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Page 1: Feed interviews
Page 2: Feed interviews

David Spark is a new media consultant and producer with more than

fifteen years knowledge and experience as a journalist reporting on the tech

industry in print, radio, TV, and online. His articles and advice have appeared in

more than 30 publications including eWEEK, Wired News, PC Computing, PC

World, and Smart Computing.

Page 3: Feed interviews

1. Brand journalism is the process of creating and consistently delivering

inexpensive and relevant information that walks people through a system

of getting to know, like, and trust you.

2. Tripwire used brand journalism to “own” the popular term of compliance in

their industry.

3. The health & beauty industry is a wide open opportunity for a physician

practice to differentiate and dominate a particular specialty using

compelling brand journalism.

The Idea in Brief:

FEED The Agency: David, what’s brand journalism

and why is it relevant in marketing today?

David: In its simplest sense, brand journalism is

just communicating to your audience via traditional

media editorial content, not marketing content but

media and editorial-based content. It may be just

sort of branding oriented stuff like, you know, how

much information do you really need to sell a can

of Coke? But you do need to create content that

creates the image on the brand of Coke.

If you can keep providing information to people that

essentially walks them through that sales cycle,

you are essentially capturing potential customers.

They’re not customers first. What they are, they’re

readers, their consumers. They are fans of your

brand. They are fans of your media. Then the

next step is to convert them to customers and it

becomes very easy. If your only communication is

marketing then they have to go somewhere else to

find that information, and that information may be

drawing traffic to you or away from you. You don’t

know. But the reason it’s really popular now is the

cost to actually produce your own media, publish

it, and look equal to another media outlet, is little to

nothing.

Page 4: Feed interviews

FEED The Agency: Would you draw a distinction

with the term brand journalism versus say

content development?

David: You should be perfectly happy, giving what I

call noncustomer customer support, meaning there

are people that are going to come to you that will

never ever become your customers, and you need

to provide them support by providing information,

by writing articles that they read, by letting them

sign up for your newsletter, read stuff. By answering

questions they have via e-mail or via comments

on your blog, or wherever. Why is this important?

Because if you support your noncustomers with

relevant brand information-they will remember and

appreciate it. And being that they did not make a

financial transaction with you they will feel obliged

and although this is very sort of under the radar,

they will feel obliged to repay the favor and, usually,

the way they repay the favor is they talk about you

a lot. They become your word of mouth marketing

force and there are great examples of people who

never became customers that go on to become a

phenomenal word of mouth marketing force. And

that’s why it’s super, super important to supply

those people. Going back to your original question,

I don’t think there is really a big difference between

content marketing, brand journalism, and custom

publishing. These are just new names for the same

darn thing, but I personally detest the term content

marketing.

FEED The Agency: What’s your favorite example of

an organization or event that’s really taken the

principles that you teach in brand journalism

and what were the results?

David: One of my clients, Tripwire is a great

example. Two years ago, they realized that in the

security industry--and, again, we’re talking digital

security information, not physical security. They

realized that the influence that the traditional

analysts had like the Gartners and the Forresters

of the world were starting to kind of fade away or

was not as strong as it was, and who was starting

to get a lot of influence in sort of way people

make decisions are bloggers and Podcasters, and

Twitters, actually. The security industry has really

accepted Twitter as a platform for communications.

And they didn’t have the world’s greatest relations

with a lot of these people. So what they did is we

sat down, which is we’re going to list a bunch

of influencers that were going to be at this big

conference and they said, “David, go find an

interview about whatever that they want to talk

Page 5: Feed interviews

about.” And that’s what they did and I interviewed

well over 35 people in a three-day conference and

we produced a ton of videos.

David: So there’s just simple ways to help, but to

sort of fast forward, all I did was interview these

people and just found out what was important on

their minds here at the security conference and

just to sort of hone this even more with regards

to Tripwire. At that time, their big issue that they

solved with their product was an issue of what was

known as compliance. A big issue in the security

industry is you have to be state compliant under a

series of regulatory issues depending on what your

industry is. And the whole issue with compliance

was a very, very big issue in security.

