Canadian Business Media winners talk about how they won

An innovation at the 62nd Annual Canadian Business Media Awards in June was that winners were asked at the podium to share how they got there. Upon accepting each award, winners were asked how they created their award-winning content.  

Their answers were revealing about what’s involved in creating CBM Award-winning material, what made their pieces stand out, how they arrived at the final product and why they think experts in their field deemed their work exceptional. The CBM has released a video of some of their answers. [Yes, [blush] that's me up there asking the questions.]

Meredith investing big in video

Meredith Corporation is investing in a major way in making its magazine content available in video. It is executing a dedicated video strategy that will make use of content from its premium publishing brands, including Martha Stewart Living/Martha Stewart Weddings, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents, Shape and Allrecipes. 
Already, according to a story in Publishing Executive, Martha Stewart Living has led the way as the first publication to go live via Facebook and a single broadcast about Easter egg decorating reached an audience of over 1 million and generated 14,000 user engagements. The company has created an entire studio in its New York City offices dedicated to new format production and it is also shooting live videos in Des Moines and Seattle. 

“While many players are just starting to experiment with live video and virtual reality, Meredith already has its expertise and strategy in place and is executing against it,” said Melinda Lee, SVP/GM, Meredith Video. “Having the right technology is a critical part of our strategy, and something we are heavily invested in, from custom-built cameras to our state-of-the-art studios to the expertise we’ve developed within our 30-person video production team to create new, immersive experiences for our audience.”

Major beauty advertiser L'Oreal sets up its own video content studio in Montreal

The trend for larger advertisers to create their own content -- particularly fast-turnaround videos -- is illustrated dramatically by the decision of L'Oreal Canada to open its own content division in Montreal. It's L'Oreal's first such effort among its worldwide subsidiaries. According to a story in Strategy magazine, the studio pulls together photography, videography and post-production.

“The idea was really to create…a studio that’s able to produce real-time, local, shareable, engaging content that at the end would drive business here in Canada,” says Ekaterina Dobrokhotova, consumer engagement manager at L’Oréal Canada.

She says that the company is trying to encourage its various beauty brands to get a "real-time mindset" and to turn around content for platforms such as YouTube in as little as a day.

The studio's products won't replace the company's traditional agency relationships.

Rather, it’s a way for L’Oréal’s brands to tap into trends quickly and cost-effectively. Its agencies are still important for its planned content (often seasonally-driven), Dobrokhotova says.

Of course such a development at a beauty advertiser as important as L'Oreal may have major impact on what's shown on page and online by the leading beauty and fashion magazines in Canada.  

Spacing magazine harnesses the power of documentary film

Spacing magazine, the increasingly ambitious Toronto-based media company, is diversifying further with today's release of its first documentary film, featuring the two winners of the 2014 Jane Jacobs Prize. It's called Powers of Towers and it explores the challenges of the city's aging suburban apartment clusters (both structurally and demographically). The starts are co-winners Graeme Stewart and Sabina Ali. And, like the magazine, their concerns are about public spaces and livable places.

The film is produced in in association with Tangent Motion Pictures and Foxley Films. and with financial support from the Ontario Media Development Corporation. Executive producer is Matthew Blackett, producers are Sean Liliani and Sarah Martin.

Related posts:

• Winners honoured as Spacing magazine takes over management of Jane Jacobs Prize
• Spacing magazine awarded $15,000 Jane Jacobs Prize

The power of insta-mags to deliver "quick, consumable content"

Mazda is launching a new model in 2015 called the MX-5 Roadster. But ahead of the launch it is issuing a series of "insta-magazines" through September 3,which combine static imagery and video, delivered to smartphones on Instagram. They are aimed at 18- to 35-year-olds. According to a story on Strategy, 

Launched last week, the “magazines” actually consist of a nine-panel shot that fit together to make a cover. Each individual image is a video, [say Michael Tsang, supervisor of interactive marketing, Mazda], giving a short history vignette into the brand’s past. One magazine will be revealed per week until Sept. 3, when the new model is unveiled. 

Because the car itself won’t actually be available for purchase until 2015, this is a soft launch, Tsang says, simply revealing the new look. As such, the campaign will largely live on social, supported by Facebook and Twitter, with no mass media push (though he says next year, there will be a traditional marketing campaign). 

The brief to the agency was for “quick, consumable content,” that “celebrated the history” of the car.

Could this be an acknowledgement of the power of the magazine form? We can hope. 

VICEmagazine launches new online video-driven site; my, how you've grown

VICE magazine has launched VICE.com, announced plans to launch a series of stand-alone online media channels ans struck new content syndication deals (it retains its deal with CNN) through partnerships with The Huffington Post/AOL, Der Spiegel, Aftonbladet, the Guardian, Terra, Renren, CCTV, MTV Brasil, Youku and others. 

It's a long way from its beginnings as a feisty youth culture magazine in Montreal.The company is now based in New York and operates worldwide.

