Archive for February, 2011

Flick and I attended another jam-packed Gorkana briefing this week at the DLA Piper building. Sharing their wisdom with us this time were the team from Financial News, who included Phillipa Leighton-Jones (Online Editor), Ben Wright (Deputy Editor) and William Wright (Editor-in-Chief).

The team answered questions for around an hour on a whole variety of topics so I thought I would share some of the most useful hints and tips below:

General about:

• The Financial News team consists of around 40 ppl
• They aim to write about 15-18 stories a day – plus aggregating stories from Dow Jones and WSJE
• The publication targets 4 main classes – asset management, investment banking, private equity and trading and technology – but also consultants who work with these industries i.e. lawyers
• The most popular content on the site is always the photo galleries
• After these the most viewed stories are those on bonuses, jobs, pay, recruitment and anything on the ‘inside track’

Working week:

• The paper comes out on a Friday so you need to work backwards from that day in terms of pitching
• The journalists start thinking of stories in a 2/3 week cycle
• Deadlines = Tuesday night and Wednesday night
• Edits = Wednesday and Thursday
• Thursday = working on news for website and for front 7 pages of print publication

Working week online specific:

• 8-9am = very intense time so don’t call
• Online stories are filed by 11.30am so try and approach the journalist before 6pm the night before
• They now break more stories online rather than holding for the print edition

PR-able sections:

• Talking points – pensions and investors sections
• Run comments elsewhere in the paper
• NB Financial News does do quote checks but only to check accuracy -  they will NEVER run whole article past you

Final point:
What Financial News really values is ACCESS, ACCESS, ACCESS

Tempted by nuggets of wisdom from the panel (and those really good muesli yoghurts), it was standing room only for the Gorkana breakfast briefing with ITN  on Friday morning. With a cup of coffee in one hand and a mini pain au chocolat in the other, here is what I learnt from the line up below:

Toby Castle, Head of Home News, ITV News
Ed Fraser, Online Editor, Channel 4 News
Julie Hulme, Home Editor, Channel 4 News

Overview
ITV
• ITV is the largest commercial channel in the UK – news bulletins go out at 1.30pm, 6.30om and 10pm
• The bulletins are carefully tailored to the core audiences at each time (e.g. elderly/mums at 1.30pm), reaching 8 million people a day (who are predominantly aged 16-34)

Channel 4
• The audience is mainly ABC1, with a large ethnic minority audience also
• Focus on analysis – aimed at people who want to know why

Channel 4 online
• Channel 4 online describes itself as a ‘beating heart of original journalism’ - breaking exclusive stories
• Almost all correspondents are on Twitter and tweet a lot
• 850,000 unique users/month

Extra Information – planning and spokespeople
ITV
• Has two planners who are responsible for planning the next day’s news
• These planners are open to ideas - their sources include press releases, PA, their specialist correspondents
• 3.15 – meeting to run through next day
• The Head of Planning deals with longer term planning – often under pressure – short window of opportunity
• Planners suggest a running order of approximately 7 stories (to fill 26 minutes of air time) to the Head of Home News
• It is easier to get on the lunchtime news than the 10pm bulletin…
• Availability of spokespeople to get to offices is key:

o Grays Inn Road (HQ)
o 4, Millbank
o Regional offices as alternative

• Midnight embargoes don’t work for them – 5-7pm is better (else by 10pm news slot the story has already been covered many times over – MUST be a new angle/approach at this stage)
• Foreign News – There is one foreign news planner. Content tends to be more ‘breaking news’ than features

Channel 4
• Head of Home News and deputy are responsible for planning bigger features and films
• Contact the programme Editor planner for shorter lead time ideas (the day before)
• Pitch to the specialist correspondents – they then pitch to the editor on your behalf (if they consider the news to be a genuine development/news item in their field)
• In unsure, email the Producer directly – rigorous with filing and will keep contacts (suggested spokespeople etc)
• Have two ‘guest bookers’ – don’t want to speak to the same people all the time. Proposed spokesperson must be available on the phone for an involved conversation beforehand

o Approach the relevant specialist team
o On the day – email the ‘guest booker’
o The correspondents are happy to meet and greet spokespeople

• Runs lots of foreign news. There are three foreign news correspondents based in London – you should let them know if you have someone/a client on the ground who may have access to somewhere that they do not – will be much appreciated!

