Truffle Pig: Content Marketing Evolved
It’s a marketing triple entente. Advertising giant WPP, mega-bucks Millennial-magnet Snapchat and the MailOnline have joined forces to form a global digital content agency: Truffle Pig.
The announcement was made on board the swanky MailOnline Yacht during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, where John Steinberg (CEO, Daily Mail North America), Martin Sorrell (founder of WPP) and Evan Spiegel (co-founder of Snapchat) took a select audience through their new venture.
Here are the takeaways:
- Truffle Pig will focus on native advertising
- This means they will specialise in socially sharable stuff, namely video content, images, GIFs and infographics, as well as developing audiences on social media for brands
- There’s an emphasis on delivery. Initially the test grounds for content delivery will be the MailOnline, Elite Daily and Snapchat
- They’re going after Millennials in particular. Snapchat, with its established base of younger users, will play a key role in reaching their targeted demographic.
“It’s an evolution not a revolution”
WPP and the Daily Mail are the safe, solid foundations; established clients to give Truffle Pig a strong launch, expertise in advertising and news delivery and, in the case of the MailOnline, a deep understanding of creating shareable, compulsive content (let’s face it, we’ve all fallen prey to the sidebar of shame).
Steinberg describes Truffle Pig as “an evolution not a revolution,” an incremental improvement in how content agencies should operate. Having advertiser, content creator and distributor working together as one will surely refine the blueprint on how digital agencies work internally. But the exciting side of things, the delivery of the content, is where Snapchat has the potential to make a real impact.
Earlier this year Snapchat became an advertising platform for brands. If you have the app downloaded and check your snaps now, chances are you will have a branded snap waiting for your long-press. Accepting branded content was a major step in monetising the platform. Truffle Pig represents the next stage, adding news content and opening up the service to even more brands.
And it won’t just be the way content agencies work undergoing a process of evolution. If Spiegel gets his way the Snapchat platform will continue to evolve to suit its new business purposes. Particular emphasis has been placed upon use of “the vertical format” aka. vertical video. This is full-screen video viewed on smartphones and devices. The team at Snapchat are already devising ways to maximise this screen real estate, including the ability to host multiple video feeds on the same screen at the same time.
Increasingly news is being placed in the hands of the consumer. We have become more discerning about the content we consume. The news we choose is curated to our interests and viewed on the platforms we prefer. Facebook has implemented native advertising for years and has an integrated news project in the works, Apple is planning to launch its own news curation product, and now Snapchat has been recognised for its potential to place content.While video is having its day in the sun Snapchat is poised to be an important format for audience/newsroom collaboration. You need only look at the events in Charleston last week to see the potential of Snapchat in frontline reporting, an aspect that will undoubtedly feed into their work with WPP and the MailOnline in the future.
Apple's Swift response to Taylor provides mutually beneficial PR
Yesterday, in an unexpected turn of events, Apple caved after receiving a bold request relating to its new franchise, Apple music. The most successful and valuable company on the planet submitted to an open letter from a 25 year old ex-country singer from Reading, Pennsylvania. But Taylor Swift isn’t any 25 year old. With over 100 million followers on social media, a back catalogue of annoyingly catchy tunes and millions of YouTube views, Taylor Swift had the power to go head to head with the $700 billion company with the support of other artists.
Swift’s open letter on Tumblr requested that Apple do a U-turn on their decision to not provide artists with any royalties from the first three months of the new Apple Music streaming service. Apple responded via social media within a matter of hours agreeing with Swifts stance and undergoing a complete U-turn on their original trial period policy.
Three things strike me about this story. First how quickly Apple responded; second that they gave into the request, and third how much decent exposure (sorry to steal 72Point's marketing slogan here) this has given both parties involved.
Firstly, let’s look at the speed of the response. I truly believe this is the key to what has ultimately led to such good public relations for both Swift and Apple. The rapidity of the response shows a total commitment from Apple to get things right and to emphasise the fact they want to be on the side of the artists from day one. It’s a shame they didn’t make this decision initially, but I don’t think going from bad cop to good cop has harmed their latest venture. In fact I think it’s done them every bit of good.
Perhaps the response was quick because Apple was already expecting it. Also, there’s a case to be made that Swift’s record label (Big Machine Records) may have been a driving force, as contractually, record labels generally have at least some power over what artists can do. The cynical side of me thinks that this publicised agreement could have been a pre-planned way for Apple to publicise Apple music, especially because Swift has previously indicated that she’s not keen on streaming, making her the perfect candidate to make this story viral.
