Open_Issue 1 by Content Marketing Association

the magazine from the Content Marketing Association _ issue one

Are you sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin… Once upon a time, there lived a bird. What the bird wanted more than anything else was to be heard by the flock, to speak to those who might like to hear what it had to say. But his voice was lost in the chatter of everyone else. Then, one day, the bird planted the seed of an idea, which grew so that his voice could be heard in many different ways across the land. Through this simple action he made many loyal friends who came to hear his story. The key to effective content is storytelling – engaging the customer in a developing dialogue that rewards their interest with entertainment and emotion. Get your customers emotionally involved with your brand and you’ll not only have their attention, you’ll have their custom. Good content is now a currency, where brands and organisations create value for their customers in return for their engagement. Brands that fail to enter into this value exchange with their customers will find themselves lagging behind, as customers turn to organisations that provide them with more relevant and compelling content. The bird realised that using different ways of speaking to his friends had got his story noticed, but he also knew he had to keep discovering and evolving new methods of doing this to keep the flock interested.

2 3

04_OPEN / WINTER 2012

of industry leaders to give brands insight into their target consumers. 5 _ Andy Hobsbawm is founder and CMO of EVRYTHNG, a company that makes products smart by connecting them to the web.

5 ILLUSTRATION_KASPER JENSEN

CONTRIBUTORS 1 _ Melanie Howard, co-founder and Chair of global trends service Future Foundation. 2 _ Jon King, UK MD of Story Worldwide, the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading post-advertising agency. 3 _ Catherine Toole, founder and CEO of digital copywriting specialists Sticky Content, who also runs content strategy seminars for Econsultancy. 4 _ Nick Morris, founder of behavioural insights agency Canvas8, which harnesses the expertise

OPEN

Over the past year, one of the most frequent discussions I’ve had with people in the media and marketing industries revolves around the subject of what content marketing actually is, what lifts it above other forms of marketing, and the definition of great content. The answer I always give them is that content is defined by its ability to tell a good story. So for this launch issue of Open, we decided there could be no better or more relevant theme than ‘Storytelling’. Despite the explosion of online publishing, social media and the ubiquitous blog, the art of telling a great story is one that’s still admired by anyone wishing to momentarily swap their real worlds for imaginary ones. For extra clarity on ‘how to blipp’, you can also include the optional simple 3-step Becoming engrossed in aprocess story, into whether it’s a 90,000-word psychological thriller or a your artwork. This can be adapted if required. series of online films designed to sell cars, is more vital today than it’s ever been. Stories offer an escape, an opportunity to think about other situations, other cultures, other lives, and the people with the talent to turn ideas into stories are some of the most powerful BLIPP...media and publishing industries. FILL people SCREEN in the marketing, IMAGE JUMPS WITH IMAGE TO LIFE!are here, within these pages. Every one of our contributors knows Some of those people – some know about the business of selling stories, others the creation of on ‘how to blipp’, you can also include the optional simpleabout 3-step stories process into is can be adapted if required. DOWNLOAD stories, and some even understand the science behind people’s connection with stories. BLIPPAR So find a relaxing chair, turn the page, and I’ll leave you in their capable hands…

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20 Author, author A pair of bestselling writers reveal the tricks of the storytelling trade 22 Catherine Toole The CEO of Sticky Content on why editorial talent will always be in demand 26 Seven steps to the perfect story Our exclusive infographic on creating the ideal editorial journey

30 Andy Hobsbawm The CMO of Evrythng explains how all products will soon be digitally connected 34 Matthew Guest Why print should still be at the heart of every campaign by Deloitte Digital’s senior strategist 36 Nick Morris The founder of behavioural insights agency Canvas8 introduces The 10 Principles of Engagement 40 Melanie Howard The world’s top five emerging trends by the Executive Chair of Future Foundation 44 CMA Members Directory All the members, all the details, all the contacts 50 Stephanie McGovern BBC Breakfast’s Business Presenter on what makes a compelling early-morning story

28 How the bird got heard All you need to know about the International Content Marketing Summit 2012

Editor_Sam Upton Design_Ian Findlay Managed by the CMA_Patrick Fuller, CEO, Julia Hutchison, COO, Amanda Burrell, Gemma Rainer, Luke Tyson Illustrations_YCN www.ycnonline.com Print_Newnorth, CMA’s official print partner www.newnorth.co.uk Published by_the Content Marketing Association www.the-cma.com All content within Open is also available to view and share online. Just go to www.the-cma.com/openmagazine and choose the content you wish to access.

WINTER 2012 / OPEN_05

Blippar call to action (CTA) When using blippar for your campaign, we request that you use our CTA as shown below. The positioning of this CTA along with a clear instruction on your artwork will be critical to the success of the campaign. The blippar CTA should not be modiďŹ ed apart from the descriptive text that sits underneath the phone icon. This can be modiďŹ ed to whatever the user needs to blipp i.e. advert, poster, tv screen etc.

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SEE,TOUCH READ,WATCH INTERACT DISCOVER EXPERIENCE 02

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Every year, the content marketing industry works on behalf of thousands of brands, creating and distributing millions of pieces of content, ranging from inspirational magazines and groundbreaking websites to stunning mobile apps and jaw-dropping videos. Here are some of the best

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01MAZDA2 VS THE WALL OF DEATH MAZDA REDWOOD Car manufacturer Mazda wanted to raise awareness of its ‘Defy Convention’ brand message and to showcase the lightweight, agile Mazda2, so Redwood came up with the idea of driving the Mazda2 around a Wall of Death. The team spent months working with the people at Demon Drome to prepare for the stunt and produced a series of films teasing the event, showing the epic spectacle and also behind the scenes. Launched on the Facebook pages and YouTube channels of key Mazda markets, the films generated a huge amount of social chatter and led to many thousands of views across the world. After just one week, the films had cumulative views of over half a million, spreading across the globe, with websites in almost every language showing the film. > To watch the film, Blipp one of the images top left or search ‘Mazda2 Wall of Death’ on YouTube.

02 CLUB WEMBLEY JOURNAL CLUB WEMBLEY SEVEN Club Wembley Journal is an annual publication produced for members of Wembley Stadium’s premium seat programme. For the third issue, photographer Nick Ballon was commissioned to shoot a set of portraits of seven Wembley FA Cup Final heroes, including such legendary names as Bert

Trautmann, Ricky Villa and Charlie George. The result is a beautifully observed set of portraits. Nick’s keen observation, supported by plenty of negotiation and organisation – whether it was Ricky Villa at home north of Buenos Aires or the reclusive Charlie George on the streets of North London – resulted in an absorbing and memorable set of images.

03 JOHN LEWIS EDITION JOHN LEWIS JOHN BROWN As the UK’s most popular fashion title, John Lewis Edition works fantastically well for its loyal readership, as well as its client, delighting almost half a million readers every issue and delivering sales results that go way beyond expectation. These results include: • Average value sales uplift of 65%. • Volume sales uplift of 32% per issue. • Average reading time of 30 minutes. • 70% of readers saying the title prompts them to visit more departments.

WINTER 2012 / OPEN_ 07

Olympics costs//

BALANCE SHEET SOURCES OF FUNDING AND WHERE THE MONEY’S BEEN SPENT – AND SAVED llustration by Francesco Muzzi

The public sector funding package

Raised by LOCOG in sponsorship

.16 n

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Greater London Authority and London Development Agency

£354

£318

The estimated cost of meeting assessed risks, leaving £36m

THE OLYMPIC DELIVERY AUTHORITY

£41m

UNFORS

EEN

Handball

COSTS

£86m

VeloPark

£80m DLR

Stratford Regional Station

Projected savings since the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review

10 most expensive constructions

November 2007

7 70

£1

Olympic Village

£4

Olympic Stadium

,21

£86

n £93

Media Centre and Olympic Village

£897m

£1.038bn

£857m

£1.076bn

Transport

Venues

£2.095bn

£1,809bn

December 2011 Parkwide projects

The ODA’s forecasted final expenditure

Income from the sale of the Olympic Village to the Qatari Diar/ Delancey joint venture

£132m

£121m

Aquatics Centre IBC/MPC

£557.5m

North London Line

BIG BUILD ANTICIPATED FINAL COSTS

53m £2 m 89 £2 m 38 £4

£107m

£7.189bn £6.856bn

£8.099bn The amount originally available to the ODA, which was revised to £7.321bn in the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review

Site preparation and infrastructure

875

£553m

Basketball

%£

Uncommitted funds (contingency) remaining in the public sector funding package, as of December 2011

Anticipated security costs — almost double the 2010 estimate of £282m

£40m

Allocated funding for legacy

National Lottery

COS S E C TS O U TOR TSID FUN E TH DIN E PU GP ACK BLIC AGE

£39m Tourism campaign to promote the UK as a tourist destination, £21m contributed from the public sector funding package

LOCOG’s budget for staging the Games

The cost of detailed planning work on transport, £22m more than forecast

To fund the opening and closing ceremonies

Central government

The original cost estimate for the Games during the bidding process in 2005

£7

£8

£77m

Sources of funding 67% £6.248bn

Purchase of Olympic Park land by the London Development Agency

£41m

£9.298bn

THE BUDGET

£700+m

£2

£2.4 bn

Construction, infrastructure and transport programme

Sources: National Audit Office; london2012.com; culture.gov.uk

£333m Returned to the Olympic Executive for transforming the Olympic Park after the Games

rics.org

03.12 // MODUS

04 STATISTICS OLYMPICS 2012

WINNING NUMBERS

The number of gold medals won by Sir Chris Hoy, making him the most successful British Olympian ever.

It has been often mentioned that Team GB won 29 Olympic gold medals, but did you know there was 2km of ventilation ductwork in the Velodrome, or 10,000 toilets on the Olympic Park? Here are some of our favourite stats from the London 2012 Olympic Games

COPPER BOX x10,000

STADIUM

80,000

COOLING

57MW

40%

Specator capacity during Olympics

Cooling capacity during Olympics

Reduction in water use due to rainwater collected from roof

x10,000

4,500

25,000

Medals won by Team GB

Tonnes of steel used for London Olympic Stadium

Specator capacity designed for legacy

ENERGY CENTRE

45,000

Tonnes of steel used for Beijing Olympic Stadium

532

46,000

Number of construction staff on Olympic venues

7,000

x1,000

70%

Reduction in mains water usage as a result of rainwater recycling

Spectator capacity during Olympics

6,000 Spectator capacity

4.2km Water pipework

30ºC x1,000

6,000

HEATING

92.8MW Heating capacity during Olympics

194.9MW Heating capacity in legacy

x100,000

Sunpipes incorporated into the roof

x1,000

Number of individual floodlights housed in 14 28m-high towers

64MW

Cooling capacity in legacy

92.8MW

2,400,000

Heating capcity during Olymipcs

Number of people who visited the Olympic Park in Stratford

AQUATIC CENTRE

Temperature at poolside during Olympics

x1,000

17,500

Spectator capacity during Olympics

Spectator capacity in legacy

300,000 Nails used to build the Velodrome

The number of records broken by Team GB

CIBSE Journal September 2012

08_OPEN / WINTER 2012

28ºC Temperature at track level to optimise performance

5.5km Mechanical pipework

2km

Ventilation ductwork

Skeletons found in the ancient settlement on the site of the Olympic Park and carefully removed

www.cibsejournal.com

Temperature in stands

www.cibsejournal.com

2,500

Temperature at poolside in legacy

26ºC

VELODROME

x1,000

28ºC

Specator capacity in legacy

16.5%

Savings in carbon, using efficiency measures

49%

Improvements on Part L 2006 based on ‘as built’ performance

84%

Sensible heat recovery in pool ventilation systems

September 2012 CIBSE Journal

194.9M

Heating cap in legacy

04 MODUS : THE OLYMPICS ISSUE RICS SUNDAY Earlier this year, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) took the decision to channel marketing spend for activity around the Olympic Games into Modus rather than producing a separate publication, creating a specially themed issue. The lead feature of the issue, ‘2012 in 12 Steps’, was used as the basis for a 30-minute video on the role of chartered surveyors in delivering London 2012, which has had 1,300 views on YouTube. The issue and video were launched with a reception at the annual international real estate conference MIPIM in France, followed by a special event at the Houses of Parliament in April. 05 CIBSE JOURNAL WINNING NUMBERS CIBSE CPL The magazine created for the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) gave a fascinating insight into the awe-inspiring feats of construction and engineering that went into building the stadiums and arenas that hosted the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Top facts include: • 46,000 construction staff were employed on building the Olympic venues. • 300,000 nails were used to build the Velodrome. • Four skeletons were found on the site for the Olympic Park (and removed).

