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Think of web television as a nuclear family. It all started with TV — the traditional type. Along came the web, which, in many ways, was TV’s polar opposite: interactive, responsive, progressive. As much as TV was about tradition, the web was all about change. From this unlikely pairing came little programs that, when viewed together, make up an episodic web series, or webisode. Webisodes share some of the attributes of each of their media parents; yet they also bring a whole new generation of brand storytelling opportunities to life. It’s this pedigreed combination of the web and television that some big brands are experimenting with as a way to provide distinctive and uniquely engaging content to consumers. As one of the most engaging forms of branded content, the episodic web series has a lot of appeal. For example, just like a TV miniseries or a series of books, a good web TV series can help forge an ongoing relationship with target consumers: Once viewers have been drawn in by the entertainment value of a webisode, they’re likely to stick around to see what happens next — and to visit related YouTube channels, Facebook pages, or other touch points that are part of your branded environment. They’ll get to know your brand a little better. They may even start to like it more than they realized....
Knowing whether or not your project should be classified as transmedia can be a complicated, daunting question. In order to put you at ease so you can get back to writing, filming, coding, community building, or whatever is required to bring your project to life, This Is Transmedia created a simplified flowchart:
A great multi-screen strategy can ensure advertisers reach consumers wherever they are, no matter what they are doing. By using multiple platforms, advertisers can also build consistent and cohesive experiences from the ground up, giving companies the ability to reach incredibly targeted audiences. Still, we must always remember to keep coming back to the consumer: listening to their needs and desires, their dislikes and concerns, and always putting them first. Through native advertising experiences on mobile devices, gaming consoles, smartphone apps, Skype and web browsing, advertisers can deliver the most relevant message to the right audience, but we must keep striving to tell brand stories in the most unique, personal and interesting ways. At its core, great advertising is great storytelling. It surprises and delights audiences while remaining relevant, memorable and unobtrusive....
Virtually every novel reflects some form of the classic storytelling arc. Same goes for movies. As I’m driving to see “Zero Dark Thirty,” I’m wondering how the heck will the movie build drama. I already know how the story ends. Yet, the CIA operative played by Jessica Chastain must deal with stuff going cockeyed again and again to the point that you lose yourself in the story and indeed can feel the tension building. In the communications business, we don’t have 300 pages or two hours on the silver screen to define characters or advance a plot with the requisite twists and turns that culminate in a payoff and happy ending. But it’s not just the element of time that poses a quandary for communicators. The intrinsic nature of classic storytelling revolves around crisis, or better yet, the type of failure that causes the audience to wince. That’s what teases out the tension. That’s what keeps the audience engaged....
Drinking From the Content Marketing Fire Hose As we launched the site, the iQ team started to work with a team of journalists and editorial partners, conducted editorial meetings and worked closely with the Intel social media team to amplify and extend iQ content. Before we knew it, we were beginning to operate a newsroom, managing a robust content machine and starting to see our goals for iQ come to fruition. By end of 2012, iQ was emerging as an essential asset to Intel’s marketing and social media strategy. Although satisfied with the early success of iQ, we knew there were many improvements to be made. In January 2013, iQ version 1 (the current site) was released. Several new changes and strategies were implemented from our learnings since the BETA launch. So what have I learned about content marketing in the last 11 months? I’ve distilled the 12 core lessons for brand publishers organized by the tenets of the iQ content marketing approach; production, process and promotion....
Awards season continues with the announcement of the American Society of Magazine Editors’ finalists for the National Magazine Award. The organization this week honored 62 publications in 23 categories, with winners to be revealed in New York on May 2. The National Magazine Awards have long honored the best of narrative journalism, especially in the Feature Writing category. This year, ASME combined the features bracket with the Profile category. Here are short excerpts from each of the seven finalists in “Feature Writing Incorporating Profile Writing:”...
How to craft and tell your story to truly stand out in the mind of your social media contacts. The story makes the message resonate. That’s right: An important element to cultivating relationships, especially via social media, is the story. No, I don’t mean you must turn into your favorite novelist and spin a compelling tale of mystique, intrigue, and danger. But if you want to truly stand out in the minds of your contacts, you do need to think about your story and tell it across social media....
The value of visual storytelling will only increase over time. You don’t need a research grant from the feds to reach this conclusion. There are only so many words a human brain can process before the overload buzzer goes off (unless you’re Stephen Hawking). Which brings us to the infographic. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then an infographic must weigh in at around 10,000 words. Yet, grapevine chatter has the media suffering from “IF,” infographic fatigure. Jesus Diaz from Gizmodo shared this in an exchange with Sam Whitmore at SWMS...
