Smarter, greener, and more personalized news (Part 2)

Oct 15, 2010 Uncategorized

This is part two of a two-part story on the state of the newspaper industry.

The first thing I do in the morning is grab my phone and read the Toronto Star’s website on my bed. I love reading the news, both print and online versions. Recently, the Toronto Star persistently had been calling me to renew my subscription. I did renew the weekend subscription, but I regretted it by Sunday. My biggest headache is the amount of unread paper piled up for recycling, and, to my surprise, since acquiring an iPhone in 2007, my reading habits have changed and I have become used to instant access of the news on my phone. So, on a few occasions, I forgot to pick up the paper by the door in the morning.

During a recent commute on the subway, I noticed a small technology shift. I saw a businessman in his 30s reading the Wall Street Journal on his 10” Kindle DX, instead of the broadsheets (which are often a challenge to read in a cramped subway). He was doing the same as I do. Every morning commute, I read the Toronto Star on my phone, but often Internet reception is not readily available in the subway. This got me thinking that there must be a better way to read the paper. How about a personalized, wireless, device-agnostic, and location-based news service?

1) Personalized and social sharing content:
The physical paper is always designed to cater to a wide range of audiences, hence the paper is usually thick and prints everything for everyone. Half of my Saturday paper is often unread. New web content is created every hour, and the old paper becomes uninteresting by the evening.

To solve the problem of excessive printing, let’s look to the Internet for some inspirations. The beauty of Netflix and Twitter is that we are our own personal content selector. Imagine a newspaper that gives you the level of personalization like Netflix and suggests similar genres or contrasting articles. On Twitter, I can filter only the journalists whom I want to “follow” or “unfollow”. I can also pick and choose what genre of articles to read. For example, I can subscribe only to the columnist Michael Geist and the political commentator Chantal Hubert. The paper connects with my friends and they can recommend other articles and be notified within the app, instead of receiving it as an email or a Facebook status update.

This is not a proposition to substitute all the editors with computers, but rather to have the readers create their own unique experiences as compared to the current indirect relationship between editors and readers. With a more democratic approach, users can find more niche journalists or articles that the print paper cannot accommodate. Readers will see it as a service, when the news is interactive, completely personalized, and filled with relevant information.

2) Instant access, and content to be delivered to all my devices:
Convenience is the key. The newspaper should push me the latest news before I pick up the device in the morning. For example, I can set to have the content pushed to my devices every morning at 7:00am, instead of having to access the web and physically downloading the content in which I’m interested. Also, I should be able to read the news even when I am out of range, as it is synchronized on a regular basis.

Make the news device-agnostic so that I can read it on my phone, my computer at work, or on a tablet. So, the news should be available on Android, BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone, Kindle etc, and the content synced up across multiple platforms.

3) Combine existing reviews with location services:
Say I am on Queen West, a trendy Toronto street. Wouldn’t it be nice to read the Toronto Star’s extensive reviews on restaurants, boutiques, and condos based on where you are using the GPS technology? Currently with foursquare, a location sharing technology, the reviews are added by average users. What sets The Star’s version apart is their brand value and large database of trusted reviews. Imagine the news can suggest the top three restaurants in walking distance, or boutique reviews, or Christopher Hume’s condo critics. It can also partner with Groupon to push coupons or cross-reference it to the profitable classified database.

4) Break news, but make it relevant:
For any breaking news that’s relevant to me, it will be pushed with a flashing icon and linked to a short update or quick video summary. I often wish the Toronto Star was the first go-to point of breaking news, rather than Twitter.

5) “Surprise me” button:
There are times I like to flip through the physical paper randomly and find the odd article, and often those are some of the best experiences of newspaper reading. A “surprise me” button will suggest articles that are normally not my personal preference.

Charge like a drug dealer.
Make the paper so good that is addictive. Give it for free to get people hooked. The free version can only follow three journalists for instance. Premium features such as exclusive Toronto Star discounts and an unlimited number of journalists could be charged at $2.99 a month and billed through the carriers as an add-on. Follow Chris Anderson’s “Five Percent Rule” – five percent of users support all the rest.

Earlier signs of this version of news already exist in iPad apps called Flipbook (See YouTube video) and Pulse reader. However, they lack offline caching, location-based services, and push delivery. Before my fantasies materialize, I will continue reading my Toronto Star on my phone on the subway, saving interesting articles one at a time before losing 3G reception underground.

Like our previous blog about The Globe and Mail, newspapers have evolved and are getting smarter and more attractive. The question remains, will these changes renew the general public’s interest in reading newspaper? Or have people changed their reading habits completely? What would your future of newspaper be like?

Project Management in the Creative World

Jun 14, 2010 Project Management

Project management is relatively new in the creative world; traditionally it has been used in industries such as construction and engineering, and, let’s face it, most creative minds don’t like process. But in our world, project management is a large part of creativity. Managing the project and relationship of the client, the team and all other stakeholders is critical to any project’s success, especially in the creative world.

