by Jacqueline Koch | Aug 18, 2016 |
By Estelle Pin, Boost! Collective’s Millennial-in-chief
This is the first in a two-part series about the increasing trend of ethical consumerism in millennials. Part two will explore storytelling in ethical consumerism and who’s doing it well.
Think about your 20s.
Whether you’re experiencing them right now, or remembering days behind you, some things are universally true. For instance: chances are, you thought of positive things when prompted to think about this time in your life. You also probably thought of self-defining moments. That could be the moment you got your first real job, or that really fantastic date you’ll never forget. Or it could be the single strange moment when you tried something new and you decided this was now going to be something you did.
That’s the thing about identify formation. It’s sort of a trick question. “Who are you?” Um, a cellist, a writer, a skier, a runner? “No, no, that’s what you do—but who ARE you?” I’m … a French immigrant. “No, not where you’re from—WHO ARE YOU?”
When the date who thinks they’re tricky asks this, the answer will be: What I do is who I am. As is what I think. And what I like. And where I shop. All of these things are who I am. Because identify formation happens when we make decisions, and when we see our values or traits reflected in our actions.
Making the “right” decisions
Shopping according to your values and making consumer decisions based off ethical concerns is a quantifiably shared trait in today’s millennial generation. And the fact that this generation is undergoing so much identity formation now, is part of why ethical consumerism exists and is so popular among a generation still in its formative years.
Ethical consumerism is “the practice of purchasing products and services produced in a way that minimizes social and/or environmental damage, while avoiding products and services deemed to have a negative impact on society or the environment.” It’s generally much more expensive than price shopping, because of the increased standards for production, or because you’re paying for higher wages, or because your money also goes to donating a pair of those shoes for someone in need.
So, is that something you do?
Nowadays, for people born roughly between 1980 and 2000, the answer is more often yes than for any previous generation. In their article “Examining Overconsumption, Competitive Consumption, and Conscious Consumption from 1994 to 2004”, Carr, Gotleib, Lee and Shah posit that members of Generation X over-consume, at the lowest cost, and with the lowest rates of ethical consumption, instead opting to shop for status signifiers; traits which shaped the direction of our economy and global leading into the 2000s.
Millennials, both exuberant to be coming of an age where their actions form change in the world, and reactionary to the generation that preceded them, are hoping to reverse these trends. In a 2014 Forbes report, 40 to 60 percent of millennials (depending on location) responded that they would pay more for socially conscious or eco-friendly brands.
Why pay the price?
It could be that part of this trend is due to increasing stress over the state of our world and society. Global warming is finally too obvious to reasonably refute. Global productivity per capita has been growing for decades—while personal income and wages have not been increasing to match. Human rights violations are frequent news, refugee numbers are at a high all across the world, and sexual assault happens to one in every four women you know. So of course, a company which touts positive environmental impact, or fair wages, or charitable donations to people in need, will speak to people who want to make a difference with their purchases.
The other reason ethical companies are attracting so many loyal millennial consumers willing to pay more for their products is simply, that’s what we do. Because it’s a part of who we are—or who we think we are. In a survey by Boston Consulting Group, half of millennials surveyed said that the brands that they shop and the choices they make say something about who they are as people.
A trend with no sign of stopping
While the kind of identity formation that happens in a person’s twenties seems conveniently timed with these pressing global issues, the trend of ethical consumerism isn’t just going to stop when millennials hit their 40s.
Think about the peanut butter you bought in your 20s. The dish soap? The toothpaste? Are they the same brands you buy now? Again, the likelihood that you said yes is disproportionate. And according to Jon F. Sherry’s “Contemporary Marketing and Consumer Behavior”, it’s even more likely that your kids will buy the same brand, simply because you do. Which means, if you are shopping ethically now, your children will probably continue your ethical consumer habits, even if they don’t know that’s why they do it.
This means for companies getting on board with ethical and environmentally-friendly production, the consumer returns aren’t just a passing trend. Furthermore, these companies reap the benefits of the better world they contribute to.
