Long Dash

As #brandstorytellers, our mantra is: Always be useful. Which is why when we work with brands, we often help them create new ways to connect with audiences. Sometimes this leads to retiring outdated methods, for example, instead of blasting out a formulaic press release, why not publish a dynamic infographic? Think Spotify's Wrapped, the visual representation of the brand's year in review that includes listicles and interactive maps.       It's not always possible to let go of legacy formats, but if you could "retire" one content format (or drastically change it!) from your brand’s repertoire, what would it be? What did we forget to mention? Tell us in the comments!

Who’s your audience? 👥👤👥 Answering this question is essential for brands, and yet it can be deceptively complex. We generate tons of data about who we're reaching, who we could be reaching, and who we ~should~ be reaching. But there are still so many unknowns. Maybe your brand uses persona-style information—like psychology and behavioral tendencies—or demographic information to categorize and reach audiences. We find that these approaches don't fully reflect the nuance of human beings; they can even create obstacles to understanding why certain people may be drawn to a particular brand. In our efforts to reach audiences, we find it useful instead to ask: Who would benefit most from this story or content and why? With that view, the audience can be quite expansive and diverse—existing across demographic categories. But the audience’s shared needs that the story addresses could be quite precise. Check out our full article on identifying your most loyal audience and understanding why they interact with your brand here: https://lnkd.in/gf_wvr_4

In the pursuit of telling the most authentic stories, brands often overlook one of their most valuable assets—data 📊    Far from being cold or impersonal, data can be the key to unlocking deeply human narratives that resonate with audiences on a profound level. By embracing data-driven storytelling, the same way an investigative journalist might unearth a story in government data, we open up a new dimension of authenticity and insight. Where to start? Check out our latest from Long Dasher Margaret Myers for tips on how to get the most from your brand’s data and to see some of our favorite examples: https://lnkd.in/ed9SSmXa   

We’ve been obsessed with two stories that each add perspective to our rapidly evolving industry. One is about a surprising resurgence, while the other is about an equally surprising decline. The first one is a great piece in The New Yorker (from May) titled, The Revenge of the Homepage (🔗 https://lnkd.in/gjrGRYKX). In it, reporter Kyle Chayka posits that brands are investing once again in this traditional online real estate. For nearly a decade, publications prioritized social media to distribute their content, driving traffic through side-doors and generally focusing on winning audiences via third-party channels. He wrote that for so long we thought, “The home page was dead. TikTok was the future.” Until it wasn’t. The mechanisms we once relied on to deliver our content—social media algorithms, search, and third-party cookies—are becoming less effective. Not to mention we could all use a break from our endless feeds. Now, sites like The Verge and Polygon are investing in their homepages to become hubs that offer curated, more meaningful user experiences. They’re remaking homepages as places their most loyal audiences would want to spend time. Chayka wrote, “If Twitter was once a sprawling Home Depot of content, going to specific sites is more like shopping from a series of specialized boutiques.” The second story we’ve been discussing isn’t so positive. It's a thorough critique that reveals how one of the most powerful brands of our time seemingly lost sight of its own identity by favoring strictly "data-driven" tactics at the expense of its brand-building practices like storytelling and in-store experiences. In a much-discussed LinkedIn post ( 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dXgBspNT), former Nike marketing leader Massimo Giunco wrote about how the iconic brand became another part of the commoditized noise on social media. In the process it damaged its brand—and its bottom line. Giunco wrote that Nike's latest editorial strategy, "generated a regurgitation of thousands of micro-useless-insignificant contents, costly and mostly ineffective, all produced to feed the bulimic digital ecosystem, aimed to drive traffic to a platform that converts a tiny (and when I say tiny, I mean really tiny…) fraction of consumers who arrive there and disappoints (or ignores) all the others." Ouch. These two stories, while starkly different, underscore the importance of the enduring lessons of brand-building, including investing in high-quality storytelling and experiences (like a homepage). Check out more lessons in our latest story! 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eWeYFJVQ

Brands, don’t bury your lede! We see this a lot in our work: overly complex message frameworks that make it difficult to clearly communicate what your brand is all about—which makes it even more difficult to execute upon an increasingly expansive ecosystem. This complexity leads to employee and audience confusion at best—or employee and audience distrust at worst. Try this instead: anchor the brand around a north star “brand lede.” It uses simplicity to hook audiences, rally employees, and execute consistently across the brand ecosystem. This is the path toward brand endurance. Watch Long Dash’s VP of strategy Karine Bailly as she walks through the three-part brand lede framework in her SXSW pitch: https://lnkd.in/emEjkZx5 And if you found this helpful, please consider giving it an up-vote! We’d love the opportunity to share these insights with a live audience in Austin next year. Let us know in the comments if you’re planning to be in Austin for South by 2025—we hope to see many of you there!