Now, Tripwire is owning the conversation on

compliance. These are the people we’re going out

to talk with about compliance. Now, all these issues

of compliance, compliance, compliance around the

word Tripwire, then becomes the sort of a natural

connection at that point. Also, you’ve got all these

influencers on camera, and that this is kind of an

implied endorsement towards Tripwire even though

they don’t say Tripwire is wonderful. This is how

Tripwire handled things beautifully right afterwards.

After I produced all these videos, made all these

connections with these influencers, they then went

and followed up, and then for the following year,

they just created true relationships with these

influencers throughout the year. And as a result,

they went from, you know, the beginning, that first

year of like, yeah we kind of know Tripwire and we

spoke to influencers. To the following year, people

are saying, “Oh, God. We love Tripwire.”

FEED The Agency: How would you say that

brand journalism could be really relevant and

impactful for physicians or for health and beauty

companies in that environment?

David: Well, I mean, let me ask you a question, how

many people walk into a plastic surgeon’s office or

a doctor’s office and say, “I have no questions, go

right ahead, here’s my money.”

(Laughter)

FEED The Agency: Right.

David: That never happens ever.

David: You just use the questions, there’s a process

of trust that’s there. I would just ask, “What are the

top 10 most frequently asked questions?” And let’s

start creating content around those top 10. And

Page 6: Feed interviews

also, how does your audience want to consume

that content? But if you’re dealing with doctors, you

are now required to produce a much higher level of

quality content. It’s because your brand demands it.

FEED The Agency: Right, very true.

David: Your audience is not going to think highly

of you if they see shoddy video production work.

They just simply aren’t--in my industry in tech, heck

we get over it, nobody really cares, you know? As

long as the information gets through, that’s ok.

But with doctors it’s a different ball of wax and

you kind of have to maintain that certain level of

quality. But going back to the questions, you know,

what are the top 10 questions people are asking

when they come through your door? What is the

way they want to consume that, would it be in a

blog post, would it be a professionally made video

with doctors talking about it, should we have the

customers or the patients talking about this as well?

Here is my problem walking in, they explain this,

this, and this. But also don’t make it so salesy or

pushy.

David: Well, again, I don’t know how much brand

journalism and custom publishing is going on in

your industry right now, but if there isn’t much, if

nobody owns it right now, wow, what a spectacular

opportunity for doctors to jump in and go, “Oh my

God, I’m going to own this.” And that’s the amazing

thing about brand is there’s so many sectors that

nobody owns right now. And it’s only like the

traditional industry media outlets that own them.

And there’s no reason they have to. There are cases

where nontraditional, well I mean, excuse me,

brands are owning the sort of editorial mind space

of a certain subject over whatever the industry trade

publication is, and there’s no reason they can’t be

doing that. Again, it takes time and it takes work

to do it, and the unfortunate situation with your

industry is they’re going to have to spend a little bit

more money if they go into video because they’re

going to have to produce at a higher quality. They

don’t have to produce super high graphic intensive

things but bottom line good quality cameras with

good lighting, that’s it. It doesn’t even have to be

spectacular video editing but just good cameras

with good lighting and that’s it.

FEED The Agency: Thanks so much and we’re grateful

for your time.

David: You’re welcome.

Page 7: Feed interviews

Nicole Shema Nicole Shema has been with CRAVE for over two years

now, and is in charge of managing the sales team in over 30 cities. A social media

addict, she loves connecting and meeting with new people. Other passions include

travel, reading, running and devouring interior design blogs.

CRAVE connects fabulous

women and supports

women entrepreneurship in

more than 30 cities around

the world. CRAVE is known

as experts in connecting

women thru conferences,

chats, and events.

Page 8: Feed interviews

1. Spend time researching what’s hip and most interesting to women as the

topics of discussion by asking questions and engaging with women using

social media.

2. Pamper women. Women will tell their friends about your event if you

pamper them.

3. Asking women “What were your key takeaways?” after each event can

ensure your meeting objectives and provide valuable insight into what your

ideal clients are thinking or desiring.

The Idea in Brief:

FEED The Agency: What is the Crave formula for

consistently organizing and delivering all these

great events that are focused exclusively on

successful women?

