PRCA Digital Awards 2018
April 5 2018
72Point is thrilled to be shortlisted as In-House Digital Team of the Year at the PRCA Digital Awards 2018. Our team will be there on the night to present the Best Social Media Award category and the award for Best Digital Journalist/Blogger Award. The PRCA Digital Awards 2018 will be judged by some of the biggest names from the worlds of digital leadership, communications and journalism.
PR360 2018
April 19 - 20 2018
Head of Digital, Jack Peat, will moderate a breakout panel at this year’s PR360 Conference on “How PR’s should adapt to the new media age”. As well as heading up all of 72Point’s digital and social media outreach work, Jack is also the founder and editor of The London Economic (TLE) - which was the most shared news publication of the 2017 General Election - and also a regular contributor to the Independent online, VICE and Huffington Post.
View Jack's Keynote Address from Prolific North Live on how the North has become the digital media powerhouse of Britain.
Watch the highlights from the 72Point Digital Keynote Theatre below:
PR SPECIALISTS JOIN 72POINT OPERATION
Award-winning PR specialists Rebecca Maund and Nicola Rowley have joined 72Point as the agency develops its output of news-ready multimedia content to support consumer PR activity.
PR strategist Rebecca Maund has a 15-year track record of delivering award-winning campaigns for Splendid Communications, Lexis and Borkowski, managing high-profile accounts such as Royal Mail and Debenhams.
Nicola Rowley is the award-winning Founder of NJRPR, providing strategic PR and Communications advice to female entrepreneurs and clients across the Entertainment and Leisure sectors. Nicola has been responsible for overseeing the publicity remit at Thorpe Park Resort and launching some of the BBC’s highest-profile international programmes.
What has attracted both specialists to the 72Point operation is the sheer scope of its potential as an agency and the strength of its core offering. Rebecca Maund said, “I am thrilled to be joining 72Point at such an important time in their history. I am excited to build on the company’s proven track record in creating stand out news content, to deliver award winning campaigns.”
72Point, which currently ranks at number 48 in the PRWeek Top 150 UK PR Consultancies attributes its growing success to delivering quality, trusted news content in trusted media outlets, packaged up with multimedia assets to engage publishers and audiences alike. The service known as News Generation has become a staple service for growing and established brands who need to increase their mainstream media appeal.
Director of Strategy Jay Williams, who founded 72Point in 2001 and has hosted a series of thought-leadership events around news generation, defines it as “the art of engaging the media intelligently”.
With the addition of Rowley and Maund to its ranks, 72Point is set to refine and develop its strengths as one of the most successful creative communications agencies in the UK.
Managing Director, Chris Pharo, said: “Having the kind of talent and expertise that Rebecca and Nicola bring to the table will only support our current trajectory of being one of the most successful media relations operation in the business. I am incredibly excited to see some of our new projects develop under their charge.”
72Point is a top 20 consumer communications agency that provides unique creative and unrivalled distribution for some of the biggest brands such as British Airways, Virgin Media, Sky and Lyst.
PR Seminar: Dealing With the Press and Coping With Christmas
I’d like to extend a big thank you to everyone who took the time out of their busy morning to join us for our first ever northern 72Point seminar on Thursday.
It was nice to renew a few old acquaintances, catch up with our best clients from that part of the world, and also network with a whole host of people who we haven’t previously met.
The high-point for me was the bacon rolls, while the low-point was the moment I unwittingly ‘brought the house down’ during Sam’s talk in the form of causing the collapse of one of our banners.
I have obviously apologised to Sam!
I hope everyone who was there took something from it. We will find out soon I guess, once we receive your feedback via our online poll.
I did explain during my talk that I would happily pass on the hints and tips which I discussed at length, so here is a transcript of the interesting bits:
If you do have huge pressure to sell in stories in the run up to Christmas, call news desks early.
When I worked on desks we would start at 6.15am
But bear in mind conference is at 10.30am or 11am, and in an ideal world the news list will be complete by 10am or 10.15.
That means the busiest and most fraught time of the morning is between about 8.30 and 9.45am.
And guess what happens at that time in the morning. That’s when PR people call up.
People always say to me that journalists need PRs.
That’s not necessarily true.
Specialist reporters do. News desks don’t.
There is always more than enough happening around the world to fill 39 news pages, especially considering their over reliance on citizen journalism, social networking sites and Sky News, for their content.