Channel 4 online
• Focus on depth and analysis – adding value and an angle that can’t be found elsewhere
• Agenda determined by listening to Radio 4, then Radio 5, reading press releases, looking at what’s trending on Twitter/most read online stories
• Cover 30-35 stories – 8-10 in depth
• Don’t like B-roll footage – they have a quality threshold and would rather film it themselves

Question
What does the future look like? With constant online news updates, will there still be a need for the regular fixed bulletins?
- There is likely to be a convergence, but currently the figures do not support a move away from bulletins
- All news outlets are thinking about the future –not wanting to be left behind
- ITV recently tried a web chat during a programme – 32,000 people engaging and writing messages during the programme – not that many considering the total number of people viewing, but nonetheless a substantial figure
- The constant news will enhance brand loyalty – will force news outlets to keep raising the bar – must offer something that 24hour online news does not
- This brand will increasingly depend on key individuals, who have become a brand in themselves – people will want to hear their opinions/analysis

Top Tips for PRs

• Pick up the phone! Come with everything – research, available spokesperson, and a strong human case study and you will “walk onto the lunchtime news”

• Many Channel 4 News correspondents are on Twitter - @fraserec4 – “message me and I will engage”

• Remember it’s NEWS – think about whether your story is genuinely newsworthy and not just fluff

• Remember that all news channels are competitive – they are all trying to make a distinctive news programme and will want exclusive content

As you will have seen from Flick’s blog post a couple of weeks ago, To InFINNity and beyond, a few of the elite ‘athletes’ at Ruder Finn will be taking part in the NSPCC Step Change 2011on 6th March, a race to the top of one of London’s most iconic buildings, the Gherkin.

‘Tower running’ turns the idea of a race literally on its head. Instead of running on a typical route, we will be climbing the 1037 stairs up the Gherkin in a race to the 38th floor. Pretty difficult I’m sure you will agree.  So we need some motivation, something to get the blood pumping, the adrenaline running and basically to keep us moving.

For this, we need your help.  The Step Change team has set up a collaborative playlist on Spotify and you can suggest the songs that we run to. It’s really simple and won’t take a minute:

- Click on the link here to access the Ruder Finn StepChange Spotify playlist

- Once you’ve opened the playlist in Spotify, just search for the song you want us to run to, add drag and drop into the playlist

- Only rules are that the songs are upbeat, and preferably related to steps, climbing, mountains, heights… *gulp* - oh and no swearing please, we’re a nice bunch

Alternatively, if you don’t have access to Spotify you can leave your suggestions in the comments box below and we will add the song to the playlist on your behalf.

Thanks to everybody for their support so far – we’ve just smashed the £500 barrier and are well on our way to reaching our target.  But we’re not there yet, so please give generously via our fund-raising page.

Losing track of all the different applications Google offers? I was reading through this month’s Revolution earlier today and came across an interesting link in its ‘Hotlinks’ section. Google has developed its very own periodic table, where instead of chemical elements it shows the different APIs and developer products available. Liking the format and the way the table is colour-coded according to application area but who knew there were this many?!

Does anyone out there have any particular favourites? How many do you use?

A really simple execution by OTC medicine Otrivine that I saw on a Jubilee train carriage. It’s a nice play on the London tube map which catches the eye.

This was cross-posted from my personal blog.

Ever get REALLY out of puff walking up the steps from the tube station at Covent Garden? Us too. Which is why an elite team of ‘athletes’ from Ruder Finn can’t quite believe that on 6th March (just three weeks and three days from now) we will be taking part in the NSPCC Step Challenge.