Nicole: Our formula is really centered around

creating personal relationships with all the local

female business owners in whatever city we may

be in. So whether we meet a business owner over

coffee or we just chat on the phone or via email,

we really try to make all of our connections really

authentic. So that when it does come time to throw

a party together, whether it’s a large scale shopping

and spa service party or it’s one of our business

chats, we really have a particular vision for that

event.

So if we have a personal relationship and we’re

looking for a speaker for a panel, we’re going to

hand select someone that we know would be a

really great rockstar talking about branding for your

business; or having a spa party, etc. So I think for

us, it’s really the fact that we do have that personal

relationship with all the women that we work with.

When we hand select them to be a part of one of

our events, they feel special and we get that much

closer to our original vision of what the event is

supposed to be.

Page 9: Feed interviews

FEED The Agency: When you have that many

unique women that are attending these events

and they come from different specialties, how

do you choose what’s most relevant to such a

diverse yet successful group of women?

Nicole Shema: We spend a lot of time doing research

just about what’s new and what’s hip and the

“it” thing right now. We do a lot of just trying to

talk to people in our networks. We really really

are huge on social media. We have a Twitter and

Facebook account for every one of our cities. We

really try to just ask people questions and engage

and say, “Who would you not want to miss at this

party? Where’s your favorite place to go with your

girlfriends? What’s the type of businesses like

you’re looking most for? What’s your favorite social

media platform right now?” Those sorts of things.

I think the fact that we’re trying all the time to just

engage and create personal relationships with the

business owners and with people in our networks

that follow Crave as a company, really just trying

to be transparent and ask questions and be open

and say, “We want to hear from you and try to do

our best to serve what your actual interests and

questions are.”

FEED The Agency: Complete this question.

Women will tell their friends about your event

if you ______?

Nicole Shema: I’d say if you pamper them.

Nicole Shema: That was the first thing that came to

my mind. I think that women want to feel special. I

think that different networking, usually networking

events and that kind of thing that women go to are

very business attire and here’s my business card, let

me see yours. We’re a lot more about just like being

relaxed, introducing everybody, sitting in a circle if

it’s a business chat, or just being casual at a party,

and getting your nails done, getting your hair done

while you’re surrounded by all these like minded

women. I think it just creates this really relaxing

environment. I think people do feel pampered and

they’ll feel special. That’s what makes them talk to

their friends about it.

FEED The Agency: Does it matter to a woman if

she’s coming to, let’s say, a formal office versus

maybe a more neutral site in your opinion?

Nicole Shema: Yes. I think it definitely matters.

Coffee shops, or boutiques, or salons are perfect.

Sometimes we’ll go to a Pilates studio and sit on a

Page 10: Feed interviews

floor on yoga mats. I think it’s about feeling intimate

and really feeling… What we like to say that we’re

focused on connecting not networking. So I think it

is important to feel relaxed and feel like you’re in a

safe environment. Maybe you are having a glass of

wine, or a cup of coffee, or a cupcake, or what not.

But I do think the venue definitely does matter.

I know for us too, we always try to pick super

central locations. We try to keep in mind, give

someone a half hour to 45 mins after we think

they’re getting off of work, so they feel like they

have time to unwind. You don’t want someone to

just walk out the door right into your event because

I think you need that kind of time to decompress.

Parking too is huge for women, well I shouldn’t say

women, I personally and I think a lot of other people

get stressed about parking. So we make sure that

we tell them where there’s going to be parking.

We try to get free parking. We usually won’t even

hold an event if there’s not good access of parking

because we don’t want to add any extra stress to

getting to the event.

FEED The Agency: What would you say is the

blueprint for what Crave does to create

compelling online and offline event invitations

that are irresistible? The reason why I included

both online and offline is because in today’s

day and age, I do think that it’s a mixture of

word of mouth, digital online. So I’m curious to

see how you kind of reconcile or differentiate

online versus offline event invitations that are

compelling.

Nicole Shema: Yeah, definitely. Well I would say,

to start with the online event section, I’d start by

saying that we have an amazing design team here

at headquarters that designs every one of our

events for all of our parties in all of our cities. So I

think that’s really important. We’ve been doing this

for ten years now. So I think we have the basics

of putting together an email invitation. We always

make sure to use enticing language of what you’ll

actually expect if you come to an event. So you’ll

always want to mention the different services or

treatments that’ll be available, any treats, or foods,

or drinks, any prizes. We always include pictures

from last year’s events, so you can see people

having fun last time and see all the fun you’ll be

having this time.

