Is your ‘story good to tell’ in an evolving marketplace?

Four companies announced their intent to list in recent weeks and at the eleventh hour, all four IPOs had been shelved. In the days and weeks to come, we will no doubt see countless explanations about why these companies – that are heavily advised by some of the country’s most eminent listing experts – have failed to secure sufficient demand and support for their respective bookbuilds to take their stocks public.
tony boyd says in his article this week – that “fund managers have been happy to rush into companies with good stories to tell”.
These recent failed IPOs reinforce the need to address the nagging question that financial communicators have no doubt tried to push to the top of the agenda in those endless company-advisers transaction meetings. The question is what makes an equity story compelling and good to tell prospective investors in this evermore noisy marketplace?
It goes without saying that companies considering going public should focus on the presentation of their current operations and financials as well as their future growth options in their investment proposition and equity story.
However, considering the Latitude IPO for example, the financial attributes and performance indicators alone were not sufficient to address the valuation gap related to the potential growth opportunities and overall future sustainability of the business. This gap between the company view and the market view effectively led to a breakdown of communication between the investors and bankers on the case despite earlier positive signs of commitment.
In the case of WeWork, doubts were cast regarding the operations and financials of the company which affected its overall equity story. But it was the softer non-financial matters related to the credibility of the management particularly the CEO and the quality of business processes that ultimately kicked the bucket for the company.
The undeniable fact is that the Australian capital market is undergoing a watershed transition period where softer non-financial attributes have taken centre stage for institutional and sophisticated investors. At the same time foreign investors have made clear their positioning on alignment of ESG and other components of responsible investment strategies that look beyond the financials of companies.
In this new market reality, a ‘good story to tell’ should be by design.
Companies intending to list, or to engage the capital market, need to up their game and present a better narrative and equity story that consists of all the traditional financials but also clearly covers its non-financial attributes. These may be the long-term vision for a sustainable business, the quality and credibility of its management, its people and culture strategy and succession planning, as well as innovation, scalable capabilities, quality of business processes and execution on corporate strategies. The story should also address clearly and definitively the influences that affect the sector and market overall.
This type of holistic equity story is what investors want to hear to help ease their process of separating the wheat from the chaff when committing capital to IPO suitors.

Why pursue a career in financial communications? – Thoughts from a PR grad

Picture this: I am eight months into my graduate position at Honner working as an Account Coordinator in Sydney’s bustling CBD. One weekend, I’m visiting my family and friends in Brisbane, attempting to explain to them (yet again) what my job actually is.

The top three responses thrown back at me are:

  1. “I don’t actually understand what you do.”
  2. “Your job sounds intense!”
  3. “Can you please clarify – isn’t PR the same as marketing / advertising?”

These almost automatic responses have led me to believe that a) my family and friends have not been paying attention to my detailedpost-work-debrief-phone-calls as I walk home, or b) it’s difficult to articulate to those outside our industry what we do on a daily basis. The latter conclusion is not helpful for all those university students and almost graduates who may be interested in working with us but just don’t know that such a niche field exists.

If you are a PR student or grad reading this, you might think you have a pretty good understanding of what a job in PR will involve, but you might not have thought of specialising in financial services PR, and what that would be like.

In light of this, for all those reading wherever you are in the world, let me break down these questions for you.

How I found myself working in financial PR and what the Account Coordinator role is.

After getting through the struggles of university, I completed a Bachelor of Business, majoring in Public Relations and Economics. It was a pairing a lot of people were sceptical about, and at times I thought the goal of marrying both disciplines would be unattainable.

My worries subsided when I was offered a position at Honner. I was discovered on LinkedIn through a mutual connection (and realised the platform really is a form of resume in this digital age) and was soon embarking on an exciting new chapter in “the big smoke”.

For those on the brink of entering the workforce for the first time, I implore you to appreciate the (what can seem mundane) tasks that you are given each day, as they can be a stepping stone to a bigger lesson down the track.

Some examples of this would be compiling media lists, clipping coverage or completing a media search for a new business client.

From these tasks alone, you learn the following things:

  • Which journalists are currently at different publications (something you need to stay on top of as this changes frequently)
  • What beats those journalists are writing on
  • Timely industry announcements and news
  • Activity that’s happening within the business outside your scope

My role has expanded over time as I have gained more experience. I now attend regular client facing meetings, write media releases announcing executive appointments, assist with drafting posts for the social media channels of my clients and Honner, take part in presenting PR campaigns and have a role in creating new business projects.

Since beginning my career journey at Honner, I have grown immensely (both professionally and personally) and continue to increase my skillset and knowledge with the support of my peers, mentors and senior leadership team.

Financial PR might sound intense, but it isn’t as scary as you think!

So you’re thinking PR (enter thoughts of Roxy Jacenko) and finance (and now Wolf of Wall Street). That’s a whole lot of intensity meshed together in one job. Working at Honner opened my eyes to how not scary financial PR is.

If fashion and makeup is the extent of your knowledge of PR, then you would be glad to know that it’s possible to incorporate that into working in a finance related job that might not seem so glitz and glam. Dress to impress!

The most intense part of the job is having to keep up with the fast paced, high performance industry that leaves little room for errors. However we’re all human, so when you do make those errors, it’s a steep learning curve.

As much as it is intense, it is exciting – think chasing stock market prices moving, crisis communications, having coffees with some of the country’s best journalists, client anniversary events, roundtable media lunches with high level executives… my heart beats faster just thinking about it all.

Our clients include some of the world’s biggest asset managers and top Australian banks and superfunds, as well as innovative fintech companies that are transforming the landscape. This is an industry where our clients are doing mutli-million dollar deals, responsible for making sure that hundreds of thousands of retirees are able to have a secure financial future, and even engineering financial products that have the capacity to help solve some of the world’s biggest problems, like climate change.

On top of this, Honner has a great team culture. In fact, we recently celebrated our team quarterly social event at ten pin bowling.

Why you should specialise in financial public relations and how they work together with marketing and advertisings

The three areas of communication are largely separate but often cross paths with each other. Unlike advertisers and marketers, in public relations we aim to persuade our audiences through the spectrum of owned and earned media and digital channels. This Forbes article sums it up quite nicely. Honner is a great example of how public relations can work alongside the other two specialities as we expanded our services to be an integrated communications firm with the addition of a marketing expert.

Each day working in financial public relations brings something new to the table.

If working at Honner sounds interesting to you, email jacqui@honner.com.au with your resume and get in touch!

It’s a wrap – Honner’s quarterly media roundup (Q319)

What’s news?

