This workshop report comes from Alex, who is an account executive at Porter Novelli and one of the core yMedia crew.
For the seventh session in our series of yMedia workshops Helen Sissons from the AUT journalism department joined us at Media Design School to give us a presentation on the ever-relevant topic of ‘what is news?’
With over 10 years experience in the journalism field working for the likes of BBC and many other newspapers in America and the UK. Helen lives and breathes all that is news and was more than happy to share with us some of her key insights on what makes good news and what makes a news editor hit the delete button!
Drawing on this extensive experience, Helen’s presentation touched on all the factors that make a good news story; timing, significance, proximity, human interest and prominence.
Timing:
The word news means exactly that - things, which are new. Topics that are current are good news. Consumers are used to receiving the latest updates, and there is so much news around that old news is quickly discarded.
A story with only average interest needs to be told quickly if it is to be told at all. If it happened today, it’s news. If the same thing happened last week, it’s no longer interesting.
Significance:
The number of people affected by the story is important. For example a crash in which 4 people died will not rate as highly in the news agenda a plane crash killing hundreds.
Proximity:
Stories that happen near to us have more significance. The closer to home, the more newsworthy it is. For example what makes the front page in the Waikato may be very different to what makes the front page in Southland. Therefore it’s important to understand what media publications cover news in proximity to the community group you are working for and targeting them accordingly.
Prominence:
Famous people get more coverage because they are famous. If you break your arm it won’t make the news, but if John Key breaks his arm it’s big news. This is why many campaigns employ the use a well-known personality to act as their media ambassador. Think Robyn Malcolm and the Greenpeace Sign On campaign.
Human Interest:
Last but not least is the human-interest story. These stores often disregard the main rules of newsworthiness; for example, they don’t date as quickly, they need not affect a large number of people, and it may not matter where in the world the story takes place.
Human interest stories appeal to emotion. They aim to evoke responses such as amusement or sadness. On a regular news day human interest stories usually feature within the body of the paper while on a slow news day a human interest story can make the front page.
A great blog to check out is www.badpitch.blogspot.com, which covers everything to do with pitching a story to a journalist. One point Helen reiterated was to give the reporter what they want by pushing their ‘hot buttons’. These ‘hot buttons’ include all of factors mentioned above while also listening to what reporters want, finding that point of difference and delivering what needs to be delivered.
Finally know what’s going on around you – whether it’s reading the paper, logging onto the Herald online or watching the news, to make news you have to know news!
Eddy captures the inspiration Friday shared with us at our last workshop.
On Wednesday 30th of June, Media Design School overflowed with creative energy as Friday O’Flaherty, Creative Strategist at Running with Scissors, and one of this year’s yMedia Challenge judges, proved that many minds make right work through his workshop about how to brainstorm.
Friday started by pointing out that he doesn’t have all the answers. He then shared with us some of the brainstorming tools that he uses to find the best answers.
He asked (somewhat rhetorically) ‘why storm?’ And funnily enough his response went back to acknowledging that you don’t have all the answers. As an individual, you might have a couple of ideas, but if you extend your thinking to a wider group and involve more people – logic tells us that you’re likely to come up with a lot more solutions to the problem. Each person involved in a brainstorm stimulates the memory and imagination of the others in the group, and you end up with more creative solutions than what you may have come up with alone.
Now that we knew why we should brainstorm, we were taken on a journey of ‘how to brainstorm’. Friday outlined that you first need to turn your problem into points of focus. To do this you need to simplify your problem into smaller pieces, rather than trying to solve it all in one go.
Then came the rules of a brainstorm.
Everyone’s ideas are welcome
All ideas are good ideas
Don’t judge, don’t criticise
Every idea must go on the board
We only need the idea, not an explanation or any supporting documentation
There is only one person in charge – that person is the facilitator of the brainstorm
Then it was time for us to give it a go. The room split into three groups, one for each of the community groups present – Watersafe, Urban Pantry and NZ Charter of Health Practitioners. Each group set a point of focus, and we came up with weird and wonderful suggestions.
But what do we do with all of these ideas?
Friday outlined that through idea generation or brainstorming sessions, you come up with both ideas and directions. Ideas are the things that work as they are, and can be developed and implemented, but directions shouldn’t be discounted. Sometimes your first idea generation session doesn’t provide the end solution, but it does provide some interesting directions for further exploration.
Friday used an example from Urban Pantry’s idea generation. One idea they’d come up with was to use moss graffiti - this was a great idea that with development and planning about placement, messaging etc could work as it was. They also came up with ‘deterring Boy Racers’ – which isn’t an idea, but it is a direction worth exploring, which could lead to richer ideas.
