brand journalism and the rise of self-published content

Brand Journalism and the Rise of Self-Published Content

04.26.2012 Minnesota Magazine & Publishing Association

HDC / Making the world more active. ©2012, Hanson Dodge Creative. All rights reserved.

Sara Meaney President, Strategy & Growth Hanson Dodge Creative April 26, 2012

@sarameaney

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Active minds at work/Strategists, Brand Experience Designers, Marketers, Application Developers, Social Media Experts, Programmers, Video Producers and Planners collaborating on innovative ideas.

©2012, Hanson Dodge Creative. All rights reserved.

First things first: Brand Journalism

!   Let’s define it !   Why is it relevant? !   What are the critics saying? !   Who are the real winners? !   The options

5 HDC / Making the world more active.


Define it



The options: media


!   Paid media !   Earned media !   Owned media


Paid media: rent space from the publisher


!   Print Broadcast !   Online Search !   Product placement !   Social advertising


Earned media: convince the publisher


!   Editorial coverage !   Feature stories !   Broadcast news !   Expert opinion !   Blogger relations !   Social sharing


Owned media: be the publisher


!   Blog content !   Videos !   Image galleries !   Social platform content !   Live streaming events !   Website content, design


A merger of disciplines?


Prof. Larry Stuelpnagel, who teaches journalism with an emphasis on broadcast journalism, said the name change reflects both the school's history and its adaptation for the future.“We're still going to be the Medill School of Journalism, but this reflects 21st-century media,” he said.




WebInkNow. Marketing and Leadership Strategies. Brand Journalism, David Meerman Scott. March 29, 2010.

“Brand Journalism is not a product pitch. It is not an advertorial. It is not an egotistical spewing of gobbledygook-laden corporate drivel.”




Columbia Journalism School, Tow Center for Digital Journalism. The Story So Far, What we Know about Digital Journalism. Grueskin, B., Seave, A, Graves, L.

“Fifteen years after most news organizations went online, it’s clear that old media business models have been irrevocably disrupted and that the new models are fundamentally different from what they once were.”

“Brand journalism is the model for communicating value… and why people will benefit from your services and products. The method is through the credibility and influence of legitimate news stories.”

14 ©2012, Hanson Dodge Creative. All rights reserved. HDC / Making the world more active.

New Strategies. Strategic Content Creation & Brand Reputation Management in the Digital Era.Advantage of Corporate Journalism Deliver Distinction. Henderson, D.

“I think that people will only read good content if it has value outside the corporate mandate. If you tell really good stories then that’s marketing in itself. You’re showing, not telling...”

15 ©2012, Hanson Dodge Creative. All rights reserved. HDC / Making the world more active.

theidealists. What is Branded Journalism? Sparksheet Editor Dan Levy Explains, Campbell, K. September.19.2011


Why is it relevant?


!   Noise !   Clutter !   Influence !   Human nature


Why it’s relevant now


The internet Your brand


Memory math


Narrative +

Emotion +

Imagery

Greater Recall


Memory and recall


Hermann Ebbinghaus1850 -1909


It’s true, I just can’t remember where I heard it...


Medical Dictionary source amnesia n. Memory loss that makes it impossible to recall the origin of the memory of a given event.


How memories lose context



How memories lose context


= In one study, a group of Stanford students was exposed repeatedly to an unsubstantiated claim taken from a website that Coca-Cola is an effective paint thinner. Students who read the statement five times were nearly one-third more likely than those who read it only twice to attribute it to Consumer Reports (rather than The National Enquirer, their other choice), giving it a gloss of credibility.

The New York Times. It’s True, Your Brain Lies to You. Wang, S., Aamodt, S.


Emotional content is more memorable


Stephan Hamann, Emory University

When the amygdala detects emotion, it essentially boosts

activity in the areas of the brain that form memories.


Which is better for memory: pictures, words or both together?


elephant

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY Missouri Western State University, 2009

KRISTIN L. MILLS, HEATHER K. MCMULLAN


Recall results:


+ “elephant” = ( ) alone

+ “elephant” ( ) “elephant” alone <


What the critics say...