Seven West Media changes CEOs, reports large loss, goes hunting for acquisitions

The precarious state of free-to-air TV in Australia was highlighted by Seven West Media’s announcement that it recorded a full year loss of A$444.4 million. The loss was due to a dramatic write down in the Seven network’s TV licenses in the wake of recent advertising market declines.

The announcement came just days after new CEO James Warburton came on board following the surprise resignation of CEO Tim Worner. Warbuton said FY19 was a tough year in the economy and advertising markets, which impacted Seven West Media’s performance.

“But we have incredibly strong assets, and our focus moving forward is to speed up the rate of transformation while exploring opportunities for growth in our core and adjacent markets,” he said.

“We will be a hunter and explore M&A opportunities in both traditional media and non-traditional adjacencies that are positive for our shareholders.”

Despite the significant loss, Seven delivered a 13th consecutive year of ratings leadership in Australia. The network was also the number one network in the advertising demographic of people aged 25-54 across the day.

Nine bids for Macquarie Media

Elsewhere, Nine is continuing its acquisitive streak, announcing a bid to take the remaining stake in the Macquarie Radio business it doesn’t already own.

Nine has made an offer to acquire the remaining 45.5 per cent stake in Macquarie Media, which it gained majority ownership of through the Fairfax Media merger in late 2018.

The move would see Nine gain the Macquarie Radio business, which includes stations 2GB, 3AW, 4BC, 6PR and Macquarie Sports Radio.

Macquarie Media responded by recommending its shareholders accept the $1.46 per share off-market bid.

Former Sky News bureau chief launches Ticker TV

Former Sky News Bureau Chief Ahron Young has launched Ticker TV, an online business, technology and aviation channel.

Breaking news and highlights will appear across Ticker’s social channels, while a paid subscription model costing “a dollar a week” will offer users unlimited access to live programming via an app. Ticker will not feature ads, but programs will instead be sponsored.

New regional publication takes on Antony Catalano’s Newcastle HeraldIn regional media news, a new online only publication from News Ltd. is taking on the Newcastle Herald, one of the key publications acquired by Anthony Catalano in his purchase of australian community newspapers in April. The digital masthead Newcastle News is the latest title in a strategy by News Corp Australia to grow local audiences.

Rainmaker expands into ESG

Rainmaker Group, publisher of Financial Standard, has acquired sustainable investment specialist publications The Sustainability Report and Audacious Investing.

Effective October 1, Rachel Alembakis, founder of both publications, will join Rainmaker Group as editor of the titles.

Commenting on the acquisition, group managing director Christopher Page said the business had been looking for the right opportunity to expand into the ESG space:

“We have been following the sector’s development because of its growing importance to Financial Standard readers and Rainmaker Live’s diverse client base of institutional and wholesale investors,” he said.

The acquisition comes six months after Rainmaker Group purchased Money magazine, the longest-running personal finance publication in Australia, from Bauer Media.

Tech giants reject plan for fake news code of conduct

The industry body representing tech giants Google, Facebook and Twitter has rejected proposals for an industry code of conduct on fake news, warning that the recommendation would turn Australia’s media regulator into the truth police.

The Digital Industry Group made the warning in a submission to the competition regulator’s digital platforms review, arguing against eight of its 23 recommendations.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has recommended new codes of practice to ensure fairness and transparency in the digital advertising market and to govern handling of complaints about inaccurate information, to be enforced by an independent regulator such as the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

But Digi has argued against a “one-size-fits-all” code, arguing that what might be considered appropriate in one forum – such as the removal of a public post containing disinformation – “may be considered as intrusive and inappropriate on a private messaging platform”.

Google changes the way it presents news

Original news reporting will get new prominence and stay at the top of searches longer as Google addresses a major concern of publishers and reporters that their work was being swamped by copycats.

The changes follow sustained criticism from traditional media organisations that helped spark the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission inquiry into digital platforms.

Insights & Opinion

Australians young and old are consuming much more video, according to  Zenith’s Online Video Forecasts 2019 report. The average person will spend 100 minutes each day watching online video in 2021, up from 84 minutes this year, the report found. That’s the equivalent of watching 25 continuous days of video in 2021.

Takeup of newer media tech is also rising, with nearly one in five Australians now owning their own smart speaker, according to research from Nielson.

Ever wonder why you never got a reply back from a journalist? Overt marketing and irrelevant content are the two key reasons why journalists avoid PR emails, according to PR Newswire’s recent Asia Pacific Media Survey.

Most people consuming information online in Australia take no steps to verify its accuracy, writes Katharine Murphy, political editor at The Guardian.

Amanda Meade, also at The Guardian, analyses the role that philanthropy could play in changing the journalistic climate in Australia.

Quotable Quotes

“We have always supposed we have a free press. That belief has been shaken to the core in recent times.” – ABC Chair Ita Buttrose told the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties, adding that police raids on the ABC’s Sydney offices and the home of a News Corp journalist had “tarnished” Australia’s standing.

“For us it’s really declaring that we’re open for business.” – Seven West Media CEO James Warburton on his plans to seek out a partner to launch a streaming business.

Movers & Shakers

Sarah-Jane Tasker has been appointed Business Editor at The Western Australian. Sarah, who started her career at The Sunday Times in Perth, has spent the past 11 years as a senior business writer at The Australian.
James Hennessy has been appointed Editor at Business Insider. James was formerly Deputy Editor at Pedestrian Group.
Ben Butler has moved from The Australian to the The Guardian Australia as Senior Business Reporter.
Rachel Alembakis, founder of The Sustainability Report and Audacious Investing, is joining the new owner of the publications, Rainmaker Group, as editor of the two titles.
Simon Thomsen is the new Editor of Startup Daily. He was previously Associate Editor of Business Insider Australia.
Hannah Wootton has moved from Money Management to the Australian Financial Review, where she is reporting on professional services and legal affairs.
Aleks Vickovich has moved from Business Insider to the Australian Financial Review, where he covers banking, wealth management and financial services.
Grace Ormsby left Lawyers Weekly and started at Momentum Media sister publication Nest Egg.
Jassmyn Goh has returned Money Management as a News Editor after working as a financial journalist in London.
Kylie Purcell from Your Money has joined Finder as Investment Editor.
Karina Barrymore has left News Corp to pursue freelance writing and editing, including authoring crime novels. Her new novel Where the Truth Lies, published by  Simon & Schuster, is due out in March 2020.
Effie Zahos and Maria Bekiaris have started at Canstar, as Editor-at-Large and Editorial Campaigns Manager respectively after leaving Money Magazine.
Elise Shaw, formerly Digital Content Editor at Commonwealth Bank, has been appointed Digital News Producer at The Australian.
Eliza Bavin, formerly a producer at Your Money, has started at Financial Standard.
Laura Daquino has moved from InvestSMART to Ticker TV, the new online channel started by former Sky News Bureau Chief Ahron Young.
Malavika Santhebennur joined Momentum Media as features editor for the mortgage titles The Adviser and Mortgage Business.
Cliona O’Dowd is back from maternity leave covering financial services and superannuation at The Australian.
Kristi Cheng has left Financial Standard, where she held a journalist title.
Sarah Kendell joined as SMSF Adviser as Deputy Editor.
Lachlan Maddock joined Investor Daily as a reporter.
Elliot Hastie has left Momentum Media, where he wrote across ifa, Investor Daily, Fintech Business and Wellness Daily, and is now writing for D’Marge.
Nicholas Grove is taking a break after leaving Livewire.
Hrishikesh Joshi has left SelfManagedSuper magazine
Pat Commins has left Australian Financial Review and is moving to The Australian.
Mia Kwok has left ASFA, where she wrote for Superfunds magazine.
Jason Clout left the Australian Financial Review where he was special reports editor. Mark Eggleton will take over the role.

