Hi everyone, we are back with Iván Pino, Associate and Brand Journalism Director at LLORENTE & CUENCA. Thank you again, Iván... -A pleasure. -...for being here with us. I'd like to talk to you, mostly, to learn from you, we want to learn about the process of content creation itself, about brand journalism content. My first question: let's say you have already accepted a tender, you have reached an agreement with a brand and you have met with them. And more or less you start the first pre-design of narrative. You start listing the elements that you will include in the narrative. My first question is: where do you search for stories? How do you address the process of finding a good story that of course matches your narrative vision? Or let's pretentiously call it your narrative mission. Well, you have to link the brand narrative, as you say, with the audience's interest. I mean, that's the first step. Then we work with a marketing technique, the inbound marketing, which is the definition of the 'persona'. In the field of sales-oriented marketing, there is the figure of the 'buyer persona', but it applies to the purchase of any content. We want the audience, the user, to buy our content. That is, we want the user to be attracted, to consume the content, and also that they share it with their own network. That's the main goal. In order to do so, we need to define the 'persona' we want to be linked to, for whom we create content. What do they expect from us? What are they interested in? Whom are they related to? All of these variables must be linked to the brand narrative. That is, what we can legitimately tell. By legitimately, I mean that, if we tell it as a brand, the audience will acknowledge our capacity to do so. You have the legitimate capacity to do so because your proximity to the content is unbeatable. Yes. Because your knowledge, experience and brand identity are linked to the other concept we use: conversation area. This area will allow you to link the narrative. And there, in that conversation, in that area, there are a lot of people sharing content on social media, search engines, the digital world and even in the real world. They share those stories. We need to understand what stories they are interested in. Once we fully understand the interest of that persona, we start the story-finding process. Not directly... As you usually start the search for stories based on the brand agenda, and not the interests of the people you want to attract. By analyzing their searches online, etc. right? That's what we do, we combine many technologies, as social media technology or semantics technology, and then we use our own know-how, even surveys. This allows us to define and to outline the content buyer. Then we start the search. Sorry, when you talk about surveys, logically, you refer to bigger projects with bigger budgets. I guess you obviously adapt the tools to the budget available. Well, it is not such a quantitative approach, we are talking about qualitative techniques. You can run surveys with a limited but well-defined budget to confirm the feedback we receive from the digital world. And then we start the story-finding process. It is a complicated process. It really is. It is complicated because, in brand journalism, we basically look for real stories, with real characters that belong to the brand interest groups. They may be employees, clients, providers or stakeholders. But they have to be linked to the brand. And that requires an internal mobilization to find the sources that will allow us to reach a story that matches the interests of the final content user. And that can be addressed through the journalistic technique of interviewing stakeholders. It is like when, in old journalism, when there was time and money and no rush, the agencies sent a celebrated and reliable correspondent to Patagonia for 15 days, without expecting anything in return, with no mobile phones. The first thing the correspondent did was talking to dozens of people to look for the perfect story. And that involves organizational complexity. Yes. When you first identify a potential story, then you need to confirm that it is indeed a good story, and you need to interview people. A good story, but also a real one. -Exactly. And that you don't put your foot in it. That is a key aspect. I loved that you started our former conversation by talking about veracity. I mean, in the last years, this concept is weaker than ever. And more necessary than ever. Now, there are no editors and proofers in the newsrooms. This is a claim, which is the key and differentiating factor. Unfortunately, it is fascinating that, at this stage, when your reputation is questioned, brands and newspapers can afford to publish errors and typos, because, sadly, there is this feeling that digital journalism is poorer in quality, as it lacks the resources. This is difficult to refute. I mean, on average. Of course there are exceptions, as in any other aspect in life. But as a brand, in a situation in which millions of users are empowered by social media, you cannot afford to make a big mistake, as all the effort made to generate content would really turn against you exponentially. That is why we need and value brand journalism applied to both reputation and business. Both things are directly linked. One more question about story finding, Iván. If I understood what you said, you do not start the process by looking for world-press stories that somehow can match your conversation area, but looking for stories in your own area. You go from the inside to the outside and not the other way around. Well we... Remember that we first talked about finding the interest through the conversation area. There is a lot of information there. Information about what content is shared the most by the persona we want to attract. And also inspiration, ideas, many leads. You may think "this is the kind of content we need". But then, you have to create your own content. The content that will generate a differential value and bring authenticity, and that must be around the company. Companies are not only what goes on inside them. More and more, companies are dynamic elements that are linked to other companies and people. And they are part of their environment. Collaborative economy and co-creation will only grow and grow. So it is the companies' environment that is interesting, not their inner world, but their networks. There is where the stories are. Some agencies I have spoken with have used a reverse process, trying to find elements of the outside world that could be linked, and diverging from the conversation area. Would you call that 'brand journalism' or would you say it is something different? This is a question of terminology. I mean, would you call 'brand journalism' the fact of finding a story in Myanmar and relating it to our vision of the world and where we have presence? Absolutely. If it is linked to the editorial approach, it is accepted. Even if the brand plays a quiet role or has even disappeared, right? Yes. When I talk about environment around the company, that environment includes Myanmar. There must be a connection. Otherwise, why would you do it? Yes, absolutely. Not because you travel to Myanmar it must be interesting, convenient or relevant. Exactly. It can be interesting for active media in that business. But that is not the point. This is not about competing against mass media, but about finding your own legitimate way. Of course, the brand should play a quiet role, a very quiet role, otherwise it would tell their own story and would not be so interesting. That would not be brand journalism, we would be talking about something else. Something else. That would be mass media. But not brand journalism. Well, thank you so much for coming, Iván, and for sharing your valuable expertise. -A pleasure. And see you soon. -Thank you. Hope to see you soon, too.