06 HEATHROW TRAVELLER HEATHROW AIRPORT PUBLICIS BLUEPRINT Heathrow Traveller was launched in response to the airport’s desire to offer a publication designed to appeal to the international audience that choose Heathrow as their principal gateway. The result is an inspiring travel title that works as both a compelling magazine and a key sales tool. Results include: • 97% of readers are positive about Heathrow Traveller. • 50% are likely to buy a featured product. • One in two visit the website of a brand they have seen in the magazine. 07 PERSPECTIVE APP BREWIN DOLPHIN WARDOUR With a 250-year history, independent investment house Brewin Dolphin has demonstrated its modern outlook with its first content app. The free app is the digital version of Perspective, the brand’s customer magazine, and offers additional content in the shape of exclusive videos and image galleries. The app also includes a Q&A with Spectator Editor Fraser Nelson and an interview with Geoff Thomas, the former England footballer who, despite recovering from leukemia, cycled from London to Paris with Brewin Dolphin staff to raise money for charity. > To download the app, search for ‘Brewin Dolphin’ in the App Store. WINTER 2012 / OPEN_ 09

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growth

Supporting medium-Sized buSineSSeS

S up p o rt e d by

One of the keys to turning a start-up into a profitable medium-sized business is getting the right team in place. Nick Martindale reports

letting

grow W

e constantly hear about how hard it is to start up a business, often because it is associated with giving up a job or putting personal savings on the line. For many, though, getting started is the easy part. What is harder is the leap from a thriving small business to an established medium-sized enterprise, employing scores of staff and turning over eight figures. One of the reasons many companies, and founders, struggle with this is that it requires them to abandon much of what made them successful in the first place. The dynamism, entrepreneurial culture, lack of bureaucracy and the ability to make decisions based on gut feeling all cease to become benefits and emerge as potential weaknesses. Robert Bolton, partner and head of KPMG’s HR Transformation Centre of Excellence, suggests there are various triggers for organisations needing to put formal processes in place. “It could be the point at which, in order for the business to continue to grow or expand into neighbouring markets, all roads Peter Bauer says having a clear vision in place early on helped drive the success of his company Mimecast

economia

july 2012

Growth Special

GoinG larGe on medium

Looked at from the outside, the German economy is booming while all around it fails. But is the focus on SMEs the right model for the UK? And is the success as solid as it seems? Adrian Holliday investigates 52

The fires of the Mittelstand have helped forge the German economic revovery in the teeth of recession February 2012

economia

February 2012

The thinking, albeit abbreviated, goes something like this: careful, prudent Germany invested heavily for years in its traditional manufacturing and engineering base, enabling her to export her way out of the recent global financial crisis. The UK, in contrast, focused on services and financials, both of which have struggled since the cataclysmic (and continuing) credit seizure of 2008. Ergo, Germany’s economic supremacy and resilience has bought her a trade surplus of which the UK – now dealing with a trade gap of almost £10bn – can only dream. So should the UK now attempt to copy an industrial policy closer to that of

Germany’s? This might mean replicating Germany’s highly successful Mittelstand (pronounced mittle-shtunned) model. That is, the legion of small and medium-sized family firms supported by a regular stream of blue collar workers deeply respected for their precision engineering skills. Skills which German technical and vocational colleges churn out year after year. It’s a remarkable model (although not without its own problems). So what elements could be successfully transplanted to the UK? Can it be done? And should it be done? But first, why has it proved so successful? In the last decade Germany has been

aided by strong public finances, state-supported research institutions and consumers not overly burdened by personal debt. House prices remain reasonable. Germany has also been able to take advantage of cheap labour from nearby Eastern Europe for some of the heavy lifting. Mix in the rise of a more confident and richer Asia able to afford many of Germany’s high-precision exports – luxury cars, washing machines, high-quality industrial plant – and you end up with a complementary economy to emerging powers like India and China. The icing on the cake is a price premium. People will pay extra for exceptional build and performance. This is often

08 HIGH LIFE BRITISH AIRWAYS CEDAR After almost 40 years of informing and entertaining BA passengers, High Life has just been relaunched. The new issue boasts 12 different covers, each featuring a BA customer photographed at Terminal 5. Every year, High Life is read by almost three million people. Readers say it makes them feel more positive towards the British Airways brand, with 32% saying it improves their opinion of BA and 39% telling others about the articles, passing on the magazine or recommending the airline. 09 A WORLD OF DRINKS OUT THERE DIAGEO VIDEOJUG Video content agency Videojug were tasked with changing the perception of premium vodka as a cosmopolitan cocktail ingredient, so created a series of videos showing an expert barman mixing cocktails such as New York Cranberry & Lime and Moscow Mule. > To watch the film, Blipp one of the images below or search ‘Smirnoff World of Drinks’ on YouTube.

10 ECONOMIA: THE SQUEEZED MIDDLE CAMPAIGN ICAEW PROGRESSIVE CUSTOMER PUBLISHING To coincide with the first issue of economia, the new magazine for The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), the editorial team created the Squeezed Middle campaign, which flies the flag for the UK’s hard-pressed mediumsized businesses. Launched with the support of Lloyds Bank, the campaign includes company profiles, webinars, features and roundtable discussion events. It’s a truly multi-platform campaign, with a streamed webinar discussion, plus ongoing debates on economia’s LinkedIn group and Twitter feed.

WINTER 2012 / OPEN_11

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Chapter & Verse

ILLUSTRATION_RANDY MORA

Stories are everywhere. Online, offline, TV, film, print and digital â&#x20AC;&#x201C; even your brand is a story. So listen to some of the greatest storytellers of all time and discover the story within. Jon King, UK Managing Director of Story Worldwide, turns the page and begins the journey

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Brands are stories. We’ve been saying this for years, not to sound clever, but because it’s true. These days everyone seems to agree, even ad agencies. In plain sight, people’s behaviours are changing. They’re embracing radically new ways of living, loving, politicking and shopping in a hurricane of communications with friends they know, while making choices on the recommendations of people they don’t. They are doing this while flaunting shiny new tech toys in their pockets and purses which promise everything right here, right now. They demand responsive relationships on- and offline. They actively seek community through shared experiences. But in all this change there’s a constant: human beings need to share stories to make sense of the world. It’s practically hard-wired into human consciousness. But what makes a good story? Narrative is a discipline with firm guiding principles that have emerged from the human experience and cultural insights. According to legendary filmmaker Samuel Goldwyn, a great story consists of the following: 1. Introduce a character 2. Put him up a tree 3. Throw rocks at him 4. Bring him down again

It’s a neat story arc, a notion at the heart of the planet’s most lucrative industry built on storytelling: the movie biz. For a more rigorous view, it’s worth looking at one of Hollywood’s canonical texts: Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The book, first published in 1948, is a foundational work within film studies

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and is described by Time magazine as “one of the 100 best and most influential books written in English”. Campbell, a leading academic mythologist, had a breakthrough cultural insight when he realised that the most powerful stories follow a narrative progression with consistent rules that are remarkably similar across all cultures. He called this ‘The Hero’s Journey’, in which a protagonist – usually emerging from ordinary life – is exposed to a call-to-adventure that follows a sequence of 12 basic episodes, through denial and test to fulfilment. He found that the tales which human beings find most satisfying inevitably follow a pre-ordained course, and this model applies to fairy tales, myth and film. Successful authors, screen-writers, anthropologists, journalists and artists already understand that the craft of storytelling is based not on sentences or arresting straplines, but on a journey in which characters represent our lives and desires. Content marketers also know this, with a relentless focus on understanding audiences. We seek to uncover unmet desires, revealed in a meaningful meta-narrative which the audience will recognise, allied to an empathic brand with something authentic to say and share. These combined elements can create communities that are real, rewarding (for everyone) and sustainable. A contagious story, both social glue and inspiration, can help win a disproportionate share of the audience’s attention, devotion and spend. Traditional advertising – whose basic unit is a USP supported by paid media – can’t help here. Its inadequacies are obvious. The new, very different, marketing approach, in which the basic unit is a story supported by sharing, can finally meet the deep desires we all recognise. Human beings, interrupted by invasive media for 60 years, can once again act as they did before the age of interruption, sharing their likes, dislikes and dreams with their friends and the people they respect and care about. W HY SHO U LD BRANDS CARE? Brands should care because they don’t have any choice; they can’t bet the farm any longer on inefficient media spend built on USPs with a dubious ‘U’. If they do, they may lose the new consumer for good. Today, brands compete

for attention with games, film, TV, rock ‘n’ roll, bloggers, whatever. To survive in a new world of promiscuous audiences and proliferating media, brands must learn to tell stories that matter to create meaningful relationships with consumers. It’s what defines the new marketing. And they have to be wary of the shiny new toy, of gimmicks, of becoming appophiles. Technology isn’t interesting; what technology enables, is. Emerson once said: “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” Surely it’s better to create an insatiable desire to kill mice. Stories produce results. Earlier this year, a Nielsen survey asked consumers which media they most trusted and which most influenced purchase. The top five answers were: 1. People you know 2. People’s opinions published online 3. Editorial 4. Branded websites 5. “Emails I signed up for”

The only way to do this convincingly is via an over-arching narrative in which our hero – the consumer – is taken on a fulfilling journey, supported by the brand as mentor. After ordeals, tests and trials, now back in the real world with the magic elixir, he or she will evangelically share the brand’s story for free. Hav i n g i n f l u e n c e d t h e influencers, we can then see how BRANDS MUST the social multiplier effect delivers LEARN TO TELL results: networks x fans x reach = STORIES THAT massively higher impact compared MATTER TO CREATE to traditional advertising and longterm strategic advantage, even MEANINGFUL when campaign spend is over. RELATIONSHIPS This isn’t theoretical. These WITH CONSUMERS. ideas underpinned our campaign IT’S WHAT to promote How I Met Your Mother DEFINES THE for Chicago’s WGN America, the NEW MARKETING flagship series on this comedy rerun channel in a saturated cable market. WGNA wanted to boost viewer figures and Nielsen ratings, so TV spots to their existing viewers would have been pointless. So we took 25 superfans – people who loved the show, a show they’d seen many times before, knew the characters, the comic riffs, locations, everything – and placed them at the centre of the story, creating publishing platforms, second-screen applications and support for them to do and say more about the show they loved to audiences who also made a part of their lives. Results were impressive. Inside nine months the campaign delivered 37m impressions, 490,000 Facebook ‘Likes’ and 76,000 conversations. Today, the story’s still delivering strongly even though campaign spend is negligible: 1.8m fans with a PTAT (People Talking About This) engagement score of 12.5%, against an average brand PTAT lower than 1%. The full case study can be found at www. storyworldwide.com/wgna

This essentially defines the new socialised content marketing proposition: today, friends and virtual strangers have become the most influential voices a brand could want. We, and the networks of people we know and the connected networks of people we don’t know, gather around stories that matter like moths to a flame. And we don’t want to be disturbed by 30-second spots and pop-ups . In its recent 2012 How Social Media is Changing Brand Building report, Forrester hones in on the four critical success factors of 21st-century brands. Brands need to be: 1. TRUSTED They need to be transparent regarding their values and principles to build long-standing customer relationships 2. REMARKABLE They need to disrupt the existing market with new and unique value 3. UNMISTAKABLE They need to set themselves apart from their category 4. ESSENTIAL They need to communicate what’s irreplaceable about their product

I T’S A W RAP Stories help the parts advertising cannot reach. A few rules to end on:

1. A brand must tell a story which audiences will care about and share 2. Audiences aren’t channel loyal. They’re talent loyal 3. Content is the big attractor 4. Hire people who know how to tell a story We’re not here to break the rules of the old advertising. We’re here to make the rules of the new advertising. WINTER 2012 / OPEN_ 15

HARD TIMES As the number of available platforms and content streams increase, book publishers face many of the same issues as brand marketers. Richard Charkin, Executive Director of Bloomsbury UK,takes the pulse of the worldwide book industry

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For such a big man in the book industry, Richard Charkin has a tiny office. Tucked away in the eaves of the gigantic Georgian townhouse that Bloomsbury UK calls home, there’s just enough room for a desk, a few shelves, a small coffee table and two chairs that look like they’ve been lifted straight from a 1970s school staff room. “This suits me just fine,” says Richard as he eases into one of the chairs. “I don’t need too much room and I can easily talk to people working just outside. Even better – it’s right next door to the kitchen.” The Executive Director of Bloomsbury Publishing has been in the book industry since his first job in 1972 at the now defunct Harrap & Co. Having gone on to hold senior positions at Pergamon Press, Oxford University Press, Reed Elsevier and Macmillan, it’s fair to say that he has first-hand knowledge of almost every major development in the book industry over the past four decades.

