You’re probably reading that headline and thinking, “Well of course I know the difference between a news story and an advert!”
If you’re a company that includes both types of content in your marketing strategy, it’s important every now and again to remind yourself of the difference. And with the rapidly evolving media landscape the gauge can be rather fluid. Even my very experienced team can be surprised from time to time at what journalists find newsy and what they relegate to the ad department.
These questions provide a three-point test to help you determine if you’ve got news to tell or an advert to place.
Is your story about a product?
In the past week, my team has written stories about bull semen, housing developments, acne cream and fencing systems amongst others.
These are all products that have a big sales machine behind them. Because of that, you’d never see a straightforward story in the media touting product benefits. Journalists simply will not print anything in the news section of their publications that blatantly helps you sell your product.
The challenge is finding a newsy angle to your product story. Do you have something that’s a New Zealand (or world) first? Are you launching a new product no one else has ever done? Do you have an innovative way of satisfying an old problem?
You’ll need to be very clever to turn a product-related story into a clickable news story. Otherwise, buy an ad.
Does your story evoke emotion?
Ask yourself if something about your story would make listeners do a double take. If so, you might be onto something.
If your story is surprising, alarming, incredibly heart-warming or emotive in other ways journalists will likely want to hear about it.
And remember to be honest with yourself. If you’re talking about the latest semiconductor innovation on your whatchamacallit and two of your PhD friends will find it interesting while your mother’s eyes glaze over – well, that’s not newsworthy.
But if all your friends around the barbecue on a Saturday afternoon want to hear more, that’s a potential winning news story. Otherwise, buy an ad.
Have you got a people angle?
Humans want to hear about the lives of other humans. That’s just how we roll.
Journalists will quickly tire of a story you’re pitching if there’s no human-interest angle. Therefore, work on creating a story that has a hero.
Do some work on developing the backstory of people in your organisation behind an innovation, customers’ lives changed by your product or service or contribution of your company to the lives of people in your community or industry.
Make your story about people when you can. If there’s no human component, buy an ad.