Communications leaders face a daunting task. Coupled with the daily challenge of flawlessly executing their brand’s communications strategy, they must demonstrate that what they’re putting out there is actually delivering results and not a drain on the bottom line. They are facing tough questions from CEOs: “Are those 20 likes on that social media post worth all this effort? Is our publishing actually getting us new customers?” Navigating this complex environment requires not only creativity and precision, but also a strategic plan to define their audience and anticipate their needs.  For that, we developed an ABC guide for how to build a strategic communications operation that can help brands deliver and demonstrate value—and possibly bring in revenue. It can help transform your comms operation from a cost center to a 💰revenue generator💰   Of course, putting a price tag on your communications products overnight is never going to be effective. First, you must follow these ABCs to ensure you’ve built something that’s worth paying for. Read more here: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eqJnpN3V P.S. We have an opportunity to share our ideas with the SXSW audience! If you've enjoyed our insights, please consider up-voting our workshop on this topic. It's called "Can your insights make you money? A three-step guide." It will be a workshop with our very own Uzra Khan—she'll dive into the details of what it takes for brands to monetize their communications operations: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/ey_FxDUh Thank you! And let us know in the comments if you’re planning to be in Austin next year!

Brands need to think like journalists. No really! Listen, it's been a wild and consequential news week, and if you're like us, you've been following journalists as they cover the unprecedented events of the past couple weeks. Through their reporting, we are witnessing history. But when we say brands should be more like journalists, we're not talking about breaking news, per se. We're talking about the characteristics that make these journalists so skilled at what they do. Think about it. ✨ Journalists cultivate long-term audience engagement by informing, educating, and providing clarity and context to complicated topics. 🌎 Journalists consider what an audience needs, and they share stories and information that resonate with what is happening in their world. 🔎 Journalists give audiences something to think about, talk about, or do. They do this by following their curiosity, asking questions, and digging for meaning beyond what may appear on the surface. Brands that adopt these journalistic virtues build deeper audience relationships in ways that traditional marketing and promotional tactics simply can't achieve.     Long Dash editorial director Aaron Morrissey explains how brands can think—and operate—more like journalists: https://lnkd.in/ggqK-Upf #Brandstorytelling #Audiencestrategy

What if your organization was sitting on a revenue stream you didn’t realize you had? What if the time, talent, and resources you’re already investing into your brand’s content could shift from being a cost center to a revenue-generator? Facing layoffs, rising costs, and tightening budgets, communications leaders are under pressure to demonstrate that the content they’re creating is actually delivering results and not a drain on the bottom line. When brands produce content that is useful and engages a built-in community, they may be staring at a revenue opportunity. To capitalize on it effectively, they must listen to that community. Check out the latest piece about monetizing your comms operation from Long Dash’s VP of Editorial and Audience Growth, Uzra Khan. https://lnkd.in/eqJnpN3V

There is a universal audience need to understand and access the data relevant to our lives—whether you're an academic, a policymaker, or a citizen. This is why it was so wonderful to work with Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University on such an important project. We love turning data into something that’s useful for people, whether that be a story, a digital tool, or an interactive map. In this case, Emory had a trove of data regarding health and climate-related hazards that it wanted to make accessible to its fellow Georgians.    Helping people access information that increases their understanding of heat-related illnesses is crucial for improving public health outcomes and preparedness. A recent article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution underscores the gravity of the issue and shares Emory’s dashboard as a resource that drills down to data on the county-level for Georgians. (🔗 https://lnkd.in/ev8Hhg9Y) We are proud to have been a part of this initiative and look forward to continuing our work in making vital information accessible and actionable for all. #Datastorytelling #Dataviz #PublicHealth

In the government contracting world, competition to win work—and establish relationships with the right networks—is intense. This competition gets even more fierce in a fragile economic climate, when businesses of all kinds are attracted to the promise of the roughly $700 billion available in federal contracts. With so many #govcon firms, it’s easy to blend into the background, making it hard for potential partners and customers to discern a firm’s true value.  Of course, every brand has its strengths, but qualifications alone aren’t enough to stand out in today’s saturated market. That’s why govcon firms that can clearly articulate their values and communicate their point of view in ways that are useful to their audiences will come out ahead of their peers. To stand out, you must develop your brand. And when we say “brand,” we aren’t just talking about your color palette or logo. For example, we worked with G2X—a company that offers an innovative product in the govcon space, but whose brand had yet to reflect the depth of their expertise. We helped them define what makes them unique and what audiences value most so that, in turn, they’d be able to decide where and how to invest in their brand moving forward. Through our work with Ron Jones and Alexa Tsui at G2X, we uncovered several areas of opportunity to transform G2X into a more dynamic, community-focused platform. Here are three lessons from that work that can apply to any brand hoping to differentiate themselves in the competitive govcon landscape: ●     📣 Clarify your message: Never assume audiences already know who you are and what you can offer them. Use every platform and channel available to constantly reinforce your brand’s value with clarity and confidence, starting with your “About Us” language. Echo your values across thought leadership, social media, and even in your proposals. ●     🤝 Open two-way conversations: Feeling seen and heard by a brand fosters loyalty and engagement from its community. Ask your newsletter subscribers or social media followers what information is most useful to them. If you want to try something new, preview it with your community and ask for their thoughts. Soliciting regular feedback will help you stay in tune with the needs of your potential clients.   ●     📰 Relentlessly prioritize readability: Even though it may seem there’s a lot of jargon in government-contracting speak, the people who read your messaging still crave concise, skimmable language. Some tips: Rely on acronyms only when they’re useful, use bulleted lists and visual cues to enable quick consumption, and (our favorite!), don’t bury the lede—just get to the point.   By focusing on these areas, your firm can differentiate itself and build stronger connections with your community and customers, ultimately driving growth and success in a competitive market. Read more: https://lnkd.in/g3-jaeQM