One of my New Year resolutions was to try – as hard as I can – to keep our friends in the industry up to date with what the Blackball Media team is doing.
Over the last two years the team has more than doubled in size and we’re now writing for more than 2.6m people a month.
We run content channels for AOL Cars and Motors.co.uk as well as the UK’s biggest motor trade publication, Car Dealer Magazine.
VIDEO
Our video team has recently grown to three. Headed up by Nigel Swan we’re producing more video for more clients than ever before – at the last count we were set to deliver 27 videos in January alone.
Along with retainers with Motors.co.uk and Money Supermarket for 2014, the team is producing B-roll and social media videos for a number of car manufacturers as well as supporting new dealer launches.
You can see some of the work we’ve been doing for our clients elsewhere in this blog, but if you need help in the video sphere, just drop me a line. We’ll be out in Geneva producing video content for a number of car manufacturers and lots like the one below for Motors.co.uk. If you need some too, let us know.
TRAVELS
At the tail end of last year I spent two weeks in the Far East with Kia and Mazda. Firstly I travelled to Korea where I dug up a huge variety of stories that ended up filling six pages in Car Dealer as well as a load of news stories for AOL and Motors. I then flew on to Tokyo to cover the motor show, thanks to Mazda, where again I got some exclusive access to cars for early first drives.
And the year kicked off with another motor show trip. I’ve just returned from Detroit– unfortunately my bag hasn’t – but again I got some great access to produce content for our online and print titles. Thanks to all those manufacturers for having Blackball Media along.
CAR DEALER
Earlier this month we were delighted to announce that our iPad App has now been subscribed to by more than 6,000 readers. This, on top of the 12,000 printed magazines that are sent out each month, makes us by far and away the biggest motor trade title. We’ve added half the print readership again on top with the iPad App and the number continues to grow every month.
Sophie Williamson-Stothert will sadly be moving on from the mag on February 4. She’s heading back up to Oxford and a job in PR, which we wish her all the very best with. Dave Brown, former sub-editor, will be returning as production editor for the magazine, working alongside editor James Batchelor.
PR
We’ve recently helped organise a PR master class for a large number of dealers for one of the manufacturers we represent. The day kicked off with an introduction from TV’s Mike Brewer and was followed by social media advice and a Dealer PR workshop from the Blackball Media team.
The video department produced a short film for that session too – featuring some rather familiar faces – it was designed to explain to the dealers why PR is so important. Take a look and see if you can see anyone you know…
Mitsubishi Dealer PR Conference – Blackball Media Interviews from Blackball Media on Vimeo.
EDITORIAL
Our editorial teams producing content for AOL and Motors continue to deliver. Numbers on AOL Cars are growing every week and we’re now one of the biggest channels in terms of traffic on the AOL network.
Motors – which has recently launched an impressive TV advertising campaign – is continuing to see a welcome uplift in traffic to its news articles, thanks to the hard work of the Blackball Media team.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Well we’re busy producing a large number of car videos for Money Supermarket at the moment, alongside the other film work already in the diary. We’re also preparing for the Geneva motor show, from which five members of the team will be reporting for our outlets.
We’re also working on producing bespoke dealer newsletters that they can send direct to their customers for a number of manufacturers. These brilliant six-page gatefold publications look superb and are designed and written by the Blackball Media team. We’re hoping to talk to more manufacturers about these as we go forward in 2014.
For now, that’s about it. If you’ve got a story or an event you think we should be covering, or need help with editorial, video or design needs, call me on (023) 9252 2434.
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