WINTER 2012 / OPEN_ 17

packaging, manufacturing and distributing increasingly obsolete, while the influence of reader recommendations far outweighs traditional media reviews. Indeed, with self-publishing becoming a quick and easy way to get your book on the market, there’s little need for a publisher at all. So what can be done?

WHAT’S THE STORY?

Many of the issues testing the book publishing industry have equal relevance to the marketing and content industries. The rise of digital, global rights, the place of print, the role of the editor, reaching a target audience, raising awareness of a product, gathering a loyal customer base – all these are vital discussion points for anyone selling a product, whether that product is a 90,000-word bonkbuster or a new range of lawnmowers. “The most important role that publishers play is to publicise,” explains Richard. “It’s ultimately what we do. And for fiction, that role is becoming increasingly difficult, simply because of the fact that there’s so much of it. Selfpublishing is becoming easier to achieve – especially online – and so the amount of self-published books available is rocketing up.” Richard estimates that there are over one million manuscripts looking for a publisher in the world at any given moment. That’s one million authors fighting for a small slice of attention from a steadily narrowing funnel of people: the agent, the editor, the publisher, the publicist, the reviewer and, ultimately, the reader. But while this may be dispiriting news for aspiring authors, it does highlight a fundamental advantage of the publishing system: its layers of experienced readers and editors that are able to sift through thousands of manuscripts to discover the one gem of a story that has a fighting chance of selling thousands. “When a book comes to a publisher, it’s already gone through a triage system of people deciding whether that book is any good or not,” says Richard. “It’s then up to us to determine exactly how to market that book.”

1,000,000 MANUSCRIPTS LOOKING FOR A PUBLISHER IN THE WORLD AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT

Today is another of those moments. It marks the global release of JK Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy, the first adult novel by the Harry Potter author. Having sold over 450 million copies of the wizarding adventures (all while signed to Bloomsbury), expectations are high for this tale of small-town politics. After seven days on the shelves, The Casual Vacancy will sell almost 125,000 copies in the UK, making it the fastestselling hardback in the past three years. Over one million copies have also been shipped abroad, with its publisher fully expecting it to be one of the biggest books of the year. But judging the state of the book industry on the sales of one author is like predicting the annual rainfall of a continent based on a quick look out of the window. It’s no secret that the book industry isn’t doing well. People are reading less, sales are consistently down and high-street stores are closing. Like music in the early 2000s, book publishing is on the edge of a huge shift in its business model. The affordability of e-readers and their ability to download entire books in seconds has made the traditional publisher roles of 18_OPEN / WINTER 2012

TARGET PRACTICE

Like most content, a new book can be distributed through a number of channels. But while content creation and distribution can be a siloed process for a brand – each agency creating their own content to be distributed on their own platform – the book publishing industry has a refreshingly inclusive approach. “There’s no set number of distribution or marketing channels for each title,” explains Richard. “But one thing we always hold is a launch meeting, where the book’s

editor will stand up and explain what the novel is about to everyone who has a role to play in selling the title. So that’s the publicist, the marketing person, the sales person, the digital person, the serial rights-selling person, the export sales people, the translation-rights people, the jacket designer – everyone.” There follows a lengthy discussion on exactly how the book should be marketed and to which reader group. Social media, traditional media, in-store promotions, billboards, book clubs, airports, supermarkets, literary festivals, reading tours – every possible angle and outlet is explored in ensuring that the title reaches the right people in the right situation at the right time. “Then of course, you have the press angle,” continues Richard. “It’s not enough anymore to simply say you have a great book coming out with a fantastic story. Jon McGregor is a great writer, but it’s not enough to get him lots of coverage. Whereas with the new Ben Macintyre book [Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies] you can have a great time comparing his spies to, say, James Bond.”

BRAVE NEW WORLD

Publishers and writers have for centuries been wrestling with the question of what makes a bestseller. An author’s talent for storytelling and creating memorable characters are always up there, as is pure, unadulterated luck. But the most powerful catalyst to worldwide fame and a staggering fortune is word of mouth. Just ask EL James. The traditional method of seeding word of mouth is, of course, the press review. But with social media making everyone a potential critic, the power and influence of review sections has all but disappeared. “Reviews are becoming less and less important in terms of sales,” says Richard. “There was a recent article in the trade title Publishers Weekly. They carried out an analysis of the impact of being on the front page of the Review section of The New York Times. That’s the cover every writer wants to get, the cover all publicists pitch for. But it turns out that the impact it has on sales is only an extra couple of hundred copies. And that’s for a good review.” Of course, social media is now the dominant force in word of mouth and authors are increasingly taking charge of their own social-media marketing, building their fanbase and keeping their readers’ interest up between books. Many authors in the young-adult market are experts in using social media, and this trend of caring for and nurturing your readers is expected to spread to other areas of the industry. “Authors of all types have fan clubs, but they have to deliver to that fan club. Literary authors won’t be able to go off for ten years to have another creative idea, because

they will have lost their fan club by then. They’ll have to get closer to their readership, become more like the commercial writers and get a book out every year. The author’s customer is the reader and all readers matter.”

DISAPPEARING INK

So where next for the global book publishing industry? Undoubtedly, with e-readers coming down in price, the digital market is going to grow, which isn’t great news for high-street stores. In America, around 20% of the largest publishers’ sales are digital, with some new releases selling just as many digital copies as paper. “In terms of the attention digital is getting within the industry, we probably are at tipping point,” says Richard. “Clearly there will be far fewer retail outlets in the high street, but the development of digital makes it a really interesting time for publishers. There are constantly new people coming into the market, new terms to be negotiated, new business models. It’s fascinating.” But unlike paper, there are two things the traditional publishers have that cannot be so easily replaced: the ability to invest in a writer and the experience of the editor. Like the world of content marketing, book publishing is groaning under the weight of its own raw material, but with experienced editors and story experts constantly sifting through it all, there’s always a measure of quality with every book that’s published. And that’s unlikely to change, whatever platform it’s published on.

ILLUSTRATIONS_ELIN SVENSSON

REVIEWS

ARE BECOMING LESS AND LESS IMPORTANT IN TERMS OF SALES

WINTER 2012 / OPEN_ 19

AUTHOR, AUTHOR If you want to know about storytelling, ask an author. So we did – two of them

LANCE WELLER, a novelist based in Washington, USA, on Cormac McCarthy, staring at trees, and lining up the pearls to create a great story How much do you think about the reader when you write? I try not to worry about the reader until I’m very far along with anything that I do. Certain themes, such as motifs of character, I string along throughout the narrative, but the most important element is keeping myself compelled. I really need to find the story compelling myself in order to write with any sort of feeling of truth or heart.

Do you remember the first time you were gripped by a story? Yes. It was when I read Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses for “ I need to find the story compelling the first time. I wasn’t a cowboy guy myself in order to write with any at the time. I wasn’t a historical guy. sort of feeling of truth or heart” I wasn’t even much of a literature guy. But I picked up this book because the cover was striking. I read the first paragraph and suddenly thought, Which parts of the writing process do you ‘Look what you can do with language!’ I’d always wanted to be a most enjoy? writer but never seriously considered it. But when I read that book, I love the research. I love uncovering little something resonated right away and writing became important to me. nuggets of factoids. I pay close attention when I’m reading any historical work to footnotes. What’s the biggest misconception about writing stories? I love digging in the footnotes and finding not That it’s easy. You know, you sit down, you start typing and there it only little asides and bits of historical colour, but is. It just comes. In my case, I’ve got a front window that looks out other resources I’d not heard of before. on a beautiful tree. Especially now with the fall and the leaves are But the best part is those moments of having turning, I’ll sit there and stare at it a long, long time, trying to feel an image or a sentence that feels like it’s exploding something bubble up. under your fingertips as you’re typing. You don’t I think people imagine that putting together a story is a straight- necessarily chase after that, but when it happens forward process, that it’s all there strung out in a beautiful line of it’s a real high. It’s very, very gratifying. pearls before you that you’re just snatching at and putting on to the page. But those pearls are scattered all over the room. There’s some Lance Weller has published short fiction in under the fridge, some under the sofa, some you can’t even see, and several literary journals and hikes extensively you have to spend a long time collecting them and trying to line them in the landscape he writes about. His debut novel all up in a way that fits. Wilderness is out now. 20_OPEN / WINTER 2012

Californian author CHRISTIAN KIEFER on breathing life into a story, creating emotion and the powerful marketing effect of Custer’s Last Stand What are the most important elements to a gripping story? The reader has to find themselves in the story. If the reader can find him or herself in the story, then the reader’s going to be naturally drawn in. It doesn’t have to be that the reader can literally picture themselves in a story, “ Ultimately, what but there has to be a bridge created you want the so that the reader can identify with reader to invest in some aspect of the story. This works is not the physical even if the main character is unlikable. presence, but in the The American novelist Saul Bellow hearts and minds wrote lots of novels about characters of the characters that weren’t bad people, they were just you’ve created” unlikeable. But he rendered them with such humanity that you can’t help but be interested in them, even though you don’t like them very much. How do you breath life into a character, give them that humanity? It’s about being honest to the detail and being aware that in creating a character, you’re always responsible for breathing life into that character. You have to approach that character with an honesty you may not approach yourself with. If you can draw the reader in with the character, then the reader is interested in that character, and then the story can unreel and unroll from that point. Then you have them hooked. Emotion is always important to a great story. How do you go about generating emotion? That comes with the detail. You carefully render a scene so that the reader has something to hang onto. If you’re able to tie everything you want to say into the physicality of the world in which we all live – and this is true even in fantasy and science fiction and genre writing – then you’re better able to succeed in drawing the reader in. Because ultimately, what you want the reader to invest in is not the physical presence, but in the heart of the characters, in the hearts and minds of the characters that you’ve created. Is the power of the story as strong now as it’s always been? Stories have always been powerful. Still images in magazines in the 1930s and 1940s, and even before into the late-1800s, contained within

them many narratives, many stories. There was a famous lithograph that was printed around the turn of the previous century of Custer’s Last Stand. Anheuser-Busch, the beer company, had a ton of posters depicting Custer’s Last Stand printed up as advertisements. It was a painting of him with his golden hair blowing in the wind, with a cutlass in one hand and a pistol in the other, standing on top of a hill, fending off these marauding Indians. Obviously it’s a politically horrific poster by today’s standards, but at the time it totally cemented a particular narrative at the behest of Anheuser-Busch. That lithograph was sent off to every bar in America and became ubiquitous for a long, long time, a single image telling an entire story and informing a particular kind of narrative about America and its people. Christian Kiefer has a PhD in American literature and is on the English faculty of American River College in Sacramento. His debut novel The Infinite Tides is out now. WINTER 2012 / OPEN_21

“ IF WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW, WHEN WILL WE START ACTING LIKE IT?” 22_OPEN / WINTER 2012

Brands are falling over themselves to create effective and valuable content assets,but it’ll take more than a few hours’ training and an updated version of Copywriting For Dummies to engage a customer. Catherine Toole,CEO of digital copywriting agency Sticky Content, bangs the drum for good,honest talent and experience

is to train people to write usable, findable, on-brand copy for their digital platforms. As the CEO of a digital copywriting agency, this may seem a self-defeating move – training people to write their own content. But what I love about training is that one thing becomes clear – how difficult it is to do well. In the Content Strategy training workshops I give for Econsultancy, we start the day with a slide that reads: “We’re all publishers now”. Most people groan. After all, what does that mean to the average time-poor, budget-stricken marketing professional? It means pressure to create high-quality content and – that horrible phrase – to ‘monitise’ it. In the discussion that follows, we look at the processes and skillsets that exist in a traditional publishing house. We look at what it takes for a publication to produce high-quality editorial to a fixed deadline. We discuss the balance a publisher has to strike between editorial standards and commercial objectives. Great content marketing strategy is all about finding that balance. It doesn’t take people long to realise how very different their organisational structure is from any kind of publishing structure. So the key question is: how can we create effective content when we don’t have the structure, processes or resources in place to create it? → one aspect of my job

