B-M Australia Newsroom Study

Online Newsrooms and Australia’s Best Brands Sydney, Australia March 2010

Methodology – Research Objectives • The study looked at the online newsrooms (media centres and equivalent) of twenty top Australian brand name companies. • It examined the extent to which these organisations are using the Web and online content to more effectively communicate company news and announcements to journalists, bloggers and customers/stakeholders. • The research study looked at the use of the following online newsroom features: – Access: Is there a homepage link to the Newsroom? – Images: Are images available for download? – Search tools: Is it possible to search the newsroom content (specifically)? – Video download: Is video content available for download? – Sharing (Social Tags and RSS): Is the capability to easily share news content available? • This study is the second part in a two part research project. Part one focused on social media use by Australian brands.

Methodology – Source Companies • The study examined the top 20 brands as listed in Interbrand’s Australia’s Best Brands Report, March 2009. • The study ranks the top 20 Australian companies by brand value, which is a derivative of the way business and financial assets are valued covering three elements: Financial Forecasting; Role of Branding; Brand Strength. • Financial assessments are based on published annual reports and analyst reports from investment banks. Marketing assessments are based on a wide array of primary and secondary sources. Ultimately, each brand was assessed for inclusion on its own merits. • Holding companies are excluded from the Interbrand report. Wholly owned or local subsidiaries of global brands are also excluded. • Interbrand has published national brand value rankings more than ten countries around the world. • There is no formal relationship between Burson-Marsteller and Interbrand. Interbrand were not involved in the development of this study but are aware of its existence.

Access - Direct newsroom link on homepage More than half of the Australian brands surveyed provide a direct link to their newsroom from their corporate homepage. 60% News content is arguably the most dynamic and compelling content that a corporation has to offer. It provides stakeholders with a sense of direction of the company and demonstrates momentum and success. The remainder of the survey looks at the online newsroom capabilities and content of twenty top Australian brands.

Newsroom Features Overview The majority of Australian brands surveyed are not providing rich media content as a 100% means of enriching company news. 90% 80% Supporting materials such as executive photography, logos and video content are 70% not generally available via newsrooms. 60% 50% Australian businesses are missing an opportunity to improve the quality of their 40% coverage and media relationships. 30% 20% The online newsrooms studied are not user friendly. Very few offer search and 10% sharing functions. 0% Image Search Video Sharing Online newsrooms are typically static repositories of text based news releases.

Newsroom Features – Image Downloads ‘A picture is worth a thousand words…’ Image Downloads Yes The Internet is driving a trend towards 15% visual communication and story-telling. Journalists and bloggers are increasingly looking for engaging content to help bring stories to life. No 85% Australian companies are missing out on the opportunity to engage journalists, Video bloggers and other stakeholders using Yes imagery and video. 10% Imagery and video is an increasingly important consideration for organisations that need to convey their story in the No highly competitive and shortened news 90% cycle.

Newsroom Features – Search and Sharing Ability to Share Newsroom Content A very small number of the Australian brands surveyed provide the ability for Yes 20% newsroom users to easily locate and share content. No Only one out of the 20 companies 80% surveyed offer the ability to search newsroom content (specifically). Ability to Search Newsroom Yes RSS and sharing tags are provided by 5% 20% of the companies surveyed. No 95%

Australian Best Practice - Telstra Newsroom search Sharing capabilities Supporting content including executive bios, factsheets, news coverage, etc. Video content and image downloads

Global Best Practice – Toyota Newsroom search Sharing capabilities Social media integration Video content and image downloads Supporting content including executive bios, factsheets, news coverage, etc.

Conclusions and Takeaways 1. Effective online newsrooms provide journalists and bloggers with the tools and content they need to tell stories in an entertaining and engaging way. Internet users are three times more likely to click on video content yet very few Australian brands are leveraging video to communicate news stories. Online newsrooms in corporate Australia are generally ineffectual. 2. Journalists are increasingly turning to the Internet as a primary source of information and story ideas. Providing easy access to news content and rich media assets can provide an organisation with a ‘competitive’ edge in their PR efforts. 3. Effective online newsrooms can ‘automate’ many media relations processes (i.e. provision of photography and supporting information) freeing up Corporate Communications professionals to focus on strategic and proactive programs. 4. Traffic to corporate websites is in decline. News content provides an opportunity for brands to create a more engaging, compelling and interactive presence via their online newsrooms. 5. Newsroom capabilities can be easily enhanced at low cost using existing social networks, such as Flickr for photo archiving and sharing and Twitter for ‘broadcasting’ news. 6. Corporate blogging has not been widely adopted by Australian brands and newsroom content and capabilities are poor. None of the Australian brands surveyed are competing with global best practice.

Contacts Daniel Young, Director Burson-Marsteller Australia +61 (0) 2 9928 1589 +61 (0) 404 626 584 daniel.young@bm.com Carly Yanco, Associate Burson-Marsteller Australia +61 (0) 2 9928 1531 +61 (0) 413 648 396 carly.yanco@bm.com

B-M Australia Newsroom Study

by Burson-Marsteller Australia on Mar 16, 2010

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