The future of digital media is in the North - here's why
The future of digital media is in the North - here's why
In what is being dubbed a “digital migration” in the industry, many media organisations that once housed their digital functions in London are migrating to the North of the country.
Although the shift can be attributed to a number of factors, early signs that London has been caught napping while the digital revolution took hold are certainly there.
According to one recruitment consultant there has been a significant increase in the demand for experienced digital professionals throughout the north, with Leeds a particular hotbed for such talent over the years.
Here's how the north positioned itself as the chief beneficiary of a digital migration.
The Past
There once was a time when London had a monopoly over the media industry. In fact, so concentrated was the media landscape that in 2003 the government was forced to intervene with the Communications Act, which required a proportion of programmes by the UK’s main broadcasters be made outside the M25. This acted as a catalyst for big media moving to the north.
The Present
Fast forward to today and the news on the media front is that Salford outranked both London and Manchester to become the UK’s top city for starting a new business in 2017. Sunderland also laid claim to the most new tech businesses in the UK, with the turnover of digital tech businesses in the city growing by 101 per cent between 2011 and 2015.
This is even further exemplified by the fact that nearly 70 per cent of total UK digital tech investment was in regional clusters beyond London, with Edinburgh (£159 million), Manchester (£78 million) and Sheffield (£61 million) among the notable recipients.
Significantly, digital employment in Sheffield and South Yorkshire stands at over 21,000 and digital firms in the region boast one of the highest growth rates of any cluster in the UK, with turnover increasing at 47 per cent.
In Birmingham, there are already an estimated 50,000 creative workers in the city area, and more than 5,800 companies. Little wonder, therefore, that Birmingham successfully lobbied to gain more investment from the BBC in the same vein as Salford by pitching itself as "young, diverse and digital".
The Future
The impact of Media City’s introduction to the wider region and the rate of growth should not be understated, as thousands of start-ups now rub shoulders with the likes of the BBC and Channel 4, who headquarter in the city.
It would appear the only way is up for the region. In 2016 a £1 billion plan to double the size of MediaCityUK was given the green light. Moreover, according to a study by DueDil, if Salford maintains its startup growth rate, the city could be on course to produce 5,286 new businesses this year alone, a huge increase of 2,436 from the previous year.
According to Stuart Clarke, who headed up the Leeds Digital Festival in June 2016, Leeds has the potential to become ‘digital capital of Europe.’ Thanks in part to the rising costs of running a business in London an increasing amount of start-ups are heading to Yorkshire to capitalise on its burgeoning digital sector. The Leeds University backed SPARK programme supports student entrepreneurs, while Futurelabs, Duke Studios, Leeds Beckett Digital Hub and ODI Leeds provide space and networking opportunities. A £3.7 million grant from Leeds City Council will be divided between innovative tech projects, and Creative England backed Gameslab Leeds will continue to support games studios in the area.
The North East is also in the process of handing the keys to the region over to tech-savvy Millennials. The IPPR “State of the North” report pointed to the opportunities afforded by the creative and tech sectors in the region that will necessitate more digital skills. Sunderland now has the highest rate of digital tech business startups in the country, while Newcastle and Middlesbrough both have higher birth rates than the national average – with a hotbed of IT and digital talent and creativity there to welcome firms who take a punt on the country’s chilly North East.
In Birmingham, the digital scene is thriving with the youthfulness and diversity of its workforce, as Under 25s make up 40 per cent of the population, making it among the youngest cities in Europe with an increasing supply of talent for media firms operating in the digital space.
Conclusion
With the secret now out, it will be interesting to see how aggressive this migration is set to be. Although London is undoubtedly important to the Digital Media sector, it seems like the tide has turned to the North with only greater growth expected in 2018.
72Point's Jack Peat will be leading Prolific North Live’s Digital Keynote Theatre on 28th February and 1st March, for more details, see https://live.prolificnorth.co.uk/.
Football clubs are putting PR at the heart of their comms strategy - and reaping the rewards
Football fans up and down the country will know the feeling. Constantly refreshing your Twitter feed to check if your team has found the final jigsaw puzzle to propel them toward the Premier League title. He finally signs - cue fanfare, interviews with the player, general knowledge articles and all-round hysteria. It demonstrates how in just a matter of years social media has become integral to fanship and football.
