2017 must be the year the professionals take back control

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There’s a proverb in Romani culture that goes “a dog with two masters will die from hunger”, implying that you shouldn’t divide your loyalty because each master will assume the other has taken care of you. The philosophy of moral determinism – also notably satirized by Jean Buridan and, erm Amy Farrah Fowler from the Big Bang Theory – is particularly poignant as the PR industry reaches a crucial crossroads in 2017, where it must decide how to properly balance its commercial considerations with a responsibility to media publications and its consumers.

Last year as part of our annual white paper we noted the merger of several digital disciplines coming together under an umbrella leveraged by the creation and distribution of content. Our take on the year ahead was that traditional PR disciplines are no longer confined to the PR industry, with SEO practitioners dabbling in content to satisfy Google’s demands and marketers making the shift in response to consumer disdain for display placements.

What we didn’t initially foresee was how the input of marketing and SEO industries would impact the sort of content being produced. Marketers, for example, are slaves to the brand and very much tied to its messaging. SEO professionals are ultimately looking for tangible search results. But we PR professionals have to satisfy two masters, and as the industry starts to swell we must capitalise on the opportunity to take back control.

As an agency, 72Point is in a unique position in that we’re sat between PR agencies and the media. Our parent group, the UK’s largest independent news agency, is a shout away at any point and are there to lend us their insight into what is working at any given time, which is advice we dispense to all our clients as well as at Creative Therapy Sessions, which we rolled out across the country this year. We don’t embargo, we don’t distribute our news content in press release format, we don’t include brand mentions in the opening paragraph and we stick to the best stories, and that’s why we landed 100 per cent of our projects in back-to-back months in the close of 2016; We make it as easy for the media to lift our content as possible.

Publications will adapt at pace

Despite much change in the mainstream media market the forecasters are all starting to paint the same story; print revenue is in decline, digital revenue is yet to be fully realised. This year the pace of change is set to shift a gear, with editorial teams likely to shrink and commercial departments expand in scale and remit, often with conflicting implications for the PR industry. Soon, many media publications will be viewed more as partners than a separate entity.

Meaningful measurements

The PR industry is suffering from a serious numbers addiction. It uses estimated coverage views that bare little relevance to the social interactions and absurd projections based on simplistic mathematical sums. At some point, we’ll get found out and there will be a shift to more meaningful measurements which will result in targeted distribution on relevant publications and, crucially, better quality, shareable content.

Google will shift its indicators

In the same way brands will demand more human interactions over meaningless numbers, Google is about to shift from “exogenous”’ to “endogenous” signals to incorporate more genuine quality signals. The end may be in sight for link-building practices, which are currently a key indicator of trust, but a rather shallow one. Google’s algorithms in the future are more likely to incorporate the time people spend on the page and the way they interact with content.

From visual to interactive

Publishers want people to stick, brands want people to share, and both parties want content that works across channels. That’s why 2017 will be the year of the interactive. Quizes, graphic puzzles, even the old “spot the ball” type competitions will have their day in the sun again as we fight to keep consumers engaged.


The art of storytelling

It’s easy to tell a story, watch:

Steve Martin walks into a room. He sits down in front of a vintage typewriter, looks pensively at the clock and begins, slowly to type. As his fingers move from key to key, a single word is stamped onto the page...

You want to know what the word is, don’t you? Is it a happy word? Is it a suicide note? Is that the actual Steve Martin, from Father of the Bride, or just some guy called Steve Martin?

Storytelling gives you the power to change a world – a world of your own creation. If you get the world right, like JK Rowling or JRR Tolkien, you can bring billions of people into it with you, eager to find out what the next word is.

Storytelling doesn’t have to be about creating fantastic universes, either. You could tell a story about the most banal interactions of daily life, and if it resonates with people then it will find an audience.

At 72Point, storytelling is in the essence of everything we do. We’re looking to find stories that will evoke a reaction in as many people as possible, who may then share that story online, in their workplace or at home, starting conversations and debates.