So if you don’t want to be shouted at, ring up between 7am and 8am.
Whether you ring up or not, you must get your story over in the A.M.
After this most stories which arrive on news desks will either be spiked – which is effectively the waste-paper basket – or they will be cut very short to fit into a specific space on a page.
That’s because later on in the day, is not the quality of the story which is the defining factor. Space on the page is.
If you have to create a festive tale, be different. Forget ‘Dads get socks for Christmas’, for example. It’s dull and is probably the most common Xmas PR tale.
Try and think outside the box and try and ensure your story isn’t just a stat. There IS a difference.
Six out of ten dads will be asleep on the sofa by 2pm isn’t a story.
‘Six out of ten dads will be asleep on the sofa by 2pm – after consuming six pints of lager, three glasses of champagne and a creme-de-menthe’ – is a story, because it has the crucial five Ws and the H elements.
This sort of story then becomes about Christmas, booze and dads, not just Christmas. And we all like a drink at Christmas so it flicks a little switch of resonance.
This sort of intro also gives you somewhere to go with the subsequent paragraphs.
When did dad start drinking? What was on telly when he started? How long before that did he get up?
Did he sleep through the Queen’s speech?
How much does he drink over the entirety of the festive period etc etc?
AND this sort of story does not have to be told in a negative way. It’s all about the tone.
Another thing to bear in mind is that the MailOnline DO run Xmas stories, quite a few in fact.
So if you have one which you think will sit nicely on what is now the world’s biggest free news site, write it in the style they prefer.
Include up to six bullet-pointed sentences at the top of your copy.
This way you have a chance of them copying and pasting the copy – which they seem to be a huge fan of at the moment – without changing much of it.
Getting your story on a news wire is also important.
Up until around five years ago I would have said that if you were placing your story on a news wire you wouldn’t really have needed to call up and actively sell it in as well.
But these days there are so few people working on newspapers that it’s likely your story may be missed or overlooked, so I would say call up anyway.
It can do no harm, and might make the difference between success and failure.
When you call avoid introducing yourself. It won’t make a difference. They are busy people and they are under immense pressure. They don’t want to make friends.
So when they pick up the phone and bark at you, bark back. Just say ”I’ve got a story for you”. This will stop them in their tracks and they will take the time to listen to you.
Then read the intro of your story. Don’t use the words press release or survey and certainly don’t mention a brand.
Once you have read them the intro, if they haven’t turned the story down or hung up, read them the second paragraph.
If they then give you their personal email address, you are in. There is now a chance they will use your story.
If they say: ‘Send it to news@the-sun.co.uk’, that’s the bin, or it certainly was when I worked on the paper.
And remember if you get a bauble in the Daily Star give yourselves a massive pat on the back, because this time of the year any news coverage is GREAT news coverage.
Have a wonderful Christmas.
Thanks for listening.
The power of free text
“We want a holiday idea to go out in August!”, “We’d like to be considered as ownership contenders of Valentine’s Day!” “We want to send a home improvements idea out this Bank Holiday!” Sound familiar? News tends to be on a loop. There are always new angles to take but there isn’t always the opportunity to explore them. This is something that every PR professional will know.
Clients can sometimes be hell-bent on a specific angle and timings but it’s your job to make it new and interesting.
This is where the power of ‘free text’ comes in and steals the show for you and your client. A free text question, in case you're reading this feeling somewhat perplexed, is simply a question that doesn’t have any options. It’s a blank box that gives respondents the chance to tell their own story or give their own opinion rather than choose one we have given to them.
In the past we’ve asked respondents to tell us about the strangest interview questions they’ve faced – the result was a page lead in the Daily Mail and a whole host of further media coverage.
Asking the panel to give you their own personal experiences can be a daunting thought to those who haven’t tried it. When we suggest it to clients we often get asked if “the story will stand up if there isn’t a percentage?” The answer is ‘absolutely’.
While we base our stories on the results of research it’s not always essential to include the stats. You’re telling a story not writing a report.
We love stats. We'd be lost without them, so we’re not saying the free text questions are the best and only option – but they are there to make sure you’ve got something personal to add to your version of the tale. Something that nobody else will have.
