WHO AM INow:Audience Development at AJ+

Previously:Launch team of AJ+, Al Jazeera America, Al Jazeera Turk, Al Jazeera Balkans…

Digital R&D at Al Jazeera (Incubation and Innovation)

Twitter: @harisalisichttps://twitter.com/harisalisic

WHO WE ARE Digital-native media organization for the connected generation

Launched from SF in September 2014, in English. More than 4 billion views on AJ+ English.

Currently publishing in English, Spanish and Arabic.

Online video(any video online)

vs Native video

(made specifically for each platform)

WHO DO YOU WANT TO BE

Social(social media)

vs Digital

(includes consoles, Apple TV, Android TV…)

Define success – how does that look to you?

Preferably have external focus when defining rather than internal.

WHERE TO START

“Be most trusted source among 20-25 year olds in China” is much better than “Produce 10, 5-minute long videos per day”

Define and specify your audience - Whatever you do should be for them or not done at all

FOR WHOM

• Audience Centric• Be very specific –

demographics, psychographics, lifestyle

• What are their interests• What platforms do they

use

• Where do they live• When are they online• Do they prefer faster or

slower music• What value words to they

love/hate

• Your team needs to embody your brand values.• Diverse and Inclusive – age, sex, competence,

background, views, origin…• Representative – of the audience you are trying to

reach• Brave – to test, itterate and innovate quickly. To push

boundaries.• Edgy – if your story is the same like everybody else’s

then why say it at all

YOUR TEAM

Doing stories right (wire centric) journalistic integrity, all sides, quality, fact checking,

attractive

vsDoing right stories right (audience

centric)all of the above BUT on topics your audience cares

about

WHAT STORIES TO TELL

YOUR VIDEOAlways think of the first few seconds.

Put your most compelling footage here.Add text early, unless footage is self-explanatory.Use unique or different footage – u need to stand out.Attractive thumbnail.

Do a lot of A/B testing when it comes to videos, music, posts, language, etc. Listen to your audience and implement their feedback.

All consumption happens in a context:• Commuting• Work• School

It happens on a certain platform:• Auto play or not• Silent or not• Vertical or horizontal orientation

YOUR VIDEO CONSUMED

• The work doesn’t stop once the video is published – it intensifies.

• Engage your community - respond, involve, include – throughout the process.

• Try to produce “with” your community not “for” it.

• Evaluate your audience data weekly and implement improvement directly. It might not be perfect but your next week should be better than the last one.

ENGAGEMENT AT THE CORE

ETERNAL TRUTHS?

• We get bored easily. • Keep the good tempo.• Don’t make videos longer than needed. Duration

impacted by the platform. • YT > FB > TW• If three tweets are enough to illustrate a point, than

don’t use five.• Tell a story, don’t make a video.

DIGITAL IS NOT TV

• Define you brand clearly – logo, colors, fonts, graphical elements, style.

• It should be recognizable even without the logo.• Creative is a crucial part of success and you can do much

more than on TV.• Experiment with storytelling. • Animation can supplement lack of footage but will impact

storytelling.

CREATIVE HEAVEN

MOBILE and mobile alone

What platforms will you useBe native - treat every platform differently because it is

• REMAINING RELEVANT (TO THE COMMUNITY) – HABITS AND INTERESTS CHANGE AND SO SHOULD YOU.

• COMPLACENCY – DON’T EVER THINK THAT YOU HAVE FIGURED IT OUT.

• TALENT – MORE CHALLENGING THAN ONE MIGHT THINK.

CHALLENGES