And a challenge it will be. ‘Tower running’ turns the idea of a race literally on its head…instead of running on a typical route, a team of eight Ruder Finners will be climbing the 1037 stairs up the Gherkin in a race to the 38th floor. That’s right – 1037 stairs. 38th floor. Why the Covent Garden reference? That number of stairs is equivalent to walking up the steps at Covent Garden tube eleven and a bit times.

Training so far amounts to a few fifteen minute sessions on the step machine at the gym for a few of our keener racers. For the others… a total of…no extra exercise whatsoever. Apart from occasionally making the effort to walk up escalators. With the event sneaking up, I think we’re starting to feel the fear…will we make it to the top? Who will drop first?

However, we will not be alone. On 6th March, the Ruder Finn team will be part of hundreds of runners who will be racing to the top of London’s most iconic building for the Child’s Voice Appeal. This appeal was launched in 2008 to raise £50 million to sustain and grow two NSPCC helpline services – ChildLine and the NSPCC Helpline. Childline is the NSPCC’s free and confidential, 24-hour helpline for children in distress or danger. Trained volunteer counsellors comfort, advise, support and protect children and young people who may feel they have nowhere else to turn. The NSPCC helpline provides a voice for children who cannot speak for themselves – babies and young children, disabled children and children who are too afraid to call themselves need an adult to speak up for them.

Our fundraising page can be found here. This is a fantastic cause, so please take a moment or two to dig deep and give generously to help us support the NSPCC.

Last night I went to my first Mashup event – Digital Trends in 2011. I wasn’t sure what to expect and was pleasantly surprised by the format, which was two short five minute presentations, before a launch into an interactive and engaging discussion, involving panel members and audience alike. Sat in a room of ‘early adopters’ and self-titled ‘unrestrained geeks’, it was fascinating to hear people’s predictions for digital development in 2011. Some of the key trends we touched upon are well worth sharing…

Privacy will Matter
• Although the majority of online forums are free, we are paying with our presence. The highly valuable personal data we give away is monetised – many large companies won’t admit how much data they store and ‘mine’ but be assured it is happening
• Are people too lazy to care enough about privacy settings? Very few people change their default privacy settings/read SLAs – not because they don’t care but because they have no idea how much they are giving away – “the technology industry hides from the consumer”
• How long until consumers can see exactly how much of their personal information is in the public domain?
• Privacy can be seen in two ways
1. The absence of info
2. Controlled information – the consumer decides how it is used
• The ability of consumers to give and retract information may emerge, causing a backlash against companies who refuse to ‘give personal information back’

Geo-targeted Advertising
• This will increase as the trend for location-based services continues
• Almost all phones now have GPS, allowing data on where we are and where we have been to be harvested and used for advertising purposes

Location is a key feature, not a business
• Discussion of the gap between location features reaching a ‘critical mass’ and being a ‘social norm’

Sensor convergence
• It won’t be long before our Oyster card chips are in our mobile phones
• The winners of the mobile payment industry are likely to be the incumbent giants

More contextual relevance and APIs
• An abundance of apps means that many people have over 100 on their phone, with only a few that they regularly use
• Instead, people will have 5 apps

Geo-fencing and auto-check in
• Fine grain determination of where you are (or more crucially, are not) will lead to “hyperlocal advertising”
• In the next 6-8 months, this feature is likely to be added to all mobile apps

Other Discussions

Advertising
• A move away from ‘shotgun’ advertising to more contextual advertising
• People may begin to shun broadcast TV in favour of iPlayer, 4OD etc – more targeted adverts
• The challenge will be to get more creative to hold people’s attention –trend towards the ‘game-ification’ of adverts
• Digital lisiaons between unrelated brands to reach the same/similar target audience

Data driven marketing
• Advertising fazes out to give way to merchandising
• Companies should look to Twitter and other social media to engage with customers who are complaining about rival brands