Similarly with Swift, had this episode drawn out over a few weeks, we may have forgotten all about the fact it was her that complained in the first place (further promoting the idea that it's one big PR stunt). However, the pixels on news sites had only just loaded onto our iPads and iPhones with the news that Swift had taken Apple on,when almost immediately, Apple had backed down. Swift went from being a manufactured pop star to a guardian of the music industry in a matter of hours, with her partner Calvin Harris and other artists showing their support across social media.
Secondly, Apple backed down without any sign of a struggle. Apple are famous for holding firm with their commercial decisions, especially in the early days of digital music, as they were offering music artists a new way to sell their music to millions of people across the world. Apple created a digital space that artists weren’t ready for. The late Steve Jobs knew this and didn’t buckle for requests to increase the cost per song on iTunes.
Fast forward to 2015 and here we have a music streaming market that is competitive, established, and where artists are starting to flex their muscle to protect themselves financially. Apple is new to the game, and they appear to understand just how important it is to come across fair and on the artist’s side. So whereas in the early days Jobs could put his foot down and that was that, now it’s the turn of the artist to regain some power within the changing face of the music industry.
Lastly, let's discuss image. After all as we’re a PR company so we should probably talk about PR. Apple historically has sold products, with the obvious exception of music or films on iTunes. Because of that, they can control our experience and attitudes towards those products. In the music streaming business, this is the first true service that Apple will be proving to millions of people. We’ll be paying a monthly subscription in return for music and an experience with Connect and Beats 1.
Apple knows that it's vital that they start Apple Music with the right footing. The saying “you only get one chance to make a first impression” really rings true here. Apple knew this was their chance to project a positive, collaborative, respectful and caring image onto Apple Music. They grabbed it with both hands. Sometimes in business you can under promise and over deliver. Apple hasn’t over delivered here, but they have certainly projected an image of being understanding and on the artist’s sides.
As for Taylor Swift, we can’t underestimate how huge the impact of this coverage has made to her current image and her future career within the music industry. Not only her image towards fans and the general music loving public, but her music peers and other influential figures within the industry. The biggest news story I’ve seen to date on Taylor Swift was her dating Harry Styles (among others), so I find it noteworthy that she is now achieving column inches by taking on (and beating) the most valuable company in the world.
Swift put her neck (and possibly reputation) on the line to go head-to-head with Apple. Particularly risky bearing in mind how stubborn Apple can be when meeting opposition over their business decisions.
However, she has come out on top and many in the industry are calling her a shrewd businesswoman after this episode. Already recently named in the Forbes power women list, I’m sure she’ll be moving up the charts in more ways than one after this victory.
Apple and Facebook lock horns; But are they saying the same thing?
The 72Point report on media consumption released last week concluded with one sweeping statement: Forget Citizen Journalism; Generation Editor is the next big thing.
And, as if by magic, tech giant Apple has put the proof in the pudding by launching a news app that puts the distribution of news directly into the hands of the consumer.
Yesterday at the Worldwide Developers Conference Apple announced the release of Apple News, a Flipboard-esque curator of news, in its iOS 9 rollout. The launch follows Facebook Instant Articles, which speeds the process of loading news articles on the social network and is tipped to transform the way users consume news.
Apple News is set to work in a similar way. Like Instant Articles it will include articles specifically built for the app, but it can also pull in content from elsewhere on the internet. Susan Prescott, vice president of product marketing, told delegates at the conference that the app will segment the latest stories, articles and posts into over a million topics in order to put the consumer in charge.
Like the streaming platform Spotify, which is entirely predicated on preference, readers will be able to follow all their favourite news sources as well as using search to discover new sources. Effectively, this makes consumers agents in the media cycle, choosing who to follow based on the content they’re most keen on receiving.
It is a shift that is already grounded on social media. According to the Generation Editor report, almost a quarter of people say they have friends or follow people who they regard as authorities for news and almost one in five (19 per cent) say they trust their friends to source news. The average time we wait before unfollowing or unfriending a news source we no longer find useful is 22.3 days, which underscores how we have evolved to minimise the amount of superfluous content heading our way.