The worlds of marketing, PR and social media are now a big part of how football teams operate. But believe it or not there was a time before all this, when the world's biggest football teams were not paying such close attention to their PR departments.
Manchester United are the biggest football team in England and, debatably, the world. For me they are a huge example of how pivotal PR has become in football. Six years ago they allowed one of their hottest young prospects, Paul Pogba, to move on for free to Juventus in Italy. Fast forward four years and they buy Pogba back, initiating one of the most drawn out transfer sagas in football history that would eventually make him the most expensive footballer in the world (at least for a while).
Fans were literally champing at the bit for confirmation of the transfer, and when it finally came Pogba had already inherited a popstar-esque stature. Social media was sent into overdrive with content and hashtags centred around the French star returning, with Man United running ‘#Pogback’ with even his own emoji.
Then there was a collaboration video featuring Pogba (an Adidas athlete) and Stormzy (a prominent UK rapper, also part of the Adidas roster) rapping and dancing dressed in Manchester United kit (Man U are also sponsored by Adidas).
The whole thing was a PR explosion and for the first time in a while I had started to believe the football world had gone mad. From a business perspective, allowing a player who was on your books to leave for free, only to buy him back four years later for £90 million seems absolutely ludicrous. Surely that's a shocking investment and a hugely avoidable mishap that would punch a hole through the heart of Manchester United’s financial situation? Right?
Wrong. When you factor in his shirt sales reaching £190 million within three weeks, then the whole PR stunt makes perfect sense. Not only are United getting a player of extreme quality, but also by turning him into an international popstar they are actually getting value for their money at £90 million! How insane is that? And this is before we even mention the benefits for Adidas, the kit manufacturer who sponsor Man U and also Pogba.
In other words, the deal made perfect sense for everyone involved, especially Adidas, who hold Pogba as arguably their most prized asset - someone who they invest most of their marketing and advertising budgets into.
Now, let's take a look further down the leagues. This year, Bristol City (who play in the English Championship) have implemented a PR stunt that was never before seen in the world of Football. They used their Twitter account to give fans a glimpse of the players, which is nothing groundbreaking, but the way in which they did it has hooked the nation, and has pretty much made them the nation’s favourite second team.
Whenever City score, instead of tweeting an ordinary goal update, their twitter account will tweet a hilarious gif of the goalscorer doing something completely random! Examples include players cracking eggs on their heads, brushing their teeth or even doing the ironing, and this one of midfielder Bobby Reid cracking 2 beer cans over his head!
GOAL: #BristolCity 1-0 Wolves, Reid 53. #BRCvWOL pic.twitter.com/Pu8K4e3Rx5
— Bristol City FC (@bcfctweets) December 30, 2017
(See more here)
So here we see a Football team using clever content not only to give their fans fun insights into their players, but also to boost their engagement and exposure with general fans of football up and down the country. One would be forgiven for mistaking them for a PR company!
When you consider their strong start to the season which places them firmly in the promotion race and a massive cup win against the aforementioned juggernauts Manchester United, then you have a football team who are massively on the up. All this on pitch success enhances the clubs stature and size, but the clever off-field PR moments have also hooked onto fans and keeps Bristol City at the forefront of their minds.
The world of PR is ever-changing. With the explosion of social media, content has been adapted to be more snappy and hard-hitting than ever, and football has changed to match it. Football teams are paying more attention to their PR then ever, and are reaping the business and exposure benefits because of it.
More Fool You: The Art of Creating Shareable Content
One of my favourite scenes in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is when the duke and dauphin put on a makeshift and utterly farcical show called “The Royal Nonesuch” to make a quick buck. The audience on the first night, completely infuriated by what they had paid to see, decided that in order to avoid becoming the laughing-stock of the town they should tell all of their friends and neighbours how great the show was, so the play attracted sell-out audiences night after night until, on the final night, Huck noticed the crowd weren’t newcomers but people who had been there earlier and who had their pockets full of rotten eggs and vegetables. He informed the other guys and they skipped town with a small fortune in door money.