To help assess the ideas, Friday also introduced us to two of Edward De Bono’s hats – Black, for negative and Yellow, for positive. We each picked our favourite idea from the board, and as a group we first looked at it with the Black Hat and say everything that wasn’t good about the idea and reasons that it may not work. We then had to change our attitude and look at the same idea with a Yellow Hat, and say all the great things about the idea and the reasons that we liked it.
This method meant that the whole group was assessing the idea in the same way, at the same time, rather than the group arguing their points about it – which Friday pointed out, can actually be counter-productive.
Friday also said that once you look at the positives and negatives you can then assess the idea properly, and look at the areas that need development to negate some of the problems that may have come up in the negatives.
He summed up his inspiring session by saying:
The brainstorm is a powerful tool
Turn the problem into Points of Focus - keep it simple
Follow the simple rules when you storm
Then look for ideas and directions
Black and yellow hats can help you assess your ideas
Everyone left feeling well armed with the tools to find the right ideas – and we’re putting Friday’s advice about brainstorming into practice already!
On Wednesday the 26th of May, Jade and Anthea presented the Smooth Operators workshop at Media Design School. If you couldn’t make it or need a refresher, here’s what they covered.
Why Smooth Operators?
There are a bevy of tools online available for not-for-profits. These resources extend beyond social media to encompass everything from communication, to file sharing, to project management.
Our workshop introduces some of these tools specific to operational matters in a community organisation, which can be used for free to some degree.
We can make these recommendations as we use these tools ourselves at yMedia, and we’ll illustrate the value of each service with examples from our own experience, and some ideas for how you might use them.
All of the tools we cover in this Workshop are also detailed in the Online Toolkit, which you can download, print out, save, reference, and generally do with what you will!
For sophisticated email marketing, or sending e-newsletters, MailChimp is a fantastic option. With stacks of free newsletter templates to choose from and customise, the service is perfect for beginners through to expert newsletter craftspeople.
Last year, one of our student teams was able to implement MailChimp for their NFP with no previous experience at all! There is a free level of service, with a restricted number of email addresses you can send messages to at once.
Check out MailChimp’s introductory video for an idea of what the service has to offer:
The website is full of helpful info - don’t forget about Spam laws in New Zealand though! Your subscribers must have opted in to receive communications, they must be able to unsubscribe, and you must list your postal address on every communication.
Ten years ago, seeing a person on screen and talking to them at the same time was a thing of science fiction films. Today, we can do this for free!
We use Skype regularly to keep in touch with Pamela and Adele, who are in Vancouver and London respectively. It’s great to see their smiling faces, and they get to stay connected to what’s happening with yMedia back here in New Zealand.
You don’t have to have an offshore contact in order to use Skype however, you can use it to contact anyone with a computer and an internet connection (the faster the connection, the better the performance).
If you want to see the other person, and be seen, you will both need a webcam. You’ll also both need speakers and a microphone, a lot of new laptops have these all built in now.
Skype does offer services requiring payment, like calling from your computer to a telephone. If you make a lot of calls offshore, it’s worth comparing Skype’s rates to those of your telecommunications provider.
You can see an intro video to Skype here:
To use Skype, you and the person you wish to speak to will both need to install the Skype application, create accounts, and connect to each other.
Uh, what’s an application?
An application is another word for a program on your computer. There are really two types of applications.
Desktop applications - these are programs you install to your computer either by downloading an installation file, or from a CD etc. A lot of these types of programs can be used without an internet connection - like Microsoft Word. Skype is a Desktop Application which you download from the internet, though as it facilitates talking over the internet, you do need to have an Internet connection to use it.
Web Applications - a Web Application is just like a website, but does much more. A website crosses into Web Application territory when it performs complex calculations or processes. Just like the programs you install on your computer, but online in your web browser rather than on your computer. An example of a web app is Gmail, MailChimp, and you will soon be introduced to Dropbox which has a Web App component.
How many times have you forgotten to update your flash or USB drive when working on a document at home, only to get back to the office and need those changes?
Have you been frustrated with email trails full of attachments when collaborating on work with colleagues?
Dropbox is a great solution for document management and collaboration - we find it very useful for our design crew to collaborate on design files - Photoshop or InDesign files which can’t be accessed in Google Docs (more on this later).
The best way to get an idea of what Dropbox is all about, is to watch their intro video:
You can invite your colleagues to access and edit files in your Dropbox folder, where everyone can be confident that they are viewing the most recent version of a document (If it’s important, don’t forget to save a backup on your computer, as someone with edit access could also delete your file!).
