FIVE YEARS OF INNOVATION MISSIONS - WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?

Nancy Lane, President, Local Media Association, Mark Poss, CEO, Big Fish Works, Edwin Ruis, Integrated Revenue Director, Swift Communications and Shannon Kinney, Client Success Officer, Dream Local Digital

12 Innovation Missions for Our Panelists – What Stands Out?

Nancy Lane – Led five IM’s: 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014Mark Poss – Attended three IM’s: 2012, 2013, 2014Shannon Kinney – Attended two IM’s: 2013, 2014

Edwin Ruis – Attended two IM’s: 2013, 2014

Collective Top Six List

• The Importance of Culture

• Think Bigger When It Comes to Digital

• Content Strategies Must Change

• SMBs Need Help More Than Ever; Double Down on Digital Agency Services

• The Importance of Big and Small Data

• Local Media Execs Need to Be More Engaged/Active on ALL Social Media Platforms

Culture Matters

Creating a Culture of Innovation Requires Major Changes:• Open & Transparent Work Space• Importance of teams/collaboration – no silos

INNOVATION MISSION 2014

Culture Matters• Non-traditional perks (food, creative

days off, etc.) Fun atmosphere!

• Importance of vision/mission (posting on the wall; employees know it and can recite it)

• It all starts with leadership; must be visible & accessible

• Trust & investing in staff – empowerment! Test and learn then scale.

Open & Transparent

First step to building innovative culture

The importance of cultureWhat’s up with the #honeybadger? http://dreamlocal.com/our-culture/

Think Bigger When It Comes to Digital

• The IM gave our panelists the “strength/courage to think bigger and put a greater emphasis on all things digital”

• More hiring of digital-only reps (integrated sales teams don’t work!)• Bigger commitment/investment in digital agencies• Think bigger/think together – networking among IM attendees among the

most valued part of the experience

Content Strategies Must Change

• BuzzFeed is “a lot more than cute cat videos”• Shareability is the new KPI• Russmedia dual strategy to reach “the heads down generation” (shorter,

larger photos, made for mobile)• Native advertising is in demand• Visual journalism – visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain

than text (BuzzFeed, Russmedia, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, eBay…)

Become the Local BuzzFeed for Your Market

SMBs Want Native Advertising Opportunities; Create Them

• Native was a focus during EVERY visit of this year’s Innovation Mission. • Facebook, Twitter & BuzzFeed’s entire business models are focused on

native.• SMBs want and need local opportunities.

Native Case Study: Hampton Inn Shows as ‘Promoted by’ on their home page; Slide show features 19 awesome vacation images with the ‘Stay with Hampton’ slide at #20. Ave campaign cost is $100,000. Think about the many applications for local/regional advertisers (top 10 ways to lower blood pressure – sponsored by local hospital for example!)

SMBs Need Our Help More Than Ever“They are going to find someone to help them – it better be us” – Edwin Ruis

Double Down on Digital Agencies

• SMBs are going to get more and more confused with the new technology and tools entering the market

• This is great news for local media companies that have or will launch digital agency services• Google+ is much more than a social network; it's an SEO play and is a must for SMBs • YouTube is second largest search engine in the world; videos need to be presented there • LinkedIn's new Sales Navigator tool is about to disrupt sales prospecting; 'social selling' is

the new buzzword

Double Down on Digital Agencies

• WordPress platform is perfect for SMBs but they don't have the time or inclination to build the site or post blogs

• PayPal is about to make the mobile device the wallet of the future; serious implications for SMBs (Apple’s recent announcement will trump these efforts)

• Native is exploding and SMBs don't know where to start• Mobile is about to explode; 18% of local searches result in a purchase. SMBs need strong,

compelling mobile presence• Offline shopping is becoming a new trend with eBay leading the way• "Propel's growth has been extraordinary; we are investing even more" - Kirk Davis, CEO,

GateHouse Media

The Importance of Big and Small Data

• “I appreciated seeing how the different companies are using data. At Google, it’s very much about watching everything. At eBay they said trust is the most important thing when it comes to data. It is clear to me that data is the new currency and it will be interesting to see how companies spend it.” – Ruth Presslaff, President, Presslaff Interactive

• “I am going to shift a position in our company to analyze data after attending this year’s Innovation Mission” – Terry Ward, COO, KPC Media Group

• “Big data has dominated the scene for a long time now but small data is where you can leverage and innovate” – Eric Bright, VP E-Commerce, Deseret Digital

• “Proper use of data was a big takeaway for me. Our editors are not using data in the right way (BuzzFeed has a criteria on how they approach stories – we need to implement something similar). BuzzFeed is obsessed with shares/engagement and we can learn from that as well. The CBS Local visit also touched on data and I particularly like the tailgate videos.” – David Arkin, VP Content, GateHouse Media

The Importance of Big and Small Data

• Measuring/using internal data to identify opportunities, better understand your audience and make good strategic decisions

• Metrics/analytics for SMB clients – the focus is shifting beyond traffic to conversions

• Client dashboard is a must! Measure, share, learn, tweak.

Our Social Media Challenge to Industry Executives

We believe that you can no longer run a local media company without being engaged and active on social media. It is no longer a luxury; it’s a requirement of your job.

• Our recommendation is a minimum of five social media networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Google+. From there, you can and should experiment with others: Pinterest, Foursquare/Squarm, Tumblr, Snapchat & more.

• Minimum goals: tweet three times/day; engage on your FB page; post stories/articles to G+; maintain all-star profile on LinkedIn and use the platform to engage with others; post photos on Instagram.

• “Walk the walk; our clients and consumers are using these channels; we can’t ignore them!”

It’s Like Being a Publisher & Never Reading the Paper!

This post had nearly 1,700 views; 170 shares on LinkedIn & 29 likes/comments.

Here’s what people had to say:• Thank you for saying what some of

us cannot say...at least not directly :-)

• This needed to be said!• "If I look at a person's LinkedIn

account and they haven't taken the time to add a profile picture, I don't do business with them” – owner of large car dealerships

LinkedIn Publisher Tool

Goodbye Cold Calling…Hello Social Selling

Local Media Innovation Mission June 1-6, 2014

Report includes 11 top takeaways, suggested action plans and other resources.

Order at www.localmedia.org

Questions?