Ten strategies to ignite your content at the publishing stage

You’ve researched your audience, looked at all the different forms your content can take and created a bank of killer content. Now it’s time to package it all up and hit publish. But before you do, there are a few steps you can take to maximise your content’s cut-through.

The Honner infographic: Turning Content Marketing into Conversations details the key steps to executing a winning content marketing program and how to nurture a conversation with your customers.

In this week’s blog we focus on the fifth stage of the process – Publish. Organise. Here are our top tips.

  1. Remember – think like the media industry – this is a crowded space. One of the biggest pieces of advice we give our clients is think like the media industry before you push out content. Put yourself in the shoes of media outlets such as the Australian Financial Review or Money Management. Would they be pushing out this content?  These organisations’ readership rests on the ability to consistently deliver quality, relevant content and you should be doing the same.
  1. Serialise your content. Stop thinking of your content as a single event. Quality content can be turned into dozens of different content pieces and staggered over a period of weeks or months. This process is called serialisation. Just like your favourite Netflix series.  US insurance company Allstate, for example, runs a series of blogs on car accident scenarios – from hitting a deer to a friend totalling your car. It also offers a video series, which is carefully curated into playlists on youtube, so users can find a range of content for their needs.
  1. Follow the leader: Publish content under your CEO’s name to increase engagement. People like hearing from leaders – not big brands. So consider if some of your content can be published under your CEO’s personal brand (or via other senior leadership). In 2018 LinkedIn named the “20 must-know influencers driving the global business conversation” – this includes Ray Dalio from Bridgewater Associates and Ian Bremmer. Characteristics of these leaders in communication (which you can use as guide) were; the content was authentic, it was used to influence employees as well as customers and shareholders, it was visual and in video format sometimes, they posted regularly. This was particularly important during a ‘crisis’ where a high level of authenticity and honesty was paramount.
  1. Commit to A/B testing to optimise your content performance. A/B testing is a tool for identifying which version of something helps an  organization meet a business goal more effectively. When you test a variable in your content piece, you can see if these are having an impact on engagement rates – and use this intelligence for future pieces. So pick one variable and experiment with different headlines, images or incorporate a testimonial. See if these influence engagement rates.  You can even A/B test the time of day you post on your social media channels.
  1. What is trending/popular? Let your readers know. Publishing firms are increasingly using their data (such as google analytics)  to highlight what are the most popular stories. Rather than ordering your content by date, you should also be allowing your readers to see what other customers are finding interesting. For example, we all love a good end-of-year financial year roundup, so publishing an article that summarises your ‘Top 10 most read content pieces in 2019’. Check out the Harvard Business Review’s curated reading lists and visual library for inspiration.
  1. Break up content visually. There is nothing more off-putting than being faced with a wall of text. Add subheadings, numbers and bulleted lists and highlight important information to keep your content punchy and engaging. Use engaging images that incorporate the core proposition of your content. Tools like canva give you a lot of flexibility to create bespoke visual experiences. Take a look at these great examples from firms like Expedia.
  1. Pick the best time of day to publish. Knowing exactly when to publish is essential to maximising your content’s cut-through. Social media management platform Sprout Social, which has over 25,000 customers, recently analysed its customer data to see what time and day their customers’ social media posts generated the most engagement.  Overall the best times to post are Tuesday to Friday from 8am-2pm, with peak engagement times on Wednesday at 9-10am and 12pm. If, however you are looking to engage your readers with a larger piece of research, we’d suggest trying to target them on a Saturday.
  1. Make it mobile friendly. 80% of sponsored content clicks come from mobile. So ensure your content is optimised for small screens. Consider using larger font sizes and shorter paragraphs to make your content easy to read and help your readers to find important information. It’s also important to regularly test your site out yourself on your own mobile devices.
  1. Don’t fall into the trap of having ‘dead-end content’. What is your call-to-action? What do you want your reader to do after they have read your content? Is this an opportunity to capture leads so you can nurture the relationship further? You could simply ask readers to leave a comment, or maybe download a free guide or register for a webinar. Also try to include dynamic links to other content on your website to encourage people to read on.
  1. Organise and optimise. Each piece you push out should be viewed as part of your broader content ecosystem. Consider where you will house and organise all your content to make it easier for your different customer personas to find what they are looking for. This is also a good time to ensure strong search capabilities by tagging, adding in key words and making sure your headline is searchable. Some brands that do this well include accounting software firm xero, which offers a range of guides, stories and resources for accountants and bookkeepers. South African bank capitec also offers a well-organised content hub, featuring topics from travel tips to buying a house and fraud prevention.

Tools to help you publish and organise

  • Inbound-marketing platform hubspot offers social media analytics and message-scheduling, so your content can seamlessly publish to your social channel when it is ready.
  • google search console is a collection of services you can use to figure out how the search engine views your website. This service provides you with a wide array of tools to use, covering many different aspects of SEO.
  • Once you have published a piece, check out linkody, which allows you to find out who is linking to your website and learn what key words they are using. You can also ‘disavow’ any links you don’t like if you think someone is linking to your website as spam.

Nine strategies for creating winning content

Generating content that will resonate with the target audience is one of the biggest challenges facing content marketers. With the internet becoming increasingly cluttered, we know that and consumers are bombarded with up to 10,000 brand messages a day.
One of the theoretical cornerstones of marketing used to be to create as much content as possible. However, even the more traditional marketers are now recognising the need to work smarter not harder when it comes to generating and reusing engaging content – and not add to the clutter of irrelevant messages.

The Honner infographic: Turning Content Marketing into Conversations details the key steps to executing a winning content marketing program and how to nurture a conversation with your customers.  In this week’s blog we focus on the fourth stage of the process – Create. Curate. Multiply. Here are our top tips.

