News relationships lead to innovation
We’re used to seeing sponsored sections of newspaper, the big player’s version of an inserted flyer, the PR value is varied but always clearly focussed on the sponsor’s product as the result of a simple cash/ad space exchange. In this hard copy news encounter there’s obviously a halo effect between the brands of sponsor and news organisation.
Things have been a little more clear-cut in the online world of news organisations; The Guardian’s website was The Guardian’s own domain, apart from the odd banner ad,
A new kind of relationship with IDEO looks set to change that online balance. Since working with IDEO as a consultant a few years back I’ve kept an interest in the relationship of their practice to the PR, and this recent development is an interesting and rather impressive move. IDEO and The Guardian Online have started a quasi joint venture to publish thoughts on... anything to do with ‘innovation’ (which happens to be one of IDEO’s key self generating labels.) Whilst it could be easy to dismiss this a purely a PR exercise for a big and bright international service and product design company, it is also a significant move for Guardian themselves.
This IDEO driven/branded marketing exercise uses some of the Guardian’s columnists shoulder to shoulder with its own writers. There is clearly an eye for an opportunity from the guardian in this new style relationship. The news industry has been in sharp decline in recent years, and clearly they are looking at expanding and innovating themselves into new relationships with thinkers, content makers, and ultimately it’s increasingly technologically driven public.
In the same way that ‘everyone’ can now call themselves a ‘designer’ (from bioengineers to service strategists), the news industry is opening themselves up to new ‘content developers’ from diverse practice backgrounds. This isn’t much of a surprise when you consider the impressive rise of the blogger, however there is an interesting paradigm shift when institutions such as the Guardian open up their website, and not only their comments and blog in collaboration with their own columnists. Let’s see where this can go next.
Take a look and see what you make of the inspire-innovate relationship.
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