Better #64

Kia ora,

There’s nothing like doing work that no one expects - stuff that seems too big and too daunting to pull off.

There’s that moment when someone mentions a crazy big idea, and everyone looks at each other like, ‘Surely we can’t … can we?!’

That’s the stuff I remember in my career, and often the work I'm most proud of when I look back.

It also nearly always involves working as part of a team - because it's bloody hard to do really big stuff on your tod.

It also always involves risk, and you have to:

1. Have the stomach for it

2. Have the stamina for it

In the public sector or other conservative organisations, that can be hard in itself.

You need to really get the foundations right (it must be worthwhile), but also know that it doesn’t need to be perfect from day 1 (there’s plenty of time to adjust).

I have also started ambitious projects and not finished them - which is alright too.

Because even 60-70% of ambitious is still a hell of a lot better than 100% of bog standard.

Cheers 👋
Seamus Boyer

I’ve been absolutely intrigued by the 100 Days of Startups campaign since it launched. I reckon is one of the coolest ideas in public sector socials right now.

It’s happening over on Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown’s social media channels, and it’s the scale of it that’s wild.

Every day a different Auckland startup is showcased - often via video, occasionally stills - and there’s going to be 100 of them.

Yes, one hundred.

There is so much to like about it - from the concept itself, which showcases the mayor, his personality and his views, while also sharing the limelight with local businesses, plus celebrating innovation and entrepreneurship. It’s seriously win-win-win.

The execution is impressive too. Every day is different: different intros and hooks, different edits, styles and formats. They’ve even brought councillors into some of the videos as hosts to change things up.

At the time of writing, they’re around Day 80. That’s already a huge body of work - and there’s still a long way to go.

I talked to Alicia King, Head of Communications for the Mayor of Auckland, about where the idea came from, what it takes to produce 100 pieces of content, and what they’ve learned along the way.

Enjoy.

💚💚💚

Hi Alicia, for starters, how did the idea come about?

The idea actually came from our economic development policy advisor! Given how platforms usually reward quality over quantity we were a little apprehensive (also just because of the sheer size of it) but decided to give it go - there are so many cool startups in Auckland and we knew we'd get lots of off-the-cuff hot takes from the Mayor which would move the content from niche tech to something more entertaining for general audiences.

There's also something here about Kiwis being innovative and loving talking about ideas - we really are creators, risk-takers, and rebels. We love testing things.

What does the planning/logistics of it look like?

We are very lucky to have a data analyst running our schedule spreadsheet which has all the startups in order of post, their info, and what correspondence they've had with us.

It also includes a content tracker for filming, edits and copy sign-offs, plus a scheduled/posted check.

We then have Teams folders set up with the social copy, video and scripts for each startup.

How do you fit the shooting into the mayor's schedule?

It's hard to fit into his schedule but he's having fun so likes doing them and always makes the time.

We try film one a day then post that day, but he's not in the office every day so we do sometimes have filming sessions for a few at a time.

Because the videos are short and it's usually his take on a script, the filming is often, but short. We did start with about ten ready to go just in case we had an issue with one of them.

How do you keep it fresh and interesting to execute?

We have one rule which is that we try to have no rules.

It's really most definitely been an experiment and that keeps it a bit fresh - changing the format when it suits the type of startup, and trying different edit techniques.

I'd like us to have more time to do some better visual hooks (some people are producing such great content out there!) But it's not such a bad thing because people watch the mayor for his candid responses, not his jump cuts.

What feedback have you got? From both audiences and businesses?

The feedback has mainly been from startups just being so happy to be seen.

Our business news in New Zealand focuses on the big players and while there's niche tech news outlets which are great, there's nothing for businesses in that startup phase.

We have been told by a couple of stakeholders to enter it into a few awards but I'm just wanting to complete it first!

Anything you’ve learned along the way or might do differently?

The sting is a bit much after a few of the videos so we've dropped using that a bit. I'd approach doing anything repetitive in future with a mild look and feel so it doesn't get on people’s nerves after a while.

Some of those first videos are very rough; wrong lighting etc. And the first few days were the worst - the Mayor was sick, myself and a few of our team members were sick too, so I apologise to those startups - we kind of rushed those ones out. I'd strongly recommend, given the attention a campaign like this requires – maybe don't run it during flu season [laughs].

Any plans to do something more with the footage?

Those discussions are ongoing but we just released our first piece of content that’s additional to the dailies at the halfway mark. It was a humble blooper reel.

We're looking at doing some kind of countdown from 10, a digital relay maybe, with pointers to Startup Week (which is open to anyone to go to by the way). It's a huge part of Auckland, our burgeoning little ideas. I highly recommend anyone taking a look, even if you're not looking to invest, you will likely find some things you want to buy.

Any tips for teams thinking of going big?

Get the detail sorted. It's the small process things that might not be annoying posting every now and then but become so when posting at that volume ...

The monitoring is mammoth. We've stood up another team member to help do this so that 'Dave' from Horowhenua doesn't complain about how much he hates Jafas under one of the startup's moments in the spotlight. We have protected each startup's moment quite robustly because they're all trying so hard to lift Auckland's economy, putting their livelihoods and careers on the line to do so.

We are also lucky to have a creative producer who's able to wear multiple hats and an additional editor for the campaign who've both got a few formats down to a fine art. To help we this we have a bit of a menu for these; some of them are 'Insta first', 'LinkedIn first' or 'FB first', where we tailor the approach to the channel and the way those different algorithms are rewarding different formats. And some of the menu includes concepts that are easy to produce, and visual hook ideas etc.

Anything surprised you about the campaign?

Going back to the whole platforms rewarding quality over quantity, we are actually seeing a really interesting pattern emerge in our insights.

Normally, most posts are relevant for a short period, mostly in the moment. But because the campaign is relevant for the whole three months, we are seeing more of a binge watch attitude like TV on demand.

People are watching one and then going back to watch the others, so we aren't seeing a typical peaky bell curve here, we are seeing a continual increase in views on all the posts.

We weren't expecting the gains to look quite like that, and I think it speaks to the Mayor's pulling power. You need to have a frank talker, especially on social.

Well, I’m inspired!

Share this edition with your colleagues and your boring, risk-averse boss - it might inspire them, too.

We only get one crack at this life, so might as well spend the work part of it having some fun and doing something unique and interesting, I reckon.

Have a great week, and I’ll see you again soon for more tips on how to get just a little bit Better 👋