Device preference is also an increasingly focal topic. A massive 95 per cent of people now consume media on multiple devices, with smartphones (62 per cent) the most popular device, followed by laptops (57 per cent), tablets (39 per cent) and desktops (33 per cent). Apple’s news app includes a new “news format” that caters to our desire for multi-platform content by allowing for custom fonts, multi-touch gestures and layouts that scale from phones to tablets.
Whether Facebook and Apple’s new apps will take off is still to be seen, Apple is months away from having a final product which means the consumer experience is still being developed. But the move signifies a big shift in distribution from individual publishers to apps that offer a blend of their content tailored to consumer preference.
Click here to view and download the full Digital Report.
Reinventing the Wire
In 1978, a small news and pictures agency was founded in Bristol providing news and pictures to local and national press.
Almost 40 years on, SWNS is the biggest independent news wire in the UK supplying some of the world’s most hard-hitting content to major newspapers, magazines, broadcasters and websites employing more than 100 editorial staff across offices in London, Plymouth, Cambridge, Birmingham, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Yorkshire.
The commercial success built on the back of SWNS’s growth is evidenced by the wealth of coverage secured for our clients on a day-to-day basis. Using the first campaign as a case in point, Harris Brushes were able to secure coverage in the Daily Mail, the Daily Express and the Mirror, among others, because national and regional press trust our content and trust that we can supply them with material that works across all their platforms.
But the digital generation has shaken up the media industry. Our research revealed 76 per cent of people now consume media ‘digitally’ and almost one in ten consume more than 16 stories a day, with the average Brit consuming 5.9 media stories a day.
Our thirst for media and our ability to digest various forms of media - 95 per cent of respondents said they consume media on multiple platforms 48 per cent take a multi-channel approach to media - has given birth to a wealth of new digital platforms that aren’t easily serviced by the traditional news wire.
Which is why we reinvented it.
Bloggers, vloggers, digital editors and influencers can now source content on our new digital news wire that caters exclusively for online publications. The emphasis is on rich, visual content and news releases that encourage social sharing, with news copy, images, audio and video bundled into one downloadable file.
The wire has been launched as a one-stop-shop for editors on the hourly hunt for news, with a simple, four-click solution to capturing the story and publishing it. This ensures that we appeal to time-poor bloggers, editors and influencers by delivering content in a timely manner.
Since its launch, hundreds of users have registered with the Digital Hub for survey news, lifestyle content and releases from across the web and social media. With a target to get that number into the thousands in the near future, the hub is steadily becoming the go-to place for digital media outlets.
For 72Point clients, that means that not only do they have a pick of the national press, but also of the increasingly influential online publications that have surfaced in its wake. With the lion’s share of media consumers taking a ‘multi’ approach to media, having all the bases covered is a surefire means of receiving unparalleled coverage.
To find out more about the Digital Hub, click here.
To download our Generation Editor report, click here.
Generation Editor: a report by 72Point
The marriage of social media and mobile technology has opened the door to round-the-clock media in our lives. According to Crowdtap research, individuals aged 18 spend an average of 17.8 hours a day with different types of media, often simultaneously handling multiple media types. But does that indicate a deluge, or an evolution?
Our report, Generation Editor, has revealed we have adapted to the 24/7, immersive media environment by developing editorial controls and filters. Consumers have become agents in the media cycle, choosing who to follow based on the content they’re most keen on receiving and becoming more powerful as a result.
Our survey of 7,500 UK adults shows that the perception that consumers can’t cope with a wealth of content needs to be challenged.
Some 56 per cent of people say they don’t feel bombarded by content or messaging and more than a third (36 per cent) say they feel more in control of the news they receive since owning a smartphone or tablet with only 11 per cent saying they feel less in control. Seven in ten say social media has made it easier to access news, with more than four in five 18-24 year-olds and three-quarters of female respondents saying they feel social media has brought them closer to the media.
The study, based on the responses of 7,500 people, shows that the perception that consumers can’t cope with a wealth of content needs to be challenged. Using avenues such as social media, we have greater control over who our media ‘suppliers’ are. Almost a quarter of people say they have friends or follow people who they regard as authorities for news and almost one in five (19 per cent) say they trust their friends to source news. A quarter still rely on media professionals, but a similar amount (23 per cent) say they rely on a mixture of both journalists and friends.
This is a shift we have termed Citizen Editorship, a movement predicated on choice and preference. Media consumers now demand the liberty of choosing which platform or channel they consume media on. A massive 95 per cent of respondents said they consume media on multiple devices and almost half (48 per cent) take a multi-channel approach to media. On social media, we only wait 22.3 days before unfollowing or unfriending a news source we no longer find useful.