Then like I said before with social media, I think

we’ve definitely stepped up our game in the last

two to three years. We will, for each one of our

Page 11: Feed interviews

parties, create a marketing calendar and really

figure out how many times a day we’re going to be

pushing out this event but make sure the content is

unique, and we’re promoting each of our sponsors

and hosts, and just enticing people in different ways

to show up.

Then I think the other thing that is both an online

and offline way that we really promote our event

is through kind of the rockstar lineup that we try

to come up with for either speakers at a business

chat or vendors at a party. We really try to pick

women to be a part of our events that already have

their own large network. I think that if part of us

spreading the word, and we mainly do online sort

of promotion for our events, but I think a lot of in

person or the offline invitations are the women who

are going to be a part of the event. Just talking to

their networks, talking to their clients, talking to

their friends about it. That’s why it’s really important

for us to pick women that have strong networks,

they’re interested in cross-promoting, and we make

it really easy for them to talk about the event with

everyone that they know as well.

FEED The Agency: I think so often follow-up is just

neglected. It’s something that a lot of people

really don’t realize how important proper follow-

up is. So after you do a Crave event, what

follow-up actions do you take?

Nicole Shema: Yeah, so it’s kind of different. If it’s

on larger scale events, typically the main form of

follow-up that we do is just to again go back to

our social media kind of tool bag and thank all of

our sponsors, thank all of our hosts, make sure

everyone that was involved in the event feels really

special. Then we always will post pictures from

the event on our blog and on our Facebook. It’s

fun for everyone that was at the event to be able

to reminisce about it. People that didn’t make it,

might be enticed to come next time. So larger scale

events like that that are several hundred people, we

don’t necessarily do a direct email follow-up. We

obviously again will thank people on social media

for coming and we’ll add them to our list to kind of

keep in the know for the upcoming events.

But for our smaller scale events, I would

recommend any event that’s 40 or less people.

Our monthly business chats typically are 20 to 30

people. For those events we usually do send out an

email to each of the women that came and we ask

them for their top takeaways, and we thank them

for coming. Then what we try to do is put together a

Page 12: Feed interviews

blog post about the event since this is the business

chats or supposed to be educational about a

different topic every month. It’s fun to actually

quote the women that were at the event, so they

can see themselves on the blogs for Crave for the

next week just for coming to an event. And that we

share the top takeaways that everybody learns. So

I think that’s kind of a fun way for a smaller group

that you really can engage people. I mean women,

I think, really do feel special if they get a shout-out

on our blog. That sort of thing is usually exciting for

people. So we try to do that.

FEED The Agency: Yeah, I think that’s huge. I

mean just the take away that I received about

something as simple but powerful as, “Hey, what

were your takeaways?” Then with the forum

of Facebook, and blogs, and the ability for… I

think people underestimate the power of using

Facebook or blogs from an acknowledgement

standpoint.

Nicole Shema: Yes.

Nicole Shema: Exactly and I think it’s fun for them

because sometimes we’ll have takeaways from

the panel and with the audience just mixed in all

together like you just said. So I think that’s kind of

nice to be considered up there with the guru of the

night as well.

FEED The Agency: I want to thank you for your

time. I really really appreciate it.

Nicole Shema: Thanks Matthew for inviting me.

Page 13: Feed interviews

Pastor Mark Driscoll is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Church

in Seattle, Washington. His words of inspiration and leadership are consistently

#1 on iTunes each week. Mark, regarded as one of the 25 most influential pastors

in the past 25 years, is a gifted communicator and has written several best-seller

books including his latest NY Times #1 Best Seller, Real Marriage: The Truth About

Sex, Friendship, and Life Together.

Page 14: Feed interviews

1. Mark shares with Matthew Scott, Creative Director at FEED The Agency his

experience in growing one of the fastest growing ministries and utilizing

creative communication tools such as social media, video, blogging,

seminars, and writing books to share his inspirational message.

