Spark 2017: You Are What You Share: What Brands Can Learn From the Alarming Allure of Fake News by Jean Ellen Cowgill

1. You Are What You Share
What Brands Can Learn from the Alarming Allure of Fake News

2. Atlantic Media Strategies
helps organizations advance the
ideas and issues that move our world.

3. Atlantic Media Strategies
helps organizations advance the
ideas and issues that move our world.

4. Atlantic Media Strategies
helps organizations advance the
ideas and issues that move our world.

5. Atlantic Media Strategies
helps organizations advance the
ideas and issues that move our world.

6. Atlantic Media Strategies
helps organizations advance the
ideas and issues that move our world.

7. Atlantic Media Strategies
helps organizations advance the
ideas and issues that move our world.

8. Atlantic Media Strategies
helps organizations advance the
ideas and issues that move our world.

9. The allure of fake news

11. “Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses
Donald Trump for President,
Releases Statement”

12. “Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses
Donald Trump for President,
Releases Statement”
“FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary
Email Leaks Found Dead in
Apparent Murder-Suicide”

13. “Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses
Donald Trump for President,
Releases Statement”
“WikiLeaks CONFIRMS
Hillary Sold Weapons to ISIS
Then Drops Another
BOMBSHELL! Breaking News”
“FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary
Email Leaks Found Dead in
Apparent Murder-Suicide”

14. “Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses
Donald Trump for President,
Releases Statement”
“South Carolina Unveils
New State Flag”
“FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary
Email Leaks Found Dead in
Apparent Murder-Suicide”
“WikiLeaks CONFIRMS
Hillary Sold Weapons to ISIS
Then Drops Another
BOMBSHELL! Breaking News”

15. “Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses
Donald Trump for President,
Releases Statement”
“WikiLeaks CONFIRMS
Hillary Sold Weapons to ISIS
Then Drops Another
BOMBSHELL! Breaking News”
“South Carolina Unveils
New State Flag”
“FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary
Email Leaks Found Dead in
Apparent Murder-Suicide”
“Fake News ‘Epidemic’
Turns Out To be False”

16. Source: Pew Research Center
% of
Americans
who are
confident
they can
detect fake
news.
Americans admit to sharing fake news, even though
they are confident they can detect it.
84%

17. Source: Pew Research Center
23%
84%
% of
Americans
who are
confident
they can
detect fake
news.
% of
Americans
who have
shared
fake news.
Americans admit to sharing fake news, even though
they are confident they can detect it.

18. Source: Buzzfeed
Ahead of the election, fake news on Facebook
spurred more engagement than real news.
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Feb-April May-Jul Aug-Election Day
MillionsofFacebookEngagements
Real News
Fake News

19. What makes fake news
so alluring?

20. Fake news works because it:

21. Fake news works because it:
Starts from trending topics

22. Fake news works because it:
Starts from trending topics
Validates our world view

23. Fake news works because it:
Starts from trending topics
Validates our world view
Speaks to our sense of self

24. Today:
3 lessons from fake news
on how to create content
that is authentically
(and honestly) alluring

25. Lesson One:
Start from trending topics.

26. 76% of the top fake news stories
leading up to the 2016 election were
based on current events.
Source: Buzzfeed

27. Tip:
When they go low,
you go low/high.

28. Hi
Lo Hi
Treatment Topic
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29. Hi
Lo Hi
Treatment Topic
Lo
The Atlantic’s
Corridor

30. Hi
Lo Hi
Treatment Topic
Lo
The Atlantic’s
Corridor

31. Lesson Two:
Give voice to the
things I hold dear.

32. CORE
COMMUNITIES
PASSIONATE
CHAMPIONS
TARGET
AUDIENCES

33. Case Study: Carnegie Corporation
CORE
COMMUNITIES
PASSIONATE
CHAMPIONS
TARGET
AUDIENCES

34. CORE
COMMUNITIES
PASSIONATE
CHAMPIONS
TARGET
AUDIENCES
Case Study: Carnegie Corporation

35. Case Study: Carnegie Corporation
CORE
COMMUNITIES
PASSIONATE
CHAMPIONS
TARGET
AUDIENCES
10K
engagements
Case Study: Carnegie Corporation

36. Case Study: Carnegie Corporation
CORE
COMMUNITIES
PASSIONATE
CHAMPIONS
TARGET
AUDIENCES
Case Study: Carnegie Corporation
1.2M
views

37. Lesson Three:
Speak to my sense of self
(and how I feel as a result).

38. Source: Adobe Analytics, Internal Atlantic Media

39. CTR
The State of Trump’s State Department 1.1%
Source: Adobe Analytics, Internal Atlantic Media

40. CTR
The State of Trump’s State Department 1.1%
How to Neuter a Bureaucracy 1.2%
Source: Adobe Analytics, Internal Atlantic Media

41. CTR
The State of Trump’s State Department 1.1%
How to Neuter a Bureaucracy 1.2%
The Anxious Boredom of the
Bureaucrats Under Trump
1.7%
Source: Adobe Analytics, Internal Atlantic Media

42. CTR
The State of Trump’s State Department 1.1%
How to Neuter a Bureaucracy 1.2%
The Anxious Boredom of the
Bureaucrats Under Trump
1.7%
‘The Sun Does Set on Your Empire’:
Scenes from Trump’s State Dept
1.9%
Source: Adobe Analytics, Internal Atlantic Media

43. CTR
The State of Trump’s State Department 1.1%
How to Neuter a Bureaucracy 1.2%
The Anxious Boredom of the
Bureaucrats Under Trump
1.7%
‘The Sun Does Set on Your Empire’:
Scenes from Trump’s State Dept
1.9%
‘They Really Want to Blow
this Place Up’: Scenes from
Trump’s State Dept
2.4%
Source: Adobe Analytics, Internal Atlantic Media

44. As a ____________ , I feel ____________ .

45. As a ____________ , I feel ____________ .liberal outraged

46. As a ____________ , I feel ____________ .Trump supporter triumphant

47. liberal
Trump supporter
classic conservative
government employee
outraged
triumphant
anxious
fearful
As a ____________ , I feel ____________ .

48. Start from trending topics.
Give voice to the things I hold dear.
Speak to my sense of self.
1
2
3

49. Thank you!
www.atlanticmediastrategies.com
@AMStrategy
jcowgill@atlanticmedia.com