For media professionals, infiltrating these editorial controls means delivering flexible, relevant content that transcends channels and platforms. With social media an increasingly important part of the media mix, it is essential that a variety of media is delivered in order to reach intended audiences.
Multi-Platform Content (MPC) is a must in this current climate, which is why it is at the heart of everything we do at 72Point.
Marketing to the Millennial Mum
Mothers, we've all got one, unless you’re a marmorkreb. Facebook has just reminded me that it is my Mum’s birthday today, triggering the annual panic-order of flowers which is well on its way to becoming a tradition.
Still, between the ‘terrible son’ guilt and the ‘these daffodils are a bit pricey’ remorse I was reminded of this report from Hill+Knowlton on the growing influence of the Mummy blogger.
If you've just opened that link and heaved a sigh at the 11 pages in front of you, fear not, here’s the TL;DR (too long; didn't read) version:
- Mums are responsible for 70% of household spending
- ‘The Mummy Pound’ accounts for $20 trillion of consumer spending worldwide
- 23% of Mummy bloggers think that “a lot of marketing by brands that target Mums is not relevant or ineffective’
- 93% want to work with brands but only 13% believe agencies understand how to approach and work with Mummy bloggers
The Mummy bloggers have earned the trust and respect of their audience, but only a small percentage of brands have cracked how to take advantage of this. How do you effectively market to Millennial Mums?
The first thing to consider is that the modern mother is very different to my dear old Mum, patiently awaiting her belated bouquet of daffs. 75% of new Mums are Millennials, making for a hellish Venn diagram-intersection of tough demographics to approach. Essentially, the tried and tested rules of marketing to Generation X are becoming less effective with every passing year.
And it’s all social media’s fault.
You’re a Millennial Mum. On social media, all your friends are having a better time than you. They’re prettier, wealthier and better-dressed. Their selfies are flawless, they've got 20k followers on Instagram and their latest blog was entertaining yet informative.
Worse still, brands are pushing products on you from their Facebook pages like you’re a confident, well-established Gen X baby boomer. These guys took on the world and won with their entrepreneurial spirit. Meanwhile you were nurtured, educated and set on the world with fragile dreams only to be flattened by the grim reality that ‘not everyone gets a trophy’.
It all comes together to create an ideal perception of motherhood that is unrealistic for the Millennial Mum.
This calls for a more understanding mode of marketing. In a world where new Mums are straining under mounting social and economic pressure, brands that provide an escape are more appealing than those perpetuating the Gen X ideal.
59% of Millennial Mums favoured advertising with a more realistic edge, showing real-life situations using real Mums, while 57% looked for humour in the ads. If you are in the business of marketing to mums then shaping your campaigns around these characteristics could be the key to the Millennial Mum market.
And if you’re approaching Mummy bloggers with your content be sure to do your research first. 71% hear from up to 20 different brands a week yet 80% of the pitches they receive end up going unused. Spend some time exploring each blog, check out their social media channels and consider how you could collaborate with the blogger in the future. All the extra effort will be worth it when your content is posted by a prominent Mummy blogger, perfectly tailored to suit the Millennial Mum audience.
The Joy of Print
Having spent my entire career working in digital media, it may seem like a counterintuitive move to eulogise the great tactile thrill I get from thumbing through my favourite print journal - each new page the ultimate soul-cleansing elixir.
But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my now scarily close to 40 years on this planet, it’s that whatever I’m saying, doing and thinking, there’s someone else in the world going through exactly the same experience – perspectives on print’s function and importance are beginning to converge.
Scratching around for any advantage to being ancient, I can remember the birth of content marketing programmes, when print programmes were being hastily transitioned to ‘all media’ equivalents with a view to binning print altogether.
Though video, visual and bitesize social content has since thrived and become an essential mainstay of any marketing mix, print has miraculously survived, much in the format I hoped it would.
Limited run, custom-bound, meticulously crafted and curated magazines are all around us, ranging from cultural beacons like Oh Comely to hybrid travel and fashion mags like Suitcase and Cereal, via the literary darkness of The Alarmist and Australia’s greatest ever export, Dumbo Feather.
As ever, a large factor in this particular pleasure is the chase, with coquettish glimpses of new titles catapulted into my social feeds on a daily basis – Avaunt being the latest, a beautifully-shot bible for global adventurers.
