31

Mar

Introducing Emerald Street, the new daily email for women

I attended a preview event for Emerald Street yesterday evening, a very intriguing new media launch planned for mid-April. Emerald Street will be a professionally published daily email (Mon-Fri), designed and written for aspirational professional women. It is the new product launch from Shortlist Media Group, the creators of the hugely successful Stylist and Shortlist.

You can sign-up for the email here at http://www.emeraldstreet.com.

The following are five things you need to know about this exciting new launch:
• It aims to be a daily highlight in the inbox with highly topical content, right down, for example, to where to pop out and buy a new lipstick for a discount that day
• Emerald Street is a sister brand to Stylist, not a spin-off, it will have its own editorial content and it is most definitely NOT a newsletter
• It is targeting 100,000 subscribers by Summer and is aiming to challenge the idea of email being disposable by being something that is professionally published, engaging and valued
• Timing of delivery is key and the team behind it are considering the optimum timing for the email to arrive in an inbox, describing this moment as the ‘Kit-Kat Break’
• To give a steer on where this sits in a competitive set, it’s a British version of Daily Candy, a competitor email might be from Asos or even a note from a best friend

The idea of a high quality premium email arriving daily tailored to your interests sounds very attractive and it looks highly likely that there will be a male version of Emerald Street coming our way soon.

One to track and to wish the very best of success as a new media launch in 2011. Finally, thanks to the Gorkana PR team for organising this sneak preview!

786 days ago Short URL Comments

Advertising/Content/Digital/Magazines

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24

Mar

YouView to drive video content into UK homes

Today’s announcement by YouView includes an impressive array of content providers for the new video-on-demand service which is now scheduled for launch in early 2012.

The YouView platform potentially opens up video-on-demand to a huge UK audience, in the way that Freeview once opened up and created the digital free-to-air TV market which now accounts for 12M+ households in the UK. The specialist media management company, Red Bee Media, which is already a central provider in video-on-demand in the UK, is working as an adviser in the development of YouView’s ground breaking internet-connected TV service for UK homes. Bill Patrizio, Red Bee Media CEO has declared this as “the delivery of the biggest step change in the TV business for a generation.”

It underlines the growing importance of video and its role in our lives, specifically the ability for us to view video content whenever we demand it. This has massive implications for PR as we increasingly need to think and see the world around us in terms of video content. There are many video-hungry media channels out there and, as a media PR specialist, we are consistently in tune with the value of placing of video content as part of a strategic PR campaign. The importance of video in PR is only going to grow in line with services coming to market like YouView.

793 days ago Short URL Comments

Content/Digital/TV

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16

Mar

Views from SXSW 2011

Much has been posted and tweeted about this year’s SXSW already and I’ve really enjoyed ‘being there’ through the regular reports from many of the commentators and participants. Some highlights for me include Josh Holliday’s regular tweets and a call-out for start-ups to meet him in the bar for a real-life elevator pitch opportunity. Also, the continually fascinating insights from Clay Shirky and his observations on the roles of technology in the protests we are seeing across the world right now. Plus a damning observation that the iPad is now becoming old and irrelevant for newspapers – before every newspaper has even got an iPad app!

For a quick and informative immersion onto the SXSW world, I recommend checking out the Media Guardian section devoted to the event. In particular, this article written by Oliver Burkeman – http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/mar/15/sxsw-2011-internet-online

There’s some great anecdotes in Oliver’s article (not least Google’s divorce prediction accuracy based on credit card behaviour) in there but perhaps most interestingly his headline observation that the internet is now over, that there is no longer a boundary between real life and online and that we are now in a time where the internet is everything.

801 days ago Short URL Comments

Content/Digital/Newspapers

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03

Mar

News Corp, BSkyB and the future of news in Britain

The media world has exploded today with news about the approval by Jeremy Hunt, Culture Secretary, for News Corp to spin off Sky News, clearing the way for News Corp’s purchase of the 61% of BSkyB it doesn’t already own.

There’s a myriad of links to point people to and it’s worth comparing and contrasting how the different news organisations are reporting the story today to study the subtle (and not so subtle) differences. Jump from Media Guardian to the BBC, from Sky News to The Independent, for example…

Probably the most informative I’ve read through so far is the letter of advice to Hunt from Ofcom, which you can download at the Media Guardian site.

The most interesting section for me is towards the end of the letter where Ofcom highlights there is likely to be ‘significant evolution of the market and consumers’ use of news and current affairs over the next decade.’ I’d say that’s putting it lightly. We as PRs are front-line in the dramatic changes taking place across news and current affairs right now. That speed of evolution is one of the most exciting things about working in PR!

The letter goes on to say ‘the current system is deficient in failing to provide for intervention to be considered where plurality concerns arise in the absence of a corporate transaction involving media enterprises.’

This is a big day for the media in Britain. If all goes through as recommended, News Corp will be in a stronger position to continue to adapt and evolve with the dramatic changes we are witnessing in our media landscape. For example, its potential combined offering behind a pay-wall is a very interesting prospect.

814 days ago Short URL Comments

Content/Digital/Newspapers/TV

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