Working Creative Briefs for CNN HLN:
Some of these Creative Briefs are exactly what was expected as they are full of ideas and specifics. Some are only an outline and not a brief at all.
A Creative Brief is exactly formatted as the one that Scot Safon gave to each of you for their role in this assignment. It has very specific events and deliverables to the client. We'll discuss these more in class on Thursday when you give your presentation to the rest of the teams. You should come with examples and specifics (visuals.)
A Creative Brief is a road map for yourself as well as the client. It gives an overview of what you plan to do and how you plan to do it (in stages) so there are no surprises. I realize this is still a working creative brief but some of the ones that were sent to me have not been developed and one would assume that there hasn't been much time put into your concepts. Please develop your ideas more before Thursday.
Adam Bueb and Christine Rivera
HLN Project Brief
Our concept for an HLN integrated editorial initiative is based around allowing the viewers to determine the top story of the year. The main idea is based around a 31 day contest that pits 30 of the top stories of the year against each other and allows the viewers to determine which story impacted, fascinated, and resonated the most with them. Each day of the month, HLN will feature a 15-minute overview of one of the 30 stories at a specific time. The viewers will be allowed to vote through Twitter, Facebook, and on HLN’s own website. At the end of the month, preferably on December 31st, HLN will feature the top three stories of the year in an in depth manner.
In addition to the month-long contest, online games will be integrated on Facebook and HLN’s website that relate to the 30 stories. Each day, when the 15-minute overviews are shown, HLN will show the top scores of the day from each specific game, much in the same manner that Adult Swim posts their top scorers of the day. These online games can be sponsored by any number of companies, who will get free advertising online and on television.
Another design element we will be using is incorporating a pop-up factoid that will be created using the speech bubble from HLN’s logo. Throughout the day, we can use that speech bubble to call out what people are saying on Twitter and Facebook. It will also be used during the 15-minute overviews to bring out interesting factoids from the specific stories, much in the same way that “Pop-Up Video” on VH1 informed their viewer about music videos.
Another element of the 31-day contest involves entering each person who votes into a raffle. At the end of the month, one view will win a grand prize from the company who will sponsor the entire month-long contest. There is potential for big companies to pay for what will basically be free advertising online and television for a month. In addition, there is also room for daily raffles of smaller prizes for companies that would like to sponsor only one day or one week.
We believe that this idea allows, not only, for an integrated campaign across all platforms that HLN uses, but also will generate excitement among viewers by allowing them to be involved in the process of determining which stories were the most important to them. This concept can also be repeated every year and generates huge potential for sponsors due to the many different facets it creates.
Charles Gary and Michael ManisaTHE MOST VIRAL 2011
What are we trying to accomplish?
The goal of our project is to let the viewers know how big social media is. Because of social media, information travels really quickly and it shows no sign of slowing down. Nearly everyone knows about twitter, facebook, or digg. To give a better picture of how big this is, here are some fact and figures. Facebook has over 300 million users, Twitter has almost 175 million, and Digg has over ____ users. We realize how huge social networks are, so we centered our entire project around the idea of sharing information.
Sharing information is exactly what the HLN Network is all about. The network prides itself over featuring ‘watercooler’ news, news that is irresistible, news that people want to talk about, and news that people want to share. Besides literally standing next to a watercooler at the office, people share this news digitally on their smart phones or computers via their social network of choice. Because we know people love their social networks, we thought, what better way to commemorate the year than to show viewers the results of their social media excursions?
How will we do it?
People love lists, possibly because secretly everyone is a little bit elitist. So we want to commemorate the old year with a top 10 list. At surface value, this may seem like just another list, but our list goes deeper than that. What makes our list so different than everyone else’s list is the fact that our top 10 list is fueled by the idea of how many times someone has mentioned a story via a social network. Only the most talked about stories will be able to secure a spot on this coveted list. Yes, we know that the story was big, but how many times was it actually Tweeted? Shared? Dugg?
What will it look?