The scam worked because they evoked an emotional response that people shared. The anger of being lured in to a rip-off play by posters that read “ladies and children not admitted” was too much for the audience to supress and they felt compelled to action a response which capitulated on the final night when revenge was nigh. It paints an early and quite entertaining example of how to prompt a shareable action. It may have been a nasty trick, but it’s no more culpable than the first chain emails that promised eternal wealth if you forwarded it to five of your friends (I’m still waiting to cash in on that).
The art of creating shareable content is an age-old concept being carried out on new age platforms. Jonah Peretti, a founder of BuzzFeed, says shareable content is a delicate balance between something that is too shocking or controversial to be shared and something that is so ordinary it gets overlooked or ignored. Finding that happy medium between the two and ensuring it is relatable, engaging, funny or nostalgic is what propelled sites such as Buzzfeed to success, but increasingly digital users are looking to be engaged in order to share.
The digital world has made the art of shareable content both more arduous and more achievable
The digital world has made the art of shareable content both more arduous and more achievable. We’re more connected through social channels but have a shorter attention span and have evolved in the way we consume media. The solution, we have found, is multimedia. The 72Point Media Consumption report found that people are overwhelmingly more likely to share multimedia content on social media such as videos, animations and interactive games.
We recently recreated “The Royal Nonesuch” in an interactive game developed for Interparcel. The game, hosted here, was a ‘super-sharable’ bit of multimedia designed to test your patience, running on the back of a successful MPC (Multi-Platform Content) campaign that can be viewed here. Like the unsuspecting victims of the duke and dauphin’s show, if you’re fooled by the game it makes you more likely to share it in order to dupe your friends into doing the same thing. 21st century trickery at its best; Mark Twain eat your heart out!
To grab the minds of people today, you need content that is quick, visual and, most importantly, memorable enough so that they share it. - Hugh McIntyre
72POINT SHOOTS AND SCORES A PLACE IN THE CREATIVE SHOOTOUT 2019
WINNING AGENCY GETS TO SAVE THE PLANET ON 24th JANUARY:
We are incredibly proud to be finalists in The Creative Shootout 2019. To secure our place in the live finals, we delivered a dark, dystopian vision of the planet’s future oceans, with a chilling message from the head of a powerful, plastic-addicted corporation – revealing how nature will be affected if we fail to turn off the plastic tap.
The Live Final of the 2019 Creative Shootout will be held at BAFTA on Thursday 24th January 2019. Tickets can be purchased here – so please come along and support Team 72Point!
Creative Shootout Founder Johnny Pitt said: “The quality of entries was off the scale this year and our brave agencies now have the opportunity for creative fame, as well as to make a marked difference to a blight that affects every single one of us.”
72Point Managing Director Chris Pharo said “We relish the opportunity to demonstrate the high-quality of our creative to a live audience. We will throw everything we have at the chance to support A Plastic Planet in their mission to reduce the planet’s plastic waste problem with the execution of a global, hard-hitting, multimedia anti-plastic campaign.”
Facebook Reveal Plan To Merge Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger
By Social Media Manager Ben Gelblum
Facebook execs today unveiled plans to integrate the messaging element of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram in a move set to bolster the group’s dominance of social media.
This will mean that Facebook users for example, will be able to message a WhatsApp user making the ecosystem the social media giant is creating even more seamless.
Merging communication between the apps is set to occur by the end of this year or early 2020 and will pit the reach of the combined messaging services against rivals from Snapchat to Apple’s iMessage to SMS to various Google messaging apps.
Facebook acquired the photo-sharing platform Instagram for approximately $1 billion (£761 million) in 2012, followed by the messaging service WhatsApp in 2014 for an estimated $19.3 billion (£14.7bn).
Instagram Stories
Instagram first and now Facebook have integrated Stories systems of disseminating posts, using one of the defining characteristics of Snapchat.
All this cements the Facebook group’s dominance of global social media users and social media marketing spend.
This new move will further extend the monetisation of Instagram and WhatsApp, which bring in a fraction of the advertising and marketing revenue of Facebook, despite Instagram’s 1 billion monthly active users and WhatsApp’s 1.5 billion.
