Trend Report on the Use of Visual Storytelling in Press Releases

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02 December 2014!
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Trend Report!
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A Report on the Use of Visual Storytelling in
Press Releases: The Power of Infographics!
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Name: Laureline Baron
Student Number: w1507478
Course: MA Public Relations
Module: Understanding Public Relations
Tutors: Pam Williams/Michaela O’Brien
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2. Table of content!
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1. Introduction …………………………………… 3
2. Background …………………………………… 4
3. What are infographics? …………………………………… 5
4. Analysis: implications for media relations
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4.1. A good infographic is worth a thousand
words: appeal, comprehension, retention
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4.2. Engagement …………………………………… 6
4.3. “Shareability” and “virality” …………………………………… 7
5. Future predictions …………………………………… 8
6. Skills PR practitioners need to acquire …………………………………… 8
7. Conclusion …………………………………… 9
8. Appendices …………………………………… 10
8.1. Reflexion on the writing process …………………………………… 10
8.2. Illustrative examples of infographics in
press releases
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3. 1. Introduction!
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Over the last decade, public relations practices globally underwent dramatic changes due
to the rise of internet, digital and social medias to which the public relation profession had
to adapt, dropping written communications in favor of more visual content. Because of the
“shareability” that characterise social medias and the fact that people today consume
information online and on their mobile devices, journalists, bloggers and social media
sharers want content that is easy to post, easy to digest, easy to share, and will appeal to
their audiences (Feil et al., 2012). Visuals meet this new audience’s needs as they require
little extra explanation and speak for themselves. As Jason Lankow (Column Five Media),
quoted in Fail, points out: “Simply put, an image that tells the entire story is more easily
reblogged than an entire text-based article”. As a result, in today’s media landscape,
traditional text-based press releases are increasingly being replaced or complemented by
visual storytelling, improving the likelihood of content being disseminated.!
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This report will focus on answering the following question: how can visual storytelling be
used by PR practitioners in media relations and to what extent does it increase news
visibility and reception? This analysis will centre specifically on the use and the
effectiveness of infographics in press releases, as this content-sharing tool has become an
increasingly popular means of conveying information over the past two years (Fogel,
2013). According to Google, searches volumes for the term "infographic" have increased
over 800% in the last two years and each month, the hashtag #infographic is used up to
3,300 times (Newscred blog, 2014). These numbers not only reveal infographics’s growing
popularity but also its viral quality. Authoritative blogs like Newscred blog and Ketchum
blog, PR magazines (PR Week), academic journals including the Journal of Public
Relations Research have published articles about infographics becoming a major trend in
PR. In addition to being omnipresent online, newspapers and newscasts recently took on
relying on infographics to tell their stories, fuelling a rise in narrative visualisation “in which
the visual component itself plays a vital role rather than simply assuming a supportive role
or being secondary to the text in the story (Segel and Heer, 2010). Also, two books by
Lankow, Richie and Crooks and Smiciklas on the power of visual storytelling and
infographics were published in 2012 and another by Gareth Cook titled The best American
Infographics 2014 has just been released in October. Moreover, startups specialising in the
designing of infographics like Column Five are rising and there is a growth in the use of
online tools creating infographics (visual.ly, infogr.am, piktochart). The report will focus
mainly on still/interactive visuals and graphics, with which Infographics operate, even
though it is important to note that pictures and videos indubitably are crucial incentives for
news sharing and coverage by the medias.!
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4. 2. Background!
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Telling a story through visuals have been rooted in our DNA for thousands of years, from
cave paintings and Egyptian hieroglyphics to modern comics, when mankind started
communicate by combining pictures and words (Buraker, 2012). The reason for that is
clear: according to research by MIT, it is estimated that visual learners represent
approximately 65% of the population and that 50% of the brain is dedicated to visual
functions (MIT research, 1996). The brain deals with images with considerably less mental
effort than with text and thus processes images much faster (60 000 times faster according
to Buraker): it is physically easier for the audience to relate and connect with visual
information (Smiciklas, 2012, p.7). Also, 90% of the information that we process and learn
is visual (Buraker, 2012). !
