NewsWhip's Guide to the Brand Newsroom

Building a Brand Newsroom:

Finding Content Themes

Why brands need newsrooms

• Right now, brands are seeing traditional ads

blocked and rejected by consumers

• Thus, brands are turning to content marketing to

deliver their message in a way that provides value

to their audience

• According to the Content Marketing Institute,

76% of brands will rely on content marketing in

2016, and 50% of brands plan to spend more on

content marketing

Who’s Leading the charge?

Problems they’re Facing:

• Producing engaging content

• Measuring content effectiveness and ROI

• Producing content that is varied, at a consistent rate

77% of brands will produce more content in 2016. Here’s what they’re up against:

It’s time for brands to embrace the vision of being

publishers. Here’s what we’re going to accomplish in

this brand newsroom series:

• Creating more engaging content

• Gaining a better understanding of what content is

efficient for your brand

• Finding ways to repurpose and revitalize the

content you already have for more engagement

Let’s find your brand’s voice and translate that into a steady drumbeat,

helping you emerge as a thought leader to your audience.

Step one: Identify Your Brand’s Core Themes

What the core themes that encompass your brand’s personality

and expertise? We need to identify the topics and conversations

we want to start, participate in, and talk about as our first step,

otherwise we reinvent the wheel each day.

Step one: Identify Your Brand’s Core Themes

For example, MasterCard’s themes are:• Financial Inclusion – shows a commitment to

‘saving the world’ and access to credit for business and personal life for all

• Safety and Security – important for stakeholders and banks

• Innovation – opens up engagement with Silicon Valley, establishes MasterCard as a cutting edge

leader• Global Cities – keeps MasterCard in the

conversation as a worldwide financial leader

“It’s absolutely critical to understand what

our stakeholders care about, what they talk

about, who and what they engage with,

what their questions are.”

Bernhard Mors, VP of Worldwide Communications at MasterCard

So how do you pick the potential core themes

for your brand?

Your themes need to be authentic, real, and linked to your core

mission.

Whatever they are, they must allow you to engage in multiple

worlds—don’t cluster on a single thread or channel of media.

The themes should expand beyond your brand. You’re setting

yourself up as a potential thought leader, a voice that’s adding

value to the conversation instead of noise.

Red Bull is a brand that’s done this

really well. They’ve become a producer

of content that embodies adventure,

daredevil stunts, and fun. Their

stunning visuals, powerful storytelling,

and distinctive voice set them apart as

more than “just a beverage brand”.

Reebok is another example of best

practice in this regard.

So how do you pick the potential core themes

for your brand?

Test the potential core themes

We can check if these themes work by tracking their social

signals. NewsWhip Analytics lets us see if the engagement

around the topics are seasonal or regular.

Food brands like Ben & Jerry’s are big on staying ahead of

what’s important to their consumers. With health-conscious food

being a longstanding trend, they might want to follow terms like

‘superfood’ to see where there’s the most engagement over a

year.


The term “superfood” saw a huge spike in shares in January

2015, and a lot of traction in the summer months. Seems like a

good fit for an ice cream brand!


We can see what other brands are already participating in these

topics, if any. What are the type of stories getting shared and

talked about in this theme? Can you visualize your brand joining

in?

We can check if there any cross-culture or cross-language

possibilities, and whether to pivot to include them. Or we can

focus on a more local market, or only English speaking.


One of hockey’s most prestigious

teams, the Canadiens have seen

success by sharing content that

appeals to their multinational

audience and goes beyond the

game. Their content humanizes the

team and allows fans to form a

deeper connection with their brand.

Step 2: Build Out Surroundings of the Core

Themes

Now we can build out the universe of our core themes. Let’s

stay on our MasterCard example, and say we want to see what

the top financial companies are saying about our core themes.

Using NewsWhip Spike, we can identify the writers and

influencers who are driving the most engagement around these

themes right now.


ThemesIf we look at our “Top

Financial Services

Companies” panel, we can

identify who the influencers

around the finance sector

have been in the past 24

hours. Which influencers

are trending and seeing the

most retweets?


Themes

We can also see what the publications of repute are for our core

themes. There can be some surprises, so it’s good to get an

overall scope of the landscape.

Let’s view the top publications that include both those financial

companies and the keyword “FinTech” over the three months in

NewsWhip Analytics. We can get extremely granular to see

which publications are driving the most Facebook shares.


Themes

From identifying these major players of influencers and

creators, you can begin to build media contact lists so you know

where to push stories.


Themes

We can also figure out, from our engagement timeline, if there

are seasonal events or occurrences that evolve around our

themes. Any real-world events?

By analyzing the keyword “FinTech”, keeping in line with

MasterCard’s theme of innovation, we can find if there are any

seasonal trends. We found a significant spike in mid-January

2016. In our next graph, we highlight that timespan and find the

exact content that drove that spike.


Themes

A focused look at significant financial companies mentioned in

correlation with the term “FinTech”, in mid-to-late January 2016


Themes

Our content table reveals the articles that drove the spike in engagement.

Fueled with these insights, a skeleton of an annual content calendar emerges.

We can identify times of year to focus on certain trends around our core

themes.

Step 3: Build a Physical Space

1. Morning team meeting around HUD screens

2. Identify and discuss opportunities as they apply to each

of their clients

3. Allocate research to team

4. Pitch and execute the ideas

5. Report back to client on outcomes

Ideally, you need a room for your brand newsroom.

Many of our public relations and brand clients begin their days

in much the same way:


What information do you need every morning to make informed

decisions for your brand’s content themes? You want to make

sure you’re saving time and surfacing the most-engaging

content relevant to your brand first.

Major brands, across markets as varied as banking, credit, and

technology, are using Spike to bring a real-time edge to their

content marketing and communications.

Social tools like NewsWhip Spike allow you to do that.


At some of the biggest

communications firms, they’re

already implementing these

tactics. Whether it’s a

newsroom setup that is driven

by creativity, or a “war room”

that brainstorms the best

stories for clients and

industries each day.The newsroom at the Irish Independent uses Spike to monitor

trending news. (Plus, an appearance from Apple’s Tim Cook!)


MasterCard analyzes developing stories online

around their themes during their daily huddle. They check out the current news cycle, trending hashtags,

and what opportunities there are to engage that day. Each week, they use Spike to identify the top stories

for the MasterCard brand and the industry.

Major brands, across markets as varied as banking, retail/

service, and technology, are using Spike to bring a real-time edge to their content marketing and communications.

“We also look to Spike to better understand the

velocity and relevance of certain news stories to

answer questions such as: who’s driving them?

How much traction are they getting? Should we

get in or stay out of a conversation?”

Bernhard Mors, VP of Worldwide Communications at MasterCard

If You Build It, Will They Come?

The stage is set. You have your core themes ready to go, and a

space to bring them to life. You’ve tracked social signals and

investigated the value your brand will add.

Next time, we’ll dive into how to start creating content in our

brand newsrooms. We’ll look at maximizing engagement

around our core themes and measuring that data, to make sure

we’re learning and adapting around the impact our content has.

Go forth, and start creating your newsroom.

Get in touch!

@gabrieleboland

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]