Project Management is all about tracking progress against tasks, and managing those tasks within your deadlines. Basecamp is an online “application” or web app, so you don’t need to install anything on your computer to use it.
More appropriate with fairly confident users, Basecamp facilitates setup of to-do lists against projects or milestones, assigning of tasks, communication via messages, document sharing and updating, and scheduling of milestones.
Users can opt in to email reminders of their upcoming task commitments and any new messages requiring their attention.
Basecamp was introduced to the yMedia Challenge back in 2007, and is where all of the teams collaborated on their projects. Since then, it’s been an option for teams in the Challenge, but might also be useful for Community Groups running their own projects.
If you’re interested in Basecamp, they have a range of video introductions and tutorials, but do ask your student team for assistance n setting up. You can run one project with Basecamp for free to try it out.
The Google Suite
Google offers a whole range of free, online tools which are invaluable for NFP’s, including:
Gmail - Gmail is an online email facility, where you may set up a free account to send and receive email. Having a Gmail account creates your overall Google Account, which is in turn used to access the other tools in their suite.
Google Docs - Google Docs (short for Documents) is another online application. This one lets you upload, or create, “Word” documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations, and even drawings online. You can edit, and even collaborate on these files at the same time, with anyone you invite to have access to your content.
Google Calendar - Your calendar, or Calendars, everywhere. Google Calendars work similarly to Microsoft Outlook Calendars, though free and online with many collaboration options.
Google Analytics - Google Analytics tracks visitors and activity on your website when a specific piece of code is added to your website. You can analyse who visits your website, what country they are from, what website they came from, how long they stayed on your site, how many pages they clicked, and whether they downloaded any files. It’s simple to set up, and Challenge students will be capable of either implementing the facility or giving instruction for it to be put in place.
Google Reader - Google Reader allows you to subscribe to a websites’ updates, so you receive all updates to one place from any websites you follow. This saves you from returning to websites to see if their content has been updates, and can be completely customised to the “feeds” you are interested in. These feeds of updates are called “RSS Feeds”.
Google Alerts - Just like performing a Google Search, Google Alerts feeds you new results for a search term you specify. So, you can set up an alert for your brand name to be notified when it is mentioned online. (Extra for experts - you can use Google’s Advanced searching tools to narrow down your search if you are getting irrelevant results).
The Online Toolkit
This resource is designed as an overview of these, and other, online tools which are available. It provides some idea of what each service has to offer, and in some cases some pointers for getting started.
It’s a work-in-progress, and you will always be able to find the ost recent release of the document on our website.
Exercise!
It wouldn’t be a workshop without some participation!
We asked students in the room to partner up with Community Groups in attendance, and for each group to consider:
What are your Current Processes?
What would you like to do better?
How would you use some of these tools to benefit your organisation?
After 20 minutes spent eating sushi, drinking wine and Monteiths, we were thrilled to hear of Community Groups planning to synchronise documents through Dropbox, to analyse their Website performance using Google Analytics, and to start tracking their brand through Google Alerts.
Onwards!
We are looking forward to seeing these, and many other tools put into use over the course of the yMedia Challenge. If NFP’s have any questions about how to use these tools or integrate them into workflow - remember to save those queries up for your student teams when the challenge starts!
On Wednesday the 19th of May, communications consultant and social media commentator, Courtney Lambert, presented yMedia’s third workshop ‘Traditional tricks for new media’.
With an incredible knowledge of the media industry, Courtney shared her expertise in social media, focusing on the importance of maintaining an effective and personalised online presence.
Exploring the capabilities of online tools such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Linked In, Mailchimp and blogs, Courtney shared suggestions on ensuring that not only are these tools utilized, but done so in an relevant, professional way that remains representative to your brand.
Although it is important to initialize an online presence, Courtney explained that it is crucial to do so in a meaningful way with an abundance of insider tips, including but not limited to the advice to:
Use an appropriate representative for your brand online. Correct tone and use of language is crucial.
Understand how your brand is perceived online. Become conscious of how accessible your online presence is to potential followers.
Maintain an active and consistent online presence. Interactive and instant communication is a key advantage of new media.
Eddy Helm is an Account Director at Running With Scissors, and one of yMedia’s directors. Last Wednesday the 12th of May she presented our second workshop, on Elevator pitching:
What is an Elevator Pitch?
A concise, carefully planned, and well-practiced description about your organisation that your mother should be able to understand, in the time it would take to ride up an elevator.
In a networking situation, you have a short amount of time to communicate who you are, what you are doing, and how the person you are speaking with can be involved. By being concise but still easy to understand, your points are more likely to be heard and absorbed.
Why do I need an Elevator Pitch?