Tune in next time for more on whose doing this well, and how we can learn from them…
by Jacqueline Koch | Aug 3, 2016 |
By Janinne Brunyee
“The lying started at 7:27 a.m. and did not stop until after dark. Even for Donald Trump, Monday, Aug. 1, was a banner day for bullshit.” So starts a recent article by Olivia Nuzzi, who covers politics for The Daily Beast.
In today’s highly competitive news environment, how is it that The Daily Beast is growing 25 percent each year to reach more than 20 million readers per month? According to editor-in-chief, John Avlon, while there are a number of factors driving this growth, one of the most important is the publication’s unique voice—as is evidenced by the opening line of the Trump story.
A unique voice at the Daily Beast
“We focus on dictators, dissidents and terrorists,” he said. “Our job is to make important stories interesting and entertaining as well as educational. To do this, we have to be willing to call BS.” According to Avlon, the site’s voice is characterized by short sentences, short paragraphs and vigorous English. “We rely heavily on Hemingway as a style guide,” he said.
Launched in 2006, The Daily Beast takes its name from a fictional newspaper in Evelyn Waugh’s novel Scoop. Avlon, best known as a television journalist with a long list of credits including The Daily Show, CNN, MSNBC and Real Time with Bill Maher, took over as editor-in-chief from Tina Brown in 2013. Brown was a former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker.
With a focus on original reporting and breaking news, The Daily Beast has been able to avoid the commodity news carried by many competitors and create differentiated stories. “Competitors have content farms that create partisan news,” he said. “We carry columns across the opinion spectrum and avoid commodity news from wire services.” With his trademark bluntness, Avlon stated that commodity news kills a news publication because voice is critical.
Hiring writers who are already known on cable news is another important part of The Daily Beast’s strategy. Avlon is himself a regular contributor to CNN. “We get television coverage because our writers are known entities on cable,” he said. At the same time, the publication looks to cable news commentators as a talent pool. Each of The Daily Beast’s writers also pays careful attention to developing their own brands.
According to Avlon, while many partisan news sites are seeing declines, The Daily Beast continues to prosper. “Our competitors have had a rough period but we are growing with a lean team of 100 people,” he said.
“We have built a great team and we are hard to poach from. Our journalists have a sense of mission and that’s why we have a high-morale, high-metabolism newsroom,” he said.
According to Avlon, his team is not solely measured on traffic markers. Instead, the focus is on identifying and creating the stories that readers love.
“We have to be nimble. We are a pirate ship fighting a guerilla war,” he said. “But we understand that quality content creates a quality audience.”
The Daily Beast is not only a breaking news site. There is an increasing focus on the lifestyle sector. According to Avlon, the publication understands that people have a variety of interests. “You can appeal to different sides of their personality to create a site that is less siloed,” he said.
The business of news at The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast’s main revenue stream is content marketing which allows it to bring quality content to its quality audience and help advertisers avoid adblockers. “We have found that quality branded content will do well. It involves a shift in thinking about what advertising is.” According to Avlon, his team takes the business side very seriously. “We all need to think entrepreneurially. If we don’t there are major threats,” he said.
“Our business is a mix between science and jazz. We are reactive to the news cycle but we use data to anticipate what readers are interested in,” he said. The Daily Beast team aims to be transparent about data so that everyone in the newsroom understands what is working and what isn’t. Avlon is quick to point out, however, that his team cannot rely solely on algorithms. “If you use algorithms only, you will lose your differentiation. You will end up with celebrity gossip, sex scandals and will miss out on the real meat,” he said.
Embracing social platforms
The Daily Beast is amongst the many publications including The Washington Post, Slate, and Gawker who are embracing Facebook Instant Articles. “Facebook is a major player in content distribution and can be an enormously powerful way to get some of our branded or sponsored content out,” he said.