WINTER 2012 / OPEN_ 23

BE GENEROUS, NOT REACTIVE

content strategy can transform the way you plan, create, produce and govern your content assets

but only where it’s embedded properly and not – as in so many cases – just the grand name for a PowerPoint presentation people pass around, but in reality ignore. The main challenge our clients face is the constant pressure to create content reactively. “Our competitors just did an iPhone app – let’s do one too”; “Sales are down this month – let’s get some vouchers out on email”; “Something’s blown up on Twitter, we need to respond”. So much time and attention is taken up by managing content on fast-moving platforms such as social media or responding to urgent commercial needs, that it’s hard to take a step back and plan properly. Yet all the best and most effective content tends to come out of genuine customer insights. Taking the time to really understand your target audience and what their passion points are can pay dividends. Traditional advertising takes a product USP and tries to make it relevant to an audience. Content marketers have woken up to the power marketing is about creating great of digital content. A recent CMA content around subjects close to your survey says that 95% are planning to audience’s heart and then connecting increase content marketing spend this it to your brand. It’s a very different year, which is wonderful because the approach, but you only have to look more everyone does, the more we’ll all YOU HAVE TO BE BRAVE IN at the recent rise in investment in THIS CLIMATE TO SAY, “HANG learn and the better it’ll get. ‘brand journalism’ to know that this ON. I KNOW EVERYONE’S But I would urge marketers to map is the future. As the marketing guru SAYING DO VIDEO, BUT OUR content to audiences, not platforms. Jim Stengel predicted whilst at P&G: COPY CONTENT IS RUBBISH” Suddenly someone says “Pinterest!” the brands that will survive will be or “Twitter!” and everyone panics and ‘generous, authentic and trustworthy’ rushes to jump onto the platform. Of and will bring a ‘relationship mindset’ course, there’s always going to be a new to everything they do. thing you’ve got to do, but it diverts people’s time, attention and budgets, often for little gain. Personally, I would like to see a return of back-to-basics, old-school marcoms strategy, asking the basic questions: who is this content for? What is it intended to do? Is it effective? How are we measuring that? If it isn’t working, what can we learn and use? A lot of brands focus on content volume, fuelled by a desire to improve natural search rankings. Sometimes it may be better to create a smaller amount of higher-quality content. Content that has legs – stuff that can be used and re-used, mashed up and repurposed, content that generates discussion on social media and attracts links and retweets. There’s too much talk about volume and platforms in content and not enough about quality and effectiveness. Public enemy number one are those whose aim is “to get 5m ‘Likes’ on Facebook” or drive x amount of increased traffic to their site. Traffic is no good if it doesn’t convert when it gets there because people can’t understand your offering. You have to be brave in this climate to say, “Hang on. I know everyone’s saying do video, but our copy content is rubbish. No one reads it because it’s jargon-filled and unscannable. They’re calling our call centre with stupid questions and complaining on our forums. That costs us money and damages our brand. Let’s fix that first!”

AVOID PLATFORM PRESSURE

24_OPEN / WINTER 2012

SHORT COPY, LONG TIME

the best thing to happen in my part of the industry

THE BIG IDEA

the content world is booming. People are now

putting time and attention into their content, finally seeing its value. There’s lots of activity around measuring content effectiveness and a belief that content can achieve things for brands. I used to work for a famous advertising agency, where we would talk a lot about ‘Big Ideas’. “Big Ideas cross borders” we’d say. “Big Ideas sell brands.” When everything settles down and everyone has time to take stock of the digital content explosion, it’ll simply be ideas that are the real currency. And the people that can come up with those ideas and execute and distribute them seamlessly across digital and non-digital platforms will be the people in demand.

over the past few years? People beginning to appreciate that digital copywriting requires a specific skillset. The principles of writing for digital platforms are completely different from print. When we started Sticky Content 16 years ago, we hired almost exclusively print journalists. Now I would be hugely suspicious of any print journalist sending me their CV who didn’t have proven, extensive digital experience. Understanding how people scan-read online; the different ways in which you prioritise information for the different digital platforms; the psychological nudges that can convince someone to click on a button or sign up for an email; how to be found by search engines (which, of course, changes all the time) – a decent digital copywriter requires all of this specialist knowledge and much more. Most of the brand-led online marketing content we work on is much more complex to write than a straightforward print article. In many ways, direct marketing copywriters and those in the more unusual spheres of copywriting such as those creating interpretation copy for museums and galleries – these people actually have more transferable skills than most print journalists. But what the journalist has got in spades is an entire culture of print, a culture that will always apply finely honed editorial strategy and rigour to what’s being written, and strives to do this in the most interesting and engaging way.

NOW TRENDING Finally doing a content strategy Numbers are up on the Content Strategy courses I give for econsultancy and Jakob Nielsen at Usability Week around the world. Organisations are now ready to embrace content strategy formally and begin to embed it into their cultures and processes.

WHEN EVERYONE HAS TIME TO TAKE STOCK OF THE DIGITAL CONTENT EXPLOSION, IDEAS WILL BE THE REAL CURRENCY

Four things everyone is talking about in digital content Brand journalism This buzz-phrase reflects that publishers now allow brands to co-create or commission content across media platforms in a far less restricted way than in the past, when journalists avoided advertorials like the plague. It’s now common to pay journalists to write editorial with the aim of improving customer engagement with a brand.

Post-Panda SEO Changes to the Google algorithm (one famously called Panda) has meant natural search rankings are now more affected by the quality of the content than ever before. The good news? The days of ‘keyword stuffing’ and ‘link-farming’ are over. The bad? We all have to focus on the much harder task of producing genuinely high-quality content.

COPE (Create Once Publish Everywhere) We’re now in the era of content ‘re-use’. XML-based publishing software allows for text to be re-used piecemeal across multiple platforms, which can slash creation, production and translation costs for big companies.

WINTER 2012 / OPEN_ 25

26_OPEN / WINTER 2012

Question Opportunity Challenge Goal

Problem

Choose Your Plot

Beginning

Ordinary life...

Perseus, Theseus, Beowulf, Dracula, Nicholas Nickleby, The Guns of Navarone,

Overcoming the Monster

“The call to adventure”

Understand Your Story

Cinderella, Aladdin, Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, What Makes Sammy Run?

Rags to Riches

Middle

The Odyssey, Pilgrim’s Progress, King Solomon’s Mines, Watership Down

Alice in Wonderland, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Orpheus, The Time Machine, Peter Rabbit

Voyage & Return

Aristophanes, Middlemarch, War and Peace, Oscar Wilde, Gildbert and Sullivan

Comedy

(Resolution)

(Growth)

Transformation?

(Conflict)

The Quest

(Problem)

Macbeth, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Carmen, Bonnie & Clyde, Jules et Jim, Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary,

Tragedy

Closure

Question answered Opportunity met Challenge met Goal met

Solution

SEVEN STEPS TO THE PERFEC T STORY

Sleeping Beauty, The Frog Prince, Beauty and the Beast, The Snow Queen, A Christmas Carol,

End

“Life” resumes

Rebirth

From structure and plot to heroes and characters, your story must have everything in place if it’s to connect with the reader. Follow our guide to storytelling success

WINTER 2012 / OPEN_ 27

Nightmare Stage

Miraculous Escape

Growth

Solution

INFOGRAPHIC_FURTHR

Any mentor (s/he's the hero of their own stories)

Catalyst Hero

Indiana Jones Xena (Xena: Warrior Princess)

Loner Hero

CuChulainn (Irish myth)

Group-oriented Hero

Lestat (Ann Rices' Vampire Chronicles) Darth Vader (Star Wars)

Tragic Anti-hero

Han Solo

Cynical Anti-hero

Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbitt) Phillipe Gaston (Ladyhawke)

Unwilling Hero

King Arthur, Hercules, Leelu (The Fifth Element)

Willing Hero

Choose Your Hero

Frustration Stage

Dream Stage

Anticipation Stage

Conflict

The Challenge

The Call

The Shadow

The Trickster

He/She relish the disruption of the status quo, turning the Ordinary World into chaos with their quick turns of phrase and physical antics

His mask misleads the Hero by hiding a character's intentions and loyalties

The Shapeshifter

The Threshold Guardian

Protect the Special World and its secrets from the Hero, and provide essential tests to prove a Hero's commitment and worth

The Child

Related to the hope and promise for new beginnings

The Divine Couple

The opposites of the outer and the inner life are now joined in marriage

Form generally reflects either the condition or the needs of our soul presently

The Anima/Animus

He or she represents the energy of the dark side, the unexpressed, unrealized, or rejected aspects of something

Herald characters issue challenges and announce the coming of significant change

The Herald

In Europe, the court jester was not necessarily a simpleton, and in fact, often served to remind the monarch of his own folly and humanity

The Golden Rule

The Three Stooges Three Little Pigs Three Billy Goats Gruff Goldilocks and the Three Bears Three Blind Mice The Love For Three Oranges

Miraculous Redemption

The Dark Power Triumphant

The Threat Returns

The Threat Recedes

Under the Shadow

Andrew Stanton, Director, WALL-E

“Don't give the audience 4, give them 2 plus 2”

Web

Music

Film

Theatre

Dance

Choose Your Media

Destruction or Death Wish Stage

Nightmare Stage

Observe the Rule of Threes

Resolution

Frustration Stage

Dream Stage

Under the Shadow of confusion Tightening the Knot

Greed or Selfishness

Under the Shadow of confusion

Helper who aids the Hero in seeking a guiding vision to help him/her on the journey

The Fool

Choose Your Characters The Shaman

Thrilling Escape and Return

Final Union, Completion Kingdom, Other and Fulfilment Half or Elixir won

Frustration Stage

Dream Stage

‘Fall’ into the Other World

Nightmare Stage

Arrival and Frustration

Oppressed in the City of Destruction Monsters,Temptation, The Deadly Opposites.

The Final Ordeals

Independence

The Central Crisis

Out into the World

Initial Wretchedness at Home

action (CTA)

quest that you use our CTA as shown below. The nstruction on your artwork will be critical to TA should not be modiﬁed apart from the ne icon. This can be modiﬁed to whatever the user c.

et pack

zine maga

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HOW THE BIRD GOT HEARD

long as it remains clearly visible on the creative.

et pack

zine maga

n scree

by now, you should

have noticed that the theme of this first issue of the brand new magazine for the Content Marketing Association is ‘Storytelling’. Whether it’s the ability of a story to keep people hooked, add a sense of emotion to a brand’s messages, or the fact that consumers are simply looking for more depth and quality in their content, having an editorial narrative is now essential if you want to build a stronger connection with your customers. This theme is explained beautifully in the exclusive video created for the Summit, in which a bird uses a variety of ways to talk to his flock to get his message across. All contributors to this launch issue understand the power of storytelling, as do the wide variety of speakers at the International Content Marketing Summit 2012. From Matthew Guest, Senior Manager at Deloitte Digital, to Jon King, UK MD of Story Worldwide, 28_OPEN / WINTER 2012

The theme of this year’s International Content Marketing Summit is ‘Telling Brand Stories’, so pull up a chair, watch the video and discover how you can use storytelling to connect with your customers and create a new chapter for your brand

they all know the significant effect a well-told story can have on brand awareness, loyalty and, ultimately, sales. Consumers now demand more from their content; they expect to be entertained and informed with the same level of knowledge, creativity and journalistic excellence as experienced with newsstand media and their digital versions – in some cases, more. So the current and future roles of content have never been more important for all brands that place their customers at the heart of their business. This year’s Summit will take in strategy, engagement, planning, creativity, monetisation and future trends, all delivered with practical insight and real-world solutions. At the heart of it all lies the story – the foundation upon which all great content stands. > To discover how the bird got heard in our exclusive Summit video, blipp one of the images above or go to www.ilovecontent.co.uk

CHAIR Stephanie McGovern, Business Presenter, BBC Breakfast

SPEAKERS Arjun Basu, Content Director, Spafax Sara Cremer, Managing Director, Redwood Matthew Guest, Senior Manager Deloitte Digital, Deloitte Toby Guiducci, Digital Sales Manager, The Met Office Claire Hilton, Head of Advertising, Media & Content – UKRBB Marketing, Barclays Melanie Howard, Executive Chair, Future Foundation James Keady, Digital Marketing Manager, McLaren Automotive Ltd Jon King, UK Managing Director, Story Worldwide Danny Miller, CEO & Co-founder, The Church of London Nick Morris, CEO & Co-founder, Canvas8 Nicola Murphy, CEO, The River Group Marie O’Riordan, Editorial Director, John Brown Jan Rezab, CEO & Co-founder, Socialbakers Lisa Smosarski, Editor, Stylist Melanie Stubbing, President, Weight Watchers Europe Matthew Taylor, CEO, Royal Society of Arts Catherine Toole, CEO & Founder, Sticky Content Dave Trott, Executive Creative Director, CSTTG Marcus Webb, The Slow Journalism Company

THE INTERNATIONAL CONTENT MARKETING

SUMMIT 2012

TELLING BRAND STORIES

1. ANTICIPATE: THE FUTURE OF CONTENT

2. PLAN: THE IDEAL CONTENT STRATEGY

In this fascinating opening session, we lift the lid on the future of content marketing, revealing what your customers will be demanding from your content and how your content will be consumed ten years down the line. This session will give you all the information you need to start planning your future content so that not only will you have a head start on your rivals, but have the knowledge and information required to set in place an effective content plan to take into the future.