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Today, in our dense media landscape, those facts are even more revealing and need to be
taken into account by PR practitioners. We live in an “information age of super
saturation” (Buraker, 2012) in which modern online audiences only have limited time and
attention (the average consumer attention spam is eight seconds according to the National
Center for Biotechnology Information, 2014). Consequently, using clear, efficient and quick
to say visuals have become crucial in capturing the attention and engaging audiences,
including and especially journalists. In fact, a June 2012 study by PR Newswire, based on
its internal analytics, found that a text press release accompanied by a photo and a video
is up to 7.4 times more likely to be viewed (and thus published and shared) than text-only
(Feil, 2012). !
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Visual storytelling formats include pictures, videos, slideshows and infographics. Rob
Brown, in his book Public relations and the social web (2009), explains that what was
probably the first visual press release was created in 2006 by SHIFT Communications, in
response to Tom Foremski’s famous blog post entitled “Die! Press release! Die! Die! Die!”.
The release contained links to videos, assets like financial data, tags to other stories and
options for photographs. Richard Edelman (Edelman CEO) then took up the challenge to
reinvent press releases, spreading the trend. Multimedia press releases’s popularity
continued growing since then.!
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5. 3. What are infographics?!
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“Infographics, or “information graphics,” are exactly what the name suggests: visual tools
used to communicate data or information in a clear and understandable way. They can
include pictures, graphics, tables and charts, words, symbols, and are often color
coordinated” (Segal, Ketchum blog, 2012). The Oxford English Dictionary added the term
in 2011 and defined it as “a visual representation of information or data, e.g. as a chart or
diagram”. As for Smiciklas, he defines an infographic in his book as “a visualisation of data
or ideas that tries to convey complex information to an audience in a manner that can be
quickly consumed and easily understood” (Smiciklas, 2012, p. 3).!
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Infographics today can be found in social media and digital channels but are also
published in traditional media such as newspapers and magazines, in which they appear
in the form of annotated charts, maps, comic strips and interactive graphics. The key
formats that can house infographic communication are static images, interactive
interfaces, and motion content. Static format are typically fixed information, user interaction
consist of viewing and reading and the display output is a still image. Motion format is also
used for fixed information, user interaction consists of viewing, listening if there is
voiceover, and reading., and the display output is animated. Interactive format is used for
fixed or dynamic information. User interaction consists of clicking, searching for specific
data, actively shaping the content displayed and choosing which information is accessed
and visualised (Lankow et al., 2012, p.60).!
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4. Analysis: implications for media relations!
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How can infographics be used in media relations and how does it increase the likelihood of
the news being disseminated by successfully engaging journalists? This analysis will cover
the main aspects of infographics that PR practitioners can take advantage of in their media
relations’ strategy. It will also look into some successful cases in which brands and
organisations succeeded in getting massive coverage for their news through infographics. !
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4.1. A good infographic is worth a thousand words: appeal, comprehension,
retention!
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“Words alone are not enough”, claims Jason Lankow, CEO of infographic design house
Column Five Media. More accurately, words alone are too much. Journalists receive on
average five hundreds press releases a day, most of which are destined to “reach the
digital and physical trash bins of tens of thousands of journalists” (Foremski quoted in
Brown, 2012, p.126). Because “visual assets by nature are more appealing to the eye,
convey information more quickly and more efficiently and add personality and context to a
story, [they] are more likely to be viewed and shared, extending the life of the story and
driving earned media” (Grossman from Newswire quoted in Feil, 2012). Infographics fit into
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6. this description by being appealing, comprehensible and memorable (Lankow et al., 2012,
pp. 40-56). !
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Infographics gain the viewer’s attention and stands out from the traditional content thanks
to its design. Design work as an incentive for audiences to dig deeper into the news
content, especially when this content consists of cold facts such as research studies or
analytic reports. As a second step, infographics are clear, efficient and easy to digest,
allowing PR practitioners to tell their story in a more compelling way and to convey
possibly complex topics simply (Feil, 2012). Plus, visual learners (the majority of the
population) best understand information that is presented in pictures, diagrams or charts
(Lankow et al., 2012, p.44). Finally, the third main benefit of using infographics in
communication is their ability to “help people retain information, as the graphics are able to
extend the reach of our memory systems”: the decorative elements added to the
informative content of infographics enable people to encode information more deeply and
solidify the image in their memory, according to a study by the University of Saskatchewan
(Lankow et al., 2012, p.50). At this point, journalists have viewed, understood and
remembered the story, which builds credibility between them and the brand or organisation
(Smiciklas, 2012, p.12) as well as gains their attention and entices them to cover the topic.!
