The IBM CEO Study – A Lesson in Modern Storytelling & Cross-Platform Publishing
A few weeks ago, I attended a panel discussion during Social Media Week: The New Leadership Imperative, A Social CEO. It was a fantastic, dynamic event and the panelists were amazingly insightful. But that event is not the focus of today’s post.
Modern Storytelling – Publishing Across Platforms
The focus of today’s post is modern publishing. More specifically, I will share with you how IBM creates a consistent story and user experience – both print and digital – for its Global CEO Study.
Smart companies are realizing that creating a singular piece of content and chunking it off across platforms is not an effective way to capture reader attention. Nor is it an effective way to create emotional brand connections through the telling of a consistent, integrated story.
The IBM CEO Study is a great case study for how publishing in today’s marketplace can be creative, engaging and interactive. This example shows how stories can be enhanced, and told in slightly different ways, depending on the platform and the end-user.
Tying this post back to the Social CEO event for a moment, Ed Brill, Director of Social Business and Collaboration Solutions at IBM, was one of the insightful panelists I mentioned earlier. He had a great many things to say, and brought everyone in the audience a print copy of the 2012 IBM CEO Study: Leading Through Connections. Thank you, Ed.
The Print Experience
Creating engaging research reports is a difficult endeavor. By pairing clean design with impactful callouts, the printed study reads like a well planned website. IBM ingeniously tells the story through the use of design – by pulling out key insights and stats, which keeps readers interested.
The Digital Experience
The digital experience is not a simple replica of the printed report. IBM leverages the web to showcase extended content, creating a rich, interactive learning platform.
The website showcases industry-specific perspectives, a slew of infographics for easy info consumption, case studies, downloadable audio insights, and a series of CEO C-Suite Studies videos.
YouTube Experience – IBM Institute for Business Value
People love watching videos. IBM’s Institute for Business Value YouTube channel showcases insightful videos and interviews with various C-Suite thought leaders.
The videos allow users to navigate through the CEO study (among others) in a topic-focused way. Instead of learning about an entire trend, viewers can learn about specific topics, such as “innovation driven by partnership.”
This is a fantastic way to parcel the complete story into digestible bits of insight.
Additional Experiences
A trendy way to tell complex stories is through the visualization of data. Infographics allow readers to understand a large amount of information in a compelling, easy to consume manner.
Check out the handful of infographics IBM created for its CEO study:
And, if those publishing examples were not enough…in 2010, IBM published an Interactive Version of their CEO Study.
I hope you enjoy consuming this insightful content across all of the platforms I’ve highlighted. Happy discovery!