On the web, it will be an interactive piece made up of blocks that align to the HLN grid. A beautifully designed kinetic type introduction stating facts about social networks will lead the viewer to the interactive grid. It will start out with a simple box with 2011 written in it and when the user clicks on this box, it will expand and break up to reveal categories, and the more the user clicks on these blocks the more they break down and re-align themselves in the HLN grid until the user finally finds stories relevant to that topic. One at the story level, the user will be able to read about it, share it, find media, and links relating to the event.
(insert picture here)
What will it look like on television?
This will be a TV show based on the top 10 list. There will be a narrator and these stories will be randomized as to give the audience more suspense so that the stories wont be so predictable. This will keep them guessing. But at the end of each segment, they will display some kind of ranking system on the bottom that has some number on it from an index that will be created. This index factors in facebook shares, twitter tweets, digg duggs, and google ad-words.
Sponsorable
We will include a sponsor program into this project. Some kind of joint promotion with a company (like Starbucks). HLN can either tell the audience to go visit the sponsor or purchase something at a discount for the special HLN discount. Or the sponsor could give out a special promotion code that will unlock something special on the HLN site.
Conclusion
By giving the audience another perspective on a story that has been talked about already, we feel that they would want to talk about it again. For example, “Omg, did you watch HLN last night? The Casey Anthony case was apparently more popular than I thought.” People are dedicated to their social networks, they spend most of their time on them, sometimes forgetting about reality all together. So why not reward them and show them the results of their dedication?
Toni Rogers and Tiffany Forrester"I Remember When…2011"
HLN 2011 Year in Review creative brief
Our campaign highlights the individual experience of remembering the year that was. We will have anchors and audience members alike relating to major events of the year in a casual testimonial style. The audience members will be excited to give their testimonials through social media. Their stories will have a chance of being on campaign television spots. These spots, which will feature HLN personalities giving their own personal accounts of events, will further promote the personal human experience that the HLN brand thrives on.
We will provide an immersive interactive web page experience that will showcase the events of the year, as well as awarding participating viewers. Specific events from the year will have a prize or offer that relates to said event based on viewer interaction. The website will point viewers to watch HLN during certain times, and on air we give clues to help win grand prizes online. This will allow for sponsorship and attract new viewers. For example, Delta airlines could sponsor a prize trip to London, which would relate to the Royal Wedding.
This campaign has a long shelf life and could be carried over for any year in the future.
Saif Khan, Misty Marquis and Stephen DeLorme2011: The Year in Review for You
“HLN is talking about the same things you are”.
The Year in Review Web App
The Year in Review web application is part of the HLN website. It uses Facebook Connect to generate an appealing, interactive info-graphic that shows the user what news they shared on Facebook in 2011, and how that fits into the wider world of news. The infographic is overwhelming in the amount of information it presents you, hooking
users with it’s addicting functionality.
How It Works
People will learn about the Year in Review web app:
• when they see an ad for it on HLN television.
• when they see it advertised on www.hlntv.com
• when they see their friends using the app on their Facebook wall.
When users go to the Year in Review, they are prompted to sign in using Facebook connect. Upon signing in, the Year in Review scans your Facebook wall for news that you have shared over the past year. It then finds related articles, ultimately including content from the HLN website. The user is presented with an interactive info-graphic that shows how the
news the user shared is connected with other news articles on the internet.
Example: Stephen shared a news article about the
Casey Anthony case on Facebook. This contains similar keywords to another about Casey Anthony. The next article contains similar keywords to a video clip
on the HLN website.
The Viral Edge
As people use the Year in Review, it will, of course, show up on Facebook. So, once Stephen has used the Year in Review, it shows up on Saif and Misty’s Facebook wall. Being curious, they click the links to see what it is. Now that they are using the web app, they see what Stephen has shared, what they have shared, and how everything is interrelated. They end up killing a lot of time on this app. At the end of the day,
the users feel like HLN is talking about the same things that they are.
Advertising Opportunity & the TV Tie-In
Since the web app ultimately tries to tie the user’s Facebook posts back to HLN news,
people will end up watching videos on the HLN website. 30 second video ads an be
run on all the HLN videos. These videos, being clips of HLN TV personalities, will
ideally make the user hungry for more. They hopefully become HLN viewers, if they are
not already.