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4.2. Engagement !
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Infographics are also an effective tool for engaging audiences (in this case journalists and
bloggers), it makes the content accessible for action conveying a powerful emotion
(Trumbo in Lazard and Atkinson, 2014). Simple pie charts or graphs do not induce
emotional response in audiences but Gareth Cook (a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist)
explains in his book that by their nature, infographics do: "Infographics have an emotional
power because they can show you an idea--or a relationship, or how something works--
very quickly. People respond to that. A persuasive infographic surprises the viewer. It
moves them in some way and makes them want to keep looking at it or show it to other
people” (Cook, 2014). Two factors that create emotions in infographics and play an
important role in persuasion are the use of humour (that help humanising cold data/
statistics/facts) and the possibility for the viewer to explore something that affect them
directly, allowing them to be part of the story (Murray, 2013). Also, a study conducted by
Lazard and Atkinson (2014) shows that infographics with visual depictions complementing
text-based information lead to an increased engagement from audiences. The study also
demonstrates that it is not necessarily the amount (or redundancy) of information shown,
but the message format that is the greatest influence for central message
processing” (Lazard and Atkinson, 2014).!
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A good example of the emotional and persuasive power of infographics is the visual press
release Column Five created to mark Playstation 15th’s anniversary in 2011. The graphic
takes a nostalgic look at the company’s history by centring the content on the various
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7. PlayStation consoles Sony has released over the years, and highlighting the evolution of
technology leading up to their most recent release (Lankow et al., 2012, p.167, see figure
a). Two other topics that can be effectively covered by visual press releases are
comparisons between two companies/organisations and showcasing and highlighting
companies’s proprietary data. Illustrating examples are respectively the “The Lifecycle of a
Web Page” by Column Five for the social platform StumbleUpon and a serie of
infographics for an online personal finance and budgeting tool, mint.com. The first one
shows impressive numbers surrounding StumbleUpon’s user engagement, and compare
those to competing social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. The second one
tells an interesting story through the display of the company’s data: how Americans have
changed their saving habits during the recession (Lankow et al., 2012, p.167, see figure b
and c).!
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4.3. “Shareability” and “virality”!
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One of the main benefits of using infographics is that they are highly shareable and
consequently, have a high viral quality (Buraker, 2012). According to Lankow et Al., “using
an infographic format enables journalists to easily pair their article with your visualisation,
which in turn will bring attention and validity to your company’s release” (Lankow et al.,
2012, p.167). In addition to making the information usable by online journalists and
bloggers, they are more discoverable in search engines (Smiciklas, 2012, p.15).
Infographics can be “liked”, commented on, forwarded and eventually have the potential to
reach fifteen million people, according to Mashable (2013). This massive reception is
attainable because of visuals’ s exponential popularity in social medias: in fact, a study by
Buffer (Social Media Management, 2014) shows that tweets with images receive 150%
more retweet and an internal analysis by Facebook shows that posts that contain a photo
or video generate 120 percent and 100 percent more engagement than the average post
(Feil ,2012). Further evidence of the growth of visual communication in social medias are
the rise of picture-only platforms like Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr. !
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Also, many people feel the need to be confident about the content they are sharing, they
want to fully understand it but have no time to read lengthy amounts of text: “infographics
relay the gist of the information quickly, increasing the chance for it to be shared and
fuelling its spread across a wide variety of digital channels” (Smiciklas, 2012, p.15).!
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A good example is WordStream (a provider for pay-per-click and search services)
infographics press release (2012) that compared the value of display advertising on
Facebook to that of Google. It received massive reception and went viral. In a matter of
hours, blogs and many of the top news outlet news picked up the news, embedding the
infographics and linking back to the company’s site, instantly improving keywords ranking,
visibility and traffic to the website (Feil, 2012).!
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8. 5. Future predictions !
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In the future, more and more people will consume information on their mobiles or tablets:
according to Galbraith (Burston-Marsteller, 2014), global mobile traffic represents 17.4% of
all internet traffic and is rapidly increasing. Infographics presents a visual content format
that meet mobile users expectations: they are long vertical scrolling designs, they contain
less text and more graphics and they allow social sharing (Balliett, 2014). Infographics
adapt to the new communication channels and are thus likely to become more popular
through them.!