An account manager is on board to build the relationship with the client to initiate a project; the creative team produces the work. A project manager acts as the core of the project; we lead the team from project initiation through to the completion of the project. It is the meaning behind our signature line: “Right brains that can be left alone”.

Project managers can get your project moving. For example, if you were to ask a creative person or team how long it would take for them to produce an idea, you would be unlikely to get a firm response, particularly without providing them with the parameters of the idea. A project manager can identify and communicate to stakeholders the project requirements, identify the various needs of stakeholders, as well as balancing competing constraints related to the project, including:

• cost,
• schedule,
• scope,
• quality,
• risks,
• resources, etc.

A project manager can work with the creative team to ensure those objectives are met during the planning and execution of each project. This allows your creative team to be creative and produce the work without worrying about developing schedules, managing budgets, finding resources – all the organizational aspects of the job.

A good project manager provides a human touch your project, encouraging team members when morale is flagging, and has the ability to explain to creative teams and the client and other non-creative types why they produced the work in question. Interfacing with the creative team, the client and other stakeholders to ensure your project success.

Great things take time. Including a project manager as a part of your creative process can allow for seamless integration in collaboration giving your right brains the freedom to be creative!

Effectively Using Social Media for OCC

May 29, 2010 New

Last Tuesday, I had the great pleasure to speak with the co-chairs across Canada at the Winners Walk of Hope. I shared ten tips with them on how to make a Facebook campaign more successful.

Background:

Ovarian Cancer Canada’s ninth annual Winners Walks of Hope will take place on September 12, 2010, in fifteen cities across Canada. The goal is to promote awareness of ovarian cancer. There is no early detection test, so knowing the signs and symptoms is crucial. They want to take their Facebook campaign and presence to the next level and to increase their fan base.

What follows is the ten tips I shared with them to grow their social media network.

1. Be relevant to your cause. Be relevant to fans’ wants and needs. Respond to information that benefits them. They want facts, not fluff, and they want honest opinions.

2. Stay local! Local content is the key. A picture is worth a thousand words. A picture of “2009 Vancouver Winners Walk of Hope”? Probably two thousand. A video interview of “2009 Vancouver Winners Walk of Hope”? You got the idea.

3. Keep it fresh! Imagine Winners carries the same style and never updates its collections. Update your status once a week by sharing interesting news articles, photos, or videos. It takes less than five minutes.

4. Engage the audience. Quickly respond to your audience. Thank them for their comments. Get curious about them. Start a conversation by commenting on others’ updates. Nurture the relationship. People who respond are usually like-minded people. They can help with your goals.

5. Grow your network with a team challenge! Post a Winners Walk of Hope Chair challenge. Ask your chairs and team leaders to bring a friend. Be a good neighour and befriend other fundraising causes.

6. Tell fans where you are or where you will be. Tell your audience about your upcoming events (e.g. yard sale, meet and greet, beer event, training session, or local walk).

7. Less is more. One thought per update. Facebook fans can have short attention spans.

8. Break news, but make it relevant. Fans want to hear about your challenges. Give them benefits they care about. Post updates about your fundraising goals, challenges, and achievements along the way, big or small.

9. People love tips and tricks. Quick tips about how to do things always get responses. Share your unique fundraising challenges and best practices in your city.

10. Provide links to interesting or useful information. Links can build fans. Again, be relevant to people’s wants and needs. They will like it.

Be relevant to your cause, network with others, and content are the keys to any social media campaigns. These strategies can also be adapted for Twitter.

(Also available as a PDF.)

Interested in promoting ovarian cancer awareness in your city?

Check out their walk locations and join for the walk on September 12 or be a virtual walker!

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Winner of Marketing Effectiveness Award

Oct 16, 2009 New

We are honoured to announce that we are the winner of the 2009 Summit Marketing Effectiveness Awards! This is the culmination of working with our great creative team and great clients, who all focused on creating a memorable marketing experience.

The award was in the business-to-business product category and was selected from over 504 international entries. Our RFID bookmarking experience, which was created for Research In Motion (RIM), the makers of the popular BlackBerry® smartphone, was chosen.

Partnered with The Taylor Group, the RFID bookmarking experience was developed for the BlackBerry events marketing team. It provided visitors at the BlackBerry tradeshow booths a way of tagging the products and services in which they were interested. At the end of each day, the visitor received a customized email with targeted information and offers that were tailored specifically to their tradeshow visit. RIM was able to accurately track leads and determine the effectiveness of each area of the tradeshow booth. In addition, the powerful analytics allowed RIM to compare the performance of different tradeshows from year to year and across various industry segments.

To find out more about this award or other services The St. John Group can offer, please contact Thom Rockliff at 416.504.4884.

Tags: Awards, Bookmarking, Marketing Effectiveness, RFID