1. Images and visual story telling are starting to dominate the content landscape: One of the key takeaways from Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends 2019 report – which provides insight into what is going on in digital channels – is consumers are increasingly embracing visual content, primarily on mobile devices. The report highlights the importance of financial services firms using images and stories to engage consumers. Traditional text-based platforms like Twitter are now dominated by story-telling via images. Instagram has up to 1 billion monthly active users and Meeker’s report estimated that over 50% of Twitter impressions come from tweets that include images, video or other visual media. The report also highlights that for the first time, more than half of the global population were identified as internet users.

Visually interesting photographs of executives speaking at industry events, team building activities or images of your team undertaking community engagement programs can all make powerful content pieces to support your brand – particularly on social media. Among finance companies, American Express is seen as a leader by many in its Instagram outreach. Rather than focusing on product, its content is an assortment of high-quality food and travel photos, which has amassed a following of over 350,000.

2. User Generated Content (UGC) can be a real winner. There is a wealth of authentic content sitting at your fingertips – and it is largely free. UGC is any type of content created by your audience. In a recent interview the CMO of Salesforce proclaimed that The age of the marketing campaign is over and they believe more content will be co-created together with customers, “In the future, the content won’t come from the brands, it will come from the communities”. Another great example of generating content from your communities is the #mymintmoment Instagram campaign that asked customers to share ‘special moments when your life and finances aligned’.

3. Write a killer headline. Your headline is the most important piece of any writing as it grabs the reader’s attention and encourages them to read on. Don’t put your reader off with a waffly, vague headline. Keep it short, relevant and exciting. You can get some inspiration from free headline generator tools from Portent and SEO Pressor.

4. Use data and research as the foundation of your content. Adding some numbers to your copy adds weight to your argument, particularly if it is something new and sheds light on consumer sentiment around a particular issue. Consider commissioning a piece of research on a hot topic, surveying a customer segment, analysing your own customer data to uncover some new content angles or crunching data such as returns of the major asset classes. Russell Investments does a good job of using asset class data to create their annual Russell Investments/ASX Long Term Investing Report.

5. Infographics experience high engagement rates. Love them or hate them, infographics are much more likely to be read than text articles and are one of the most shared forms of content. Creating an infographic doesn’t need to be complicatedSee our tips below for some great tools from around the web that can help. Canva now have a dedicated area to help you easily build infographics. We think The Honner infographic: Turning Content Marketing into Conversations is a good example of an engaging infographic.

6. Leverage influencers. Consider joining forces with a third-party influencer to co-author or co-brand a content piece. This could be an industry body or industry institution like the ASX. This is highly effective with research-style content and is likely to both extend the reach of your piece and add credibility.

7. Look outside of your organisation. Content curation – the process of gathering information from outside sources – is currently huge. Curating content is not only more cost-effective but allows you to offer a broader selection of content to your customers and position your business as a thought leader.  Once you have determined topics of interest to your audience, identify relevant and trusted sources of content as candidates for your curation. Sources can include research firms, industry bodies, news sites, trade publications, social media and influencers. As a rule of thumb Honner recommends 80% of your content should be original, and 20% of content should be curated.

8. Build out content on topics of importance to your customers: Brands need to act more like a news agency when producing content. Boston-based Santander Bank, for instance, has a hub for millennials who may be a couple of years away from applying for loansBupa’s Health Link is another good example as it provides broad tips on topics like family, pregnancy and mind and body.  These content hubs engage customers with quality content on financial tips but also extend the conversation to lifestyle pieces on health, travel destinations, fashion and pet ownership.

9. Multiply. If you have put in the effort to creating (or curating) a great piece of content, don’t fall into the trap of simply pushing it out in a blog or newsletter. You can use a core idea in many different ways. Videos, podcasts, case studies using real people, checklists, webinars and testimonials. Lots of work goes into producing quality content – so look for every opportunity to reproduce it.

Tips from Honner:

  • Knock up your own bespoke images with ease using canva, one of the most design tools on the market.
  • piktochart is a good entry-level tool to create infographics, with easy to use, customisable templates and visme allows you to create an infographic in minutes using its 100 free fonts, quality images and thousands of icons. If you are more interested in video, biteable gives users the opportunity to create video infographics for free.
  • For content curation, take a look at platforms such as feedly and netvibes, which alert you to breaking news in your industry and region that you can share with your audience.

Next week we’ll publish the fifth in the eight-part content marketing series, Publish. Organise.
If you’d like help creating a well-researched content marketing strategy, or more information on Honner’s 8-Step Content Marketing Model, contact Honner’ Head of Marketing Solutions Craig Morris.

Growing to greatness – have regional newspapers found their white knight, and why should brands care?

Antony Catalano says he’ll grow (not shrink) his newly purchased regional newspaper empire to greatness, but is he really the white knight that many are hoping? And what does the acquisition mean for financial services firms seeking to reach the millions of potential customers living outside Australia’s capital cities?

Last week, journalists at five commercial TV newsrooms in regional Australia were informed of the bad news – they would no longer have jobs from Friday. WIN News said the newsrooms in Orange, Wagga Wagga, Albury, Dubbo and Wide Bay would be closed based on the “commercial viability of funding news in these areas”, or rather the lack thereof. It was just the latest in a string of bad news for regional newspapers and broadcasters, deemed a “devastating blow” for regional Australia by one reporter and dubbed a “crisis that demands government intervention” by the journalists’ union.

However, there was one announcement in recent weeks that seemed to represent some light at the end of the tunnel for regional media. The purchase of 160 regional and rural newspapers from Nine Entertainment in April by Antony Catalano has raised hopes of better times ahead for publishing outside of Australia’s biggest cities – and even increased optimism about the potential for white knights to emerge for the media sector more broadly.

That’s good news for brands trying to reach the large proportion of Australians living in regional areas. However, before we crack the champagne cork to celebrate a new era for local news, we need to see details of Catalano’s plan to turn around the business’s flailing advertising revenue.

With around 8 million people, or around 32% of the population, living outside of capital cities, this is a market too big to ignore.

The $115 million acquisition of Australian Community Media, which includes The Newcastle Herald and Canberra Times, by Catalano and Thorney Investment Group, marks the first major divestment by Nine after it acquired Fairfax last year. Of Fairfax’s newspapers, Nine only wants to keep the metropolitan mastheads — The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Financial Review — as it focuses on high-growth digital assets, leaving the fate of the regionals hanging in the balance.