Sarah Adams and John HallmanOVERVIEW SPECTRUM | 2011: The Year in Color
We will create an interactive, online tool that organizes news stories of 2011 based on both their physical colors and the emotions evoked by certain colors (as outlined by psychological institutions). Users will be able to select a color from a spectrum and browse stories associated with their choice. (ie: Stories about health are green/blue).
CONTENT MUST-SEE
We are presenting a unique way for people to revisit stories of the year based primarily on their colors. By allowing people to discover stories based on a single color choice, users will enjoy browsing news headlines more, while simultaneously finding more unique stories of interest they would not have found otherwise. Since color is one of the first things a person recognizes when seeing something, this allows people to remember things more vividly. To add an extra dimension, the stories will be arranged by popularity, with varying levels of vibrancy based on interest.
We will also incorporate web banner ads asking people, “What’s your color?” using a spot color visual and taking them to their selected news stories.
MUST-SHARE
Social networking will be integrated into this application, allowing users to “share their color” with their friends and followers. Twitter “hashtags” will also be created to help spread their discoveries,
eg. “My news is orange! #HLNspectrum.” There wil also be opportunities to link their facebook accounts to the site so they can easily share things they find interesting.
Connecting their Twitter or Facebook account will allow users to add their current profile picture to the “HLN Spectrum Mosaic—” a large HLN icon comprised of all the photos people add. The HLN icon will retain its characteristic shape, but will now be made up of a spectrum, which will be derived from the photos added. Based on the color they select, their photo will be overlayed with a slight tint of that color and put into the corresponding area of the Mosaic. Colors can be shared on HLNtv.com using their already-established blog format.
MUST-WATCH
This will be a week-long program near the end of the year, where each night focuses on a different color of news. Anchors will devote a certain amount of time to the color of the day as it relates to their individual show.
TV advertising will rely on spot colors in a black and white world, where people will see one to three selected objects in color. This will spark their interest, resulting in their visitation to the program or website.
MUST-BUY
The intended sponsors would be companies such as Crayola, Epson, Sony, Kodak, HP, Toshiba, Samsung, or any company where color is the primary focus of their business. However, we will still allow spots for companies that dont’ fit this criteria. Liking, following, or tweeting may result in daily or weekly giveaways from the selected sponsors.
TARGET
AUDIENCE
People interested in looking back at 2011 in a new way; based on the color of the stories they found interesting. This can be any range of ages, though the current majority of HLN viewers tend to be women interested in popular culture.
Jono Herrington and Lucas AlvarezCREATIVE BRIEF FOR HLN
Project: Journey 2011
Overview:
Our purpose is to create an interactive exploration of 2011 that causes the audience to not only read the news but engage with. We will do this by breaking down the stories regionally and allowing the user to journey through the happenings of the year. We plan on engaging the audience not only through the adventure, but also through active polls and statistics. We want to create an environment that is easily shared and accessible through social networking. This will happen by integrating the core of this project into mediums such as Facebook and Apps. Also, we plan on drawing viewers by developing print ads and tv blips that will display in mediums specific to our target audience.
Target Audience:
• PRIMARY
- Women | More surburban - not urban | Middle America sensibility |
Neighborhoods | Parents
• SECONDARY
- Parents | Homeowners | Entertainment & Realty Show Lovers | Fans of Ellen,
Oprah, People Magazine, People.com, Today
• MARKETS
- Midwest, Southeast, Southwest, heartland, the center of the country - Smaller cities.
OTHER: Cleveland | Chicago | Atlanta | Cincinnati
Goal:
We want to engage our users with more than just spoon feeding them the news. Similar to how Facebook users explore and interact with the friends they choose, we want to
immulate a similar relationship between the user and the secrets/stories of 2011. Our heart is to entice the audience’s appetite and create a desire not only to listen but engage with the news. We will do this by sparking a conversation through photos, statistics, and stories that allures the user into a discussion about the news instead of just being told. By providing reliable statistics that are both relavent and dynamic, developing outlets where individual voices can be heard, and creating communities that are in touch with what is happening around them, this will be done.