Content marketing is driving itself forward at such a pace that companies and brands of all sizes need to have a clear strategy of what they’re doing and where they’re going, and this session will give you everything you need to formulate that strategy. Our group of international speakers live and breathe strategy, and it’s their task to open up the world of content planning, ensuring that you gain the maximum amount of value out of your content at every stage of your multichannel campaign.

3. MONETISE: MAKING MONEY OUT OF CONTENT

Here, we examine the methods and techniques of salesfocused content, and reveal how your brand can capitalise on the roaring success of e- and m-commerce. This session will examine the many opportunities for you to monetise your content, using thought-provoking research and international case studies to reveal how you can successfully convert customer engagement into brand sales.

THE INTERNATIONAL CONTENT SUMMIT & AWARDS WILL TAKE PLACE ON WEDNESDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2012 AT OLD BILLINGSGATE, LONDON FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO BOOK YOUR TICKET, GO TO WWW.ILOVECONTENT.CO.UK

4. ENGAGE: THE POWER OF THE STORY

This fourth session explores how you can add the art of storytelling to your content, compelling your customers to connect with your brand and foster loyalty. Our team of experts will guide you through the storytelling process, explaining how you can make it work across a number of channels before revealing the fantastic results it can deliver.

5. CREATE: THE VITAL ROLE OF THE CONTENT CREATIVE

This final session delves into the mind of the creative, understanding how their instinct, imagination and talent can alter a brand’s perception, values and fortunes, as well as giving you inspiration and insight into how your brand could be transformed with the stroke of a key or click of a mouse.

WINTER 2012 / OPEN_29

E S I R THE E H T F O S E N I H C A M 30_OPEN / WINTER 2012

world g in a n i v i l Fancy ducts our pro y e r e h w to you, t only o n her? k l a t each ot o t o s t used but al tter ge s e b d ’ u t’ Yo cause i ow, e b t i to t n ng righ wm, i n e p p ha ba dy Hobs says An RYTHNG EV CMO of

MACHINE TO MACHINE

Tuesday 10 August, 2010 was an unexceptional news day. Perhaps the most interesting headline on the front page of The New York Times read ‘Fed-Up Flight Attendant Lets Curses Fly, Then Makes Sliding Exit’, referring to the Jet Blue cabin crew member who had a meltdown before releasing the giant inflatable slide to exit stage left. In fact, what was really interesting about this day wasn’t on the front page of The NY Times. It was the day when more machines than people signed up to new accounts with the two largest mobile network operators in the US: Verizon and AT&T. This refers to what’s called ‘machine-tomachine’ applications, where internet-connected objects talk to each other to do things autonomously on our behalf. For example, washing machines that connect to our smart electricity meter to run loads when the electricity tariff is cheapest, cars that choose the routes with least traffic and can tell the garage when they need a service, or digital picture frames that automatically display images drawn from our library of photos in the cloud.

ILLUSTRATION_VALERO DOVAL

THE INTERNET OF THINGS

This is part of the much-heralded ‘Internet of Things’, a term first coined by British technology pioneer Kevin Ashton a decade and a half ago. It describes a world where billions of physical objects, from supply chain components and personal possessions to trains, buildings and paintings all become connected and part of the web. This is a world where, as tech visionary Bruce Sterling once put it, “You won’t need to hunt anxiously for your missing shoes in the morning. You’ll Google them.” Ericsson, the world’s leading manufacturer of equipment for wireless networks, predicts that by the end of this decade there will be 50bn such internet-connected devices – about five times as many connected machines as people. To some extent, we’re already living in a world of connected physical things – even if we don’t realise it. Embedded chips, tags and sensors already qualitycheck our food, sort our luggage at airports and let us swipe our way around public transportation systems. The same tech monitors our air for pollution, our water pipes for leaks and our bridges for structural damage. But while a lot may be starting to

happen behind the scenes, it doesn’t seem to have shown up in our homes or on our high streets. If you look around your room right now and count the number of internetconnected objects, you won’t find much beyond consumer electronics devices such as laptops, phones and possibly your TV. But this is changing fast. PEOPLE + THINGS

Something more interesting than just machines just talking directly to each other has started to happen, and that’s the direct connection between real-world things and people. For instance, ‘Toyota Friend’, which launched last year, is a plug-in hybrid car that communicates with its owner by email or text when the engine needs to be recharged or the tyres changed (alerts can be set to automatically update the owner’s social networks). Sports equipment manufacturer Nike has been a leading example of this. Nike has attracted over five million users to its ‘Nike+’ service that enables athletes to connect their trainers to the web and compare their “ IF YOU LOOK performance data with a running community. AROUND YOUR Where Nike blazes a trail, others will follow. ROOM AND COUNT The principle that products are inherently more THE NUMBER OF INTERNETuseful and desirable when they come wrapped CONNECTED in a socially connected layer of digital services OBJECTS, YOU can be applied across all categories. WON’T FIND MUCH Connecting our products to the internet BEYOND DEVICES SUCH AS LAPTOPS, like this will fundamentally change our PHONES AND understanding of what a physical product POSSIBLY YOUR is and does, by turning it into a channel for TV. BUT THIS IS personalised interactive experiences and realCHANGING FAST” time communications. I believe that digitally augmented products will come to dominate the marketplace, forever changing the relationship between manufacturer and consumer. MAKING PRODUCTS SMART

The pace of digital innovation over the past decade has been astounding. It’s impossible to imagine life without the web, smartphones or social networks. And yet the consumer products and everyday objects all around us are still essentially dumb – unconnected. Consumers are ready for a new age of smart products to close this gap between the physical and digital worlds. It’s time for products to catch up and get connected. It’s time for inanimate things to get online so we can access the kind of real-time, social web experiences we’ve come to expect in our daily lives. It’s time for our physical products to be as clever as Google, as immediate as Twitter, as easy as Apple, as informative as Wikipedia, as social as Facebook, as personal as Amazon → WINTER 2012 / OPEN_ 31

and as entertaining as YouTube. This is now happening because the technological building blocks required to deliver these types of dynamic consumer services at scale – wi-fi and 3G broadband, for instance, instantly rentable cloud infrastructure such as Amazon Web Services, or connectivity technology like NFC chips, RFID and wi-fi tags – have now passed the tipping points in terms of cost. But the real game-changer has been smartphones. THE MOBILE REVOLUTION

And remember, there are now more active phone connections than people on the planet. In the next ten years, Marc Andreessen (the inventor of the first graphic web browser Mosaic in 1993, co-founder of pioneering Internet company Netscape, and now one of the most influential venture capitalists in Silicon Valley) predicts that at least five billion people worldwide will own smartphones. This will give every individual with a phone access to the internet and the ability to ‘talk’ directly with the physical products and other objects around them at every moment of the day.

These smart, mobile devices we carry around with us every day, with more computer power than launched the first A FACEBOOK FOR THINGS™ Apollo space missions, have become our remote control Crucially, all this can now be done without the need for for the world and represent a revolution in consumer manufacturers to expensively re-engineer the products interaction. Among many other things, a smartphone also themselves. A unique tag can be added to the product label functions as handheld, digital sensor for the physical world, which customers can scan or swipe with their smartphone meaning our phones provide a web-connected interface when they ‘check in’ to it. This could be as simple as a QR which can breathe connected, intelligent life into any code or a more advanced NFC tag, the tech in London inanimate object. Transport’s Oyster card system. For instance, in South Korea commuters can shop at This instantly activates the digital profile for that Tesco’s ‘virtual stores’ on subway platforms by product which lives in the cloud, so DIGITALLY scanning a simple 2D barcode (a quick response “ AUGMENTED the product now has an addressable or QR code) to order products for home delivery PRODUCTS WILL identity on the web. (Importantly, this that same evening. Increasingly, products will COME TO DOMINATE is about unique identifiers for every ship with these simple ‘smart tags’. When you THE MARKETPLACE, single item, not the same code on every buy products like these, your first action will be FOREVER CHANGING product that links all consumers to the THE RELATIONSHIP to ‘check in’ with your smartphone, taking digital BETWEEN same website, which is how QR codes possession of it as well as physical, and enabling MANUFACTURER are currently used.) the manufacturer or retailer to trigger a new world AND CONSUMER” Imagine a Facebook For Things™, of digital content, services and apps personalised where individual products have their to the individual product and owner that expand own virtual presence online, just as and enhance the experience of using it. we have individual social network

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

Five everyday objects transformed by the Internet of Things

THE FRIDGE Soon you’ll expect your fridge to be able to tell you the cheapest place to get spare parts for it, how to find trusted local service help if it breaks down, or offer you sustainable endof-life solutions such as posting it to a local Freecycle community. 32_OPEN / WINTER 2012

THE BAG Luxury designer goods such as a Louis Vuitton bag will be able to communicate their authenticity to a prospective buyer. By touching your phone to the NFC tag embedded in the bag, you can ensure you’re not spending thousands on a fake.

THE BIKE If you want to sell your mountain bike, you’ll expect it to know how much it’s worth on eBay before letting you sell it with a digital locker full of service history, warranty and receipts, not to mention photos and route maps of amazing rides you’ve enjoyed with it.

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profiles which are digital representations of our physical selves. At EVRYTHNG, we call this object profile an Active Digital Identity™, and it allows us to attach interactive communications or apps to a specific product (not just a Nikon D90 camera, but ‘Andy’s Nikon D90 camera’). In effect, products become ‘social objects’ and unlock a new world of digital content and service experiences.

with their products. Today, relationship marketing is often fairly crude and based on a set of pre-determined assumptions (a consumer once bought x so now we’ll offer them y). However, in a world where products are digitally connected, where marketers understand more about how products are actually used, we can have a much more useful and relevant type of marketing. Which in turn will give PRODUCT RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT™ consumers richer, more personal and digitally augmented From a brand point of view, once you give an individual experiences of owning and using their product. online identity to each one of your products, powerful new This will leave no product or industry unchanged – in marketing experiences can be created – we know that every order to access this rich cache of data and offer an engaging customer is unique, now their products can be, too. By range of products and services to consumers, all product using a printed smart tag to link the specific digital identity companies will have to think about technologies that bridge for each product to its individual owner, manufacturers the offline and online worlds. have the opportunity to re-imagine a physical product as a We’ve already seen major disruptive changes to the channel for direct digital services, super-charged product business landscape because of technology innovations such experiences, personalised communications and ongoing as social networking and the mobile app economy, but we customer relationships. haven’t even scratched the surface yet. The physical world A major shift towards what we call Product Relationship becoming connected will bring even more unimagined, Management™ is imminent, and fascinating and profound transformations to IT’S TIME FOR brands will increas-ingly be expected “ OUR society this decade. PHYSICAL to provide a suite of compelling PRODUCTS TO BE AS One thing’s for sure, if you thought there was digital services around their physical CLEVER AS GOOGLE, a lot of communication on the internet today, just products to remain competitive. This AS IMMEDIATE wait until all the things start talking. will be much more important than AS TWITTER,AS INFORMATIVE having an overactive Twitter page AS WIKIPEDIA This article was first published in Excellence (sorry interns). in Leadership magazine. Reproduced with AND AS SOCIAL And, of course there’s the all- AS FACEBOOK” kind permission of The Chartered Institute important analytics: brands can AS AMAZON AND of Management Accountants (CIMA) and ENTERTAINING extract a wealth of data from and about AS Seven Publishing. AS YOUTUBE” the consumer, and their interactions www.evrythng.com

THE CAMERA With your permission, your camera may suggest times and place to get the best photos: “19 November looks like a clear night with a full moon – go to the foot of Tate Britain at 7.15pm for the perfect night shot of St Paul’s Cathedral.” It may also help you find people who have got tripods and lenses to borrow or advise on lending yours out for extra cash.

THE MEDICINE Your bottle of pills will remind you to take them and keep track of how many you’ve taken, or your glucose monitor might point you to restaurants in your neighbourhood with healthy menus for your type of Diabetes and connect you with a local community with the same condition. WINTER 2012 / OPEN_ 33

“The print industry has a phenomenal opportunity at the moment to position itself right at the start of a customer’s journey and make itself invaluable” Digital may be moving towards gaining greater control over our lives but the online medium isn’t having it all its own way, as print is about to launch a comeback and position itself How important is content marketing to your clients? ery important. Five years ago content marketing at the heart of Vexisted, but was perhaps not the focus for most marketing teams. Since then, companies have brand marketing. increasingly tried to establish themselves as characters that are more than just faceless Matt Guest, a senior unique corporations. Content marketing is an important manager within part of the mix for many of my clients. They’ve also invested heavily in telling stories, and Deloitte’s Strategy as soon as you start to tell stories, you enter the content world and it becomes more than just an Consulting Practice, marketing advert. The only difficulty is how to calculate return investment. Two years ago we couldn’t work out analyses the options on the ROI for social media, but now there are techniques that are well proven and we understand that.