While few newspapers have had an easy time in recent years in the face of digital disruption, it is regional papers that are doing it particularly tough. ACM’s profits more than halved from $169 million in 2012 to A$67.5 million, as returns from Fairfax’s metro businesses rose by 26%. Regional broadcasters are also doing it tough.

So while the ACM acquisition price is a fraction of the $2.8 billion that Fairfax paid for the newspapers when it acquired rural press in 2007, it is encouraging that the buyers, as well as rival bidders from the world of private equity, have seen value in the business.

Focusing on the big guns

There had been considerable concerns that the business might be broken up, depending on the buyer, and that private equity especially might take the oft-followed route of increasing profitability by cutting costs and jobs. However, Catalano has been quick to say he wants to “grow the business, not shrink it to greatness” .  He said he hopes to avoid shutting any newspaper and doesn’t expect to shed staff, although he told the Sydney Morning Herald there is “some stuff” in the portfolio that doesn’t make sense, signalling some consolidation or closure of mastheads is likely.

Catalano has identified seven of ACM’s larger papers as key players in the group – The Newcastle Herald, Canberra Times, Illawarra Mercury, The Border Mail, The Examiner in Launceston, The Ballarat Courier and Bendigo Advertiser. He believes the populations these mastheads serve makes them valuable assets. He added that he plans to invest aggressively in these papers, noting that advertising sales are based on audience size, which is in turn linked to quality journalism.


Interestingly, Catalano has also said the Canberra Times should be producing its own political coverage. He wants to return the masthead to “its former strengths” as more of a national publication with a bigger influence in federal politics.

Why regional audiences matter to brands

For financial services companies seeking to convey their message to a broad audience, regional papers are an important way to reach people outside the major cities who may not read major metropolitan or national newspapers With around 8 million people, or around 32% of the population, living outside of capital cities, this is a market too big to ignore[i].

For companies targeting the Queensland market, the importance of regional audiences is particularly stark, with more than half of the population living outside of Brisbane, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

For those offering retirement advice or investment services it’s also interesting to look at the varying demographics in regional areas. For instance, 30% of Newcastle Herald readers and 36% of Canberra Times readers are 65 years or older, compared to just 18-19% for the Australian Financial Review and the Sydney Morning Herald.

Achieving national reach

While any move to shore up the future of regional newspapers is positive for brand reach, the transfer of ownership at ACM may impact the way brands achieve coverage in these publications.

At Honner, syndication of stories through Nine (and previously Fairfax) newspapers has helped us achieve national coverage for clients without the need to engage with individual newspapers. An interview conducted by the Sydney Morning Herald for instance, can be simultaneously published across multiple regional publications.

The deal between ACM and Nine preserves the commercial relationships that have existed during Nine’s ownership of the business – including sharing of content between ACM publications and the metro publications – for a short transitional basis only.

Unless an ongoing content sharing deal is negotiated, financial services firms and the communications agencies who represent them will need to pitch stories separately to ACM or rely more on alternative channels for reaching achieving national reach.

The most obvious alternative is News Corp, which owns several regional publications—including The Illawarra Mercury and The Queensland Times—reaching around 3.2 million readers. Strong interviews or exclusive stories in The Australian often run in the publisher’s regional newspapers.

A less obvious  channel for achieving wide reach across metropolitan and regional areas is radio. At Honner, we’ve found that Radio Release, which distributes audio news releases packaged with audio grabs from the company spokesman, is an effective and efficient way of achieving coverage on multiple radio stations on behalf of our clients.

A company spokesperson needs to do only one interview, which will then be delivered to more than 500 commercial and community radio stations across metropolitan and regional Australia.

A pivot to radio is timely for brands given the medium is growing audiences at a time when other forms of “old media” are struggling. Despite the rise of many digital listening alternatives such as podcasts and music streaming services, industry data shows Australian commercial radio audiences reached an all-time high in 2018 and have grown by 12% over the past five years. The Infinite Dial Survey released by Edison Research in May found that radio is still the most popular audio platform, with 83% of the population aged over 12 listening to radio each week.

Grappling with digital will be key

So, back to the question of whether Catalano can save ACM – and develop a model that might be the saving grace of regional newspapers more broadly.

While he is right to believe credible journalism is key to the success of the titles, it is uncertain whether that alone be enough to turn around collapsing advertising revenue.

Earlier this month, Warren Buffett’s declaration that most conventional newspapers are “toast” highlighted the urgent need for publishers to solve the digital conundrum. While Buffet, whose company has acquired a series of mostly small newspapers in 30 different markets since 2011, has now come to the view that it’s the big newspapers, such as The Wall Street JournalThe New York Times and The Washington Post, that are likely to survive because they have devised a digital product and business model that will take them beyond the age of print.

The Washington Post was returned to profitability after Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos purchased the masthead in 2013 and used his internet savvy to turn around its fortunes. Bezos told CNBC in interview in September that his optimism at the time of the deal was based on the view that while the internet had destroyed most newspapers’ advantage, it offered “one gift; free global distribution”. While The Post’s old business model relied on generating a high revenue per reader, Bezos helped it develop a new strategy that focused instead on acquiring more readers.

Catalano told The Guardian he’ll grow revenue through a digital expansion of the newspaper titles he has purchased but hasn’t decided how. He said he’s still grappling with what the right model is for subscription for digital newspapers. He’s looking at a subscription model similar to the free-to-air’s streaming services, which would collect reader information for targeted advertising rather than putting up a paywall.

Whether Catalano is the white knight the sector has been hoping for will be borne out in time. However, it’s refreshing to hear media owners talking about investing in quality journalism, making this deal the brightest light on the horizon for Australian regional media we’ve seen in a long time. Watch this space.


[i] Australian Bureau of Statistics

Finding your authentic voice: Step 3 in the Honner Content Model, to Connect, Converse and Convince

We’re living in an era of low trust in experts – whether they are people, governments or organisations. The Australian financial services industry in particular has come under scrutiny as the fallout from the Royal Commission continues to bite. Yet according to PwC’s Global Consumer Insights Survey , more than one in three consumers surveyed ranked “trust in brand” among the top three factors, other than price, influencing their purchase decision.

So, when the Honner Content Team pulled together an outline of what a firm needs to do to transform its content marketing process – we recognised the need to elevate the idea of authenticity to be a major element of the process.

The Honner infographic: Turning Content Marketing into Conversations details the key steps to executing a winning content marketing program and how to nurture a conversation with your customers.  In last week’s blog we dealt with the Ideation and Mapping stepIn this week’s blog, we’re focusing on the important third stage of the process – Seek Authenticity.

The need for firms to be authentic has altered the content marketing landscape in recent years as consumers are becoming increasingly immune to the traditional communication practices and are fatigued with paid and owned promotions. But many firms are still struggling to understand the importance of integrating authenticity into their content marketing.

