In this episode, Teri welcomes Amanda de Souza, a Senior Producer at Verizon Media Studios (HuffPost Canada, Yahoo!, RYOT).

Welcome, Amanda!

Amanda produces, hosts, shoots, and edits videos for HuffPost Canada, and also hosts, writes, and produces the HuffPost Canada Splash Daily News Flash Briefing for Google Home and Alexa. The flash briefing achieved 20% audience growth in the third quarter of 2019 and is sponsored by VW. Amanda produces and consults on short, long form and docuseries video content for Verizon Media brands, including HuffPost Canada, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Canada Sports, Yahoo! Finance.

She also manages, trains and mentors reporters and production teams to excel under tight deadlines, and innovates and consults on branded content video series with RYOT Studios.

Background

• She’s been with HuffPost (Now Verizon Media) for about 4 years.
• She loves audio/video storytelling and has been doing audio and video for almost a decade.
• When the opportunity came up to host the HuffPost Canada Splash Daily News Flash Briefing, she felt it was an exciting opportunity, and a new and innovative space that everyone should look at.

The Idea for the HuffPost Canada Splash Daily News Flash Briefing

• The flash briefing was created when HuffPost realized how smart speakers were starting to go mainstream. Other competitors were already in the space so they had to take the opportunity to also get in more listeners’ ears.
• They already had successful podcasts like Born and Raised which is all about the stories of second generation Canadians, and the Follow Up Podcast which is a political podcast.

The Splash Daily News Content

• They have a 3-member team that gets the flash briefing out every day.
• A lot of news flash briefings are mostly just repurposed radio or other repurposed content, but Amanda and her team focus more on releasing authentic and fresh content that can help them make a personal connection with listeners.
• She’s always looking at what’s in the news, what’s trending, the great stories that are being covered on the HuffPost site, and selects which stories they want to highlight on any particular day.
• They record it every day in the afternoon and release it every night, 6 days a week.
• They also have a website where they upload all the flash briefings.

Feedback From Listeners and the Team

• They haven’t really engaged with people directly.
• It’s still a new technology with an emerging audience that they’re keeping an eye on.
• Amanda made all her team members buy smart speakers, and they’ve been getting on board. They see it as something innovative they’re doing.

The Quiz

• They operate on both Alexa and Google Home, and they’re looking to go into more interactive response news quizzes in 2020.
• In December 2019, they tried it out with a quick 5 question news quiz with multiple choices. It was a new way to interact with listeners and they’ll be doing more of it in 2020.

Sponsorship for the Flash Briefing

• They had Volkswagen as a sponsor for a campaign and they saw it as so exciting that a company of that magnitude would see the value in advertising through a flash briefing.
• They wanted to advertise a few car models and Amanda and her team integrated call to actions about the models in the flash briefing.
• Volkswagen understood the length of a flash briefing is very short, and so they only sent in a few sentences about the car models that Amanda read personally.

Future Plans

• The idea of adding a skill like a news quiz and other skills, including the branding opportunities that are there, are really exciting to her.
• She feels a flash briefing is an opportunity to give listeners more valuable content that they need.

List of resources mentioned in this episode

• The Comprehensive Flash Briefing Formula Course
• HuffPost Canada Splash Daily News Flash Briefing
• Born and Raised Podcast
• The Follow Up Podcast
• The HuffPost Website
• HuffPost Canada on Twitter
• HuffPost Canada on Instagram

Other useful resources:

• Voice in Canada: The Flash Briefing
• Complete List of Alexa Commands
• Alexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in Canada
• Teri Fisher on Twitter
• Alexa in Canada on Twitter
• Alexa in Canada Facebook Page
• Alexa in Canada Community Group on Facebook
• Alexa in Canada on Instagram
• Please leave a review on iTunes
• Shopping on Amazon.ca

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