What it is about storytelling that engages people? People want to be entertained. We’re now living in a world where people are always on, always able to receive content, whether it’s on smartphone, tablet or computer. More often than not, our attention spans are also relatively short and we’re always looking for new entertainment, so traditional TV or billboard advertising is starting to lose its impact. But by combining entertainment with advertising messages, you get the best of both worlds. 34_OPEN / WINTER 2012

Does this also apply to B2B content? Right now, there’s a great opportunity for content marketing to thrive within the B2B market. It’s an interesting area because a lot of businesses are great at selling their products and great at understanding the local context for their product. But they’re not very good at understanding the wider social market, how marketing is changing to keep pace with developments in the digital and media arenas. As an example, I receive a huge amount of B2B content on all platforms, but I end up only reading the ones that have an element of entertainment with them. That could be an infographic, a great story or simply a very well-written piece. Either way, B2B content now needs to entertain its readers, as well as inform them. What place does print have in your content thinking? The print industry has a phenomenal opportunity at the moment to position itself right at the start of a customer’s journey and make itself invaluable. We look at a lot of data on how people respond to media, and they almost always start their journey to digital media from a traditional format such as newspapers or magazines. Print is often the catalyst, the medium that pushes people towards digital. So there’s an opportunity not just to use gripping content in print to hook people, but to use bridging technologies such as augmented reality or QR codes to make the transition from print to online easier. Games are also a good way of getting people online, encouraging people via print to download a game or an app that does something useful so that you can get that beautiful continuity of the story. Why don’t people start their journeys with digital? It’s very hard to get people hooked to the digital experience. Even before you get to the discussion about different devices to access the internet on, there are a plethora of ways of entertaining yourself. People are bombarded with different digital campaigns all over the place on the internet, not to mention the psychological struggle of looking at a number of websites at once.

ost people have only four or five sites they’ll visit and M four or five apps they’ll use on a regular basis. You can use print to change that behaviour because you have that fantastic content experience when you read it in a magazine or newspaper. The print industry has to reinvent itself, go back to what the fundamentals of the industry are: telling fantastic stories and entertaining people. Trust me, if you get under the skin of the digital industry in a lot of cases, you’ll find that without print, digital wouldn’t be profitable. How important is mobile going to be? It’s going to be very important. You just have to accept that what people want to do on mobile is not necessarily a ten-minute experience. It’s a two-minute experience, and so it requires a different type of content. It’s certainly not as simple as having a cut-down version of a magazine or website. You have to do more to engage the user. The modern smartphone can flip between tasks and entirely different forms of entertainment and communication in just two seconds, so you have got to do an even stronger job as a creator of all types of content to engage the user. It’s all about being specific to the platform. What areas of media are you interested in at the moment? For me, it’s the resurgence of the publishing industry and its restoration of confidence. The fact that it has a huge role to play not just in traditional, but in digital media has been very interesting over the past year. Confidence is obviously a big part of the game. In digital, you have got to know that you can do something, that you can make money out of it, and that you will succeed. And I’m getting the sense that the publishing industry is feeling this now. That’s incredibly positive because I still think that print has a massive role to play in marketing and media. Matt Guest will be speaking at the International Content Marketing Summit 2012 in the first session, titled ‘Anticipate: The future of content’. www.ilovecontent.co.uk

WINTER 2012 / OPEN_35

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T H E 1 0 P R I N C I P L E S O F E N GAG E M E N T

For years, marketers have been searching for the ultimate definition of engagement, trying to understand how they can create deeper connections with their customers. Now, with a new report by Canvas8 and Weber Shandwick, their wait is over. Nick Morris, founder of behavioural insights agency Canvas8, explains

you ‘re looking for buzzwords currently sweeping across the communications industry, they don’t come much bigger than engagement. Over the past 12 months, it’s become shorthand for the broader concept of deep audience connection. But exactly what that is and what causes it hasn’t been analysed – until now. We were contacted by Weber Shandwick, who were putting together a multi-faceted initiative to unravel the DNA of engagement to better understand the ‘engagement footprints’ left by businesses and brands on their audiences. With this information, they could then start to optimise their clients’ communications to reflect that. So when they asked us to partner with them and investigate the Science of Engagement, we jumped at the chance. We define engagement as the intensity of an individual’s connection or participation with a brand or organisation. So engagement isn’t a light that’s either on or off; rather, it’s a variable – something you can be really engaged with or slightly less so. We know that engagement leads to advocacy, shares, participation and purchases, and that our tools for measuring them are increasingly sophisticated. But the causes of engagement are less understood. To investigate, we brought together a panel of world-class experts – the anthropologist Dr Grant McCracken, the psychologist Dr Olivier Oullier and the neuroscientist Dr Thomas Ramsøy. They looked at engagement from the perspective of people’s behaviour, as engagement differs depending on who you are, who you’d like to be, or who you are with others – your actual, aspirational and social self. During the research, we decoded their insights into ten Principles of Engagement and 19 Elements. The Principles are incredibly important for brands and businesses as they underpin engagement across all industries, regardless of sector or geography, whilst the Elements are the more practical building blocks that vary depending on the nature of an organisation. →

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For the first time, we have a report that brings a level of science to communications strategy. We now have the capability to start to apply sociological, psychological and neurological lessons and understandings to businesses – and, looking forward, it can become the basis of a scientific diagnostic tool. Here’s a brief summary of the ten Principles of Engagement, which establish the parameters for effective engagement. By applying an understanding of these Principles (and of the Elements), organisations can amplify and direct their communications for maximum effect. This is the Science of Engagement. 1 / E NGAGEMENT IS A FINITE RESOURCE, NOT AN INFINITE COMMODITY

Engagement with one thing is always at the expense of another. Attention and effort are limited. Paying attention requires a small cost, while interaction or participation demand a much higher cost. Brands must be realistic about what they want from people and clear in communicating what people can expect in return. Different environments pose different challenges for engagement – whether at home or on-the-go, alone or with friends, at night or in the morning. Knowledge of these factors will help brands identify the most relevant and opportune moments for engagement. 2 / E NGAGEMENT REQUIRES RECIPROCITY

Engagement costs people time, effort and energy. The brain processes this cost in relation to the expected reward. Those seeking a suitably high engagement must offer a high return. This can be a tangible reward, such as a voucher, but can 38_OPEN / WINTER 2012

also be a softer, more long-term one, such as a sense of belonging, selfactualisation or status. Softer rewards are adaptable, allowing audiences to serve their personal needs. This requires an understanding of the common ground between the individual’s goals and the brand’s goals. 3 / E NGAGEMENT IS NOT BINARY

Engagement is not a light to be switched on or off within people. It shines constantly, varying in intensity from person to person, time to time, and context to context. Whether brands choose to acknowledge it or not matters less. How and when they choose

“ T HE PRINCIPLES ARE INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT FOR BRANDS AND BUSINESSES AS THEY UNDERPIN ENGAGEMENT ACROSS ALL INDUSTRIES, REGARDLESS OF SECTOR”

to capitalise on the right types of engagement across various channels and topics is the real issue. 4 / E NGAGEMENT IS ABOUT WHAT WE WANT OR WHAT WE LIKE

Our brains process all decisions as potential rewards driven by two systems: what we want and what we like. Our wanting system (System One) is driven by subconscious desires. These decisions we call our ‘gut feelings’. They are mental shortcuts – instinctive, impulsive and often related to immediate and primal rewards, such as a piece of chocolate or sex. System One decisions are most often short-term. Our liking system (System Two) is driven by conscious desires. This refers to how we make a plan for obtaining something in the future. It is how we make sense of the world consciously and articulate our thoughts, desires and aspirations. Our liking system helps us navigate the future. System Two decisions are most often long-term. 5 / I MMEDIACY DELIVERS ENGAGEMENT

Our brains have evolved to make snap decisions based on the anticipation of immediate reward. These decisions are not always conscious – consider System One thinking. The communication’s call-to-action requires a direct connection to the reward. Those that are perceived as immediate deliver higher engagement. 6 / E NGAGEMENT DECISIONS ARE POST-RATIONALISED

People are often unaware of the reasons behind their decisions. When they pledge to get healthy, save money or learn more, they are demonstrating System Two engagement. Later, when they are tired and grab fast food before

collapsing in front of the television, the primitive urge of System One takes over. People say to themselves ‘I deserved it’, and that ‘tomorrow I’ll restart the diet’. Communications equip the conscious brain with a rational story justifying subconscious impulses. This is both the story people tell themselves and the story they share with others. However, sustained conflict between the two systems creates internal conflict. People unhappily, or even worse, resentfully, engage. System One urges, supported by System Two planning, are a powerful branding proposition: immediacy harmonised with aspiration. 7 / E NGAGEMENT CAN BE DIVIDED INTO ‘CAPTURE’ AND ‘BUILD’

Take the example of flat-pack furniture. You need a chair. You travel to the store. Your need, combined with the furniture’s availability, utility and design, captures your attention. It could even be the special offer that initiates interest. This is the initial engagement (‘Capture’). Once home, engagement transforms. The investment you make in assembling the chair builds long-term engagement (‘Build’). The personally assembled product carries greater engagement than it did when it was boxed instore. Professor Michael I. Norton, Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Harvard University Marketing Unit, termed this behaviour the ‘IKEA effect.’ Like the special offer, communications can capture our attention. Shout loud enough and everyone will look. Keep shouting and you may go unheard. Combining novel ways to capture attention with audience resonance builds engagement. Next time, you won’t have to shout so loud.

9 / N EGATIVES ALWAYS OUTWEIGH POSITIVES

“ I T’S NOT ABOUT UNDERSTANDING THE CONSEQUENCE OF ENGAGEMENT, BUT ABOUT UNDERSTANDING ITS CAUSES”

8 / E NGAGEMENT BENEFITS FROM BEING MULTILAYERED

“Religion is the benchmark for engagement,” says Dr. Oullier. Religion applies multiple layers of engagement, each reinforcing the other. It initially captures engagement with a great narrative, accessibility and the promise of reward. It builds long-term engagement through social involvement, shared values, integrity, and ultimately, providing a sense of purpose. Neuroscience tells us that the number of associations a person has with a brand leads to a positive effect on engagement. Associations can be both broad and deep. This could be about touch points or senses – sight, sound, smell, taste and touch – to create a force so compelling that it bids for space in the most lucrative areas of the brain.

Our brains are more driven to minimise risks than seek potential gains. When we make decisions, we give more weight to the negative than the positive. Studies suggest that negative emotions carry roughly twice as much weight as positive ones. This means that, in times of crisis, minimising any negatives holds more importance than highlighting positives, especially on social media, where audiences outweigh communicators and information travels at light-speed. Understanding that negative reviews, associations, experiences, testimonials or comments are given far more credence than positive ones is a key concern for engagement. We can be positively engaged, but we are strongly influenced by negativity. 10 / E NGAGEMENT MARRIES EXPERIENCE WITH EXPECTATION

Any engagement decision is shaped by an individual’s personal experience (with a brand, business or organisation), and also their expectations. Over-delivery is a surprise, under-delivery is a disappointment. Because each experience primes future decisions to engage, over time, individuals grow to expect what they have previously experienced. This shapes the decision to engage. Marrying the two delivers engagement. The full report, which includes both the Principles and the Elements of Engagement, can be downloaded at http://webershandwick.co.uk/ scienceofengagement/Report.html Nick Morris will be speaking in the fourth session of the International Content Marketing Summit 2012, ‘Engage: The power of the story’. www.ilovecontent.co.uk WINTER 2012 / OPEN_ 39

WEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;RE BACK BACK BACK!

With consumers seeking nostalgia, authenticity and oases of calm and space, the past is rapidly becoming the future. Add in creative consumption and gamification, and you have a series of trends that could change the world of marketing forever. Let Melanie Howard, Executive Chair of global trendspotters Future Foundation, be your guide as we go back to the future 40_OPEN / WINTER 2012

ILLUSTRATION_LUKE FENECH

melanie howard deals in trends. Every day, the Executive Chair of Future Foundation receives

updates on trends and developments from across the world using a specialist network of trendspotters and research groups who report the very latest innovations and technology, as well as shifts in business, leisure and culture. “At any time we have over 70 trends that we’re working with,” she explains from her office in the heart of Shoreditch, London. “We’re looking at early-warning signs from the wider world about things that are changing and have actually been put into practice.” So here are Melanie’s top five trends and movements that will shape the world of content marketing over the next few years. Strap yourself in, it’s going to be a bumpy ride. → WINTER 2012 / OPEN_ 41

MAGIC NOSTALGIA

It’s a fact that at the top level of change, there’s more media, more events, more stories, more of everything. With such a demand for fresh ideas, coming up with new things to attract attention becomes more and more difficult, until it becomes an impossible challenge. So we have to constantly reinvent the past, cherry-picking, using and re-purposing the best of the previous decades, unearthing trends or products to give them a new relevance or purpose. With brand marketing, this can be especially rewarding as you have some great opportunities to use the heritage of your brand as part of the storytelling process. Once you have identified and created your ‘magic nostalgic’ content, this allows you to establish an emotional connection with your customers by leveraging feelings of warmth and familiarity. This is especially relevant when times are tough. In recession, people enjoy nostalgia, and the reinvention of things from the past. It’s all about creating a feelgood factor that brands can get a lot of mileage out of.

