Making Newsy - Branded Content for Good

Newsy, upstart news service across linear, OTT and mobile platforms, is aiming to also offer newsworthy ways to spotlight brands doing well by doing good. One-off profiles to short form docu-series by Andy Brownell, vice president of Newsy Brand Studio, and Joey Maiocco, producer, are not hard-driving headline stories, but are, nonetheless, of great importance to impressing and retaining more and more influential consumers.

As Brownell tells host, E.B. Moss, Head of Content Strategy at MediaVillage, “We're focused on developing sponsored stories for brands looking to tell more about the key social issues that they're addressing – [such as] improving the environment....” In this Episode 38 of Insider InSites he described the genesis of the studio itself on through how it’s helping the Newsy triple bottom line.

Here's the topline:

E.B. Moss: Why use storytelling to showcase the impact brands can have on their industry or community?

Andy Brownell: I think there’s a much greater awareness of what brands are doing in the world today. Today’s consumers ... are much more tuned in to the kinds of things that brands are doing beyond just offering a product or service. Consumers are starting to make purchase decisions beyond the normal parameters... whether it's a manufacturing company and the footprint it leaves ... to the role that companies play within their communities....

Moss: How do you keep it genuine, and is purpose-driven Newsy branded content skewed towards a younger audience?

Brownell: Because we're a branded content studio that's connected to a national news organization, I think by definition we're held to a slightly higher standard in terms of the authenticity... for the content to be genuine, to be able to inform people and provide them something of value. There are all these amazing stories and things that [brands] are doing that never make it into an advertisement, barely make it into the social feeds and that require a lot more time to tell a good, compelling story. That’s what we really wanted to focus in on.

Moss: You created the Shifting Baselines series as part of this, with KoAnn Skrzyniarz (hear recent Insider InSites episode) who founded Sustainable Brands, a global organization bringing brands and nonprofit organizations together to solve problems.

Brownell: Yes, we were a media partner for their June conference in Detroit. A huge portion of Fortune 500 companies have a presence there, and not just sustainability people, but chief marketing officers are there. Marc Pritchard [chief brand officer of P&G] talks a lot about that and “Brands For Good” -- where sustainability has an equal seat at the table with brand managers.

Media and the role that we play at the brand studio can be an integral part of helping connect those dots and tell brand stories.

Moss: Is pro-social content a hard sell?

Brownell: ...People are starting to make it a bigger part of the conversation and a bigger part of their marketing and communications plans.

READ MORE AT MEDIAVILLAGE.COM