A lot of our work starts with a very small survey – in a meeting or brainstorm, someone will toss out a statement like ‘I realised this morning I’ve been singing Blank Space by Taylor Swift wrong for months’ and that will start a conversation about your hearing going in old age, or the differences between women and men, or how often misheard lyrics replace the real ones in your mind. If it gets us talking, we think it will get the general public talking, and so we’ll then take that idea, create a big survey around it then we’ll have a new story – like the song lyrics that everyone gets wrong.

That story worked because it’s a conversation that millions of people might not think to have, without a little push from us. But once they do, they realise that actually this is a topic that everyone has an opinion on - and if it raises a little awareness of hearing aids, then that’s our work done.

Storytelling isn’t simply about words, either. We’re increasingly using other methods to get across our ideas, from 360-degree videos where online users can explore a new space, to interactive puzzles as well as our in-house-produced video content. We’re covering all the bases when it comes to getting messages and stories into the press.

For crystal-clear visual representation of a story, our talented designers are on hand to create infographics and animations that can bring a static story to life. The best examples of our work are the ones that bring together elements of everything we can do, to deliver a story that everyone can take something from – like this example about debt levels.

Personally, my opinion on telling a story is simple – just keep people reading, one word after the next. If your content is engaging then you’ll do exactly that.

And hey, you made it down this far, didn’t you?


Content Umbrella: The coming together of PR, marketing, social media and SEO

spread_redSEO, PR, digital advertising, content marketing; they all seem to be doing the same thing nowadays.

As Google demands better quality content, online media consumers get turned off by display and brands look to engage rather than convert there has been an amalgamation of digital disciplines leveraged on the basic principles of creating and distributing content.

Which is why we’ve coined the term Content Umbrella.

The content umbrella represents a significant shift towards content across several industries. Our white paper, released this week, documents how the mobile and digital revolution has necessitated a mass re-think across the board and how the shift has implicated specific disciplines as well as the content industry as a whole.

To whet your appetite, here’s a wee snippet:

 

Display Blind: Advertising Adapts to Digital

Display advertising is at best a saturated market and at worst a marketing technique teetering on irrelevancy. As more people access content via mobile devices the marketing world has been faced with the dilemma of how to best communicate to audiences who are wise to the motive behind a display ad.

Consumers, on the one hand, do see value in content. Per-dollar content marketing produces roughly three times as many leads as display advertising according to Oracle research. Furthermore, the consumer becomes a brand champion by engaging with the content, creating a c2c ‘sharing’ relationship rather than a b2c ‘telling’ relationship. With more consumers accessing the internet via a smartphone over any other device, the tip towards content is only going to grow.

 

Social Media: Native Social vs Digital Display

Social media is also confronting how to communicate marketing messages to an increasingly mobile user base. On mobile’s smaller screens, the stream is the experience, which is why display has struggled to make an impression.

In-stream native ads, however, look, feel, and function seamlessly across mobile and PC, which is precisely what brands want. AdRoll analysis of Facebook’s ad exchange revealed that ads in the News Feed achieve 49-times higher click-through rates and a 54 per cent lower cost-per-click than traditional placements in the right-rail sidebar. As a result, spending on native social is set to rocket to $21 billion worldwide by 2018, and it is likely to continue to climb.

 

six billion searchesSlapped By A Panda: Google Demands Quality Content

Google’s Panda algorithm instigated a golden age for purveyors of quality content. After years of SEO ‘cheats’ – content farms, keyword advertising, link building et al – there has been a mass purge of low quality, spammy sites which have been replaced by sites that provide relevant content that is interactive and of good quality.

All organisations looking to rank well for key search terms need a strategy that is focussed on creating high quality, highly relevant content that is distributed well. With talk of Google switching backlinks to brand citations, the SEO industry will become increasingly cosy with content and publishers.

 

PR in the Media Mix

In marrying the brands needs with those of the publishers, PR is perhaps best placed to unify the umbrella of content. PR professionals understand how to create engaging content while at the same time making brand considerations such as marketing messages and SEO objectives.