The key difference between then and now for print publishers is innovation – magazines are being marketed and distributed in ways only the social age could facilitate. This is a true marriage of analogue and digital – and it’s exciting.
Take Stack, for example, the subscription service that handpicks the best independent magazines from around the world relevant to your interests and delivers them to your door, but trains its marketing crosshairs on social, digital and radio.
Also consider Airbnb’s initial foray into print, Pineapple, which has been used by the brand to unite its community with an elegance the social web can’t compete with. Hosts and travellers collaborate on stories that form the magazine’s editorial spine, creating an axis of expedition and anthropology that digital publishing would struggle to articulate.
With big names in youth publishing like Hypetrak getting their print on, not to mention Tyler, the Creator and Frank Ocean releasing print magazines alongside their latest albums, I’m beginning to wonder whether print could actually outlive websites?
With social content hosting and custom print in the ascendency, traditional websites have never looked more clunky and anachronistic.
The Social Media Election. Was this it?
Five years ago, at the time of the last general election, I was studying for my undergraduate degree. For the first time ever I felt the election buzz. Although I personally wasn’t that interested, I found myself surrounded by people who couldn’t shut up about it, and everyone, of course, was voting Lib Dem.
This time around things are different. I’m back at home, fully employed and paying attention due to my own genuine interest. This is in no small part down to the role of Social Media (and hours of TV satire and a determination to not let full time muppet and general pain in the arse, Nigel Farage have any sort of power). The role of social media in this election has been much anticipated. We’ve already seen how social media can be used to reflect the way votes are likely to go in our own light-hearted infographic. However it is the use of social media to attract and persuade voters and to promote the campaigns of individual parties which has stirred up all the fuss.
The 2015 election has been dubbed ‘the social media election’. This was partly due to the speculation and anticipation due to the rise in Social media’s popularity over the last five years. 5 million people have joined Twitter alone in the years since Britain last went to the polls. This has been key for political parties. It meant that parties and politicians had a direct way of speaking to people without having to trawl the streets. This was good for two reasons. Firstly it meant that the powerful elite of our society didn’t have to go into areas where people shop in Aldi rather than Fortnum and Masons. Secondly, it meant that they could target specific demographics at the touch of a button. In particular they could target youths, or as they’re known in Westminster, ‘bloody hoodies’. Youths are not a group politicians normally go near for fear of being mugged or stabbed but now they could talk to them without fear of physical contact.
The televised debates in the last election boosted turn out by 65%, but only 44% of young people (aged 18-24) turned out to vote. It would therefore be amiss of parties not to take advantage of a primarily young person’s medium to reach this audience. It was revealed fairly early on that our current lord and master, Mr Cameron and his Conservatives had spent £100,000 pounds on Facebook advertising, ten times that of Labour and 1000 times that of UKIP. A recent article in the Guardian stated that Facebook has the potential to reach 9.2 million young people with one post and with UK adults spending a minimum of 1.33 hours on social media, spending obscene amounts on these platforms isn’t exactly a bad idea.
But it’s not just paid promotion and it’s not just Facebook. Politicians have taken to Twitter to personally promote key party policies (or at least their social media managers have). This means for the first time in living history, politicians have been forced into giving short concise answers and policy announcements.
Parties have also embraced the ways of YouTube. As you can imagine this means a lot of clips of speeches and cringe worthy videos of politicians looking to camera giving heart felt speeches “to you, the voter” *VOM*. The Conservatives channel is particularly bad for this. The video of David Cameron welcoming you to the channel actually makes me physically look away as if I were watching a man on Embarrassing Bodies with some disgusting skin complaint. Labour’s channel is marginally more watchable. It displays a great deal more personality. For example the featured video is of Miliband playing pool with snooker favourite Ronnie O’Sullivan. In fact celebrity support is something that Labour play on quite heavily with their channel featuring videos from people such as Martin Freeman, Steve Coogan and Jo Brand. The Lib Dem videos on the other hand focus very much more on the general public. Their featured video is the Clegg Meister visiting a school, followed by a video of him visiting animals. Everyone together now…awwwww.
Despite this use of social media many say that the ‘Social media election’ never came to fruition. The build-up has even been described as ‘routine, predictable and over cautious’. If that weren’t bad enough much of it has been unpleasant.
