Archive for content

Input Roundup

// May 20th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Internet, broadcasting, content, events, media

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I’m back in Canada after a week in Warsaw at the Input Conference for public broadcasters. In addition to attending, I had the opportunity to present one of the programs that I do the interactive production for. I’m really pleased that both the program and my presentation were very well received by the audience. I had lots of people come and speak to me after about how we use the internet to cast the show and build an audience leading up to the broadcast. That show is always a fun project and I’m glad it received enthusiastic attention from an international audience.

In addition to my part, I got to take in a lot of other multi-platform projects as well as straight television programs from every part of the world. I saw soap operas from Palestine, documentaries from Iran, talk shows from Denmark, game shows from South Korea and more. It was interesting to see what’s happening outside of the North American media market that I normally experience.

The dialog about what role public broadcasters are taking globally in an increasing commercialized and multi-screen media world was interesting as well. I didn’t realize that most public broadcasters skew to the 50+ crowd. All of us need to grow more in the younger markets.

Myself and some of the other people that I work with that also attended the conference are organizing a mini-Input for our co-workers this fall, but for my readers now, I leave you with links to some of the projects that I saw when I was there.

Here’s a clip from Neveneffecten (armageddon episode that I saw) where one lonely nerd is returning home after the world learns that a giant comet is attracted to him and will collide with earth, ending all life as a result.

I had to pick a clip where there wasn’t much speech — I saw the show subtitled. Anyway, if you’d like to see some international shows, check out some of these projects and enjoy!

Gaza Sderot

// May 12th, 2009 // No Comments » // content

It’s day two at the Input conference in Warsaw and I wanted to share the best project I’ve seen so far. Gaza/Sderot – Life in Spite of Everything is a series of 80 films shot over 40 days — one per day in Gaza and one per day in the town of nearby Sderot. Each is a day-in-the-life style video that follows one of 14 people (seven in each town).

The entire series is presented in an interactive cinema format whereby the end user can choose what order they want to see the stories presented in. You can view the narrative by day, but subject matter, by character, or randomly.

Here’s one of the 80 clips you can watch — this one about a teenage girl playing volleyball with her team in Gaza.

5 Ways to Retain Newsletter Subscribers

// September 2nd, 2008 // No Comments » // Marketing, Usability, content

Over the years I’ve subscribed to so many newsletters that my mailbox has become overcrowded. I find that I am not able to read all newsletters, so I’ve been undergoing a massive unsubscribe process for the large majority of the newsletters that I receive. Since I write and deploy newsletters myself, I took note of which newsletters I discarded, which ones I kept and why. A definite trend emerged which I found useful for creating my own newsletters, so I thought I’d share what I observed with you.

Here they are, the top 5 reasons I’ll stay subscribed to your newsletter:

  1. Offer Subscribers Exclusivity
    Your newsletter subscribers have, by the act of subscribing, specifically told you that they like your topic and want to hear more from you. They’re valuable pre-qualified buyers and you should treat them like members to your exclusive club. I’ve subscribed to the Future Shop newsletter for years and in nearly every newsletter they give me deals that you cannot get in their retail stores. Even if your product isn’t a physical one, think about what you can do to make your subscribers feel like they’re getting something that a regular visitor to your site won’t. Make them feel like an insider.

  2. Avoid Bait & Switch
    The newsletters I unsubscribed to most were ones where I was offered something to subscribe, but thereafter was never offered any other incentive. I subscribed to the Jacob newsletter after making an in-store purchase. I was given a card and told to subscribe online to get x% off my next purchase. Long after that offer expired, I found myself still subscribed, but never given any other similar offer. The rest of their content was little more than links back to their site (see the next point) so I unsubscribed. Jacob’s newsletter sign-up strategy did not match their long term content plan, so I was subscribed under false expectations. The other newsletters didn’t have similar content (deals) so they lost me as a subscriber. Try and match your sign-up incentive with your long term retention strategy.

  3. Provide More than a Link
    I unsubscribed without hesitation to newsletters which provided me with little more than a link to their web site. The worst offender in this category was Jakob Nielsen’s Web Usability newsletter. There was no reason to be a subscriber other than inbox reminders that the web site still exists. If I’m a newsletter subscriber, I want more than what an RSS feed would provide me. Newsletter subscribers want content IN the newsletter.

  4. Frequency
    There is definitely a frequency sweet spot that subscribers will tolerate and that tolerance will vary depending on your audience. For me, daily subscriptions are right out. I subscribe to a couple weekly newsletters, but most of my subscriptions are monthly. I simply have too many other things to read and do to subscribe to extremely frequent newsletters. There is such a thing as too many updates. On the flip side, if I don’t hear from you in 12 months and get a newsletter out of nowhere, I will also likely unsubscribe. Unsubscribing from infrequent mailings seem to be for two reasons: 1) My inbox was perfectly happy the months you ignored me, so I think that maybe I don’t need your newsletter after all. 2) If you don’t have time for me (who specifically asked to receive communication from you) then I don’t have time for you.

  5. Design/Organization
    Even if you prefer plain text emails, there’s something to be said about organization. When you write your newsletter, prioritize the main messages, make the headlines stand out and important details impossible to miss. I subscribed to a newsletter recently and got the first one this morning. The design (this was an HTML newsletter) was so bad that it was a pain to read & navigate. I unsubscribed after a single mailing. Good design doesn’t mean just a pretty skin, it also means good organization, prioritization and aides clear communication.

Notice that 4 out the 5 reasons I’d keep subscribed are content related, proving that once again content is king and is likely one of the main deciding factors for your subscribers who are thinking about staying or leaving.

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