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Mobile technology also offers individualised content to users, which points to another
major trend: personalisation. Dynamic interactive infographics (called socially generating
visualisations) “allow the viewer to interact with the content in a more meaningful way by
contributing to and actually being a part of the measured data that is displayed: the data
and visuals are updated with each subsequent user interaction with the product, thereby
providing each new consumer with a potentially different [and more engaging] experience
than those who came before” (Lankow et al., 2012, p.237, see figure d).!
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As well, the increasing automation of data visualisation will make data more and more
accessible and usable by brands and organisations in creating meaningful infographics
that can tell an attractive story based on those data (Lankow et al., 2012, p.220).!
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Finally, for Lankow et al., “infographic thinking” is everywhere you look now: for example,
visualisations of citywide network activity displayed over train station entrances or
augmented reality–style overlays for viewing information at airports, visualisations in live
sports broadcasts, films and TV commercials. People are becoming more fluent in
understanding data and want to be entertained while being informed (Lankow et al., 2012,
p.220).!
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6. Skills PR practitioners need to acquire!
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It seems that PR practitioners in the current industry are not ready to use and create visual
content by themselves. That explains the rise of independent startups offering visual
content designing services for companies and organisations. PR practitioners should be
able to adapt to this new visual way of communicating and be formed during education to
do so or receive trainings from their employers.!
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Now, there is a democratised access to infographics creation tools which enable PR
practitioners to create their own infographics, without going through specialised designing
agencies like Column Five or professional graphic designers. Nonetheless, the risk for PR
practitioners will be to avoid bad quality infographics that could alter the brand or
organisation’s credibility (Lankow et al., 2012, p.221). !
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9. PR practitioners also need to learn how to gather and use statistics effectively to be able to
build newsworthy infographics press releases for their clients. As well, another
responsibility falling to PR practitioners is to make their infographics shareable. The
content has to be featured to provide value to the journalists and help them distribute the
news by creating “ClickToTweet” links they can use in their posts (tweet-able headlines
and facts), cropping sections of the image so that they can “break up the infographics into
sections for a long-form article” and adding search-friendly links (Lankow et al., 2012, p.
160).!
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Finally, for Feil, PR practitioners have to transform themselves “from bullpens of writers to
teams that understand how to tell stories across a variety of media”. Kim Sample, CEO of
Emanate PR (quoted in Feil, 2012) says: “This profession attracts people who loves words
[but] we need to be more visual”.!
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7. Conclusion!
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In our dense media landscape, there is a saturation of information causing modern
audiences to be more reluctant to read long text-based articles as they have limited time
and attention. Consequently, journalists and bloggers want visual content that is easy to
post, easy to digest, easy to share, and will immediately appeal to their audiences.!
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As argued in this report and shown through successful examples, infographics are an
effective way to respond to journalists and their audiences’ s needs as they offer clear,
attractive, quick to understand and shareable information. They are efficient visual
storytelling tools that PR practitioners can benefit from in their need to adapt to the
increasingly visual way of communicating that prevail in our modern society.!
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10. 8. Appendices!
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8.1. Reflexion on the writing process !
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The main positive aspect of writing this trend report was that it allowed me to deeply dig
into the subject and get to learn a lot from it. Also, it made me realise to what extent
choosing a relevant subject matter requires a lot of previous research, readings and
thinking as well as to what point it is crucial to choose the right topic. !
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Indeed, I really struggled with finding a specific aspect of the subject I wanted to cover
initially, namely visual storytelling. I found it very difficult to narrow my focus on a specific
relevant trend inside this large field and I feel I lost a lot of time vainly trying to find a way
to cover the whole subject, whereas the purpose of a trend report, in my opinion, is to be
able to give a comprehensive overview of the chosen issue. !
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I tried to carry out most of my research using recent articles from authoritative blogs, PR
magazines and academic journals in order to provide recent studies, knowledge and
opinions about the topic. However, it was hard to find reliable authoritative blogs that I
could trust as it was not always possible to check their sources. I thus felt more
comfortable using recognised authoritative sources from respected PR agencies,
magazines like PR week or academic journals such as the Journal of Public Relations
Research as well as books, even if it was more limiting. !
