Inside the Groupon Content Machine http://simp.ly/publish/cPqmXQ

Confab
11:00 am, May 10
#confabgroupon

Brandon Copple, Groupon

Notes by @brianjameskirk, @technicallym
All notes for the conference available here: http://simp.ly/publish/5GMHGD

Passion for transparency and creativity, launched in Chicago

500 deals per day, 175 N. American markets, 70 million subscribers, tons of competition

Content is a differentiator

Editorial goals:
425 people on editorial staff with common goals: protect customer experience, protect Groupon brand, ensuring deals are fair, transparent, awesome

This team is responsible for the write-up about the deal

Two objectives: 1. describe, 2. entertain

Entertain with humor, or entertain with a spark of admiration; reader should feel that something was said that was really clever. We do that with carefully measured jokes: sentence lead that is a full joke, no real information contained in it.

Then deal, business is described. And then there is a second humor moment (not classic absurdist moment). Third and final graf, two more humor moments just to keep that level of engagement. Humor should never be more than 20 percent of content says Groupon's editorial lead Brandon Copple http://simp.ly/publish/cPqmXQ
#Confab #liveblog

PRINCIPLES
Respect: Assume are reader are smart, media-savvy, busy
Independence: Don't collaborate w/ merchants or sales (no language from merchant)
Accuracy: team has fact-checkers
Transparency: Don't oversell
Editorial: Not advertising

THE ELEMENTS OF GROUPON STYLE
1. Active, creative language (unleashes, drenching)
2. POV: 3rd person, minimize 2nd (avoid making assumptions 'bout reader)
3. Show, don't tell
4. Research: Thorough and in-depth reporting

HOW WE DO THIS
425 editorial staff, 101 writers, 43 voice editors (6 writers start today) at Groupon and writers start at $37,000
26 designers, 49 fact checkers, 39 review researchers, 22 copy editors, 2 editor/writer trainers, 4 full-time writer recruiters

Who are they? Journos, creative writers, artists, copywriters

PROCESS
Eight stages
1. Deal creation, data entry role
2. Image designers
3. Reviews (find reviews online to paint picture)
4. Details (hunt menu items, decor, upcoming events, etc.)
5. Fact Check (searching online for details, not phone calls)
6. Voice Edit (Fix bad jokes, color errors)
7. Copy edit (Closely inspect spelling/grammar/style abnormalities)
8. QA
+1 - Site editors, final look

DOES IT WORK
55% of subscribers say they like or love the write-ups
54% say they love the humor

WHAT WE'VE LEARNED
Recruiting is paramount (writers hiring writers, kept it in-house)
Training is crucial
Demystify the creative process: reverse engineer humor, seek common constructs, provide creative strategies, isolate write-up anatomy
Try to make as many decision as we can for them so we cn save their energy for creative decisions
Use social media to track editorial execution success
(Editorialdept.com/captivate/summitdetails.pdf (cool, own password protected domain for content production training manuals))

EMBRACING CONSTRAINTS
Humor: never at anyone's expense, or offend merchant or subscribers
Organizational buy-in
Key to great corporate culture is 400 young creatives

Q&A

As Groupon moves global, it's tough to translate humor priorities (where voice/humor won't fly in some countries)

Notes by @brianjameskirk, @technicallym
All notes for the conference available here: http://simp.ly/publish/5GMHGD