So as a content marketer – how do you embrace and embody an authentic approach? Here are eight strategies that bring a more authentic style to your content marketing process:

1. Find your voice: Customers today will ignore self-promotional, and biased or manipulative, content. People want to connect to other people – not bland corporations – and one of the biggest mistakes we see at Honner is a lack of personality with content. A brand voice allows a firm to deliver this personality. It could be entertaining, quirky, or inspiring and help to differentiate your firm – especially in the financial services sector as the language many financial services firms use is notorious for still feeling artificial, convoluted and product focused.

In our observations, fintech companies seem to be more likely to embrace a stronger brand voice with good examples including RevoultMonzo and one of my favourites Atom Bank. Also check out WealthSimple (“This totally jargon-free investing course will turn you into a financial genius in less than 45 minutes”).

2. Harness the power of user-generated content (UGC): Some of the most authentic forms of content you can use are produced by your own customers (user generated content). According to recent research by Stakla, the influence of User Generated Content is unmatched across industries. Nearly 80% of people say user-generated content highly impacts their purchasing decisions (up from 60 percent in 2017), but marketers are still slow to adopt the use of UGC.

Tripadviser is the ultimate example of afirm which grew into a global brand based on the wisdom of the crowds and an ever-growing army of contributors who provide their services for free.

User generated content can also work for financial services brands. A good example of this comes from Mint (the personal finance app) with the #mymintmoment campaign. Mint encouraged submissions of photos of special moments, such as paying off a loan, weddings or a holiday – and offered $1,000 to the winner. This was an excellent way to build authentic content that appealed to people’s emotions.

3. Develop case studies: A personal case study can be an effective way to showcase your firm’s role in solving customer pain points, regardless of the level of sophistication of an audience. When building case studies:

  • Consider using real client examples. In some cases, however, the customer might want to remain anonymous.
  • Try to focus on the customers journey. Start with defining the problem the customer was trying to solve and the process from their viewpoint (rather than the product promotion). Quantify the ultimate benefit a customer received.
  • Use images that reflect real customers (not cliché stock images).

4. Conduct customer insights research: Customer insights studies, done right, reveal an understanding of the behaviours and perceptions of certain customer segments. This is a powerful way to echo the voice of customers and present a true view of the community mindset. This strategy can also bring greater awareness to certain issues in society and start to quantify the social impact of those issues.  As an example, in January 2019 market researcher Momentum Intelligence undertook a survey of 6,000 borrowers, looking at their sentiment towards mortgage brokers in the lead up to the final Royal Commission Report. The research highlighted that Australians are much happier paying commissions than suspected. A white paper was built off the back of the research and generated strong coverage across mainstream and consumer media.

5. Utilise your opinion leaders and influencers: Your target audience is far more likely to trust a person rather than a corporate message. Particularly if that person has already built up a solid reputation. Many firms utilise the profile of their CEOs or other key executives to deliver their content via their LinkedIn connections.

6. Prepare for the hyper-personalised content to redefine the future of content marketing:  AI and personalisation will eventually allow firms to offer consistent, personalised experiences – based on customer preferences and past behaviour. The downside is the investment in technology and resources needed. The underlying premise of personalisation is for financial services firms to not just “flog product” but to become a trusted advisors to their clients. We are already observing the role of AI in content curation where personalised recommendations are based on a user’s interest. Strategies include using online surveys to find out more about customer preferences, the use of geolocation, website behaviour data and email engagement. The State of Marketing Report from SalesForce stated “53% of customers now expect the offers they receive to always be personalised, and 62% expect companies to anticipate their needs”.

7. Highlight the purpose-led approach of your brand: Brands are increasingly expected to make a difference and contribution to our society – not just earn a profit. The 2018 Accenture report To Infinity and Beyond found that “Companies are under the spotlight like never before as they struggle for competitive advantage in the context of this reality. Their customers aren’t just making decisions based on the stalwarts of product selection or price. They’re now assessing what a brand says. What it does. What it stands for.”

8Bring to life your positive corporate culture: This purpose described in the previous point also extends to how firms treat their employees. Many firms are now more overt with exhibiting how their culture is coming to life within a firm. Today customers care less about corporate philanthropy and more how the firm treats their employees and is helping to solve the world’s social problems (e.g. financial literacy). The 2019 Deloitte Global Millennial Survey revealed that “millennials and Gen Zs are putting their money where their mouths are when it comes to supporting businesses that make a positive impact on society.”

Resources and stories to help you harness a more authentic voice

  1. Paul Cheal’s SmokeSignal Blog: in an age of distrust; trust matters

 

  1. the key: how corporations succeed by solving the world’s toughest problems’ by Lynda Gratton: Organisational change expert Gratton shows that it is now critical that corporations step up to play a more positive role in the world by building inner resilience and leveraging their unique capabilities to address complex global challenges such as climate change, financial literacy and youth unemployment.

 

  1. rachel botsman is a leading expert and author on trust in the modern world. Her highly acclaimed work Who Can you Trust? explores how technology is revolutionising human trust. Botsman reveals this is the age of “distributed trust” and if we are to benefit from this radical shift, we must understand the mechanics of how trust is built, managed, lost and repaired in the digital age.

 

  1. Harvard Business School professor Frances Frei gives a crash course in trust: how to build it, maintain it and rebuild it – something she worked on during a recent stint at Uber. “If we can learn to trust one another more, we can have unprecedented human progress,” Frei says.

 

  1. simon sinek – ‘start with why’: Sinek developed what he calls the “Golden Circle which reinforces that it’s not how you do what you do, but why you choose to do it.  The why is what motivates and inspires us – and it ignites the spark within us”.

 

  1. The 2015 HBR article ‘the new science of customer emotions’ highlighted…… “when companies connect with customers’ emotions, the payoff can be huge”.

 

  1. Read our Honner Blog “Purpose is now a comms must-have, but it’s got to right true to label.

Next week we’ll publish the fourth in the eight-part content marketing series, Create. Curate. Multiply
If you’d like help creating a well-researched content marketing strategy, or more information on Honner’s 8-Step Content Marketing Model, contact Honner’s Head of Marketing Solutions Craig Morris.

It’s a wrap – Honner’s quarterly media roundup (Q119)

WHAT’S NEWS?

Some good news for regional newspapers

Nine Entertainment’s sale of 160 regional and rural newspapers to former Domain boss Antony Catalano and Thorney Investment Group raised hopes of better times ahead for regional publishing. The $115 million acquisition of Australian Community Newspapers, including The Newcastle Herald and The Canberra Times, is the first major divestment by Nine after it acquired Fairfax last year.