!   Ethics !   Bias !   Credibility !   Authenticity !   Skills


Twice as many people associate honesty and ethical standards to journalists than they do to advertisers



Articles, reports and news coverage are among the most credible sources of company info



Can Brand Journalism be unbiased?


!   Coverage of recent unrest in Egypt saw a 25x increase in traffic to AJE !   Over 50% of that traffic was from the US !   Why don’t American cable carriers offer Aljazeera English?

William Youmans and Katie Brown Ph.D. candidates in communication studies at the University of Michigan


Brand perception is bias. Even in “real” journalism.


Group 1 Group 2

Group 3, no clip


Brand perception is bias. Even in “real” journalism.


The resulting bias ratings: !   AJE clip = same bias rating as control group !   CNN clip = less biased


Are these brands? Are they biased?



and yet...brands can establish their own credibility by building trust



...Where do journalistic ethics fit in? It all comes down to transparency. So long as corporations are clear about their role in the content — as well as the limits of what they are willing to cover — I don’t see a conflict.”


theidealists. What is Branded Journalism? Sparksheet Editor Dan Levy Explains, Campbell, K. September.19.2011


Who’s the big winner?


!   This isn’t revolutionary !   A few case studies


If Brands are credible and Journalists are credible, do Brands + Journalists = just as credible or more?



AOL Marty Steinberg – former editor of the AP, Gene Marcial, Business Week columnist JWT Kyle Monson, former technology journalist at PC Magazine SAP Bob Evans, former journalist at Information Week.

IBM Ben Edwards, former bureau chief at the Economist

INgage Networks Kathy Saenz, former broadcast journalist at FOX News Beautylish Ning Chao, former senior beauty editor at Marie Claire and InStyle



We must trust our sources...


eMarketer, Digital Intelligence. Brands Vie for Credibility on Social Networks.


Ford tosses beauty shots for gritty photo journalism


“What's tougher than real life? And what's a better testament to the toughness of our Ford trucks than to see how real people put them to the test day-in and day-out?”

– Jan Klug, Ford Division's marketing communications manager

Instead of using the standard “beauty shots” of the vehicles, Ford sent three photojournalists out to find real-life stories of Ford truck owners. The ads were shot “news-style” by the photographers, whose resumes included work for National Geographic and Time. They also gathered the quotes used in the ads. Red Hammer, the print creative group of Ford agency J. Walter Thompson, Detroit, built the ads using the photojournalists’ pictures and copy, said Bruce Rooke, JWT creative director for Ford. “We stayed away from the shoots on purpose so [the photojournalists] could find the ‘truth’ that’s out there,” Rooke said. eMarketer, Digital Intelligence. Brands Vie for Credibility on Social Networks. April 2, 2010.


...and continues that approach with Live Chat with real people


TheFordStory.com, Read it. Help write it. Share it. October, 2010.

– Joe Heatherly, Florida Power & Light


Making news for making their own news



When an explosion and resulting fires temporarily closed Imperial Sugar Company’s large sugar refinery at Port Wentworth, Georgia, in February 2008, many news stories and images of the incident appeared in mainstream and online media, including at Google and other search engines. Those reports about fire, death and tragedy continued to show up on the first pages of search engines for months, even though much of the information was sorely outdated.

New Strategies. Strategic Content Creation & Brand Reputation Management in the Digital Era. In Today’s Digital Revolution, Make Your Own News. Henderson, D.


From this To this


Disaster strikes



A response to save an industry



A response to learn from...


“The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume,” he said.


Boeing tells a story of legacy and innovation, not just product



HSBC sets the stage for storytelling



Wilson tells story of legacy, loyalty and people


*client


What to do about it?


!   Hire the right talent for the job


The options:


!   Paid media !   Earned media !   Owned media


Hire the right talent


!   Journalist? !   Writer? !   Creative Director? !   Videographer? !   Storyteller? !   Cultural anthropologist? !   PR pro?


The basics


!   Disclosure !   Transparency !   Emotion !   Imagery !   Narrative