VICE acquired the VICE.com domain earlier this year and is using it to create an omnibus video-driven online site. With lashings of irony, given the circumstances, VICE founder Shane Smith said in a release:

"When VICE first started, all we cared about was sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. But then as we travelled around the world, we got more into news, politics, fashion, art, the environment… basically everything. So this is that: Vice.com where everything we give a shit about lives. Vive la Revoluçion!"

Some revolution. The 2011 – 2012 program lineup of free shows includes new seasons of VICE News, The VICE Guide to Travel, Toxic, Epicly Later’d, Munchies and The Cute Show and a slate of new series all backed by leading global brands like GE, Toshiba, Incase, MINI, vitaminwater.

One of VICE's new content partners is giant blogger Huffington Post, whose founding editor Roy Sekoff, says:

"HuffPost and VICE are definitely twin sons of different mothers. Their envelope-pushing takes on current events are a perfect fit with our disruptive approach to the way news, information and entertainment are delivered, consumed, and engaged with. We love the fact that VICE’s stuff is simultaneously ballsy, smart, and very well informed. And we’ve got some pretty audacious plans for teaming up to cover the 2012 campaign -- it’s sex, drug, rock n roll…and presidential politics."

The launch of VICE.com was celebrated last week in Montreal, where it all began.

Webisodes feature Today's Parent deputy editor and daughter exploring differing concepts of beauty in Africa

 

Jackie Kovacs, the deputy editor of Today's Parent magazine, and her 15-year-old daughter Hayley, are featured in a series of 10 webisodes produced in collaboration with charity World Vision Canada called "Am I Beautiful?". It's an examination of the themes of beauty and beauty practices half a world away as mother and daughter visit Uganda. 

This series is meant to build bridges between women, girls, daughters, mothers, aunts, sisters and friends around the globe. It examines the theme of beauty, but more importantly, it highlights the strength of women and the struggles some face in developing communities.

 Kovacs says "I just really wanted her to experience this other culture, this other way of life." It's not entirely a new experience for Kovacs who, with her husband Patrick Walsh (the editor of Outdoor Canada magazine) spent four years in Tanzania in their early '20s. Walsh makes a cameo in the first episode explaining

"Anyone who's been to Africa knows it gets into your soul and into your bones and you really have to go back." 

Following episodes (each are about 3 1/2 minutes) deal with such subjects as scarring practices, the challenges of young marriage, poverty, education for young women and differing views about weight. 

The production was conceived and developed by World Vision Canada, produced by Nida Marji and directed by Simonee Chichester.
All 10 webisodes are available on the World Vision Canada website.

Publish once, read anywhere;Condé Nast's Rick Levine on the company's strategy

Magazines Canada has posted a video of the recent presentation in Toronto by Richard Levine VP Editorial Operations, Condé Nast. Click on this link

Video growth on magazine sites slows, but grows

Videos streamed by magazine publishers have a higher rate of completion per video view than other media sites, according to the video technology platform company Brightcove, reported by minonline.

Magazine websites that have video streams showed 174 million videos in the second quarter of 2010, according to Brightcove trending statistics. This was down 7% from Q1, but up 45% from the same Q2 in 2009.

And how do they get those videos seen? Primarily, Facebook, the fastest growing source of referrals, up 48% from Q1 and Twitter, up 39%.

The overwhelming majority of video views of magazine content occur on the brand’s own site (94.3%) with only 5.7% occurring via embedded code elsewhere.

Moving pictures: big publishers plunging into video

The uneasy combination of print magazine publications and video is picking up momentum as major players set up their own video production deals. Time Inc. created its own in-house video division which will channel productions to some 130 various magazine websites and to cell phone screens. In March, Rodale Partners announced that it is partnering with video producer Brightcove to create Internet video channels for flagship Men's Health and probably later to Prevention, Runner's World and Women's Health. Before that, Brightcove struck a deal to provide video services to Newsweek.

Now, according to a story in MediaDaily News, Hearst Magazines -- in particular Cosmo Girl and Popular Mechanics -- has cut a deal with the Fox network to produce video.

The first video content for CosmoGirl is a drama centered on the travails of three female best friends during their junior year of high school. The format of the series, as yet unnamed, is apparently designed for mobile consumption with two new "Webisodes," no longer than three minutes, appearing every week.

According to Hearst, the plot will be driven in part by suggestions from viewers, who are invited to email the show's producers true stories from their own lives.

Popular Mechanics will get a different series, with real mechanics and designers delivering pearls of technical wisdom, but in the same format (biweekly, each episode no longer than three minutes). As with the CosmoGirl drama, the "Webisodes" can be watched at Popular Mechanics' Web site, in addition to mobile devices.

Brightcove is a new open internet TV service that is aiming its business model largely at commercial content providers (like magazines) who not only need/want to provide video channels to augment their titles, but want to monetize them, too. To find out more about this, you can look at a video briefing by Chairman Jeremy Allaire at the time of the company's launch.