As a genuinely multimedia business that has been supplying content to national newspapers for 40 years, SWNS / 72Point are well placed to meet the demands of the digital industries falling under the content umbrella. Not only do we know how to create great content, we can give it the reach it deserves by distributing it through established channels.

Download the white paper and read the full report here.


Top tips for achieving video success

videoVideos entertain, inform and give people access to digestible news on the go. They are also one of the best ways to achieve exposure. In fact, including them in your PR strategy is a no brainer.

There is no greater example of how influential video can be than the rise of the ‘Youtube’ stars. Ordinary, everyday folk turned into celebrities and idols (although I use that term loosely, very loosely) simply as a result of posting a video online. Whether it’s someone giving hair styling tips, baking tutorials or just playing a computer game. The potential influence of video is plain to see.

Dan Patterson of ABC News Radio said that ‘Humans are incredibly visual and powerful, moving images help us find meaning… [And] video helps capture and contextualize the world around us’. It is not surprising therefore that we extended our portfolio of services to include video.

Among our favourite campaigns we have worked on were two social media campaigns for supermarket Asda. One was a video for their Facebook page featuring magician and star of ITV’s Tricked, Ben Hanlin. We filmed Ben at an Asda store in London performing magic tricks for customers, including pulling money from items such as bread, unopened crisp packets and sealed yoghurt pots. The video achieved nearly 1 million views on Asda’s Facebook page.

The other, entitled 'Pimp my BBQ', was a fun, quirky video that unsurprisingly showcased a costumed ‘pimped’ BBQ. The BBQ featured additions such as a selfie stick, iPad stand, neon lights to name but a few. This video had pick-up all across a wide range of sites and proved especially popular with the MailOnline and Lad Bible

We’re lucky to have the services of incredible cameramen, video producers and editors from SWNS behind us to help us make the most of our video content.

If you’re looking to produce a video there are a few things to bear in mind.

1. Audience and Content

Cisco has predicted that video will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic by 2017, so to truly have a place in this market we need to know what our audience want.

Not only must the video content we create chime well with the survey stories we produce, but we must keep trying to be as inventive and creative as possible. This comes not only from our own creative process but also from watching the video market and staying relevant and in line with what viewers want.

Videos don’t have to be elaborate. Yes sometimes a brief may call for a big stunt or a big name to appear in it but it doesn’t always have to. Sometimes a simple vox pop style video can be just as effective. After all, the people on the street are the people you are trying to attract so why not make them the centre of attention.  Look at your brief and decide who you are trying to reach, how you’re going to do it and what style is going to have the most impact.

Watch our video showreel below to see the variation of video styles we've used for our clients:

2. Platform and Length

Only two years ago videos would be produced that could last over 5 minutes for just one story. We have learnt rapidly that most people’s engagement and time spent on a video last no more than 60 seconds, which is why as a rule at 72Point we produce nothing longer than 1 minute. This allows us to keep costs lower for the client - and crucially - we stay relevant for our publishers and help them engage with their audiences.

Videos will become even shorter as the use of mobile devices to access content continues to rocket. Evidence of this can be seen in the popularity of Vine which is based around 6 second videos, and Instagram which only allows 15 seconds. People now spend more time viewing stories on their mobiles than desktops and with that comes a shift in content presentation. This means a mobile-first approach is crucial for 72Point and its clients in 2016. Once you know who your video is aimed at, what you’re trying to say and how you’re going to share it, then everything else should slot into place. But if not here are some of our top tips for video success:

  • Make it clear in your headline what the video is about
  • Videos must have rich SEO within the metadata
  • Be creative in how you link videos to text stories
  • Always always share your video on social media
  • Keep them short and snappy
  • Don't try to be too clever - it can come across as false
  • Make the first 8 seconds as attention-grabbing as possible. That’s all our attention span will take to lose interest.