Mario Reid and Jonathan HartPROJECT:
2011 Year in Review or HLN Best of 2011
OVERVIEW:
The purpose of this project is to create a 2011 Year in Review that will highlight the top 50 (or more) news stories covered on HLN. The project will entice viewers to visit HLNtv.com and interact with the people and stories that made 2011.
THE CONCEPT:
What if the people who made all the headlines, the big stories, of 2011 were gathered in a room together, like an end of the year party, as a sort of who’s who reunion?
What would they say to each other? What did people say about them? What would they want to tell you? What was it about them that intrigued us? What was it about them that commanded our attention? Some faces may be familiar (Casey Anthony, politicians,
celebs), other faces, not so familiar (foreign leaders, disaster victims), but they all had a story to tell in 2011.
Its about the people that made 2011 what it is. Some of their stories are serious, funny, touching, emotional,scandalous, but all of them compelling, and they got us talking. This project could develop into a piece that people look forward to year after year, and they would want to tell their friends about (comments, email, Facebook, Twitter, etc).
THE EXECUTION:
This project will likely be an interactive web application where viewers will be invited into “the Room” to meet the crowd (or party) of people that shaped 2011 (picture Sgt. Peppers cover). Viewers can click on the images of people to bring up their stories, headlines, quotes, photos, etc. Maybe it’s a guessing game
where viewers hover their mouse over silouettes of people to reveal a clue or quote as to the person underneath. Viewers can click to see if they know who it is. There will be an element of intrigue and recollection, “Oh yeah! That happened in 2011? Wow, I remember that story!” Events, such as the Japan Earthquake will still be told through the viewpoint of the people it impacted. In other words, It’s all about the people and their stories. The project should be translatable to television or TV spots could direct viewers to visit the HLN website.
Tyler Willis and Jacobly ChatmanHLN Creative Brief
For our project we have several things that we would like to do. First, we would like to make an intro for HLN’s YouTube videos. They post several videos every day but most don't have any kind of intro. The ones that do are an intro for a specific show. We feel it would look better if they all had a short intro clip. We would also like to make a commercial for YouTube and possibly TV that is a montage of news and stories from 2011. YouTube is a great social network which they seem to want to use, but aren't pushing it as hard as they should. They do not have as many followers
as other popular channels of the same subject matter. They would like for a lot of their posts to become “viral” in a sense in order to reach out to a larger audience. This could be very influential on the younger generations that would probably not watch HLN on TV.
Another thing we would like to do is design a splash page for their website. A splash page is the initial page that pops up when you go to the website before you get into the home page. Our idea for this is to make a collage or some kind of timeline of news, events and stories that occurred in 2011. This could simply be an image or something interactive. It may also translate over into a
print ad or be placed elsewhere on the website.
Another idea is to create a commercial for web or ta. We would like to film random people or “actors” in populated areas, and have the HLN speech bubble pop up over their heads containing current topics. HLN has a lot of news about every day people, and even big events they cover are more about the people involved than the actual event. We would like for the commercial to convey this.
Lastly, we would like to create interactive or video lists with different subject matter such as “Top 11 Biggest Stories”, “Top 11 Biggest Goofs” and “Top 11 Biggest Success Stories”. These are intended to also serve as a recap for 2011, potentially making viewers aware of this they may not have seen.
Nick Higgins and Avi GelfondGOAL
To create a summary of the news events that occured during the year 2011 that will serve as a promotional tool for HLNtv.com and will also present a fun and informative way to give the viewer a look at the events of 2011.
CONCEPT
Create an infographic that shows viewers events in a “By The Numbers”-style information that will give viewers an overall scale of things that occured in 2011. For example, we will show things like the the number of tweets a specific trending topic may have received, such as tweets about Casey Anthony. We also would like to create a matrix that ranks news from jawdroping to heartbreaking and good news to bad news. The placing of events will come from Facebook polling to emphasize a connect with the viewers.
