A lawyer recently took Instagram’s Terms and Conditions and rewrote them so teenagers could understand which of their rights they were giving away when they clicked “agree”. That got the Brand Newsroom team thinking about the power of using plain language instead of politi-speak, … | Continue reading
It has become more and more obvious to me that traditional media strategies miss out on how powerful true branded content can be when it is designed to create an emotional connection first and provide information and awareness second. Done the right way, the result is brand loyal … | Continue reading
Are you expecting too much of your B2B website? The complaints about websites are endless. A lot of them center on what the website is doing wrong or what it could be doing better. In my experience, a lot of the angst directed towards our online HQs is misdirected. Let me explain … | Continue reading
Should salespeople be more like marketers? According to an article in the Harvard Business Review recently, the best salespeople are those who really believe in their brand, work hard to create an emotional connection with their consumers, and attract customers rather than chase … | Continue reading
Worried, nervous and tense, Sally* arrived at Lush recently for what she thought was a “media training session” with me. The session had been organised by her media and communications department because they felt she needed help to communicate more effectively both in live presen … | Continue reading
Pundits say we’re living in “a post-truth era”, where facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than emotion and public belief. Fake news is all over the internet and is believed to have influenced the United States presidential election. Have lies become a commodity? … | Continue reading
It’s also the time of year we start looking forward — making resolutions and plans for the new year. Today the Brand Newsroom team gazes into the crystal ball to see what 2017 might hold in the marketing and communications industry. Here are some key take-outs: It’s time to get y … | Continue reading
It’s the end of the year and if you’re like me, you’re ready for a break. I find it difficult to be creative when I’m tired, and lately it’s been hard to find the inspiration to get words on paper. I’ve asked my colleagues at Lush what they do when faced with a creativity block.. … | Continue reading
What does your website look like? Are you happy with it? Is it working for you and, more importantly, is it working for your customers? Zion Ong, director of West Australian digital marketing company Alyka, joins the BNR team to talk about what’s best practice when it comes to we … | Continue reading
So that was 2016. A strange year in many ways. While Britain voted to run from the EU, American’s voted for a reality TV star with no political experience to run their country. Big names from the entertainment world dropped like flies, whilst the Panama Papers scandal reinforced … | Continue reading
People often squint slightly when I ask them “have you thought about animating it?” I think it’s because, in their mind, they immediately imagine animating a video is going to involve a Toy Story-sized budget. But that isn’t the case at all. For starters, the word animation cover … | Continue reading
Nenad Senic is group editor at Slovenian content marketing agency Poslovni Mediji and the European editor of Chief Content Officer magazine. He’s one of Europe’s top content marketing minds and an expert in how to use print effectively. When the Content Marketing Institute’s Aust … | Continue reading
So you’ve been asked to write the script for the next company production. You’re an experienced copywriter and the team knows you can deliver; the thing is you’ve never actually written a script before. It’s a very different skillset to writing for a blog, a press release or web … | Continue reading
When those in business think of the social media platforms they need, they invariably jump to the conclusion that Facebook is a must, yet overlook others that have the potential to deliver amazing results. Pinterest definitely falls in the latter category. The collage-like, virtu … | Continue reading
Ben Martin is the new head of digital content in Western Australia for one of Australia’s largest media companies, Seven West Media. He just completed a Churchill Fellowship that took him around the world, where he visited the newsrooms and operations of The New York Times, The W … | Continue reading
In his newsletter last week one of the godfathers of content marketing, Robert Rose, mentioned a statistic in a report from Orbit Media he’d stumbled across. The average time it takes to write a blog post, according to the report, is 3.5 hours. Three-and-a-half hours! And that’s … | Continue reading
No one becomes a champion by accident. OK, so there was that Steven Bradbury guy at the 2002 Winter Olympics, but how often do we really win in life because all our competitors have stacked it onto the ice? People only become champions in their field because they’ve found somethi … | Continue reading
According the Content Marketing Institute’s Australian Benchmark’s 2017 Report, 78 per cent of Australian businesses use email marketing. About half of us say it is critical — indeed the most critical — tactic we have for distributing our content. We’re all using email marketing, … | Continue reading
Which brands are you loyal to? I mean properly loyal. The ones where, even if they’re more expensive, even if you have to drive across town to get to them, you’ll stick with them. The brands you’ll not only recommend, but go to bat for if someone’s criticising them. Now ask yours … | Continue reading
At Lush, every strategy we write includes a ‘blue sky’ recommendation for how a business should proceed if they had no budget, staffing or time restraints. Unfortunately, for most businesses this isn’t the reality they operate in. Instead, many businesses come through our doors a … | Continue reading
It’s here! The Association of Data-Driven Marketing Australia and the Content Marketing Institute have published their 2017 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends report for Australia. Each year it gives us the best available insight into what local brands are experiencing with their con … | Continue reading
Here’s something I believe to be an absolute truth: Producing higher quality content is guaranteed to increase the success of your content marketing. Now I’m a journalist by profession, so I have a bias towards high-quality content. And obviously other factors are important, too, … | Continue reading
Lego has announced it will no longer do business with British tabloid newspaper, The Daily Mail. It was a response to a public campaign, called #StopFundingHate, which directly targeted advertisers in several major UK newspapers, urging them not to support publications that promo … | Continue reading
Have you ever wondered what kind of dog you are? Probably not, but you can find the answer anyway thanks to one of the most popular quizzes on the web (popular is an understatement, because this item has racked up an incredible 11 million views to date). Or, if finding your spiri … | Continue reading
