately, Apple had backed down. Swift went from being a manufactured pop star to a guardian of the music industry in a matter of hours, with her partner Calvin Harris and other artists showing their support across social media.
Secondly, Apple backed down without any sign of a struggle. Apple are famous for holding firm with their commercial decisions, especially in the early days of digital music, as they were offering music artists a new way to sell their music to millions of people across the world. Apple created a digital space that artists weren’t ready for. The late Steve Jobs knew this and didn’t buckle for requests to increase the cost per song on iTunes.
Fast forward to 2015 and here we have a music streaming market that is competitive, established, and where artists are starting to flex their muscle to protect themselves financially. Apple is new to the game, and they appear to understand just how important it is to come across fair and on the artist’s side. So whereas in the early days Jobs could put his foot down and that was that, now it’s the turn of the artist to regain some power within the changing face of the music industry.
Lastly, let's discuss image. After all as we’re a PR company so we should probably talk about PR. Apple historically has sold products, with the obvious exception of music or films on iTunes. Because of that, they can control our experience and attitudes towards those products. In the music streaming business, this is the first true service that Apple will be proving to millions of people. We’ll be paying a monthly subscription in return for music and an experience with Connect and Beats 1.
Apple knows that it's vital that they start Apple Music with the right footing. The saying “you only get one chance to make a first impression” really rings true here. Apple knew this was their chance to project a positive, collaborative, respectful and caring image onto Apple Music. They grabbed it with both hands. Sometimes in business you can under promise and over deliver. Apple hasn’t over delivered here, but they have certainly projected an image of being understanding and on the artist’s sides.
As for Taylor Swift, we can’t underestimate how huge the impact of this coverage has made to her current image and her future career within the music industry. Not only her image towards fans and the general music loving public, but her music peers and other influential figures within the industry. The biggest news story I’ve seen to date on Taylor Swift was her dating Harry Styles (among others), so I find it noteworthy that she is now achieving column inches by taking on (and beating) the most valuable company in the world.
Swift put her neck (and possibly reputation) on the line to go head-to-head with Apple. Particularly risky bearing in mind how stubborn Apple can be when meeting opposition over their business decisions.
However, she has come out on top and many in the industry are calling her a shrewd businesswoman after this episode. Already recently named in the Forbes power women list, I’m sure she’ll be moving up the charts in more ways than one after this victory.
Apple and Facebook lock horns; But are they saying the same thing?
The 72Point report on media consumption released last week concluded with one sweeping statement: Forget Citizen Journalism; Generation Editor is the next big thing.
And, as if by magic, tech giant Apple has put the proof in the pudding by launching a news app that puts the distribution of news directly into the hands of the consumer.
Yesterday at the Worldwide Developers Conference Apple announced the release of Apple News, a Flipboard-esque curator of news, in its iOS 9 rollout. The launch follows Facebook Instant Articles, which speeds the process of loading news articles on the social network and is tipped to transform the way users consume news.
Apple News is set to work in a similar way. Like Instant Articles it will include articles specifically built for the app, but it can also pull in content from elsewhere on the internet. Susan Prescott, vice president of product marketing, told delegates at the conference that the app will segment the latest stories, articles and posts into over a million topics in order to put the consumer in charge.
Like the streaming platform Spotify, which is entirely predicated on preference, readers will be able to follow all their favourite news sources as well as using search to discover new sources. Effectively, this makes consumers agents in the media cycle, choosing who to follow based on the content they’re most keen on receiving.
It is a shift that is already grounded on social media. According to the Generation Editor report, 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. The average time we wait before unfollowing or unfriending a news source we no longer find useful is 22.3 days, which underscores how we have evolved to minimise the amount of superfluous content heading our way.
Device preference is also an increasingly focal topic. A massive 95 per cent of people now consume media on multiple devices, with smartphones (62 per cent) the most popular device, followed by laptops (57 per cent), tablets (39 per cent) and desktops (33 per cent). Apple’s news app includes a new “news format” that caters to our desire for multi-platform content by allowing for custom fonts, multi-touch gestures and layouts that scale from phones to tablets.
Whether Facebook and Apple’s new apps will take off is still to be seen, Apple is months away from having a final product which means the consumer experience is still being developed. But the move signifies a big shift in distribution from individual publishers to apps that offer a blend of their content tailored to consumer preference.
Click here to view and download the full Digital Report.
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.
The Social Media Election. Was this it?
Five years ago, at the time of the last general election, I was studying for my undergraduate degree. For the first time ever I felt the election buzz. Although I personally wasn’t that interested, I found myself surrounded by people who couldn’t shut up about it, and everyone, of course, was voting Lib Dem.
This time around things are different. I’m back at home, fully employed and paying attention due to my own genuine interest. This is in no small part down to the role of Social Media (and hours of TV satire and a determination to not let full time muppet and general pain in the arse, Nigel Farage have any sort of power). The role of social media in this election has been much anticipated. We’ve already seen how social media can be used to reflect the way votes are likely to go in our own light-hearted infographic. However it is the use of social media to attract and persuade voters and to promote the campaigns of individual parties which has stirred up all the fuss.