It’s easy to miss something you’re not looking for.
It’s not enough to be communicating a message - you must communicate the right message, and make the most of every connection you make.
Take the example of Chinese Whispers. In this workshop, attendees were asked to stand in a circle and engage in a game of Chinese Whispers. The message was:
You are surrounded by extraordinary people, capable of creating a better future for New Zealand and quite possibly the world.
After being whispered in the ears and passed on by the whole group, the message was returned as:
Something something something uh something
This example highlights how important it is to deliver your message as clearly as you can, so that it’s easy for others to pass on.
Take some tricks from media training.
Don’t prepare a script. Work on potential Q&A’s - and cover all bases.
Who? Your organisation and the people that you support
What? What your organisation does — the basics
Why? What’s the reason for your organisations’ existence? Are there any facts that you can use to illustrate ‘why’ you exist.
Where & When? If it’s relevant, where and when does your organisation do what it does.
How? If you’ve hooked in a captive audience; Now’s the time to let them know ‘how’ you can help them, or even how they can help you
Know your Audience
Think about it - how do you speak to a child? Now, how would you speak to your boss?
You communicate with different people in different ways in order to portray your message most effectively. It’s no different with your elevator pitch -
Understand who you are talking to
Tailor your massage to suit them - make sure what you are telling them is relevant
The Importance of Good Body Language
(Warning - this clip contains some nudity)
So, make sure you:
Are comfortable, because this will help your audience to be comfortable
Don’t stand too close to the person you’re speaking to - but not too far away either
Don’t fold your arms - you’re creating a barrier between you
Make eye contact with the other person, show them that you are engaged and interested in the conversation and they are more likely to participate. But don’t stare them down - intimidating them isn’t going to help!
Last Wednesday, yMedia had the privilege of having James Hurman speak at our first workshop for 2010: Brand Aid.
Planning director for Colenso BBDO, James has a huge amount of experience in the advertising industry and is a regular workshop presenter and guest speaker. Here are our favorite outtakes from his presentation. Thanks James!
Brand Aid with James Hurman
At first it seems that the branding strategies for organisations such as Air New Zealand may be too big and overwhelming. How could they relate to small community groups and not-for-profits? But the underlying fundamentals are the same. Be inspired, take that thinking, and use it in your world. Air New Zealand is one of the most well-managed brands in the country.
“They don’t have a mission statement, they keep it simple: “Who we are. What we do. How we do it”.
Its refreshing, and it helps their brand become more loved and more engaging.
What is a brand exactly?
We all know brands are critically important, but no-one can tell you what one is. You’ll find many definitions on Google, and you can get some very detailed descriptions. However, in the end a brand is “simply, clearly, why you exist”.
What is a brand good for anyway?
The capitalist view tells us that it adds financial value.”In 1988, Philip Morris purchased Kraft for six times what the company was worth on paper”. Effectively, he paid for the brand. The post-capitalist view sees people like David Packard (of HP) wanting ”to discuss why a company exists in the first place”.
The Harvard Business Review book ‘Built to Last’, contains studies of why some companies did better than others on the stock market. It becomes clear that those companies realised their purpose was more than making money.
Disney is not there to make cartoons, but “to make people happy”. 3M doesn’t just produce post-its, they’re there “to solve unsolved problems”. As Harvard Business professor Theodore Levitt states, “people don’t want a quarter inch drill bit, they want a quarter inch hole”. Forget about what you’re selling, and look at why you are there.
If you can get to the heart of that you’ve got a really strong brand platform. What role does your organisation play in the lives of consumers or your community? If you disappeared tomorrow, what would the world be deprived of? What outcome do you create? What’s your “quarter inch hole”? Who are you and who are you for?
Advertising is losing its major influence. People build brands from all the little things that organisation does, all their experiences with that brand, all the hear’say. All these things have to align under the brand. Brand communications are becoming less and less about ‘saying’ and more and more about ‘doing’. St Francis of Assisi once said “preach the gospel at all times, use words when necessary”.
Recent examples of this include the dissonance between what Telecom New Zealand has been saying about their products and services, and how the company acts and the service performs. Their advertising makes certain promises which have not been kept, and Telecom’s brand has been badly damaged as a result.
On the other hand, Meridian Energy has the most eco-friendly building in New Zealand. This aligns with their brand philosophy, and creates trust and believability.
Getting Practical
The room were asked to group together around the not-for-profit attendees to discuss their “quarter inch hole”, why they exist, and how that might be embodied by a brand.
Through the practical application, everyone in the room solidified their understanding of what a brand encompasses, and came away with a new found appreciation of how these theories affect their own operations.