This is particularly evident on Twitter . Twitter as a PR and marketing tool can be and has been successful. For example a recent Twitter campaign prompted the petition to get leaders from smaller parties involved in the leaders’ debates. However much of the party campaigning consists of mocking and bitching about other party leaders. A perfect example of this is the Twitter feed of the one and only Boris Johnson. Bo-Jo’s feed consists mainly of jibes at Miliband, with his tweet referring to Miliband’s wall of policies being a personal highlight (see image). 
Obviously all parties’ campaigns feature a certain number of put downs but this election is being referred to as one of the ugliest campaigns in history. One therefore has to wonder whether Twitter is doing nothing more than making things worse. After all with Twitter you get trolls. The only thing that gets met through the Twitter bitching is the hope that there is a Malcom Tucker figure behind the scenes taking control of people’s mobiles and blasting them with a particularly taboo outburst.
I think, on reflection though, social media has played a huge part this time round. Yes it might not have been ‘the Social media election’ that we were all promised but it’s certainly a step in the right direction. If nothing else, it has shown how seriously we should take social media as a platform and the benefits of social media advertising. That’s something businesses can take out of this election regardless of the outcome. If Twitter promotion and campaigning is good enough to get you to run the country it’s good enough to get you some business and get your message out there.
Furthermore Stephen Coleman, professor of political communication at the University of Leeds, commented that traditional methods of party promotion, primarily newspapers, are being disregarded time and time again by readers who are desensitised to it. This also applies to the mounds and mounds of party leaflets we get through our doors which seems to have reached frankly ridiculous levels this year. Therefore it makes sense that other methods of campaigning should be introduced, if only to pump a little fresh blood into the election build up. Remember the last election, the so called ‘TV election’ that saw the first ever live TV debates that boosted voter turn out by over half? What I’m essentially saying is that when it comes to getting your message out there you can no longer just rely on one platform to do so. It’s very much a multi-platform world that we live in and as a result campaigns, political or not, can only benefit from multi-platform content. Just remember to make it nice. The place for trolling is in fairytales. Not the internet. Or the Hopkins residence.
(All of the above views are mine, not the company’s…or are they?! Yes, they are.
Video content is having its day in the sun.
Video is the media type of the moment. Five years ago your average online news article would consist of text and images, but pay a visit to the Mail Online today, the world’s leading online newspaper, and you will see we have moved on considerably from then.
It is a response to our insatiable appetite for video content. Apps like Meerkat and Periscope are bringing us the ability to broadcast our lives, er, live, to the voyeuristic joy of intrigued strangers. Vine, Snapchat and Instagram give us bitesize video updates from our friends, while most smartphones and tablets are capable of streaming HD video, meaning there’s rarely a reason not to give a video a click.
And what better way to digest information. At the heart of any content marketing strategy is a key message that the content seeks to deliver to its audience, and the right video is more effective at delivering this message than any text or image-based medium. We are lazy beasts after all, and being fed our information through a video stream is much easier than having to deduce our own meaning from pesky words.
For brands, the future of marketing to an online audience will be video-based. Flexible, sharable and engaging, the power of video hasn’t gone unnoticed by Twitter. Their new Promoted Video service (aka native video) has been in beta testing since August 2014 and promises a fast, slick way to promote your video content on the social network.
Previously, promoting video on Twitter required a link to an external site where the video was hosted, such as Youtube or Vimeo, eating into your precious 140 characters and requiring an additional click or tap from the viewer. In an age of shortening attention spans and information overload, an extra click can mean the difference between a solid engagement or a more nebulous ‘impression’. With native video your content is hosted directly within your Twitter newsfeed and is available to be viewed by your audience with a single click/tap.
What is most appealing about this from a digital marketer’s perspective is the analytics this will offer. The new video analytics will be featured within Twitter Ads (alongside the usual metrics and measurements) and will track views, video percentage completion and other data breakdowns. This keeps your entire Twitter campaign all in one place without having to delve into analytics from an external site. This allows for deeper insight and easier reporting, which will help to clearly demonstrate the value of producing video content.
Lessons in Storytelling: Aesop, Samuel Johnson and Prehistoric Life
Storytelling isn’t new – as a form of communication, it’s existed for over 40,000 years.
It’s been a durable format, fulfilling its purpose from rock painting to hoop dancing, mythology to fables - all the way to the printing press and our current marriage of mobile tech and social media.