The 2015 election has been dubbed ‘the social media election’. This was partly due to the speculation and anticipation due to the rise in Social media’s popularity over the last five years. 5 million people have joined Twitter alone in the years since Britain last went to the polls. This has been key for political parties. It meant that parties and politicians had a direct way of speaking to people without having to trawl the streets. This was good for two reasons. Firstly it meant that the powerful elite of our society didn’t have to go into areas where people shop in Aldi rather than Fortnum and Masons. Secondly, it meant that they could target specific demographics at the touch of a button. In particular they could target youths, or as they’re known in Westminster, ‘bloody hoodies’. Youths are not a group politicians normally go near for fear of being mugged or stabbed but now they could talk to them without fear of physical contact.
The televised debates in the last election boosted turn out by 65%, but only 44% of young people (aged 18-24) turned out to vote. It would therefore be amiss of parties not to take advantage of a primarily young person’s medium to reach this audience. It was revealed fairly early on that our current lord and master, Mr Cameron and his Conservatives had spent £100,000 pounds on Facebook advertising, ten times that of Labour and 1000 times that of UKIP. A recent article in the Guardian stated that Facebook has the potential to reach 9.2 million young people with one post and with UK adults spending a minimum of 1.33 hours on social media, spending obscene amounts on these platforms isn’t exactly a bad idea.
But it’s not just paid promotion and it’s not just Facebook. Politicians have taken to Twitter to personally promote key party policies (or at least their social media managers have). This means for the first time in living history, politicians have been forced into giving short concise answers and policy announcements.
Parties have also embraced the ways of YouTube. As you can imagine this means a lot of clips of speeches and cringe worthy videos of politicians looking to camera giving heart felt speeches “to you, the voter” *VOM*. The Conservatives channel is particularly bad for this. The video of David Cameron welcoming you to the channel actually makes me physically look away as if I were watching a man on Embarrassing Bodies with some disgusting skin complaint. Labour’s channel is marginally more watchable. It displays a great deal more personality. For example the featured video is of Miliband playing pool with snooker favourite Ronnie O’Sullivan. In fact celebrity support is something that Labour play on quite heavily with their channel featuring videos from people such as Martin Freeman, Steve Coogan and Jo Brand. The Lib Dem videos on the other hand focus very much more on the general public. Their featured video is the Clegg Meister visiting a school, followed by a video of him visiting animals. Everyone together now…awwwww.
Despite this use of social media many say that the ‘Social media election’ never came to fruition. The build-up has even been described as ‘routine, predictable and over cautious’. If that weren’t bad enough much of it has been unpleasant.
This is particularly evident on Twitter . Twitter as a PR and marketing tool can be and has been successful. For example a recent Twitter campaign prompted the petition to get leaders from smaller parties involved in the leaders’ debates. However much of the party campaigning consists of mocking and bitching about other party leaders. A perfect example of this is the Twitter feed of the one and only Boris Johnson. Bo-Jo’s feed consists mainly of jibes at Miliband, with his tweet referring to Miliband’s wall of policies being a personal highlight (see image). 
Obviously all parties’ campaigns feature a certain number of put downs but this election is being referred to as one of the ugliest campaigns in history. One therefore has to wonder whether Twitter is doing nothing more than making things worse. After all with Twitter you get trolls. The only thing that gets met through the Twitter bitching is the hope that there is a Malcom Tucker figure behind the scenes taking control of people’s mobiles and blasting them with a particularly taboo outburst.
I think, on reflection though, social media has played a huge part this time round. Yes it might not have been ‘the Social media election’ that we were all promised but it’s certainly a step in the right direction. If nothing else, it has shown how seriously we should take social media as a platform and the benefits of social media advertising. That’s something businesses can take out of this election regardless of the outcome. If Twitter promotion and campaigning is good enough to get you to run the country it’s good enough to get you some business and get your message out there.
Furthermore Stephen Coleman, professor of political communication at the University of Leeds, commented that traditional methods of party promotion, primarily newspapers, are being disregarded time and time again by readers who are desensitised to it. This also applies to the mounds and mounds of party leaflets we get through our doors which seems to have reached frankly ridiculous levels this year. Therefore it makes sense that other methods of campaigning should be introduced, if only to pump a little fresh blood into the election build up. Remember the last election, the so called ‘TV election’ that saw the first ever live TV debates that boosted voter turn out by over half? What I’m essentially saying is that when it comes to getting your message out there you can no longer just rely on one platform to do so. It’s very much a multi-platform world that we live in and as a result campaigns, political or not, can only benefit from multi-platform content. Just remember to make it nice. The place for trolling is in fairytales. Not the internet. Or the Hopkins residence.
(All of the above views are mine, not the company’s…or are they?! Yes, they are.
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.