So much is changing in the world of content and video as it continues to play a huge role in the market place. If we can utilise video and embrace the technology that comes with it, and the interactivity it gives audiences, then we and our clients are set for a bright and fun future.

Visit our video page to find out more about our video offering.Written by our video team: Issy Potts and Jessica Macdonald.


Hippos, polar bears & paint: PR highlights of 2015

A good PR campaign or stunt can work wonders for a brand.

Get the timing, tone and creativity just right and not only will you see tons of national, regional, online and broadcast coverage but thanks to social media, it can also end up going viral, giving you more exposure than money could ever buy.

There is a fine line between a good stunt and a failure. They can be expensive to plan and carry out, with no guarantee of anyone talking or writing about it afterwards.

But here at 72Point, we’ve seen several stunts and campaigns this year which have not only had great results in terms of coverage, but were memorable and got us all talking.

Here are just a few of our favourites from 2015…

Polar bear

Campaign: Polar bear on the tube
Brand: Sky Atlantic/Fortitude
Agency: Taylor Herring and Sky’s in-house PR team

Last January, commuters in London were greeted with a life-sized polar bear on the tube, after it was ‘set loose’ by Sky Atlantic to promote its new crime drama Fortitude.

The huge bear, which was built by a team of Hollywood special effects experts and operated by two puppeteers from the West End production of War Horse, was seen around various places in the city including the underground and crossing the Millennium Bridge.

Fortitude was set in the Arctic, and what better symbol is there of the frozen landscape than a terrifying but beautiful polar bear?

Thanks to the amazing pictures of the bear riding the tube, walking over bridges and roaming the city’s parks, the campaign got widespread coverage but it was also great for social media. The first thing confused Londoners would have done is to Tweet, Instagram or Facebook about their unusual encounter with a polar bear that day.

It received 47 million impressions on Twitter – 30 million of which were from the UK, while the show launched with just over 700,000 viewers – the biggest audience to date for a UK originated drama on Sky Atlantic.

Fifty Shades

50 Shades B&Q

Campaign: Fifty Shades of Grey ‘Leaked Memo’
Brand: B&Q
Agency: Good Relations

At the start of the year, it was all about the highly anticipated Fifty Shades of Grey film, which was released in February.

B&Q ‘issued’ a memo to all staff telling them to get to know the storyline in case customers enquired about items inspired by the film, such as cable ties, rope and duct tape.

So many brands wanted to be associated with the famous movie, and all kinds of surveys, PR stories and stunts were planned to allow them to get on the Fifty Shades bandwagon.

But this was one of the best – the ‘leaked’ memo format was great and entirely believable, while still being very tongue-in-cheek, resulting in a huge amount of coverage including The Daily Telegraph, Sky News and BBC Radio Two.

They even saw a second wave of coverage after admitting the memo was, in fact, fake.

It was a great quick-win, which was quick and easy to execute, providing great talk value and standing out at a time when so many other brands were trying do stories about the same thing.

Lego

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Campaign: Lego-proof slippers
Brand: Lego
Agency: Brand Station

As a parent to an almost five-year-old, Lego-mad little boy, as soon as I saw this, I thought it was a brilliant idea – stunt or not.

Anyone who has a Lego fan in their house will know the unbearable pain that comes from stepping on a discarded brick, trying hard not to swear repeatedly because your darling child (who is most likely the one responsible for leaving said brick in the middle of the floor) is nearby.

The branded slippers come with an extra thick sole, meaning parents can walk around their house freely, safe in the knowledge that more of the little bricks will no longer be a threat to their feet.

Unfortunately for millions of parents, Lego and the French agency behind the slippers, Brand Station, only made 1,500 of the slippers, but the coverage and social media activity around the stunt was a great result for the brand.

Lights

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Campaign Christmas: Lights Untangler
Brand: Tesco

Christmas is a tricky time of year for PR – everyone wants to get in on the action but there is only so much Christmas PR the media can take.

Tesco came out on top with their idea to hire the first Christmas light untangler in one of their Wrexham stores after research found those in the town were found to be most frustrated by the festive job.