With 91% of social media users using mobile devices to access their accounts, the move cements the Facebook group’s dominance of social media ad spend.
Over 88% of brands are now marketing on social media, the vast majority still on Facebook – one of the fastest growing ad networks. In fact, the number of advertisers using Facebook has more than doubled in the last 18 months.
96% of Social media marketers consider Facebook the most effective social media advertising platform based on proven ROI.
Instagram, the world’s second biggest social media now has over 25 million business profiles. Female internet users are more likely to use Instagram than men and 78% of teens between the ages of 15 and 17 use Instagram, as well as 63% of 13 to 14-year-olds.
Click here to find out more about how 72Point can help you navigate the increasingly vital world of social media, with strategy, social media campaigns, assets and top content to drive traffic and build conversations around your brand.
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If Facebook hosts news, I'm hiring...
Humans are inherently lazy - and product managers are aware of this.
The swiping motion with which we command our phone screens reduces us to the basest of motor skills we learn virtually at birth, while voice commands have superseded even the remote control as our preferred way to interact with entertainment systems in the home.
I mean, why would I read a whole IKEA instruction manual when I can just watch a video instead? (Just kidding - I don't shop at IKEA).
Facebook, never one to miss a trick where the user experience is concerned, is in talks with media groups about hosting news content within the social network, enabling users to consume entire stories without tapping out to external hosts.
While such an alliance presents obvious gains for Facebook and publishers alike, most of which concern economics and reach, it also throws up plenty of positives for content suppliers and the humble reader too.
As a supplier of branded news, I can see demand for our content growing in-line with audience expectations on the channel and the increased needs of the news outlets we provide to – so more video, more visuals, more copy and more stories in general to meet increased publisher outputs. Happy times.
Additionally, and I may be getting a little ahead of myself here, if Facebook were to pull a Vice and launch a standalone Facebook News sub-brand, then it gives me yet another outlet to sell stories in to and potentially partner with - plus they really don’t come bigger in terms of audience size and segmentation.
Back to the user experience and it’s still good news.
Facebook hosting will make shaping content for social consumption mandatory for publishers, ensuring all outputs are visual, digestible, shareable and mobile – marry this to the convenience of consuming content from multiple outlets in a single space (while also doing all of your social housekeeping) and we could easily save 10-15 minutes a day on our reading time.
Finally, and this is of benefit to reader, platform and content supplier alike, Facebook hosting will lead to deeper engagement and all-round satisfaction – longer reads, greater dwell times, more sharing, increased content performance, happier authors and happier clients.
And for those who fear Facebook dominance, there will always be an alternative – there always is.
Just think of this Facebook/publisher partnership as being one of several labour-saving devices delivered over the years, enabling us to open our ever-expanding daily procrastination window to more cat gifs such as this one and Tinder freaks (I don’t use Tinder).
Exploring the Impact of AI in PR and Journalism: Insights from our recent roundtable breakfast
On Tuesday we gathered experts to discuss the profound influence of artificial intelligence (AI) on public relations (PR), journalism, and visual communication. Moderated by our own Sam Brown, the event featured insightful discussions and demonstrations on the role of AI in shaping content creation, crisis management, and ethical considerations. Huge thanks to Stuart Bruce from Purposeful Relations, Karyn Fleeting from Reach PLC and AI artist Duncan Thomsen for joining us and sharing their knowledge.
Below we delve into some key highlights from the event, but you can also rewatch the full discussion HERE.
AI in PR and Journalism
The discussion opened with the practical applications of AI in PR and journalism. Karyn highlighted the automation of routine tasks such as research, media monitoring, and audience insights, emphasising the need to balance automation with human expertise. Stuart delved into the role of AI in personalising content and pitching strategies, while exploring the intersection of AI and PR innovation.
Karyn discussed AI’s transformative impact on data-driven reporting and investigative journalism. The conversation also touched on the benefits and challenges of incorporating AI tools into journalistic practices, with a keen focus on maintaining editorial integrity and accuracy. Stuart provided insights into the implications of AI advancements for PR professionals, highlighting the importance of adapting to evolving media landscapes.