Catalano says he wants to “grow the business, not shrink it to greatness” , hopes to avoid shutting any newspaper, and doesn’t expect to shed staff, although acknowledging there is “some stuff” in the portfolio that doesn’t make sense. He’s flagged plans to invest heavily in seven of ACM’s larger papers – The Newcastle Herald, The Canberra Times, The Illawarra Mercury, The Border Mail, The Examiner in Launceston, The Ballarat Courier, and The Bendigo Advertiser – and said he wants to return the Canberra Times to producing its own political news and having a greater role in national debate.

Nine brings the subs back

After freeing itself of its regional newspapers assets, a more focused and cashed up Nine Entertainment announced plans to hire 24 sub editors at its major newspapers The Sydney Morning HeraldThe Age and The Australian Financial Review – ending an outsourcing arrangement with Pagemasters introduced by Fairfax in 2011.

James Chessell, editor of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, said the decision reflects the “strong financial position” of the mastheads and that having all aspects of editorial production in-house will help increase the quality of their journalism.

End of days for Your Money

The news isn’t so rosy in all parts of the media, however. It’s been a short life for the Nine and News Corp joint venture Your Money, which closed on May 17, highlighting the challenges of capturing the attention of self-managed super fund trustees.

The venture had hoped to capitalise on the rise of SMSFs and growing interest in personal finance. However, the JV partners said Your Money failed to attract the level of audience and advertising needed to justify continuing the venture.
Nine and News will look to redeploy staff from the JV within their organisations.

Printing error gives Tele readers a new perspective

News Corp. could be forgiven for rethinking its printing arrangements after pages from its arch- rival The Sydney Morning Herald mistakenly appeared in The Daily Telegraph.

Readers of the tabloid were treated to unusually progressive views including letters calling for more action on climate change and highlighting a need to reform Anzac Day.

After some confusion, it emerged that a printing error at a western Sydney printing plant had resulted in the content of the two mastheads getting mixed up. The two papers struck a deal last year to be printed at the same location in order to save costs.

Rainmaker snaps up Money magazine

Bauer Media sold personal finance magazine Money to Rainmaker, saying it wanted to focus on ‘core consumer brands’. The German company publishes several women’s magazines in Australia including Women’s Weekly and Woman’s Day.

Rainmaker, which is primarily a financial research house and also owns Financial Standard and some smaller B2B titles, said the acquisition fits its longer-term objective of growing its consumer media platform.

Investment Magazine phases out print

Investment Magazine’s May edition will be the last one in print, as it moves to online only. The frequency of the newsletter will be maintained – twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Apple’s news app cast as a helping hand for journalism

Apple Inc launched its news subscription service Apple News+, portraying it as part of its “commitment to supporting quality journalism”. Launch partners include The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Vogue, National Geographic Magazine, People and ELLE. However, readers Down Under will have to wait. Apple News+ has launched in the US and Canada so far, with launches in Australia and the UK expected later in the year.

Meanwhile, Apple has also unveiled its own TV streaming service and credit card as it seeks to become an entertainment company and financial services firm, moving beyond its incarnation as a tech firm that makes iPhones, iPads and MacBooks.

INSIGHTS & OPINION

Can Apple News kill fake news and save journalism?, asks Danial Eran Dilger at Apple Insider
Newspapers can thrive if they go back to their community roots, says Rachel Matthews, journalism lecturer at Coventry University.
The post Google, Facebook era could be a golden age for media, suggests John McDuling at The Sydney Morning Herald.

QUOTABLE QUOTES

“They are morally bankrupt pathological liars who enable genocide (Myanmar), facilitate foreign undermining of democratic institutions. –  New Zealand’s privacy commissioner, John Edwards, lambasting Facebook over its response to the Christchurch terrorist attack.

“If they can write an algorithm to make sure that the ads they want you to see can appear on your mobile phone, then I’m quite confident they can write an algorithm to screen out hate content on social media platforms.” – Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison calling for a crackdown on social media companies after the Christchurch attack.

“My experience in the past is to protect jobs. I’ve got a history of hiring, not firing. I want to grow the business, not shrink it to greatness. Not my style.” – Antony Catalano after acquiring Australian Community Media.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Effie Zahos and Susan Hely left Money Magazine following its acquisition from Bauer Media by Rainmaker. Michelle Baltazar, current executive director of media at Rainmaker publication Financial Standard, will step into the editor-in-chief role while Financial Standard editor Darren Snyder will move into the managing editor role at Money Magazine.
Zahos, who recently published A Real Girl’s Guide to Money, is staying at Bauer Media in a new role of finance editor, commentator and financial literacy campaigner.

Jamie Williamson,  associate editor of Financial Standard’s magazine FS Advice, will move to the role of editor at Financial Standard. Elizabeth McArthur has also started working at Financial Standard as a journalist.

Aleks Vickovich, former digital editor of the recently closed Your Money, has a new job as news editor of the Australian edition of Business Insider.

Laura Drew has joined Money Management as a senior reporter, having previously worked as deputy news editor at Investment Week in London. Drew is replacing Anastasia Santoreneos who has left Money Management to work as a finance producer with Yahoo Finance.

Stephanie Aikins left Nest Egg/Momentum Media and is now freelancing for travel magazines. She has been replaced by Cameron Micallef from AAP Medianet.

Alice Uribe, editor of Investment Magazine, has left the publication and is moving to US. Elizabeth Fry has taken over as editor of the publication.

Gina Baldassarre, editor of Startup Daily, has left to take up the role of content and communications manager at Qantas Super.
Chris Dastoor started as a journalist at Money Management.

Jackie Edwards of Bloomberg is moving into stock reporting, having previously covered equity markets. Matthew Burgess is now covering superannuation at Bloomberg and has moved to Melbourne.

Scott Murdoch, Data Room co-editor at The Australian, has left the newspaper.

Hrishikesh Joshi, started working as a reporter at Selfmanagedsuper magazine, having previously worked as a correspondent for Business Standard in India.

Tony Kaye has moved on from his role as editor of InvestSMART to start a new position as financial writer with Vanguard Investments, based in Melbourne.

Mia Kwok has started in a new role as Communications and Content Manager at the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA). In this role she will write and edit articles for Superfunds magazine, as well as managing media relations for the association. Previously Kwok was Commercial Content Editor at Business Insider Australia.

Think like a CEO when planning your content: The 8-step Honner content model to connect, converse and convince

The Honner Content Team has pulled together a bumper outline of what a firm needs to do to transform its content marketing process. The Honner infographic: Turning Content Marketing into Conversations details the key steps to executing a winning content marketing program and how to nurture a conversation with your customers.