According to Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard University, “Stories are the single most powerful weapon in a leader’s rhetorical arsenal.” Yet most people struggle to think of compelling stories that reinforce their messages. That’s usually because they’re trying to think of a “big” story. In order to help people get unstuck, I tell them to think smaller. I encourage them to think of a single customer whose life was improved because of their product or a community that is enjoying the benefits of a new public school. A story can be many things: your personal experience with a person, place, thing, or topic; somebody else’s experience; case studies in the news; or a historical or fictional example....
Here are 10 insights for marketers I learned during Robert McKee's legendary screenwriting course. Brand storytelling has never been more trendy, but learning how to tell a story is critical. “If your cell phone goes off during my seminar, you will come up here to my stage and give me $10 in front of all of your screenwriting pals. If it goes off a second time, you’re kicked out. Because one ring is an accident. The second one tells me your an asshole.” That’s how Robert McKee warmly welcomed a packed house last Thursday to his four-day Story screenwriting seminar in Los Angeles. The man is a force of nature. This clip from the movie Adaptation, where actor Brian Cox portrays the legendary screenwriting coach, only slightly exaggerates McKee’s zest for his craft. Only slightly....
About today's guest post: As companies mature their online presence though more robust social engagement, individuals within those companies are advancing use
Via Karen Dietz
By now most of us content marketers have heard of, and probably already started using, Vine, the new app from Twitter that allows users to easily produce and share six-second videos. When it comes to adding the new tool to our content marketing toolbelt, how do we avoid misusing Vine? I say the answer is the same for producing six-second videos as it is for producing sixty-second videos – you need a plan. Or, since Twitter is a micro-blogging platform, let’s say Vine is a micro-storytelling app and you actually just need a micro-plan. Download a free copy of a printable Vine micro-planning tool, check out the whiteboard video below, or read the transcription to start planning right away....
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... Stories have a connective quality, linking individuals together through similar emotions, thoughts, moulding our minds and reinforcing experiences. Although it may not be an intuitive conclusion, this is especially true in business. Besides merely relaying information, a relevant and compelling story can bring employees together for a common goal & becomes a stong engagement technique to be used in the workplace. Hearing stories about employees who behaved properly or employees who made similar mistakes when dealing with Customers and still succeeded at the company, can make team members feel more comfortable to try new things and to strive for new heights. Understanding that employees in the history of a company that have had opportunities to learn and grow through errors and triumphs can be a rewarding conclusion. The unifying quality of storytelling can be particularly useful when working with new employees. Remaining cognisant of the fact that team members new to an organisation do not understand the same details about clients, customer service, history and company objectives in the same way seasoned employees do, is something for which management must strive towards....
Our goal as savvy email marketers is to look beyond the lure of the one-time conversion and strive to build an ongoing relationship between consumers and our brands. Why is this goal so important? Because it’s been proven through many a marketing study that engaged customers become loyal customers and loyal customers are the most valuable segment in any list or database. This type of highly engaged, loyal customer typically has higher overall lifetime value than the casual consumer. They’re also more likely to be an evangelist, introducing new customers to your brand in a very personal way and building the next layer of loyal customers. But, how can you help to build a stronger bond with your customer base? In my last article, I outlined ways to stimulate an unengaged audience by increasing the relevancy of your email creative by including more dynamic content. Sharing relevant content demonstrates to customers that we know them as individuals and are dedicated to providing them with useful information, products or services. Using historical and behavior data is a great way to present content that’s tailored to their individual needs and preferences, but you also need to engage with your audience on an emotional level in order to achieve the goal of creating a true brand-loyal customer.... Let’s explore four creative ways in which email marketers have used data as a platform to build creative that forms a bond between their customers and their brand....
Is relocating your nascent company to a startup hotbed worth the price of admission A Renobased entrepreneur weighs the pros and cons.... ... Creating a startup is hard enough without the additional expense and stress of moving, of not having friends and family around, and of not knowing where the best restaurants are. So I decided I had to make my new venture work in the place where I was already established. My point is that while there are benefits to planting yourself in a hub, there are plenty of advantages to setting up shop in a more isolated place. For starters, when I started ShortStack three years ago, I already knew where the best brew pub in Reno, Nevada was--so I haven’t wasted any time or money on bad beer! Here’s how to start a business wherever you are...