The team has also been aggressive with Facebook Live to create intimacy with reporters. Earlier this year, The Daily Beast launched two new original live series on Facebook. “Cheat Sheet” features Avlon and other editors breaking down the top stories of the day and answering questions from the Facebook audience. “Drink Cart” features author and cocktail expert Noah Rothbaum talking with a Daily Beast editor about the latest culture news over drinks.
Keep them hooked right to the end
“With his mouth full of fast-food poultry and his hands gripping a knife and fork, for a blissful few moments, Donald Trump told no lies at all.” So ends Olivia Nuzzi’s article 15 Hours of Donald Trump’s Lies. A great reminder for all storytellers to find their voice, create unique content and stay committed to the last period.
The Daily Beast is one of the companies that participants of the 2016 VDZ Akademie Digital Publisher’s Tour visited in New York City this June. The Tour was co-organized by Boost! Collective.
This is the second in a series of pieces we are writing about the storytellers we met on the tour. Read the first piece Powering passionate storytelling at The Atavist Magazine
Boost! Collective is a strategic messaging and story-driven communications firm. We help clients discover, write and tell powerful stories which drive engagement.
by Jacqueline Koch | Jul 20, 2016 |
By Janinne Brunyee
As the publishing industry continues to face the impact of the unstoppable digital transformation, one organization has found a formula for success that allows them to pursue their passion for long-form narrative content.
Brooklyn-based Atavist is in fact two companies in one. The first is The Atavist Magazine, an eight-time finalist for the National Magazine Awards and the first digital-only magazine to win for feature writing. The second is the Atavist self-publishing platform. This enables creative individuals and organizations to produce beautiful and shareable stories, attract new audiences and build business around their work—all without knowing a line of code.
Together with Nicholas Thompson, a Senior Editor at The New Yorker and Jefferson Rabb, Atavist’s CTO, co-founder Evan Ratliff put his experience at National Geographic, Wired Magazine and The New Yorker to work to sketch out a new approach to long-form narrative content that is based on an innovative take on design and storytelling. The result: The Atavist Magazine.
Design + Storytelling
“Each story is a creation of its own and is meant to be an experience. We have pioneered this form of long-form content where each story includes video, GIFs and big imagery.”
The magazine covers topics of general interest ranging from “Zombie King”, Emily Matchar’s exploration of author William Seabrook who introduced the zombie cadaver—the walking dead—to the American imagination before sinking into obscurity to “Whatsoever Things Are True”, the result of Matthew Shaer’s ten-month long investigation into the aftermath of a crime that happened 39 years ago in Chicago.
The team publishes one story each month, attracting between 10,000 and 20,000 readers. “We are known for long stories that are hard to do and that is why we have won awards and have been nominated for Emmys for our video-based work,” Ratliff said.
Advertising free zone
The magazine does not carry advertising and according to Ratliff, this is the reason that their stories enjoy higher than average reader engagement. “If you tell an engaging story, people will read it on their phones and their laptops. Everything does not have to be shorter and faster,” he said.
“We have stories pitched to us or we will go and find them. Either way, we spend months with the writer to make sure they can get inside the story.” Ratliff says sometimes there are stories that the team just wants to do – especially international stories. “It is a very purpose-driven organization. Even so, we have to lure our readers in and our stories have to feel like movies,” he said.
Earlier this year, The Atavist Magazine carried a serialized story about an international drug dealer which was the result of two years of investigation. Penned by Ratliff with help from Aurora Almendral and Natalie Lampert, “The Mastermind” chronicles the story of Paul Calder Le Roux, an international crime kingpin turned government informant who was apprehended in Liberia in 2012 after a six-year investigation by DEA agents. “The Mastermind” was released shortly after Le Roux’s dramatic appearance in a Minneapolis courtroom on March 2, 2016.
“This time, we released this story in serialized form with one installment released each week.” Ratliff says it took a week to produce each installment. “We are much more akin to a production company in some ways—but we meet a monthly deadline,” he said.
A self-publishing platform for long-form narrative content
What makes this magazine possible without having to turn a profit is the income generated by the Atavist self-publishing content platform.
