Transforming Into A Digital Brand

Glenn KatesManaging Editor, Digital @gkates

Wojtek GrojecDigital Editor @disconnect

COUNTRIES23 26

LANGUAGES

1950 17BUREAUSFOUNDED

DECIDING TO GO DIGITAL

Go where the audience is

Auto-playing videos

New market for digital content in Russian

CASE STUDY

Kadyrov: Let Me Be A Loser...

Views 1.9 million (Facebook/YouTube)

Time to produce: 1 day

Avg. watch time: 1:04

DECIDING TO GO DIGITAL

Priorities, engagement over clicks

Lots of original content, esp. video

No choice

CASE STUDY

You Think Your Job Is Tough?

Views: 33.6 million

Shares (FB): 658 thousand

Organic views: 96%

SEPT. 2015

117K847K356K

566K13M4.5M

FOLLOWERS

SEPT. 2016

EXAMPLE: FACEBOOK

VIDEO VIEWS

ENGAGED USERS

HOW WE DID IT

RFE/RL english digital team

4 people

Current Time digital (Russian)

14 people

Video producer

Visual/graphics specialists

Social media managers

Data journalists/developers

CASE STUDY

The Mammoth Pirates

Shares: 11.8 thousand

Time to design: 2 weeks

Syndication: Atlantic, Guardian,

Daily Mail, NZ Herald, ...

CASE STUDY

Questions: goo.gl/slides/kk6ycs

HOW WE DID IT

Take stock of what you have.

Reporting from hard to reach places

Visual content from the field

(Pre)produce for platforms

Visuals based strategy

People that can wear many hats

Thanks!@rferl @rfe.rl .com/rferl

Come say hi! Join us at 17:30 for

Extra stuff

CASE STUDY

From Boats To Bags

Views: 262 thousand

Crossposted by: AJ+, Upworthy

Crossposted views: >7.2 million