From the Publisher’s desk (or mobile)…

"We still have a lot to do to keep driving that conversation but it’s incredibly satisfying that we managed to have a first birthday."
Paul Edwards, Group General Manager Corporate Communications, ANZ

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We saw an opportunity in the media and technology landscape but it was very much an idea – there were no models capturing exactly what we wanted to do and of course the earth was, and still is, constantly shifting under our feet.

Traditional media was changing and in our sphere of interest – business, economics, Asia, leadership – was shrinking.

The audience we wanted to reach, a sophisticated business audience, was discerning but also becoming more engaged in actually steering the debate, not just listening to it.

So the first hurdle for BlueNotes was credible content. If the content we published wasn’t of a high standard it would simply be dismissed as big bank marketing and wouldn’t even get us a foot in the door.

But quality content, while necessary, is not sufficient. In this modern, social media landscape it is not enough just to publish interesting material, to broadcast.

Turning one way communication into two way is a not just a challenge for BlueNotes but a challenge for all media – especially non-traditional publishers like ANZ.

To allow our audience to be more deeply engaged we have crowd-sourced stories, sounded out our audience in advance of publishing, encouraged them to comment.

We are in the process of a major survey of what our readers want – please take it here if you haven’t already – and we are aware that while we are delighted you, our audience, have come along with us so far, the world continues to change.

To date, we have had around 200,000 unique visitors to BlueNotes and our best read stories are getting 7,000 to 8,000 unique views. 

And we have won a few awards including an International award from the International Association of Business Communicators.

It’s well beyond our expectations and well beyond our stretch targets.

We still have a lot to do to keep driving that conversation but it’s incredibly satisfying that we managed to have a first birthday – with a pretty reasonable prospect of having a second!