SEE THE QUEEN’S DIAMOND

JUBILEE Even as the rain poured down, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in June 2012 gave many brands the opportunity to leverage their heritage, inviting consumers on a warm and fuzzy journey of nostalgia and fond memories. Examples included Marmite’s temporary rebrand as Ma’amite, vintage packaging from Heinz Baked Beans, and Kellogg’s, and Kingsmill’s ‘Queensmill’ loaf. Kid’s TV character Peppa Pig even got to meet the Queen in a special one-off episode.

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AUTHENTICITY SEEKING

This links to the previous category in that brands are encouraging their customers to purchase old favourites or look at heritage items in a new light. It’s the antidote to the modern digital age, the sense that we’re getting further removed from our true selves, our true nature. It’s all about the home-made, the hand-made, the hand-crafted, the feeling that something’s been individually created rather than mass produced. We’ve been up and down with the organic movement, but the ethics of food and where it’s come from is still a powerful force. Somehow we all feel better if we’re more in touch with where our food’s actually come from and make it properly. As more people end up living in cities and urban environments, this trend will become more pronounced since you obviously don’t have the same access to home-grown food or hand-made products in the city.

SEE RIVER COTTAGE

Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall’s River Cottage series was produced right at the start of this movement, where he advocated the grow-your-own policy and the pleasures of making a meal from fresh ingredients. The taste, touch and feel of products are now very important to people.

MURDERED BY MEDIOCRITY

This is a reaction to the overwhelming flood of images, information, messages and technology that every one of us is bombarded with each and every day. It’s reflecting a deep-rooted desire for the creation of oases of time and space in which you’re not assailed by your mobile phone, work demands or advertising messages. This is similar to the trend of downshifting in the mid-90s – giving up the well-paid job in the city and moving to the country to work the land and enjoy the good life. But when we looked at the data, despite the media implying that everyone was downshifting, only 7% could actually afford to do it. There’s a lot of discussion around at the moment about how we can protect ourselves from all of these devices that seem to demand more and more from us, with the feeling that this ceaseless forward movement of technology has to stop at some point – or at least allow you to step outside of it all and take a breather.

SEE DELAYED GRATIFICATION

Describing itself as “the slow journalism magazine”, Delayed Gratification is a quarterly print and digital magazine that offers an antidote to traditional media, giving its readers a considered, long look at the UK’s major political, cultural, scientific and sporting stories, resulting in a fascinating – and relaxing – read.

IT’S ALL ABOUT CREATING A FEELGOOD FACTOR THAT BRANDS CAN GET A LOT OF MILEAGE OUT OF

GAMIFICATION

This takes the principles of the gaming industry, which is fantastic at finding ways in which you can engage consumers and move them through levels, rewarding them as they go along and making them feel good. In content terms, the question is how you learn from the games environment and the structure of games, and feed it into the way you construct content. Gamification also ties in with the act of making content more interactive and more personalised, which the gaming environment knows a huge amount about. If you can bring gaming elements into your content – rewards, levels, point scoring, competition – it becomes less of a one-way message and more of a fully engaged communications environment. This will play a large part in how shops will be designed. As you walk through a store, a number of apps will be able to recognise your location and tempt you with offers, discounts and loyalty points, allowing you to engage with your environment and play with it. Since price is no longer a fixed reality, the world of promotions can now be seen as a game that the consumer’s playing with the brand.

SEE DOMINO’S TWEET TREAT

Domino’s Pizza trialled the ‘Tweet Treat’ scheme at its Lincoln branch in March 2012 with a ‘reverse auction’, seeing the price of its pepperoni pizza falling as more and more people Tweeted about it over a two-hour period. Customers were then able to purchase the pizza through the Domino’s website once the offer had closed. The initiative was an attempt to reward customers and increase lunchtime orders, with Twitter and Facebook members invited to use the #LetsDoLunch hashtag.

THE FACT THAT PEOPLE FEEL THEY NEED TO BE CREATIVE IS NOW A MAJORITY EXPRESSION – THEY WANT TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES IN MORE CREATIVE WAYS

to more and more cultural stimuli and the idea that, with art and creativity, everybody can participate. Of course, the internet and social media have a large part to play in this trend. They create creative forums where people have the opportunity to be creative and have others experience their creativity. It relates to how people present themselves as individuals, with individual tastes and talents. In terms of content, the key point here concerns collaborative creativity – the act of engaging consumers in such a way that makes them feel their creativity is being used and engaged. Allow your customers to be creative and they’ll have an immediate affinity towards your brand.

SEE BRANDON GENERATOR 5/

CREATIVE CONSUMPTION

The proportion of people who strongly or moderately feel the need to fulfil themselves as an individual by being more creative has tripled from 20% to 60% in the past 30 years. So the fact that people feel they need to be creative is now a majority expression – they want to express themselves in more creative ways. This is all interlinked to everything we know about individualism, the experience economy and the fact that we’re more educated. We’re also exposed

This is an interactive online story created by comic-book artist Tommy Lee Edwards and film director Edgar Wright. Brandon is a writer experiencing writer’s block who, after falling asleep, wakes to find he’s surrounded by content which helps him create a story, all of which has been contributed by viewers. www.brandongenerator.com Melanie Howard will be speaking in the first session of the International Content Marketing Summit 2012, ‘Anticipate: the future of content’. www.ilovecontent.co.uk WINTER 2012 / OPEN_ 43

THE DIRECTORY

Our members make up the large majority of the UK content marketing industry and all have the ability to deliver a host of multi-platform solutions to your content marketing challenges.For more information on any of our members or to take advantage of our free client advisory service, go to www.the-cma.com

Archant Dialogue Prospect House, Rouen Road, Norwich NR1 1RE 01603 664 242 mick.hurrell@archant.co.uk www.archantdialogue.co.uk We bring intelligence, flair and imagination to all our clients, creating compelling, effective content to drive greater engagement – we just love what we do

August Zetland House, Scrutton Street, London EC2A 4HJ 020 7749 3300 mark.lonergan@augustmedia.com www.augustmedia.com August produces award-winning work that builds brands, changes perceptions and nurtures relationships. We think differently and better

axon

11 Plough Yard, London EC2A 3LP 020 7684 7111 connect@axonpublish.com www.axonpublish.com We’re axon – content thinkers in the heart of Shoreditch. We publish for M&S, Jamie Oliver, ACHICA, NCT, B&Q and many others

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Bladonmore 10-11 Percy Street, London W1T 1DN 020 7631 1155 info@bladonmore.com www.bladonmore.com Your story, well told – in print, online and in person

CASPIAN Harbour Yard, Chelsea Harbour, London SW10 0XD 020 7045 7500 info@caspianmedia.com www.caspianmedia.com A team with vast collective B2B & consumer publishing experience, commitment to editorial and design excellence, and advertising/ sponsorship sales expertise

Cedar Communications 85 Strand, London WC2R 0DW 020 7550 8000 info@cedarcom.co.uk www.cedarcom.co.uk A global creative and commercial content agency turning brands into profitable media owners. Big ideas. Smart content. Commercial success

TH E DIRECTORY

CONDE NAST CONTRACT PUBLISHING

Vogue House, Hanover Square, London W1S 1JU 020 7152 3800 contract.publishing@condenast.co.uk www.condenastcontractpublishing.co.uk What makes us special is our magazines

CPL 275 Newmarket Road, Cambridge CB5 8JE 01223 477 411 mike.sewell@cpl.co.uk www.cpl.co.uk Minimum fuss; maximum flair; outstanding results

EDITIONS FINANCIAL 23 Austin Friars, London EC2N 2QP Mission Hall, 1 Roxburgh Place, Edinburgh EH8 9SU London 0203 170 6277 Edinburgh 0131 476 2502 tony@editionsfinancial.co.uk www.editionsfinancial.co.uk The UK’s only content marketing agency dedicated to finance and business. We create and deliver global content strategies for some of the world’s largest brands.

EnVeritas Group European Headquarters: Berkeley Square House, Berkeley Square, London W1J 6BD +33 683 859 987 eric@enveritasgroup.com www.enveritasgroup.com EnVeritas Group is a global content marketing firm with 2,000 writers that offers a full spectrum of services and localises content in over 40 languages

FUTURE PLUS

Bath office: Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW London office: 1-8 Balcombe Street, London NW1 6LY 01225 442 244 0207 042 4000 Scott.longstaff@futurenet.com www.futureplus.co.uk FuturePlus is the creative content agency of Future PLC. We are world leading innovators in creating online, mobile and print content

Grist 21 Noel Street, London W1F 8GP 0207 434 1445

andrewrogerson@gristonline.com www.gristonline.com Bright ideas from B2B specialists with proven track records at The Economist and Financial Times

Immediate Media Branded Content 9th Floor, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol BS1 3BN 0117 927 9009 dawn.everett@immediate.co.uk www.immediatecontent.com For truly innovative & engaging multi-channel communications choose Immediate Media Branded Content – the content media specialists! #Immediate_Content

JOHN BROWN 136-142 BRAMLEY RD, LONDON W10 6SR 0207 565 3000 ANDREW.HIRSCH@JOHNBROWNMEDIA.COM WWW.JOHNBROWNMEDIA.COM A CONTENT MARKETING AGENCY WITH EXPERTISE IN KEY GLOBAL MARKETS. WE BRING BRANDS TO LIFE

MATCHBOX 10 Barley Mow Passage, Chiswick, London W4 4PH 0203 056 6860 contact@matchboxmag.com www.matchboxpublishing.com You need to see a return. We deliver via highly engaging, successful print & digital communications. Your customers and bottom line will thank you

Northstar Spitfire Studios, 61 Collier Street, London N1 9BE 020 7833 7410 info@contactnorthstar.com www.thisisnorthstar.com 10 successful years, still fully independent, owned by four directors. Freedom/speed of a small company, knowledge/ expertise of a large company

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Progressive Customer Publishing (PCP) John Carpenter House, John Carpenter Street, London EC4Y 0AN 020 7936 6400 info@progressivecp.com www.progressivecp.com Our experience in creating successful cross-platform content solutions and generating maximum commercial returns for clients is significant

PSP Rare 3rd Floor, 21 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V ODY 020 7566 9910 grahame.lake@psprare.co.uk www.psprare.com We create great magazines because above all, we love magazines

PUBLICIS BLUEPRINT 82 Baker Street, London W1U 6AE 0207 830 3979 geri.richards@publicis-blueprint.co.uk www.publicis-blueprint.co.uk Publicis Blueprint is about igniting conversations, ideas forged through insight and imagination enabling clients to engage with customers through any media

Redactive Media Group 17-18 Britton Street, London EC1M 5TP 020 7880 6200 aaron.nicholls@redactive.co.uk www.redactive.co.uk Redactive creates compelling, market-leading magazines, digital media and events for membership, business & professional organisations

The River Group

Number One Neal Street, London WC2H 9QL +44 (0) 207 306 0304 nmurphy@therivergroup.co.uk www.therivergroup.co.uk River is the gold standard in compelling content in any channel which engages customers and drives a return on your investment

Seven 3-7 Herbal Hill, London EC1R 5EJ 020 7775 7775 sean.king@seven.co.uk www.seven.co.uk The media you buy will never excite people like the media you own. Seven creates content that pays back

Seven46

60 St Martin’s Lane, London WC2N 4JS 0207 393 9000 info@seven46.com www.seven46.com Small company, big impact. Our speciality is sport. But the high standards of such competitive clients apply to any ambitious business. If that’s you, get in touch...