They took something which causes all kinds of stress in UK households at the start of December and tied it into their famous ‘Every Little Helps’ slogan with ease.

As part of the job ad, responsibilities included ‘manning and managing the Christmas lights untangling stand’, ‘checking lights and bulbs for signs of breakage’  and of course ‘successfully untangling customers’ Christmas lights neatly, quickly and efficiently and in an orderly fashion’.

The ideal candidate had to be ‘passionate about Christmas, ‘able to untangle three metres of lights in under three minutes’ and ‘be persistent and patient’.

After the first wave of coverage from the initial job ad, Tesco also saw further hits once they revealed more than 100 people had applied for the position.

NHS

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Campaign: Missing Type
Brand: NHS Blood and Transport

The Missing Type campaign, in June, was designed to raise awareness about the shortage of blood donations, and saw As, Bs and Os, removed from the brands logo to highlight the different blood groups.

It started with a host of brands such as Waterstones, Odeon and even Downing Street mysteriously removing letters from their signage.

A few days later, NHS Blood and Transport revealed they were behind the missing letters with a news story revealing that 40 per cent fewer donors had come forward in that year, compared to ten years ago.

But following the reveal, as well as the brands who had already joined in, other brands took part with the public also joining in by changing their Twitter handles to replace any As, Bs and Os with a blank space. We even took part ourselves. The success of the campaign is clear in the figures – more than 30,000 people registered as blood donors during 10-day campaign and it had more than 700 pieces of coverage, which even resulted in the public website having to be taken down as a result of the unprecedented demand.

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Snickers

Campaign: You aren’t you when you’re hungry
Brand: Snickers

Following news of the Jeremy Clarkson ‘fracas’ in March, Snickers jumped at the chance of some brilliant reactive PR.

As details emerged of the incident, where the Top Gear presenter was said to have assaulted one of the show’s producers because he was refused a hot meal, Snickers sent a box of the bars to the (former) BBC presenter with a note using the brand’s slogan ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry’.

The chocolate brand’s campaign and TV advert sees a Snickers bar given to someone who is acting diva-like due to hunger. After tucking into the chocolate treat, they return to their normal self.

The parallels with the Clarkson story were just too good to pass up and Snickers were quick to react – and tweet a picture of the box and note to their followers, which was retweeted thousands of times.

And finally, on the subject of Jeremy Clarkson, we also need to give an honourable mention to the Robox, a 3D printer created by the husband of our very own creative account director Emma Elsworthy, who created a Jeremy Clarkson version of Hungry Hippos, ‘Hungry Jeremy’.

They designed a 3D-printable version of Clarkson’s head, which can be used to replace the hippos’ heads in the classic game, which saw great coverage across print and online. It goes to show that a killer of an idea is still at the heart of a good PR campaign – you don’t need to be a big brand to generate a buzz.


PR Resolutions: The art of decent exposure in 2016

PR resolutionsOver the last few years we have witnessed many traditional PR companies start to reinvent themselves as the digital revolution has transformed the way their own clients reach and engage with their audiences.

Here at 72Point, we very quickly realised a simple survey and news copy were no longer enough to keep media outlets happy, and so we also began to more firmly integrate visual content services with our existing USPs.

The heart of 72Point is, and always will be, national news content. The backbone of our business is South West News Service, the UK’s largest independent press agency, which has been delivering hard-hitting news on a daily basis since 1978. This means we have top-class ideas, page-ready news copy, access to the UK’s best news experts, and a channel to the powers in the press at our fingertips.

Now is the time to consider revising the way you present your content to news editors who want page ready copy without the fluff and nonsense of the traditional press release.

In recognition of the changing media landscape, which brings with it the absolute necessity for additional content such as videos, pictures and infographics, we actively encourage our clients to pursue ALL avenues when putting together a PR campaign.