However, the core principles of telling a good story haven’t changed in all this time, and it’s worth raiding this 40,000 year legacy to see what we can learn from the best and boldest storytelling practitioners
Here are three such examples, with my thoughts on how to apply these creative lessons from history to modern news generation, branded content and publishing strategies.
Cave paintings
Cave paintings date from prehistoric times – the oldest examples, found in Indonesia and Australia, were created over 35,000 years ago.
Though they may have religious or ceremonial connotations, the primary purpose of these paintings were to communicate news, warnings and stories of heroism to the next group of settlers in the area.
In spite of being distributed disparately throughout Europe, Asia and Australasia, most cave paintings are remarkably similar and share characteristics such as drawings of animals, depictions of weather patterns and the use of human handprints.
Cave paintings weren’t always located at the mouth of the cave – they were sometimes found in less accessible locations were only the initiated would know where to find them.
What brand storytellers can learn from prehistoric culture:
Universal truths and commonalities will resonate – young vs old, heroic deeds, the weather, health warnings….certain story angles will always get people talking and sharing. Any story that creatively incorporates these angles will attract more readers, greater shares, higher ad revenues and most importantly, the approval of journalists and editors.
Only stories worth telling are worth sharing – impact stories were written in the caves, there was no chit-chat or filler! If you’re three paragraphs into your story and starting to run out of steam, then it’s probably not worth telling. Consider handing it over to a journalist instead, who could help to provide that newsworthy edge.
Identify your audience then locate them – stories were left in caves for future generations, while tailored stories were painted only in areas where specific people (perhaps the young and agile, or the strongest) were likely to go exploring and find them. Before telling your story, think about who you’re talking to, where they are and which of their behaviours you’re trying to affect – then shape and distribute the story to meet these criteria.
Aesop
Aesop was an ancient Greek fabulist and storyteller - a body of work attributed to him is famously collected as Aesop’s Fables.
His existence has been questioned as none of his work survives, but numerous tales credited to him have been gathered across the centuries in a storytelling tradition that continues to this day.
The fables, morality tales that originate from the 5th century BC, have enduring qualities such as relatable characters (often animals with human characteristics) and universal, everyday dilemmas that still form the backbone of many modern movies/novels.
They also provided us with numerous maxims, such as ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ (The Fox and the Lion), ‘one person’s meat is another’s poison’ (The Ass and the Grasshopper) and ‘slow and steady wins the race’ (The Hare and the Tortoise).
Lessons we can learn from Aesop:
Relatable characters endure – find archetypes, case studies and relatable majorities (65% of Brits prefer ketchup to brown sauce) that mirror your target audience and your stories will be shared in greater volume and travel further.
Great stories outlive their sell-by date – uncover a story with a major hook or unearth a new, universal truth that a crowd can agree with, and your story will outlive its shelf-life and earn you more residual coverage.
The joy of the substantiated myth – Aesop may or may not have existed, but tales of his existence were substantiated by some fairly heavyweight sources – not least Aristotle and Herodotus. When creating your story, give some thought to who will endorse it by word-of-mouth in offices, shops, buses and over the garden fence – then shape the story to their taste and publish it in a place they’ll find it
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson – the most distinguished man of letters in British history – was the poet, essayist and moralist whose nine years of research gave us the inaugural English dictionary in 1755.
Though a sufferer of what would now be diagnosed as Tourette’s Syndrome, Johnson, a powerful orator, critic and quick-witted raconteur, attracted many pretenders to his throne.
Each week, Johnson and his entourage would meet at gentleman’s clubs to participate in what was essentially the earliest form of a rap battle, where a crowd would watch fellow academics go anecdote-for-anecdote with Johnson and try to outdo his stories for flair, originality and wit.
However, with payoffs such as ‘a man who’s tired of London is tired of life’ and ‘love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise’, Johnson always retained his crown us the ultimate literary end-of-level boss.
How we incorporate Johnson into our comms strategy:
Wit wins – there’s no two ways about it, the ability to make someone laugh is a powerful tool. Add a little humour to someone’s day with your story and you take a significant step towards engaging them with the brand associated with the story.
Original stories travel – with a proliferation of stories published daily, your angle needs to be unique – uncovering a new trend/behaviour or simply putting a new spin on a familiar tale will give your story cut through against the daily noise.
Great storytellers draw a crowd – Johnson drew a crowd based on reputation alone – tell consistently entertaining stories to the right audience in the right location and they will begin to proactively seek you out in the news.