Over the next few weeks we will put the spotlight on each key stage, outlining key strategies and tips to maximise each step. In the last blog we looked at the need to Listen Deeply. This week we’re focusing on the second stage: Ideation and Mapping. This is all about turning your insights into concrete content ideas that are aligned to the business’s objectives and will therefore delight your CEO.

  1. Who is the content/editorial team? When determining your key content decision makers, an effective and inclusive strategy is to create an editorial board with representation from across the firm – not just marketing. The team should meet at least quarterly and constantly refine the long-term content program – taking the customer insights gathered in the first stage and developing the ideas and opportunities which will form the backbone of your content program.

 

  1. Think like a CEO. Before you decide what content to create, the best advice we can give you is – ask yourself what is important to your CEO.  Your content marketing goals should be developed off the back of your business goals. Many firms make the mistake of thinking that content marketing is all about acquiring customers, but content should also be designed to drive loyalty with existing customers. The business objectives could fall into one of these four categories:
    1. Be an industry thought leader
    2. Build awareness/perception of the brand/capability
    3. Generate leads/sales
    4. Build customer loyalty/cross sell
  2. The art of brainstorming. Encourage your team to develop ideas beforehand so prior to the session, communicate the purpose/challenge, and any background information that will help orient their thinking. A good starting point when brainstorming is to focus on the pain points of your customers and build a range of ideas off the back of these. The brainstorming process is about encouraging creativity and big ideas, so focus on quanity not quality and don’t judge. Get the participants to think like a journalist – because the role of a journalist to cover stories (not content) that engages and connects. Once the brainstorming session is complete, you can decide which ideas are the best to implement.

 

  1. Develop the editorial calendar. Once you have identified your best ideas, it is time to map out a dynamic plan which documents the content you will develop over the next 12 months. It will ideally link the content to personas and the business objective and outline success metrics for each piece. It will also help you focus on quality over quantity and ensure you are developing content to support your most important business priorities.

 

  1. Utilise ‘evergreen’ content: When planning and updating your content, remember it doesn’t always have to be about starting from scratch. Look for interesting and relevant content you already have within your business that will not immediately date and find new ways to use it to engage your audience.

 

  1. Identify the channels you will use to communicate. You should know from your customer persona analysis where your target audiences are spending the most time and what their pain points are. For example, a financial adviser might appreciate a few slides that explain share market returns to their clients far more than a lengthy online article. For each piece of content, document the format you will use and the channels you will use to promote it.

 

  1. Plan but also be agile: While planning is great, the content marketing process also needs to be agile and able to quickly respond to emerging themes that are of interest to your customers. Keep an eye on the latest news and developments in your industry so you can keep your audience informed. If you can be timely with your content, clients will appreciate the responsiveness.

 

  1. Remember it’s not all about blogging: As you plan to develop your content, remember that content can take many different forms including infographics, videos, blog posts, long form research, podcasts, case studies using real people, checklists, photographs, webinars and testimonials. In fact, the more you mix it up, the more interesting it will be for your audience.

Content planning tools

  1. airtable: Along with its calendar feature, Airtable gives you the opportunity to put everything in one place for your team’s ease of collaboration. It’s highly visual and can facilitate meaningful conversation between your team.
  2. content dj: Content DJ is a great choice for people who are developing websites, and is also a good option for people trying to improve their website for their customers. But what’s one of the main things that website needs? Good content, of course! With this content planning option, you can find content from around the web, use your own, and aggregate a lot of different options in order to give your company and your customers the highest level of value. You can also use Content DJ for data collection,  so you’ll be able to see how your content is doing and look at what adjustments you can make.
  3. content idea generator: Hubspot has a simple, free tool that allows you to generate post titles in seconds to inspire your thinking. Simply answer a set of questions about your business and this tool generates hundreds of suggestions for blog posts and social media updates.
  4. gather content: With a central location for everything and the ability to store what you need and collaborate on all of it, Gather Content is another good planning tool. It lets you store content, organise it and can even help to generate ideas and create fresh content. You’ll also get help with rules and guidelines, so you can make sure you’re tailoring content that’s strategically important to your business.

Next week we’ll publish the third in the eight-part content marketing series, Seek Authenticity.

If you’d like help creating a well-researched content marketing strategy, or more information on Honner’s 8-Step Content Marketing Model, contact Honner’s Head of Marketing Solutions Craig Morris.

5 awards-season lessons from the Met Gala

Aah the Met Gala, fashion’s biggest night out. A chance for us mere mortals to drool over the finest haute couture and read all the gossip about our favourite A-list celebs.

The 2019 Gala has been and gone and it did not disappoint. The fashion elite were out in force, the outfits were extra, and the champagne flowed.

But with awards season fast approaching, as finalists for ‘PR Agency of the Year’ at the Rainmaker MAX Awards, Honner has taken the opportunity to look a little deeper.

Here are our five lessons from fashion’s main event.

  1. Embrace the theme

Whether your awards event is cocktail or fancy dress, embracing the dress code is a must. The Met Gala is known for its over-the-top themes and most of the invitees prepare for months. This year Kylie and Kendall Jenner nailed it in feathers and Cardi B made a fabulous Disney villain. Gwyneth Paltrow, however, studiously ignores the theme every year, much to the annoyance of fashion watchers. Don’t be a Gwyneth.

  1. But keep it tasteful

The Met Gala is a great excuse for extrovert celebs to go big or go home. Take Lady Gaga with her four outfit changes and red-carpet striptease, or Katy Perry who dressed as a chandelier. Those of us who live in the real world, however, have our reputations and dignity to consider, so if in doubt about your outfit choice – don’t.

  1. Engage your audience

Fashion aside, events and awards are a great excuse to boost your social media profile. Kim Kardashian tweets and posts on Instagram before, during and after the Met Gala to guarantee maximum publicity. So, if you or your team are up for an award, be sure to let your followers know.

  1. Keep the host sweet

US Vogue Editor Anna Wintour famously handpicks every guest for the Met Gala, and making the cut is no easy feat. Supermodel Coco Rocha and fashion stylist Rachel Zoe have both been blacklisted for wrong-footing Wintour, while invitees who decline an invitation will never receive another. The lesson here is if you are lucky enough to be invited to an awards event, thank the host and clear your schedule.

  1. Mingle

While you are unlikely to be shelling out $35,000 for a ticket like the Met Gala guests, make the most of awards season. Industry events are a great excuse to get out of your comfort zone by mingling with your peers and making new connections.

Help Honner win!

Now we are on the other side of the awards fence, we need your help to take out the title of Public Relations Agency of the Year at the Rainmaker MAX Awards this year! Please take a minute to vote for us here: https://www.financialstandard.com.au/voting/

We appreciate your support!
The Honner team