Ratliff said that the impetus for creating a publishing platform was born out of the absence of commercially available solutions capable of producing the kind of rich experience the team wanted to deliver. “When we launched, there wasn’t software that would allow us to do the type of design we wanted to do. So, we built a CMS and started selling it to others.”
In essence, the Atavist platform allows someone who is not a designer to create something that looks professionally designed. This includes easily adding multimedia to projects by dragging and dropping blocks of video, sound, slideshows, charts, maps and Instagram and Soundcloud embeds to really show the whole story.
Today, a number of organizations are using the platform for a variety of reasons. United Airlines, for example is using it to build and publish Hemispheres, the online version of their inflight magazine. Stanford University’s Engineering school is using it to create a magazine-like version of their prospectus.
“Our clients are often at the intersection of journalism and activism,” said Ratliff. Most clients are using it for long-form content, whether that is for corporate reports or journalism.
Revenue model for long-form narrative content
As far as the business model is concerned, The Atavist Magazine is available via a subscription. A metered paywall allows readers to access three stories for free before a subscription is needed to gain more content. “We option a lot of our stories for movies, which provides another revenue stream,” said Ratliff.
And finally, there is the software platform that provides the main funding for the magazine. The Atavist self-publishing platform offers a variety of paid subscription options ranging from $8 a month, for small users, to $250 per month for larger organizations.
The idea of a self-funding magazine supplemented by its own publishing software is one innovative way that publishers can support their passions for narrative journalism while not being reliant on traditional ad revenues to succeed.
Atavist is one of the companies that participants of the 2016 VDZ Akademie Digital Publisher’s Tour visited in New York City this June. The Tour was co-organized by Boost! Collective.
Boost! Collective is a strategic messaging and story-driven communications firm. We help clients discover, write and tell powerful stories which drive engagement.
by Jacqueline Koch | Jun 22, 2016 |
By Christopher Ross
Publishers have always known that quality, original content is the undisputed king for engaging and maintaining a relationship with readers. It’s a fact that’s been a cornerstone of the publishing industry for decades.
But what if a reader wants to dive deeper, to explore beyond the featured content and know more about the props in the story or the pictures, or even more about the surrounding scenery? What if the reader wanted to purchase elements found in the narrative? Welcome to the world of shoppable content, where a reader can enjoy content, while seamlessly creating a personal shopping list.
Shoppable ads
Shoppable ads are one manifestation of how the online retail experience is being advanced by technology. A key element to the technology its ability to eliminate barriers so a reader can move about a site without unnecessary new tabs or excessive extra actions. Even for the digitally savvy consumer, the movement between multiple platforms presents real barriers to shopping for items in the content. It is right to assume consumers care little about platforms but to stay engaged, must be able to move seamlessly across them. In a recent Guardian article, titled Rise of shoppable content will change the face of advertising, Simon Hathaway stated “technology is resetting [our] expectations of retail and transforming shopping behaviour. We are getting used to being able to click on a product image and go into the buying process. Soon, we’ll expect to be able to buy any image we click on – and be frustrated if we can’t.”
Shoppable content
The challenge to create a seamless shoppable content solution between platforms is especially problematic on mobile devices where consumers are increasingly leaning but the technology is less accommodating. One such solution comes from Zumobi, a Seattle based tech firm that aggregates a client’s multiple sites into a single mobile destination. Zumobi transforms a brand’s content from multiple sources, such as social media channels, video platforms, product information and content management systems, into a dynamic “flipboard like” mobile destination, dubbed a microzone. It enables shoppable content where readers can purchase items found in the microzone.
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by Jacqueline Koch | Jun 14, 2016 |
By Jacqueline Koch
“We’re hacking into the audio and visual systems of your brain,” director Chris Milk and co-founder of virtual reality company, Vrse said to The New York Times just over a year ago regarding virtual reality projects. “A major part of journalism is painting people a picture of what it was like to actually be there. With this, the audience actually feels like they are there.”