AI's Influence on Creative Ideas
Duncan's captivating artwork served as a backdrop to explore AI's influence on creative ideation and visual communication. The panel discussed the potential of AI to contribute to creative processes traditionally driven by human intuition and imagination. The conversation also delved into the implications of AI-generated content for PR and journalism, sparking thought-provoking reflections on consumer perceptions and engagement.
Enhancing Visual Storytelling with AI
The panel examined how AI enhances visual storytelling in PR and news media, with Karyn shedding light on its role in generating compelling images. Stuart explored AI's efficiency in content creation, particularly in generating visually engaging materials. Duncan raised ethical considerations surrounding the use of AI to manipulate and analyse images, prompting discussions on transparency and accountability.
AI in Crisis Management
The serious side of AI deployment was explored, particularly in crisis management scenarios. Stuart elaborated on AI's role in sentiment analysis and real-time monitoring during crises, citing examples of successful AI-driven strategies. The discussion underscored the importance of leveraging AI technologies to detect and respond to emerging news and trends effectively.
Ethical Considerations in AI
Ethical considerations took centre stage, with Karyn sharing insights into Reach's comprehensive AI policy. The panel delved into the ethical implications of bias in AI algorithms for PR and journalism, advocating for transparency and trust-building measures. Discussions also revolved around addressing privacy concerns related to AI data collection and usage, highlighting the need for robust ethical frameworks.
Future of AI in PR and Journalism
As the event drew to a close, the panelists pondered the future of AI-driven PR and journalism. They identified key skills and knowledge areas essential for success in the AI-driven landscape while acknowledging adoption barriers and emerging trends. The conversation concluded with optimistic predictions for the continued evolution of AI in PR, journalism, and visual communications, underlining the transformative potential of responsible AI deployment.
We have more great events in the pipeline - If you’d like to be included on the invite please email victoria.obrien@72point.com.
Eschew All Those Beastly Adjectives
Sorting through a chest of old letters and photos recently, I came across a yellowing envelope marked ‘Roald Dahl’.
Memories flooded back as I opened it. This was a hand-typed reply I’d received from the great story-teller to a letter I wrote to him when I was 17, pleading for feedback and advice on an A level project I was doing about short stories. I’d included one of my own.
I remember how I felt when he replied – astounded, and then, with the callowness of youth (see pic!), a bit peeved that he’d been so terse:
Dear Jay,
You are asking too much of me. You must realise that I get an awful lot of these letters and you can’t expect me to write your thesis for you. It should be fairly obvious to you what the role of the short story is in modern literature. It’s a big one. Study particularly the American short story writers like O’Henry and Runyon and Hawthorne and Poe, and lots and lots of English ones.
If you want any dope on me there have been an awful lot of profiles in English magazines over the past year starting with the February 1979 issue of Vogue.
I have read your story. I don’t think it’s bad, but you must stop using too many adjectives. Study Hemingway, particularly his early work and learn how to write short sentences and how to eschew all those beastly adjectives. Surely it is better to say “She was a tall girl with a bosom” than “She was a tall girl with a shapely, prominent bosom”, or some such rubbish. The first one says it all.
Yours sincerely,
Roald Dahl
Heeding his 35-year-old advice, I tweeted a snap of the letter with the message: “In 1980, as a spotty teenager, I wrote to Roald Dahl asking for advice on writing. Here is his priceless response”. Yes, I know that contains two “beastly” adjectives, but I felt they were justified.
A week later, and with no additional ‘push’ from me, the post had been retweeted over 1,000 times and favourited by more than 1,500 people, making it my most popular tweet by a country mile.
Obviously its popularity could be attributed to Dahl himself; his books are a part of so many of our lives. But for teachers and writers (and so many of the retweets have been by them) what resonates is the advice, specifically that passed on so memorably in the final three sentences. It sank into my teenage brain and led to a mantra when I worked as a reporter and then in PR: ‘keep it tight’, whether it be an intro or a pitch to a news editor.