Free text works for both serious and light stories. They can bring humour or they can add a more humbling point of view. You can really add a little extra ‘something’ with a free text answer. It could take up the majority of the copy or it can just give you an edge that backs up one of the stats you’ve already mentioned.
The truth is, if you’re willing to sift through hundreds of stories from respondents, you’re certain to be paid off with a few gems. You only really need three or four to really give you a good start.
Of course you’ll get several ‘don’t know’ answers and the odd questionable response but you just need to persist and look out for that one story that will give you your top line.
We’ve asked for embarrassing stories, disastrous car journeys, dangerous experiences and everything in between. Our panel never disappoints. And If worst comes to the worst and you don’t get anything you can use, at least you get to sit at your desk chuckling away at the situations people get themselves in.
The Power Behind the Rainbow Laces Campaign
Paddy Power never fail to disappoint when it comes to PR and marketing.
Previous examples of brilliance include their Luis Suarez advert, their break glass in an emergency Alex Ferguson, or their multiple world cup themed pieces.
Their latest marketing campaign however, although less comical, surpasses all previous attempts.
Working with sexuality charity Stonewall, Paddy Power have launched their#RainbowLaces campaign. The idea behind the campaign is to show solidarity for gay footballers and intolerance for homophobia in the sport by wearing, you guessed it, Rainbow Laces.
Although the campaign originally launched last year, it was accused of being merely another publicity stunt and has been redrafted with a more serious approach.
The campaign re-launched on the 8th September and has already found its feet.
The Metro produced a special Rainbow Laces edition of their paper which featured re-designs of well-known ads showing support for the campaign on behalf of dozens of household brands. The issue was even voted as Creative Review’s Ad of the Week.
Intelligent adverts being given a national showcase in the national press in which to convey their message is more than just a clever marketing trick. It’s a statement of how far society has come. It’s a reflection of what can be achieved if you have the right tools, support and platforms.
Notable examples of the above ads include Premier Inn who showed their support for the campaign with a rejigging of their brand name, changing it to Premier Out. Genius.
Smirnoff’s ad featured a rainbow coloured bottle of Smirnoff surrounded by the laces and the strapline ‘We wouldn’t change our recipe but we can change the game’.
This tied in with one of Paddy Power’s own ads which uses the line ‘it only takes two minutes to change the game’ and diagrams of how to place the laces in your boots in a style reminiscent of managerial tactic sketches.
Rather unsurprisingly Paddy Power have based all their advert designs specifically on football giving each a football punned strapline.
As well as the ‘change the game’ line above, other Paddy Power slogans include ‘now more than ever you’ve got the world at your feet’ and, possibly my favourite, ‘We don’t care which team you play for ’.
They even recruited the help of the Arsenal squad. It’s not the first time that Arsenal Football Club have shown their support for equal rights. In 2008 the club launched its ‘Arsenal for Everyone’ campaign to ‘ensure that everyone associated with the club feels an equal sense of belonging’. We live in a culture where, perhaps unjustly, footballers are idolised by a generation of young boys and girls, so who better to spread a message of equality.
The video, which shows certain Arsenal players list personal characteristics they can’t change, is worth a watch if you haven’t already. It not only reinforces the message that being gay is something you can’t change, but it also shows a level of self-deprecation and a sense of humour that, I for one, was unaware existed in football.
Highlights include the diminutive Santi Cazorla’s eyes peering over the edge of the camera unable to change his height; Mikel Arteta using more hairspray than is ecologically acceptable unable to change his ‘perfecto’ hair and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain stating that he is unable to change that he looks like a teenage mutant ninja turtle. Which he does by the way….Like, really does.
The rainbow laces campaign shows the true power of PR and marketing; using the power and influence of brands and influential personalities to spread a positive message to all age groups and demographics. My only concern is that it limits the campaign to football, after all homophobia has no place in any aspect of our culture or society but hopefully this is a step in the right direction.
Posts and Pictures, Lists and Gifs
How Social Media has Shaped Digital News
The rise and increasing influence of social media has created a tricky quandary for digital publications; how do you cater for people who are visually wired, with patience at a premium and an aversion to information overload?
When the first wave of media publications started to establish an online presence there were clear warning signs that a simple ‘copy and paste’ strategy wouldn’t work. Media consumers weren’t migrating online because they found the Telegraph’s broadsheet pages too tough to handle, nor were the inky fingers or recycling headaches motives behind a ‘digital shift’. Online consumers of media had a thirst for a new type of publication, and thus a period of adjustment began.