The Movenote app lets you record video alongside documents or pictures to create an integrated video presentation with slides. Creating presentations is easy and fast. Simply record video with your device and swipe to synchronize the slides to the video. Presentations are shared by sending a link to the recipient and can be viewed without the app.
Via Baiba Svenca, Mayra Aixa Villar
The Pulitzer Prizes for journalism were announced this week, and the winning stories represent a variety of different angles, techniques and tools that provide good ideas – and more than a little inspiration – for public relations and marketing communicators.
Forget the elevator pitch. You only get four words. If you want to start a business or launch a new project, you need to be able to describe your effort in four words. Why four? If you write a longer story, the door cracks open to ambiguity; you can start to hedge your bets, get vague or abstract. Stick with four. It means you must identify a subject, an object, a verb and maybe one descriptor or refining notion....
Yesterday we saw a lot of attempts at humor from tech companies, with varying degrees of success..... It’s something that’s been pretty darn successful. So far, Vooza’s clients have included email newsletter startup MailChimp, app analytics platform Tapstream, branding firm Eat My Words and others. The companies pay to have their brand worked into a segment written by Vooza’s writers and featuring its cast of characters — the video then goes out to Vooza’s own audience, and can also be used by the company in any way they wish. It’s a business model that can be classified as branded content or sponsored product placement, but Ruby says that he thinks of it more as “a throwback to the old school TV advertising model when the stars of a show would do the ads, like Johnny and Ed schilling for Alpo.”...
Many people will tell you that marketing is a game of numbers. They’ll say it’s about researching a target audience, developing a targeted message, and using advanced statistics and metrics to determine where that message should be delivered. Of course there’s a significant amount of truth to that statement, but I don’t think it remains as true as it once was. Successful marketing is about storytelling. In the past decade or so, that’s become even more true than it was before. Why has it become more true? Social media. Social media has turned marketing from a numbers driven game to a story telling game. How has it done that? That’s what I’ll discuss below....
...With the increasing reliance on gadgets in everyday life, the PR industry risks losing some of its storytelling edge. With all the information we need available at our fingertips, many are beginning to question if storytelling has lost its value. Temasek Communications head Stephen Forshaw explains that, “we’ve lost the art of developing key messages and we’ve lost the art of storytelling, and storytelling is the heart of our business.” It is hard to engage an audience with a meaningful, personal story when the world seems to become more and more impersonal every day. You can have a conversation with friends or family without ever actually seeing them face to face. The important thing to remember is the value of personal connections as our world becomes engrossed in technology....
...So the question is: Why is a story so important to your personal branding strategy? First of all, it sets your brand apart as unique. Every brand has its own story to tell, but yours is the only one of its kind. What drives you? Why did you enter the field that you find yourself in today? You’d be surprised at what details will intrigue the reader and give your audience an idea of what your brand is really about. Perhaps one of the most effective characteristics of a story is that it humanizes your brand. It’s easy to launch a brand, but the story behind it can leave your target audience wondering where it came from. What is your actual purpose? What drives your actions? Was it the right opportunity at the right moment? Now consider how your brand has affected others. How have you impacted the lives of those involved with your brand? Has it always gone smoothly? Are you new at this? What’s your experience prior to the creation of your brand? What is the story behind your personal brand? While the story for your brand might satisfy your present audience, the aspects of your personal brand story can turn you from just a brand into the personification they can truly relate to....
There is plenty of advice out there on how to create a great presentation. Most of it centers on two pretty common pieces of advice: Tell more stories.Use bigger fonts. Neither is always easy to do, but the more events I attend – the more I realize a single fact that still manages to surprise me about why people do (or don’t) connect with you as a speaker. Having a good story or great visuals is not enough.
Via Gregg Morris
Storytelling is absolutely essential whether it be traditional paid media, owned media like social networks and blogs, or earned media where someone else is telling your story. It’s critical to connect your story of how you solve the customer’s problems at each step of their journey. The key in storytelling though is to recognize that people are going to enter your story at different chapters and pages along their journey. It’s Their Story, Not Yours So as you think of telling your story you must visualize it through their eyes. You should ask, where is the customer in the buying cycle, where are they in the learning cycle, and how does it relate to their job’s role as it relates to that stage of the process? That way the story is relevant to their needs, their issues, their requirements....
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There are some really good ideas about monitoring and measuring "intangible results." Well worth reading.