I remember a team of in-house PRs coming into the SWNS newsroom many years ago to see their story being pitched to national newspapers news editors one morning. The PR director and two wide-eyed interns (I think they were from a rail group) watched as I made the call to desk after desk with the same 10-second spiel: ”Oh yeah, and we’ve got a fun one – a list of the weirdest items left behind at train stations this year, including a wooden leg, a stuffed gerbil and a jar of pickled eggs. With pix.” After the call, the PRs were mortified. ”You didn’t even mention the name! Or how many stations were included in the round-up! Or how amazing some of the things were!”
Of course, that wasn’t the point. It was about the story, and you’ve got about 10 seconds to tell it to a busy news editor. These people deal every day with the absolute extremes of story-telling – terrible human tragedies, major sporting achievements, business disasters – so to oversell or ‘overtell’ our/your survey would show we had no understanding of the way it goes. The mention of the client in the pitch would have been a switch-off. And to have called the results of the survey “amazing” would just have been beastly.
Digital PR Campaigns. How Important Are They?
At 72Point we are constantly experimenting to try and create digital PR campaigns that work for our clients and publishers.
Interestingly we're seeing great results from online quizzes, which are getting great digital pick up with the added benefit of real engagement from readers.
This represents a win for both parties. The client is getting thousands of completions on their quiz which is specifically designed to align with their messaging and the publishers are getting an uptick in terms of dwell time.
Our in-house design team, Oath Studio, create these assets to engage target audiences spanning and coupled with our experience of what stories drive the news agenda, these digital-first campaigns have been driving punchy results for our clients.
YourRedCar
Our recent project for The Romans and YourRedCar featured a fully branded quiz to discover what your car choice says about your personality.
As well as the vast news coverage secured, the quiz delivered 11,568 completions, providing great engagement with the brand and carrying their key message to their audience in a fun and memorable way.
Average completion time of the quiz was 2 minutes and 30 secs, showing that visitors had a solid dwell time too.
Fixter
Likewise, MOT and car service provider Fixter needed content to engage their audience. We put together a quiz to test for dashboard knowledge, promoting their key message of being a revolutionary car maintenance provider.
That quiz generated 11,300 plays to give Fixter a highly engaging asset to embed on their website and supplementing the widespread media coverage secured.
As part of SWNS Media Group, we have access to a social media audience of over 540,000 users, meaning that we can distribute content to a wide audience on those digital platforms, ultimately directing viewers to our clients' websites.
If you'd like to know more, drop us a line. Hello@72point.com
Delivering Campaigns with Clout in 2019
As Communications professionals we are constantly being told how we are to be relied upon more than ever in 2019 to help shape a brand’s post-Brexit destiny. However, the fundamental challenges that we face are more paramount today than they ever were, with the main concern being Relevance.
Being relevant isn’t just jumping on the current vegan, neon-sign, unicorn, avocado toast band wagon, but delivering PR with a purpose, in line with business objectives, that resonates with a brand’s customers and is at the forefront of the news agenda.
Trends and Insights
Our creative team at 72Point utilises various tactics when brainstorming a client brief but often the most effective tactic is taking a step back and looking at the trends and insights that can help shape client strategy.
The ability to be agile in the ever changing news agenda is another trait that we must all continue to adopt to ensure survival – as so much about his year remains uncertain the ability to adapt and react quickly and effectively is paramount in delivering relevant thought-provoking work.
The 4 C’s
Some age old methods continue to remain relevant and an age old PR basic which we always rely upon, time after time when developing a campaign is the Four Cs:
- Coherence – messages should be logically and clearly communicated with the campaign call to action at its core.
- Consistency – All channels should reinforce the same message during that period.
- Continuity – The message should be connected through time. The content shared does not have to be identical throughout but it should relate back to the core values and ideas, building on previous content.
- Complementary – All activity should fit together to create an even stronger message. One piece of content should be strong in itself but should be made even stronger when read together with others.
This multi-faceted approach helps us build meaningful campaigns for our clients that deliver stand-out coverage. If Communications professionals are to play as a large a role in a brand’s destiny as our industry will have you believe, we must cement our position as the conscience of our clients’ organisations now more than ever, this means not being afraid to push back on irrelevant communications plans. After all 2019 is our time to shine and deal or no deal, at 72Point we’re excited to see how the next 12 months unfold.
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