Venture Capitalists/start-ups
• VCs have mainly invested in hardware until a recently when the focus has shifted to software – enabling companies to expand their influence without a sales force (people are looking to create big companies with a lot less money)
• The UK/London has the potential to become renowned for two key areas over the next 10 years
1) Digital in the financial services industry
2) Digital/marketing agencies – encompassing a broader range of skills than ever before
• UK/EU is more risk averse than US – UK media coverage of start-ups is generally unfavourable
• Companies can no longer rely on a niche technology, they must have commercial viability

Social buying
• Leverage opportunity of getting people to recommend things to drive content, conversations and coverage – people will quickly tire of receiving endless ‘spam offers’
• Clever marketers will identify influential recipients who will evangelise the brand to their social graph

A final interesting pointer for PR/advertising agencies:

Don’t get entrenched in service delivery to clients but think about the bigger picture and how you can become a strategic part of their business rather than becoming a commodity

Check here to read Ged Carroll’s thoughts on where digital is going in 2011

Last night I went along to the RSA building to hear a talk from a lady called Rachel Botsman about collaborative consumption. I came out so enthused that I bought her book! Thought I would therefore share some of her thoughts with you:

The rise in collaborative consumption refers to the huge increase in sharing, bartering, swapping etc, basically any sort of peer-to-peer exchange through technology and online communities. Good examples of collaborative sharing are renting extra space, car sharing, swap-trading toys and books or joining land share sites. Collaborative consumption is evidence of a big shift in consumer behaviour as the priority becomes less about ownership and more about access. We don’t want more stuff, we just want that stuff would provide i.e. we don’t want to own a book, we want to read a story – so the new focus is on providing a service rather than the item itself.

In a world of Facebook and Twitter one of the key phrases that Rachel used was that we were all “globally connected but locally disconnected” as people much preferred to go online to connect socially while maintaining their real-life privacy.

According to Rachel, our interaction with the internet can be broken into four stages:

1. People connected to share information i.e. using Wikipedia

2. People connected to people i.e. Facebook, Friends Reunited

3. People connected to share thoughts and media i.e. Spotify

4. People are now connecting to share assets

This new asset-based sharing can then be split into three different systems:

1. Product service systems – finding some idle capacity and leveraging it  i.e. bike sharing

2. Redistribution markets i.e. selling on eBay, swapping or gifting unwanted belongings

3. Collaborative lifestyle i.e. co-working

Ironically while none of this collaboration would be possible without technology, the aim is not to create more virtual communities but is instead to use technology to get people off the internet and into real-life communities. The time is right to do so, with a global feeling of the renewed importance of community, a backlash against anonymous goods, the availability of social technology and the pressing unresolved environmental concerns, all combining to drive the trend.

So how do you get involved? If you want to make friends, declutter your life or even make some money everyone has something to contribute. Think about your idling capacity….do you have some spare space in your flat, some spare time on your hands, a skill you could share with others? Don’t just sit back while everyone else turns themselves into micro-entrepreneurs!

Want to see collaborative consumption in action for yourself? Have a look at some of these sites: Hey Neighbor, airbnb, sparedesk.com or why not watch the intro video Rachel uses at - http://vimeo.com/14408878

This tweet from Brian Clark was getting a lot of rotation on Twitter.

I found it interesting less because of its accusation of Quora than of its attitude to the social web. Much of the arguments about Quora in Scoble’s post could be just as easily made against Facebook, The Huffington Post or LinkedIn. Quora was never about blogging, it is more about expert reputation in the same way that LinkedIn is about professional reputation.

For many people blogging is about demonstrating their expertise and providing ‘thought leadership’, however may blogs get little to no readership and Quora can can aggregate eyeballs around topics of interest.

The sharecropping allegory is brought up again and again by people who don’t understand the currency of kudos and the fact that there is a certain amount of altruism in society. It was something that I had to deal with on more than one occasion when I worked at Yahoo! talking about the concept of knowledge search.

Services like Quora are more like a digital barn-raising than sharecropping, since people share their knowledge in the expectation of tapping into others expert when they need it - there is a strong altruistic element to it. This was cross-posted from my personal blog.