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Also, even though I found statistics that clearly showed a current exponential use and
traffic of infographics (Google search), it seemed that most relevant articles about
infographics have been written in 2012 and new ideas to continue fuelling the debate are
lacking. Finding reliable statistics was also an issue as most of them are hosted on
specialised websites requiring payment to access them. !
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For my dissertation, I would like to invest more time and research to be able to provide
various points of view from different authors on the issue, compare and discuss them
rather than focusing on description and explanation as it was the case in this trend report.
For that I would need to find an adequate topic and learn how to use the university library
search more efficiently in order to find reliable sources and books that discuss the subject
academically. !
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11. 8.2. Illustrative examples of infographics in press releases!
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a) Column Five for Playstation 15th’s anniversary !
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b) “The Lifecycle of a Web Page” by Column Five for the social platform StumbleUpon!
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c) Column Five for the online personal finance and budgeting tool mint.com!
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14. d) Dynamic interactive infographic!
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15. 9. References!
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Balliett A. (2014), “3 Tips for Using Infographics on Mobile” in Search Engine People,
http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/125-infographics-mobile.html [Accessed:
November 2014]!
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Brown R. (2009), Public Relations and the Social Web: How to Use Social Media and Web
2.0 in Communications, Kogan Page.!
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Buraker K. (2014), “Sequential Opportunities: The Power of Visual Storytelling” in Ketchum
blog, http://blog.ketchum.com/sequential-opportunities-the-power-of-visual-storytelling/
[Accessed: November 2014]!
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Cook G. (2014), The Best American Infographics 2014, Cook Publishing.!
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Feil S. (2012), “Beyond words: Public Relations Embraces Visual Storytelling” in Journal of
Public Relations Research, Vol. 53 Issue 28, pp.7-11.!
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Fogel, B. (2013), “Show, not tell: The rise of the infographic” in Science Friday, http://
www.sciencefriday.com/blogs/10/18/2013/shownot-tell-the-rise-of-the-infographic.html?
series=20 [Accessed: November 2014].!
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Galbraith J. (2013), “10 Global Communication Trends in 2014” in WPP Burston-Marsteller
blog, http://www.wpp.com/wpp/marketing/publicrelations/10-global-communication-
trends-2014/ [Accessed: November 2014]!
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Lankow J., Ritchie J., Crooks R. (2012), Infographics: The Power of Visual Storytelling,
John Wiley & Sons Publishing.!
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Lazard A., Atkinson L. (2014), “Putting Environmental Infographics center Stage: The Role
of Visuals at the Elaboration Likelihood Model’s Critical point of persuasion” in Science
communication, http://scx.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/10/21/1075547014555997
[Accessed: November 2014] [Accessed: November 2014]!
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Li A. (2013), “Rise of infographics: Marketing in the social-media age” in Mashable, http://
mashable.com/2013/01/26/infographics-marketing/ [Accessed: November 2014]!
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Murray D. (2013), “Interactive Infographics and News Values” in Digital Journalism,
D e p a r t m e n t o f J o u r n a l i s m , B r u n e l U n i v e r s i t y, h t t p : / / d x . d o i . o r g /
10.1080/21670811.2013.841368 [Accessed: November 2014]!
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Segal D. (2012), “10 Dos and Don’ts of Making Infographics” in Ketchum blog, http://
blog.ketchum.com/10-dos-and-donts-of-making-infographics/ [Accessed: November 2014]!
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Segel E., Heer J. (2010), “Narrative visualization: Telling stories with data” in Transactions
on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 16, 1139-1148.!
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16. Smiciklas M. (2012), The Power of Infographics: Using Pictures to Communicate and
Connect With Your Audiences, Que Publishing.!
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Wilcox L. (2014), “Trends on Tuesday: Optimizing Infographics for Mobile in Digital Gov,
http://www.digitalgov.gov/2014/02/04/trends-on-tuesday-optimizing-infographics-for-
mobile/ [Accessed: November 2014]!
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Yakowicz B. (2014), “How to Use Infographics to Communicate With Your Customers” in
Inc.Magazine, http://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/how-infographics-can-help-you-
communicate-to-customers.html [Accessed: November 2014]!
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