Social media has shaped the way we interact with the online world. It gives us a role to play which is why we talk of a digital ‘world’ in which people are participants rather than just observers, cogs in the system and so forth. In that way it is by their rules that we comply; 140 character limit on Twitter, the list-like nature of a Facebook timeline and the multimedia-led structures of Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat. Observe the elements of social media and you will begin to understand the underlying composition of digital media.
The use of visualized information has increased by 400 per cent in online literature since 1990, by 9,900 per cent on the internet since 2007 and by 142 per cent in newspapers. In short that’s because we suffer from information overload in the digital age and thus crave information that can digested quickly, like social media, and media outlets have both been born from this trend and responded to it.
BuzzFeed, for example, dubs itself as a “social news and entertainment company” that “provides shareable breaking news, original reporting, entertainment, and video across the social web” to a global audience of more than 200 million people.The site has become a world-wide phenomenon as a media outlet based on social media concepts and isn’t alone in capitalising on social-led media. And mainstream titles have started to catch up.
Lists, pictures, infographics, videos and Gifs have become a pre-requisite of most posts on sites such as the Mail Online, which is now the world’s biggest newspaper website.
One of our recent surveys commissioned on behalf of Interparcel found Brits are becoming increasingly impatient in general, with the average respondent waiting only ten seconds for a web page or link to load and only 16 seconds for a video to buffer. But as interesting as the results were, the real clever bit is what we did with them when it came to selling the story into the media. Not only did we provide solid news copy that was picked up by The Mail, The Telegraph and Metro but we added infographics, video and list material into the mix that meant it was picked up by countless online sites including The Star, MTV, BT.com, AOL and, of course, Mail Online.
The concluding remark is that if social media is shaping digital news then it must in turn shape how we do PR. At 72Point we have a growing digital team that is keeping ahead of the curve in that regard with exciting new infrastructure and a wealth of expertise, creating social campaigns for a social generation.
A Picture Paints a Thousand Words
It might not come as a surprise to you that more and more stuff is going digital. This is to some degree spurned on by the sheer speed and quality of technical advancements. It wasn’t that long ago that I had to plug my laptop into the phone line to surf the interweb. Now I can check my emails whilst on the train; 10 years ago that would have blown people’s minds, either that or I’d have been burned for being a witch.
The move to digital is also fuelled by a desire to make people’s lives more convenient. Whether it’s an app that tells you how long to cook your steak for or the e-reader which lets you have all your favourite books in one place. People are reaching out for things that make their life easier.
This trend is becoming more and more dominant in the world of press. As with books, people want all their news in one handy place and in condensed formats. In June of this year (2014), The National Readership Survey estimated a decline of 13% in the readership of national newspapers, yet an article in the Guardian reported an increase in their online readership. Digital news seems to be where it’s at.
I for one am an advocate of traditional methods; I like printed books, newspapers and magazines, but when it comes to finding out about what’s happening in the world my first port of call is to check twitter. I think it’s safe to say I’m not alone. As people get busier and busier, they want things at their fingertips, in small, easily digestible nuggets. People haven’t got time to read massive news articles anymore. You probably can’t even be bothered to read this blog, but as you’re here, you might as well persevere.
Infographics are a good example of how news and press is adapting to modern life. If people can visualise a story and take in the key points instantly, why bother reading a 3 page article on it? To put it another, more simplistic way, how many of you would rather read the Very Hungry Caterpillar over, say, Crime and Punishment?
The move to digital is also fuelled by a desire to make people’s lives more convenient.
A good example of this is the BBC. Earlier this year they announced that they would be launching daily infographics on their social media channels. In an interview with Jounalism.co.uk, the BBC’s editor of Visual Journalism, Amanda Farnsworth, stated that what they were ‘trying to deliver is a really salient, interesting nugget on a big story’. She claimed that the world of infographics was an answer to the question of covering the same story across all media platforms. Farnsworth added that “Visual journalism meets three audience challenges: distinctiveness; a modern and lively way to treat news stories; and an aid to understanding” with infographics ticking ‘all the boxes’.
It’s not just the BBC. More and more news sites are utilizing infographics to tell a story. Since the 6th October we found 8 infographics featured on the travel section of the MailOnline online, most of which were PR stories.