SPAFAX

The Pumphouse, 13-16 Jacobs Well Mews, London W1U 3DY +44 (0)20 7906 2021 rrawlinson@spafax.com www.spafax.com Our creative service fulfils clients all over the world. For airlines, we provide onscreen inflight entertainment as well as print and digital content

Redwood

7 St Martin’s Place, London WC2N 4HA 020 7747 0700 hollie.buchan@redwoodgroup.net www.redwoodgroup.net Quite simply, quality. The quality of our people, of thought, of creativity, of research and above all, the results we deliver to our clients

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Story Worldwide

91-94 Saffron Hill, London EC1N 8QP 020 7492 9700 Jon.king@storyworldwide.com www.storyworldwide.com We tell stories that audiences find rewarding and share with their friends to build brands. Building relationships with the most influential voices a brand could want

TH E DIRECTORY Summersault 23-25 Waterloo Place, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire CV32 5LA 01926 339 949 ask@summersault.co.uk www.summersault.co.uk At Summersault we are channel and platform agnostic. We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t sell a limited range of services from a fixed menu. What we do is listen and apply our collective expertise, creative nous and logic to get unbeatable results

SUNDAY PUBLISHING 207 Union Street, London SE1 0LN 020 7871 6760 hello@sundaypublishing.com www.sundaypublishing.com Beautifully crafted, brilliantly effective brand stories from the young, hungry and lovely, award-winning Sunday team

Think The Pall Mall Deposit, 124-128 Barlby Road, London, W10 6BL 020 8962 3020 ian@thinkpublishing.co.uk www.thinkpublishing.co.uk We publish more cross-platform solutions for professional and consumer membership organisations than any other agency. We know this sector

Videojug 1 Holford Yard London WC1X 9HD 020 7250 4300 sales@videojug.com Corporate.videojug.com

We offer leading internet video know-how to brands, producing bespoke content from single films to very high content volumes, at very low cost

WARDOUR Fifth Floor, Drury House, 34-43 Russell Street, London WC2B 5HA 020 7010 0999 martin.macconnol@wardour.co.uk www.wardour.co.uk A journalistically-led team full of talented, smart, professionals. We deliver marketing, brand & comms expertise. Follow us @WardourComms

The Church of London 71a Leonard Street, London EC2A 4QS 020 7729 3675 info@thechurchoflondon.com www.thechurchoflondon.com Independent and original, people come to us when they want something a bit different

The fabl Nesfield House, Broughton Hall Business Park, Skipton,Yorkshire BD23 3AE 01756 636 777 mags.walker@thefabl.com www.thefabl.com

WHITE LIGHT MEDIA 54 TIMBERBUSH, EDINBURGH EH6 6QH 0131 555 6494 info@whitelightmedia.co.uk www.whitelightmedia.co.uk Expertise and enthusiasm make us special. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a flourishing Scottish agency with bags of creativity and a wealth of satisfied clients

An eclectic bunch of storytellers with blue chip backgrounds in marketing, publishing, PR, digital, design and strategic consultancy

Join us TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF BEING A CMA MEMBER, GO TO WWW.THE-CMA.COM OR CALL GEMMA RAINER ON +44 (0)207 400 7506

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OV ER S E A S ME MBE RS

Chili Publications Henrik Ibsensgt 28, 0255 Oslo, Norway +47 21 56 90 00 pt@chilipublications.no www.chilipublications.no We develop content in all channels, recruit experienced, high-profile editors and production teams, and deliver innovative and creative advertising solutions

Metro Branding AS Framnesveien 3A, Postboks 1222, N-3205 Sandefjord, Norway +47 334 26900 paal.andre@metro.as www.metro.as Metro Branding wants to be your company’s landing site in the Scandinavian market. Our solutions are researchbased to optimise the effect of your investment

NEW MEDIA PUBLISHING

New Media House, 19 Bree Street, Cape Town, South Africa +27 21 417 1111 andrew.nunneley@newmediapub.co.za www.newmediapub.co.za New Media is the leading content marketer in RSA. We offer clients communication tools in different forms, ranging from magazines to digital solutions and events

PLOT – Content Agency, SA Av. Conselheiro Fernando de Sousa, 19 - 6º, 1070-072 Lisbon, Portugal +351 213 804 010 geral@plotcontent.com www.plotcontent.com We offer the best content solutions for your business marketing strategy. All companies have a story to tell. We want to know yours

SWITCH Switch Limited 1103A,  Business Central Towers,  Dubai Media City, PO Box 24173, Dubai UAE   Switch Communications, 9 Temasek Boulevard,  #19-05 Suntec Tower 2,  Singapore 03898 Central Office +971 4 435 5711 hello@switch.ae / www.switch.ae Want to talk directly to audiences in Asia and the Middle East? We deliver print, web and social content to the new engines of global growth

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AFFILIATE MEMBERS Blippar 4th floor, The Place, 175 High Holborn, London WC1V 7AA +44 7772 533617 stephen.shaw@blippar.com www.blippar.com Augmented reality, Blippar, mobile, QR codes, Mcommerce/m-commerce Ceros 90-92 Pentonville Road, London N1 9HS 0845 521 1872 channel@ceros.com www.ceros.com Digital publishing, content marketing, app creation, multichannel marketing, cloud design Communicate magazine Unit 2a, 26-32 Voltaire Road, London SW5 6DH 020 7498 7008 Liz.Foggitt@communicate magazine.co.uk www.communicatemagazine.co.uk Corporate communications, events, publishing, print, media Dres Consulting 133 Taunton Road, London SE12 8PA 0845 054 2702 david.evans@dresconsulting.com www.dresconsulting.com Research, insight, effectiveness, analysis, data Econsultancy 4th Floor, Farringdon Point, 29-35 Farringdon Road, London EC1M 3JF 0207 269 1450 info@econsultancy.com http://econsultancy.com Digital marketing intelligence, reports, events, training, jobs

Join us TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF BEING A CMA AFFILIATE OR OVERSEAS MEMBER, GO TO WWW.THE-CMA.COM OR CALL GEMMA RAINER ON +44 (0)207 400 7506

TH E DIRECTORY Eulogy! The Heals Building, 22 Torrington Place, London WC1H 9ER 020 7927 9999 Louisa@eulogy.co.uk www.eulogy.co.uk Media relations, crisis communications, new business activation, social media

Menzies Digital Marketing The Network, Merlin House, Belmont Terrace, London W4 5UG 0208 742 5300 info@menziesdigitalmarketing.com www.menziesdigital.com Engaging, multi-platform, digital, content, interactive

Print Power UK Stonecroft, Hellidon, Northants NN11 6GB 01327 262 920 info@printpoweruk.co.uk www.printpoweruk.co.uk Print effectiveness and sustainability, publishing and research

Group FMG 90/92 Pentonville Road, London N1 9HS +44 (0) 207 520 8600 info@groupfmg.com www.groupfmg.com Content, commerce, digital, mobile, social

Newnorth Print Limited College St, Kempston, Bedford MK42 8NA 01234 341111 keithb@newnorth.co.uk www.newnorth.co.uk Digital, litho print, fulfilment, distribution

Soul Content 62a High Street, Hampton Hill, London TW12 1PD 07770 786 800 sam@soulcontent.co.uk www.soulcontent.co.uk Content creation, editing, planning and production

Gold Key Media 2nd Floor, Brookâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mews, Mayfair, London W1K 4EG 020 7491 4065 matt.pryce@gkml.co.uk www.gkml.co.uk Targeted copy placement, event distribution, brand to hand merchandising, logistics, residential door drops

NewsReach South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London E14 9SH 0207 517 2240 info@newsreach.co.uk newsreach.co.uk Content marketing, online video, SEO, social media, copywriting

Sutro Digital 5a Goodge Place, London W1T 4SD 020 3167 1944 info@sutrodigital.com www.sutrodigital.com Community management, digital consultancy, content creation, digital publishing

Outbrain 41 Great Pulteney Street, London W1F 9NZ 0203 301 2510 marketinguk@outbrain.com www.outbrain.com Content discovery, content marketing, discovery platform, content discovery solution, personalised links

Treehouse Recruitment Ltd 53 Kempe Road, London NW6 6SN 0208 960 8222 ctree@treehouserecruitment.co.uk www.treehouserecruitment.co.uk Recruitment in print, digital, content marketing

Holmen Paper 95 Aldwych, London WC2B 4JF 020 7269 0800 roger.vian@holmenpaper.com www.holmen.com Manufacturer of magazine, catalogue and book paper Internet Advertising Bureau 14 Macklin Street, London WC1B 5NF 020 7050 6969 info@iabuk.net www.iabuk.net Trade Association, online, digital, mobile, advertising Kingston Smith W1 141 Wardour Street, London W1F 0UT 020 7304 4646 dbuckley@kingstonsmithw1.co.uk www.kingstonsmithw1.co.uk Accountancy, audit, business advice, tax, corporate finance Lewis Silkin LLP Chancery Lane, Cliffordâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Inn, London EC4A 1BL (offices also in Oxford and Cardiff ) 020 707 48000 simon.entwistle@lewissilkin.com www.lewissilkin.com Legal, employment, contracts, privacy, M&A

PCP (Precision Colour Printing) Haldane, Halesfield, Telford, Shropshire TF7 4QQ 01952 585 585 amevans@pcpltd.net mjones@pcpltd.net www.pcpltd.net Web offset, sheetfed, digital, mailing PMA Media Training PMA Centre for Media Excellence, 7a Bayham Street, London NW1 0EY 020 7383 5800 training@pma-group.com www.pma-group.com www.becomeajournalist.com Training in digital publishing, editorial, social media marketing, proofreading and Adobe Positive Hype Positive Hype Ltd, 2 Kings Yard, 19 High Street, Uxbridge UB8 1JN 01895 812 812 hello@positivehype.com www.PositiveHype.com Web design, mobile, user experience design, search engine optimisation, ecommerce

Velo Marketing The Bridge, 12-16 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1M 5PQ 0208 144 1574 info@velomarketing.co.uk www.velomarketing.co.uk Marketing, digital, video, design, social Wavecast Pro Ltd Redhill House, 41 Cope Street, Chester CH4 8DU +44 (0)845 544 2195 sales@wavecastpro.com www.wavecastpro.com Live video broadcasting platform Wyndeham Group Fleet House, 8-12 New Bridge Street, London EC4V 6AL 020 7822 1830 leegodwin@wyndeham.co.uk www.wyndeham.co.uk Web print, sheetfed print, binding, premedia, creative services

WINTER 2012 / OPEN_ 49

Stephanie McGovern, Business Presenter of BBC Breakfast and Chair of the International Content Marketing Summit 2012, on what makes an engaging story first thing in the morning

Early bird

What’s your average day like? I get up at about half-three in the morning. If I’m on a broadcast out and about, then I’ll do the hair and make-up thing, go to wherever the location is, before being on air from 6am. If I’m in the studio, I’ll write my scripts then, again, be on air from six. I do headlines at the top of every hour, then hits at 20 past the hour and ten to the hour. After the show we’ll have a debrief, then I’ll chat to my producers about what we'll be doing the next day. Later, in the evening, I’ll go through my briefs and scripts for the next day and be in bed by 9.30.

Then we’ll source a couple of guests and find a good interview location. Who we speak to is really important, because people tend to turn off if they just see a middle-aged man in a suit. We have to put him in an interesting backdrop and include someone who illustrates the story the man is telling.

How do you gather your stories and background? We have a diary created by the central news-gatherers for the BBC. So we’ll always have employment figures out on the same day every

How does social media impact on your job? Hugely. I’m a prolific tweeter and use it in my work. So if, say, I’m interviewing the boss of Tesco on the show tomorrow, I’ll send out a tweet

“ It’s about simplifying the story, making it relevant, making it interesting and not being too negative” month, or inflation or interest rates. But other announcements or press releases are also in the diary. For example, tomorrow is Super Thursday, when all the Christmas books are launched, so we’re thinking about doing a broadcast about the book industry from a distribution centre or a bookshop. 50_OPEN / WINTER 2012

and loads of people will normally tweet me questions back. You can also get themes from Twitter. So if a lot of people message me saying something like ‘Milk suppliers are getting a raw deal,’ I can look into that and a story may come out of it. There’s also been a couple of times where I’ve ended up at a certain

business because people have tweeted me saying they are a good example of a company that’s, say, exporting at the moment. What are the elements that make a compelling story for you to cover? It’s something that the audience can relate to, while telling them something that they don’t already know. It’s having that relevance but also making sure it isn’t just the commentator talking. You also want a person who the audience can look at and think ‘That could be me’ or ‘That could be my child’. So it’s about simplifying the story, making it relevant, making it interesting, and not being too negative. How important are the creative industries to the UK economy? Incredibly important. In times of trouble, you have to create your way out. There’s been a lot of focus in the past on manufacturing, but because it’s easier and cheaper to train people in the developing countries to make products for us, our strength has been in design. So the creative industries have really helped us keep going.

People People committed committed to topaper paper Do you share our passion for paper? Much has changed since Holmen Paper started out 400 years ago. What was once a manual craft is now all high-tech, but one thing remains: our passion for paper. This is what drives us to constantly develop and adapt our products to customer needs and to the rapid changes of the modern world. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s this passion for paper that has made us one of Europeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading manufacturers of printing paper.

www.holmen.com

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