Brand Newsroom

In what direction is the mainstream media headed with it’s digital content? What kinds of digital content are they investing in creating? Is sponsored content a part of the future? And how can brands get on board? Our guest this week is Ben Martin, head of digital content at one of Australia’s largest media companies, Seven West Media. You can find the show notes at lushdigital.com/bnr117-mainstream-medias-switch-to-digital/

According the Content Marketing Institute’s Australian Benchmark’s 2017 Report, 78 per cent of Australian businesses use email marketing. About half of us say it is critical — indeed the most critical — tactic we have for distributing our content. We’re all using email marketing, but what’s best practice? You can find the show notes at lushdigital.com/bnr116-best-practice-email-marketing/

It’s here! The Association of Data-Driven Marketing Australia and the Content Marketing Institute have just published their 2017 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends report for Australia. Each year it gives us the best available insight into the content marketing experiences, and plans, of local brands. Nic and Sarah’s guest today is Jodie Sangster, CEO of ADMA. Here are the links you might need • Here’s the full CMI and ADMA Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends Report: 2017. http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/2017_Australia_Research_FINAL.pdf • Jodie mentioned ADMA’s event series. Find out more here: https://www.adma.com.au/events • And here’s Jodie’s blog on why customers need a seat at the boardroom table.:http://www.cmo.com.au/blog/data-driven-marketing/2016/11/01/why-customers-need-a-seat-at-the-boardroom-table/ You can find the show notes at lushdigital.com/bnr115-the-biggest-trends-in-australian-content-marketing/

Lego has announced it will no longer do business with British tabloid newspaper, The Daily Mail. It was a response to a public campaign, called #StopFundingHate, which directly targeted advertisers in several major UK newspapers, urging them not to support publications that promoted “demonization and division” during the Brexit debate. Sarah, James and Nic take a deep look at what this sort of campaign means for brands and the media. You can find the show notes at lushdigital.com/bnr114-lego-and-power-of-the-people/

It’s Election Day in the United States. We made it. But at what price? The Brand Newsroom team takes a close look at negativity. How should we handle it? What’s the cost of letting it run free? The Donald Trump experience seems to teach us that going negative can get you a long way. But is there a better way to achieve your goals? You can view the show notes here lushdigital.com/bnr113-making-negativity-great-again/

The Brand Newsroom team takes a close look at ‘short-termism’. Is being hungry for likes, shares, views and follows degrading our brands and risking our relationship with our most important asset — our customer? You can view the show notes here: lushdigital.com/bnr112-viral-content-killing-trust/

Australian demographer Bernard Salt caused outrage recently when he suggested millennials could afford to buy houses if they stopped spending money on smashed avocado on toast. Brands jumped on it, leveraging the publicity for their own business. Today, the Brand Newsroom team takes a look at marketing opportunism. You can view the show notes here: lushdigital.com/bnr111-virtues-of-controversy-and-newsjacking/

Bernadette Jiwa is one of Australia’s top marketing thinkers. Author of five books including Fortune Cookie Principle and Marketing: A Love Story, her blog — The Story of Telling — was named SmartCompany’s best Australian business blog in 2016. Bernadette challenges us to look differently at how we do marketing. Today she joins the Brand Newsroom team to talk about putting a little bit more love into our marketing. You can view the show notes here: lushdigital.com/bnr110-bernadette-jiwa-love-in-marketing/

Nic Hayes leads a discussion on personal brands. Specifically, how do you create one? What do you need to have in place to give your personal brand the best chance of creating the success you want to achieve? You can view the show notes here: lushdigital.com/bnr109-building-a-personal-brand/

It’s out! The Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs’ B2B “Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends Report” for 2017 has landed. CMI vice president Michele Linn joins the team to discuss the annual snapshot of the state of business-to-business content marketing in the North American market. You can view the show notes here: lushdigital.com/bnr108-michele-linn-cmi-b2b-trends-report-2017/

How do you avoid making epic social media mistakes? The team discusses one of their favourite topics with storyteller, marketer, and social media guru, Jonathan Crossfield. Among his many titles he’s the Editorial Director behind Telstra’s content hub, Smarter Business Ideas. He’s fresh back from Content Marketing World in the US, where he presented a paper on social media and audience: “the proper approach to social communications”. You can view the show notes here: lushdigital.com/bnr107-jonathan-crossfield-avoiding-epic-social-media-mistakes/

Content Marketing World has wrapped up in the U.S. for another year and a highlight of that is always the Content Marketing Awards — which honour the very best examples of content marketing in the world. The Brand Newsroom team takes a close look at what the best content marketers are doing and what lessons there are for the rest of us. You can view the show notes here: lushdigital.com/bnr106-lessons-from-worlds-best-content-marketing/

With the US presidential election well and truly under way, who has the most impressive marketing strategy - Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton? Sarah Mitchell, Nic Hayes and James Lush look at how both candidates have handled their campaigns.     You can view the show notes here: lushdigital.com/bnr105-trump-clinton-marketing-war/

What’s the difference between pitching a story to a commercial broadcaster and a public one? Today Nic Hayes plays mediator between two experienced broadcasters — one from the publicly-owned ABC (our own James Lush) and the other fresh from a long and distinguished career with commercial station 6PR (Nic’s new team member, John Solvander) — to find out what each medium is looking for, who their audiences are, what they have in common, and what differences marketers need to keep in mind when dealing with each. You can view the show notes here: lushdigital.com/bnr104-public-versus-commercial-media/

The BNR team looks at how brands use humour to interact with their customers on social media. Is it ever a good idea? Or can it spectacularly backfire? And, sometimes, are brands perhaps using humour in the hope they will “go viral”, rather than focusing on first marketing principles and giving customers the good service they expect? You can view the show notes here: lushdigital.com/bnr103-humour-social-media-going-viral/

Brands can’t afford to be “faceless” organisations. They need to interact with their customers, engage with them, gauge their reactions and get their feedback. In-Person events are a great way to do that. This week the team talks to Meesha Stacker, a content marketer who has run highly successful events strategies for more than a decade. You can view the show notes here: lushdigital.com/bbnr102-in-person-events/

After a week in which Rio Olympics diving pool turning green, the Australian Census website crashed and Donald Trump suggested the Second Amendment might provide a way to deal with Hillary Clinton, the Brand Newsroom team takes deep dive into PR disasters. You can view the show notes here: lushdigital.com/bnr101-dealing-with-pr-disasters/

In the 100th episode of Brand Newsroom the team takes a look back at some of the biggest lessons learned across almost two years of the podcast. You can view the show notes here: lushdigital.com/bnr100-the-biggest-content-marketing-lessons-of-all/

Why, in 2016, does the public trust entertainers (who spend their lives pretending to be someone else) more than politicians and policy-makers or investigative reporters and news anchors? Why are brands like banks and retailers constantly marked down on trust by consumers? How can we build trust with audiences and the public?

Audiences aren’t what they used to be — and nor are demographics. This week one of Australia’s major banks, the Commonwealth, released a report showing just how different the Australian population looks today compared to the past. It tells us that traditional assumptions about demographics are broken. In today’s Brand Newsroom, James and Sarah take a close look at why it’s important to segment your audience rather than use outdated demographic assumptions.