PR stories are one area of news that have always done well when in infographic form. As PR survey gurus… *cough* …we have first-hand experience of this. The British Airways infographic that we curated alongside our own design team, Drench, was featured on the MailOnline. Likewise the one we created for Monarch Airlines featured on Yahoo, as did our infographics for OnePoll and Tecmark. Both the Monarch and British Airways were also featured on infographic site Visual.ly, with the Monarch example making the homepage.
It is indisputable that infographics are becoming more and more popular, which is why we recommend using them in your campaigns. Visual media can transform a simple survey story into an online hit due to their readability and easily digestible content. Not only that but they can be split up into bite size chunks to either break up text or for use on social media.
We’re so enthusiastic about infographics that we have News-By-Design, our own site dedicated to showcasing both our own infographics and other excellent examples from around the web. The site is a true statement about just how popular infographics are and that is not just us showing off. The site has a huge following on both Twitter and Pinterest, including journalists and PRs within its diverse fan base.
Whether it’s a story about cats or a hard hitting piece about Ebola, News-By-Design really has covered it all. That is for one reason, and one reason only….because infographics work for every sort of story. There’s even one about why visual data works so well which is pleasingly topical. The infographics we have produced for clients have covered everything from yoghurt to back up relationships, from smartphone obsessions to vegetables. There really is no limit. All you need is an idea, some stats, and a design team……now if only there was a company that could do all that….
Periscope and the Citizen Journalist
When future historians look into their time tablets, gazing back to the 21st century in a desperate act of escapism from their damp, Kevin Costner’s Waterworld existence, they will see an age of voyeurism.
Technological advancements coupled with the rise of social media have fostered a time where we are more connected than ever before. The internet has become a window through which we view the lives of others in a weird dance of hyperbole, humblebrags, envious trolling and outright lies.
It’s a rabbit hole that we tumble deeper into every day. First you could tap out a status update and a couple of tweets. Now you can supplement that with photography on Instagram and a video snippet (snappet?) on Snapchat. Spotify and Apple Music even have social elements so we can see exactly what you were listening to while you were hunting for the best angle for your bi-daily selfie. The escalation from simple text update to multimedia running commentary has been rapid.
The next step is live video. It’s likely that you first became aware of Twitter’s live-stream app Periscope in March, about the time they were battering their competition, Meerkat, into a fine, pink mist. The app allows you to record and stream video live and direct to your followers. Followers who subscribe to your updates are notified when you start a broadcast, while those who miss out have 24 hours from the end of the stream to view your recorded content. After that it’s gone for good.
Ignoring some of the broader activities that Periscope will find itself used for – boring life updates, social shaming, pranks – it could be an interesting tool from the perspective of the citizen journalist. Smartphones and other devices made high-quality video accessible to the masses years ago, but with Periscope the delay from shoot to broadcast is completely removed. No edit, no upload bar, just raw, live footage direct to your audience.
Basically, the chances of an unsolicited live video of your bum-crack ending up broadcast to a load of strangers on Twitter just went right up.
It’s yet another tool in the growing pool of resources open to the citizen reporter. Periscope has already been used to break the news before traditional channels get a look-in, and with more people turning to social media for their news the implementation of live video seems a logical step. For the opportunist with a big following on Twitter and a knack for being in the right place at the right time, Periscope could provide a platform to make a real impact.
Our Diary Is Filling Up...
There has been a notable increase in our clients requesting news generation support in recent weeks, cementing the importance of brands staying at the front of consumers mind now more so than ever. Clever content has always played an important role in marketing strategies, but in times of uncertainty, we place ever increasing value in the publications we trust.
People have more time on their hands and are constantly checking in with their favoured publications for engaging content that provides some light relief. Publishers are also actively seeking stories that engage, and there is plenty of appetite for PR activation.
That’s where we come in.
Our calendar is filling up, and the response we've been getting shows that demand is strong. Unique opportunities present themselves daily for brands to reach their consumers in powerful and meaningful ways.
We landed 2,590 pieces of coverage over 45 projects in March alone, and that count has already increased to 55 projects for April. We are specialists in landing stories on their desired platforms and liaising with clients on the expert messaging these stories contain.
Contact us now to talk about your news generation project, support on distributions/sell-in and widespread media coverage.