0
1
00:00:00,630 --> 00:00:06,600
Now the other thing you have to think about is crafting a story. Because nobody can write about you if
1

2
00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:09,720
you just pitch a journalist saying "Hey my name is Angela.
2

3
00:00:09,720 --> 00:00:14,750
I made a great app. Please write about me." And sadly nobody's going to really take that bait.
3

4
00:00:14,820 --> 00:00:17,800
So instead what you need is you need to craft a story.
4

5
00:00:17,970 --> 00:00:19,910
Think from the journalist point of view.
5

6
00:00:19,950 --> 00:00:25,330
Imagine that you're the guy who needs to get X number of clicks per day in order to stay employed.
6

7
00:00:25,350 --> 00:00:31,170
They need to be able to show that the stories they write gets shared, gets liked and gets views.
7

8
00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:35,000
And this unfortunately is the way that modern journalism works.
8

9
00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:40,500
Now journalism standards aside, this is unfortunately the reality that you're faced with.
9

10
00:00:40,500 --> 00:00:46,210
So imagine that you are that tech journalist who has to churn out article after article after article.
10

11
00:00:46,230 --> 00:00:48,050
Forget about things like writer's blog.
11

12
00:00:48,060 --> 00:00:52,800
You know imagine having to create a masterpiece every 30 minutes. Because in reality, those are some of
12

13
00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:55,360
the constraints that tech journalists face nowadays.
13

14
00:00:55,500 --> 00:01:00,990
And so a) be considerate. When you are pitching a journalist give them everything that they need in order
14

15
00:01:00,990 --> 00:01:02,510
to put together a story quickly.
15

16
00:01:02,520 --> 00:01:08,010
So that means images, that means the media, portraits of the founders, anything that they could just drag
16

17
00:01:08,010 --> 00:01:13,980
and drop into the story instead of you know playing sort of email ping pong with you because nobody
17

18
00:01:13,980 --> 00:01:15,100
has the time for them.
18

19
00:01:15,150 --> 00:01:19,500
The other thing to do when you're imagining yourself in the shoes of a journalist is how do you not
19

20
00:01:19,500 --> 00:01:20,220
get fired?
20

21
00:01:20,220 --> 00:01:23,480
How do you create a story that people actually want to read?
21

22
00:01:23,670 --> 00:01:30,060
And I can bet you that story is not going to be some unknown company started yesterday, brought out a
22

23
00:01:30,060 --> 00:01:33,200
new app. That's just not exciting anymore.
23

24
00:01:33,330 --> 00:01:36,120
Instead think about helping them in their jobs.
24

25
00:01:36,190 --> 00:01:37,650
Craft an angle.
25

26
00:01:37,650 --> 00:01:43,710
Think about something that is exciting, something that allows readers to imagine the future. Or something
26

27
00:01:43,710 --> 00:01:46,050
that's just pure funny and very shareable.
27

28
00:01:46,050 --> 00:01:51,930
So unless you're Apple or Google, if you pitch journalists with boring stories or just facts about your
28

29
00:01:51,930 --> 00:01:55,340
company or your app, you can bet that nobody's going to pick them up.
29

30
00:01:55,350 --> 00:02:01,470
So you know it's fine for Apple to say "Oh we made a new support app." and Tech Crunch will write about
30

31
00:02:01,470 --> 00:02:01,800
it.
31

32
00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:04,530
If you are a nobody if your company is not known,
32

33
00:02:04,530 --> 00:02:09,690
the fact of the matter is that nobody cares and you have to make-- and you have to figure out how you
33

34
00:02:09,690 --> 00:02:11,170
can make people care.
34

35
00:02:11,310 --> 00:02:18,210
So for example, a friend of ours decided to jump onto the Christmas season quite literally by creating
35

36
00:02:18,210 --> 00:02:21,560
these humping reindeer Christmas jumpers.
36

37
00:02:21,570 --> 00:02:27,120
It was kind of an off the cuff idea. But it had two really powerful things going for it.
37

38
00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:28,710
One is seasonality.
38

39
00:02:28,740 --> 00:02:30,840
It's coming up to the Christmas period,
39

40
00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:34,300
Journalists will have to write about Christmas whether if they like it or not.
40

41
00:02:34,320 --> 00:02:39,240
And this is a good story that coincides with the gift giving and gift buying period of time. And the
41

42
00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:45,540
second thing is that they managed to have a story that's pretty clickbaity like "Frisky reindeers inspire
42

43
00:02:45,540 --> 00:02:49,230
Scotts gran to design naughty Christmas jumper."
43

44
00:02:49,260 --> 00:02:55,740
Now that is a BuzzFeed title. And usually the way that press goes nowadays is that you target a small
44

45
00:02:55,740 --> 00:03:01,350
paper, some local paper but something that gets syndicated by the larger newspapers.
45

46
00:03:01,340 --> 00:03:07,110
So for example journalists at the larger publications will read a whole load of blogs as well as local
46

47
00:03:07,110 --> 00:03:10,130
newspapers just to tap into what's going on in the world.
47

48
00:03:10,140 --> 00:03:16,350
Very often what happens is that you start off going for the easy bake, you know targeting the smaller
48

49
00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:22,170
publications. And once you get a success there if it's interesting enough it'll get picked up by some
49

50
00:03:22,170 --> 00:03:25,310
of the larger publications and national publications
50

51
00:03:25,320 --> 00:03:30,960
even. So for example that story ended up getting picked up by the Daily Mail and that gave them back links
51

52
00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:36,910
that gave them exposure and that helped them sell a whole load of humping reindeer Christmas jumpers.
52

53
00:03:36,960 --> 00:03:38,390
Now coming back to our point,
53

54
00:03:38,430 --> 00:03:46,080
this all started from crafting a story. And their story happened to be that the founders grandma came
54

55
00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:48,920
up with a rude Christmas jumper idea.
55

56
00:03:49,020 --> 00:03:54,570
She saw some humping ranges and decided to knit one for her grandson or something like that.
56

57
00:03:54,570 --> 00:03:56,340
Now this is completely false
57

58
00:03:56,340 --> 00:04:02,400
according to the guys who made this. They essentially worked backwards in terms of what is the current
58

59
00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:04,800
season, what will journalists write about,
59

60
00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:08,830
what is something that can get attention, get clicks, get shares.
60

61
00:04:08,940 --> 00:04:11,410
Well maybe a rude Christmas jumper.
61

62
00:04:11,430 --> 00:04:16,510
It's the perfect combination of traditional versus comical.
62

63
00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:22,160
So his grandparents were sporting enough to wear the jumpers and let him go along with this story.
63

64
00:04:22,170 --> 00:04:24,810
But at the end of the day it was actually completely made up.
64

65
00:04:24,810 --> 00:04:29,340
They decided to make a product and they tried to figure out what is the best angle for a journalist
65

66
00:04:29,340 --> 00:04:30,420
to pick up the story.
66

67
00:04:30,450 --> 00:04:34,220
And whether you like it or not, this is something that you have to think about.
67

68
00:04:34,260 --> 00:04:39,480
And I'm not saying that you have to create a false story but you have to think about what is the angle
68

69
00:04:39,510 --> 00:04:44,350
of your story that can make it exciting and can make journalists want to write about it.
69

70
00:04:44,350 --> 00:04:48,080
Maybe you created something that shows what the future will be like
70

71
00:04:48,080 --> 00:04:50,600
or maybe you created something that nobody ever thought about.
71

72
00:04:50,610 --> 00:04:56,440
But essentially the important thing to take away is to craft your story even before you start the pitch.