The Idea in Brief:

FEED The Agency: Pastor Mark, you have a degree

and success in communications. What advice

would you give local small business owners or

professional service firms today who want to

use creative communication tools to reach and

engage with their ideal clients?

Pastor Mark: The best thing is to control your own

message and present yourself. The mistake some

people make is they hire someone else to define

and present them. Rarely are they happy with the

message that is sent out or the cost that it entails.

The best person to tell the story of what you do is

you. The most passionate person to tell the story of

what you do is you. And, the cheapest person to tell

the story of what you do is you.

FEED The Agency: What can entrepreneurs today

who are starting or growing a business learn

from your experience of planting a church and

the eventual decision to expand to other cities?

Pastor Mark: People want to be part of something

bigger than themselves and make their life count.

Anytime you can connect what you are doing to

that kind of hope-filled vision, people want to be a

part of it. This is how you get brand ambassadors

Page 15: Feed interviews

who want to help expand what you do to other

areas. It’s the same principle that has kept people

giving to and volunteering for the cause of Jesus for

2,000 years.

FEED The Agency: You conduct seminars around

the country—what are the three keys to success

in developing and replicating a seminar that

applies stewardship in making a profit as well as

providing people with the principles to change

their life?

Pastor Mark: Event attendees generally don’t mind

paying or having products presented to them to

cover costs and make a profit. What they do resent

is feeling that the are being used and not served.

This is an issue of integrity and authenticity. So, 1)

don’t do anything that you do not truly believe will

help those who attend. And 2) always be thinking

both of how to really help those who come and be

financially prudent—it must be a both/and. 3) The

senior leaders and event organizers need to be

walking the floor, greeting the people who came,

gauging the response, and humbly learning how to

improve what they do without being defensive or

just glad-handing. Information filtered up from the

average attendee through staff to a leader is often

not the right information because the leader sees

and combines information no one else does and

the staff is often trying to hide the problems to save

face. So, get your own unmediated information so

you can lead better and make needed changes

while also telling the good stories of what is working

and who is being served at your event.

FEED The Agency: What can local business

owners or professional service firms learn from

evangelism?

Pastor Mark: If people experience something that

benefits or changes them, they want to share that

information or experience with others. And, they do

so through photos and storytelling. For a company,

the brand is set by those who are unpaid and

voluntarily tell the stories and show the photos.

Right now, in the age of social networking, photos

are accessed more than status updates on places

such as Facebook. Also, things like Instagram are

exploding because people are now about “show

me” more than “tell me.” Leaders have to learn

to tell stories and they have to learn how to share

photos so that their is a human face and dimension

to what they are doing. Curiously, even companies

are trying to present themselves as people with

Page 16: Feed interviews

stories and feelings so as to connect with others.

As a pastor, I’m blessed to work for Jesus, the

greatest storyteller who ever lived, and share the

photos of people whose lives are changed by him.

Jesus makes my job way easier than most jobs.

FEED The Agency: Who are three people in ministry

or in business that change the way you think in

designing and delivering a service experience

that authentically complements the delivering

and receiving of the gospel?

Pastor Mark: Honestly, I don’t read a lot of business

books or subscribe to a lot of business blogs. I

spend time with filmmakers, musicians, designers,

and content creators. And, I am a constant student.

Last night I got to a huge mall an hour earlier than I

needed to be there so I could walk around looking

at marketing, lighting, which words were used

and why to make an emotional connection with

shoppers, meandered in and out of stores, and

took a lot of photos. In the past, I found Joseph

Pine and James Gilmore’s book The Experience

Economy very helpful. I watch a lot of reality TV

(Storage Wars, American Pickers, Moonshiners,

Pawn Stars, etc.) as that genre now has over 400

shows trying to figure out the fascination people

have with seemingly odd but normal characters.

I’m very sensory-dependent so I always have to

go somewhere, see something, or experience

something, so getting out helps me learn. I try to

always be early at places so I can stop along the

way to get out and look around to see what I can

learn and whom I can meet at stores, construction

projects, protests, etc. I’m curious all the time. I

find people fascinating, and if you can get them to

talk they can teach you a lot—especially those who

work with the public and get taken for granted like

bank tellers, retailers, and baristas. The world is a

classroom, and school is always in session.