When I was growing up, if ever I wanted to borrow money from my parents to buy something, I had to prove to them why I needed it and how I would pay them back the money. I’d try and tell them that the new pair of trainers would guarantee to make me a better... | Continue reading
It’s Election Day in the United States. We made it. But at what price? The Brand Newsroom team takes a close look at negativity. How should we handle it? What’s the cost of letting it run free? The Donald Trump experience seems to teach us that going negative can get you a long w … | Continue reading
Think about what your blog headings are usually like. Do you think they make people immediately want to click on the article, or are they hesitantly hovering their mouse over it? Or, even worse, have they completely bypassed it? The sad fact is you may have the most earth-shatter … | Continue reading
Infographics are an incredibly effective tool in visual storytelling, but they are often overlooked in content marketing strategies. Here’s why you shouldn’t ignore them any longer. Not only are they a great way to condense complex information but they also make statistics pop of … | Continue reading
Award-winning Australian journalist and thought-leader Waleed Aly has warned media companies against chasing viral content, claiming it will ultimately destroy trust with their audiences. Today the Brand Newsroom team takes a close look at ‘short-termism’. Is being hungry for lik … | Continue reading
The one thing I’ve learnt over the past few months is that, generally speaking, people are kind, generous, caring and compassionate. Remember that; they are not crazy narcissistic extremists as the media would make you believe. Sadly, the lunatic minority are taking over. So what … | Continue reading
New research on the habits and successes of B2C marketers using content marketing in North America reveals a strong commitment to the discipline. It also shows most content marketers are struggling with the same issue: having enough time to create consistent, high-quality content … | Continue reading
Australian demographer Bernard Salt caused outrage recently when he suggested millennials could afford to buy houses if they stopped spending money on smashed avocado on toast. Brands jumped on it, leveraging the publicity for their own business. Today, the Brand Newsroom team ta … | Continue reading
The moderator in the third US presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump had a surprise for the candidates. While both had declined to prepare a closing statement ahead of the debate, he asked them to deliver one anyway. What followed was a lesson in the importa … | Continue reading
It frequently amazes me that, when trying to communicate, very often the power of the voice is forgotten. I sit listening to a speech from a CEO about a hugely exciting development in his industry, yet the audience in front of him isn’t pumped. I hear the delivery of the latest s … | Continue reading
Bernadette Jiwa is one of Australia’s top marketing thinkers. Author of five books including Fortune Cookie Principle and Marketing: A Love Story, her blog — The Story of Telling — was named SmartCompany’s best Australian business blog in 2016. Bernadette challenges us to look di … | Continue reading
A little while back I wrote an article reassuring journalists — more and more of whom are being made redundant from shrinking newsrooms — that there really was life after journalism. In it I recommended a career in content marketing, explaining that our skills as journalists are … | Continue reading
Today Nic Hayes leads a discussion on personal brands. Specifically, how do you create one? What do you need to have in place to give your personal brand the best chance of creating the success you want to achieve? He’s joined by his Media Stable colleagues, general manager Miche … | Continue reading
Have you decided to embark on a content marketing strategy but don’t know where to begin? The key to a well-informed, effective strategy is comprehensive research, however many marketers don’t know how to conduct it. In content marketing research, you want access to the informati … | Continue reading
Not everyone is comfortable speaking on camera. Some people freeze up and look stilted. Others are too terrified to even give it a shot. But there’s no need to panic. Over the years I’ve seen it all and I’m used to helping get the best possible moment from nervous talent. Here ar … | Continue reading
It’s out! The Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs B2B “Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends Report” for 2017 has landed. CMI vice president Michele Linn joined the team to discuss the annual snapshot of the state of business-to-business content marketing in the North America … | Continue reading
Instagram isn’t just an outlet for the selfie-obsessed. The photo-sharing site is now a bona fide social media juggernaut — with recent statistics revealing that Instagram now has more than 500 million users. Some 300 million of those log in daily. What’s more, 80 per cent of Ins … | Continue reading
Content marketers are being rewarded for staying the course according to new research released in the USA last night. That’s especially good news for Australian marketers who tend to have skipped the trial and error phase experienced by early adopters. While the annual report fro … | Continue reading
How do you avoid making epic social media mistakes? The team discusses one of their favourite topics with storyteller, marketer, and social media guru, Jonathan Crossfield. Among his many titles he’s the Editorial Director behind Telstra’s content hub, Smarter Business Ideas. He … | Continue reading
Copyright laws weren’t created for the digital age. Technology and internet connectivity have radically changed the production of cultural material — and it is easier than ever for an individual to have an idea, record it in words, images or sound and then release it to the world … | Continue reading
You’re armed with updates and ready to share them with the world. Now comes the common conundrum: how do you best reach your social media followers? Should you post first thing in the morning or lunchtime? Are weekends ‘out of bounds’ for business? And do the rules differ dependi … | Continue reading
Content Marketing World has wrapped up in the U.S. for another year and a highlight of that is always the Content Marketing Awards which honour the very best examples of content marketing in the world. The Brand Newsroom team takes a close look at what the best content marketers … | Continue reading
If you’re a seasoned content marketer, no doubt you will understand the importance of including high quality video content in your content marketing strategy. But does your brand have a strategy for where to host your video, as well as what your video should be? The two big play … | Continue reading
Business is content drunk and it’s not a pretty sight. Like a university freshman at the first big party of the year, the wider marketing and communications industry has abandoned all decorum and is spewing content in all directions. But smart marketers have a trick for avoiding … | Continue reading