In the year that followed, it became increasingly clear that VR is pushing its way beyond the realm of sci-fi and gaming and into the mainstream. A few VR highlights over the last 12 months also indicate that Milk’s take on the relationship between VR and journalism, while complex, is crystalising. Immediately after introducing Sundance audiences to the Millions March in NYC, a VR journalism broadcast venture between directors Chris Milk, Spike Jonze and Vice News, Milk marched onto Davos to debut Clouds Over Sidra. The groundbreaking collaboration with the UN used VR to highlight the life of a Syrian girl in a refugee camp.
Fast forward to November. An unassuming cardboard box—Google Cardboard—lands on 1.3 million US doorsteps in tandem with the Sunday New York Times. More recently, dispatches from the 2016 Sundance Film Festival describe the ‘boom’ in virtual reality, augmented reality and immersive films that include an extensive line-up of documentaries.
For the researchers, scientists, investors and engineers who have spent decades attempting to push VR across the finish line, this may look like the victory lap. On the sidelines, there are those cheering and eager to seize the storytelling opportunities this technology brings. Yet among them there are many—particularly from the newsroom—that are grappling with the implications of an emerging and highly elastic platform transforming to an established platform.
Merging the Newsroom onto the VR Superhighway
There is a balance to be struck between the unparalleled potential of a highly compelling storytelling format and the practicalities and many implications that arise from a platform that spans diverse genres. At the same time, it’s time to lead, follow or get out of the way, according to Robert Hernandez, of the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. In his 2016 media forecast published in the Neiman Lab, the Harvard-based media innovation report, he asks, ‘Do news orgs get in early and risk the tech not working out? Or should they wait and let others define VR journalism and risk being left behind, again?’ His answer: Both.
The question then is, how? While journalists and media organisations are eager to get behind the wheel, there is broad consensus that there are no rules of the road. Taking practicalities and logistics into account, VR demands innovation, expertise, bigger budgets, flexibility and longer production lead time. The price of admission is going down, and Hernandez, echoed by others in the industry, cites 360-degree video as ‘the low-hanging fruit of VR’. Partnering with universities leading the charge and tapping into fresh student talent also may serve as a practical and efficient onramp to the VR track.
The New York Times has committed strategy and resources to make VR a viable journalistic tool. Their earnings released on February 4, showed net income of $52 million for the fourth quarter—a 48 percent increase over the same period in 2014—may point to efforts paying off.
‘We believe that our strategic approach—to rapidly build out new high value propositions for marketers in branded content, mobile, video and VR—is paying off,’ said Mark Thompson, the company’s chief executive said in an earnings call with investors.
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by Jacqueline Koch | May 12, 2016 |
By Janinne Brunyee
Participants on the Digital Innovators’ Tour got to experience the brand new LinkedIn building in SOMA which is the startup mecca in downtown San Francisco. In spite of having moved in only four weeks ago, our LinkedIn host, Jessica Chan, who is responsible for business and strategy, seemed right at home in the bright and creative space.
In addition to a mini tour of the building, participants also got a tour of LinkedIn’s evolving content strategy. According to Chan, the key goal is to provide content on LinkedIn that helps make them more effective at the job they are in today.
“Early on, we started working with a wide range of publishers spanning a range of topics and tried to get their content into our ecosystem. The challenge was how to surface this content to our members,” she said.
The team then started looking at how they could segment the content into categories that they could encourage members to follow. For example, TechChrunch content was channeled into a technology channel.
According to Chan, this was not a scalable way of surfacing content which led to the birth of LinkedIn’s “relevance teams’ – groups of engineers who parse through the content and surface it to members.
“For this to be effective, we need members to tell us what industry they are in, what content they are interested in etc.,” she said. “That ties into the broader aspect of identity on LinkedIn and why we encourage members to fill out their profile in its entirety.”
But this was still not the complete solution to the problem of effectively surfacing content to users. “The major disconnect historically was that the content team worked separately from LinkedIn’s flagship team who was distributing content. This also created challenges for publishing partners,” she said.
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