This is why, although we generally dislike the idea of making New Year’s resolutions, we do have 10 tips / resolutions for getting the most out of 2016:

1. Think visually – with every story you send out, make sure you have painted a picture of what you want to say. The majority of humans are visual learners, so are likely to absorb more through watching a video, reading an infographic or looking at a picture than by any other means. Think about how you are going to deliver your news to your audience, and how they are most likely to consume it.

2. If budget will allow, make a video – the demand for online video is at all-time high, and there is nothing out there to suggest the rapid growth we witnessed in 2015 won’t continue into 2016. The potential reach of a video is endless, and almost everyone in the UK has access to some sort of device needed to watch videos. A quick 90 second film, which is to the point and not over branded, is a powerful tool which can be shared millions of times across websites and on the likes of YouTube and Facebook.

3. Always illustrate a story with a picture – we know the national news desks and online sites all have stock shots, and can randomly select any old picture to go with a story they want to publish. So why bother to send your own picture? By tailoring an image so that it clearly spells out the content of the news copy, you have more editorial control and therefore increase your chance of securing relevant coverage.

If designed with the need to re-purpose in mind, infographics can be ‘sliced up’ into smaller bite size graphics making them perfect for pulling out key stats and headlines, and sharing multiple times with your own followers across a number of social channels.

4. Help consumers absorb the stats with an easy-to-read infographic – we all know there is more demand for visual content than ever before, and people are more likely to absorb statistics which are embedded in a pretty graphic than a body of writing. By producing an infographic alongside your copy you are making your story even more visible. An infographic can also be re-used time and time again across multiple channels. It may start as a means to getting media coverage, but can also be posted on your own site, used in your own marketing collateral.

5. Look to the future with digital sell in – print will always have its place in the media landscape, but to maximise coverage and help boost a brand’s online presence a full digital sell in is a must for all campaigns in 2016. Earlier this year the Mail Online surpassed 200 million monthly browsers making it the most visited English-language newspaper website in the world, and many other publishers are looking to replicate the model to attract new audiences. Not only does this spell value for PR campaigns in terms of reach, it also delivers ROI on search engine optimisation goals and creates a ‘social’ buzz.

6. Don’t underestimate the powers of social media – many clients are understandably focussed on getting coverage in the national newspapers and websites, or subject specific websites, and don’t actually consider the power of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn etc.

People love to share visual content of any sort, and some of the biggest news stories are those which have been shared by millions of people across social media.

We produced a video featuring Ben Hanlin for a client’s national media campaign. The branded video featured on The Mirror and Yahoo among others, but most impressively it was viewed more than a million times on the client’s Facebook page.

7.Think about dropping the press release – when you open the national newspapers, do you see bullet points at the beginning of a news story? Can you see a company logo in the top right corner? Are there footnotes for us to read later? If not, you might want to consider revising the way you present your content to news editors who want page ready copy without the fluff and nonsense of the traditional press release.

8. Have a brainstorm / think outside the box / attend a thought shower – whatever you want to call it, but generate good ideas and a story that your audience can relate to, and will find themselves talking about and sharing with others. We all know news is on a loop, and there are some topics that are covered time and time again, but if you can find that gem of an idea which the whole office ends up talking about, you know you’re onto a winner.

9. Do your research – a news story which is based on consumer or market research is more likely to be read by journalists than one without. Research led stories have an extra edge – the statistics give it a quantifiable news hook and help validate the point of the story.  As well as being a great tool for coverage, market research enables businesses to differentiate themselves from others and illustrate their ability to identify with their audience.

10. Choose a company who can do all of the above under one roof – alright, this ‘resolution’ might be an excuse to plug 72Point, but if you are determined to make a media success of 2016, and can’t be bothered to hire several different companies to do the work for you, you might want to consider doing all of the above with the help of our very lovely team.


Truffle Pig: Content Marketing Evolved

Image: tanuha2001 / Shutterstock.comIt’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.


Reinventing the Wire

JOURNO_oldschoolIn 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

Generation Editor ReportThe 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.

Download the full Digital Report here.


The Social Media Election. Was this it?

parliament_resizeFive 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). ed

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.