As the social media market becomes increasingly saturated, social media audiences have ever shorter attention spans and, in many ways, higher expectations – you have to work harder to grab them. It takes creativity and innovation to stop the scroll and that’s something I worked on for years at the BBC. My digital content strategy involves the technology, editorial angle and format of a story. All these things differ depending on the publishing platform and all work differently to TV so convergence can be tricky. With my strategy, I gather content at source that can be adapted to create stories that engage audiences on all platforms, achieve maximum reach and adapt easily to maximise the efficiency of newsroom resources.
A good animator can explain complex concepts, engage viewers and transform ideas into award winning content. When I was Digital Executive Producer at BBC Media Action we created ‘Your phone is now a refugee’s phone’, which won the Social Good award in 2016. This animation was specifically made as mobile first content - one of the first teams at the BBC to do so. It aimed to increase empathy for the plight of refugees by allowing people to imagine being on a journey as a refugee across Europe.
Produced and Animated by Thomas Hannen, Copyright: BBC Media Action.
Maps are very popular with audiences on social media – especially as part of an explainer, as they can simplify complex stories.
The world’s longest rail network: This animation used animated maps and footage to communicated a fairly dry economic subject. It was also designed to work horizontally, vertically and square to minimise costs but still work for distribution on all platforms.
Producer Elizabeth Mearns, Animator James Sandifer. Copyright: CGTN Europe
Trailers/Adverts: My career started at the BBC World Service making marketing and promotional materials for programs. specials and documentaries. Marketing skills have proved invaluable when moving into digital and social media. One of my favourite tasks when making specials is making the trailers which run on TV and digital platforms.
Producer Elizabeth Mearns,Video Editor Sam Cordell. Copyright: CGTN Europe
Producer Elizabeth Mearns, Camera Natalia Luz, Video Editor Sam Cordell. Copyright: CGTN Europe
Explainers are the backbone for news audiences on social media as there are often knowledge gaps which are not dealt with on TV news.
China Explained is a series of videos which aim to demystify the behaviours of Gen Z in China.
China Explained: Presenter Li Jianhua, Series Producer Elizabeth Mearns, Producer Ai Yan, Video Editor Thomas Triebel. Copyright: CGTN Europe
One of the highest performing editorial categories on social media is human interest stories, especially those that inspire us. To reflect this I created a digital series called Changemakers where we could tell the stories of people whose life or work has made a difference.
Change Makers: Snow Leopards Series Producer Elizabeth Mearns, Camera Murray Job, Video Editor Butchy Davy. Copyright: CGTN Europe
Change Makers: Gorillas Series Producer Elizabeth Mearns, Presenter Paul Barber, Camera Murray Job, Video Editor Thomas Triebel. Copyright: CGTN Europe
Fighting for a Life in Europe: Producer Elizabeth Mearns, Camera Murray Job, Video Editor Butchy Davy. Copyright: CGTN Europe
New angles on common stories. Does Africa want out second hand clothes? As part of our Trash or Treasure Special I collaborated with CGTN colleagues in Africa to produce this new angle on recycling clothes.
Producers Elizabeth Mearns and Sarah Parfitt. Presented and Produced with CGTN Africa team in Nairobi. Copyright CGTN Africa & CGTN Europe.
Behind the headlines: When a story is hitting the headlines everyday it is important to try to cover it from another angle. We took a more in-depth look at the story of the people of Gaza by looking at the sacrifices of one news correspondent.
Living in Gaza: Presenter Noor Harazeen, Producer Elizabeth Mearns, Video Editor Tevhid Basturk, Copyright: CGTN Europe
Europe’s Lost Children: Producer Elizabeth Mearns,Camera Elizabeth Mearns (mobile journalism) & Jim Ireland,, Video Editor Sam Cordell. Copyright: CGTN Europe
Europe’s Lost Children: Producer Elizabeth Mearns,Camera Elizabeth Mearns (mobile journalism) & Jim Ireland,, Video Editor Sam Cordell. Copyright: CGTN Europe
For Chinese content you can’t get elsewhere, we took surprising stories and turned them around quickly to achieve amazing numbers. This series often got hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube and TikTok.
China Explained: Presenter Li Jianhua, Series Producer Elizabeth Mearns, Producer Ai Yan, Video Editor Thomas Triebel. Copyright: CGTN Europe
For the Trash or Treasure special, we partnered with Danish campaigning environmentalist Matt Homewood 'An Urban Harvester'. He believes exposing food waste is a public information service. He took us on a tour into the supermarket bins of Denmark to find astounding hauls of perfectly arranged, perfectly edible food.
Denmark’s Dumpster Diver, Producer Elizabeth Mearns, Video Editor James Sandifer. Copyright CGTN Europe/ @anurbanharvester
Kyle Obermann
For COP26, I worked with a popular wildlife and conservation photographer on Chinese social media, Kyle Obermann. China is a land of wildly diverse natural beauty - and tens of thousands of species. Now there are five new national parks protecting this cultural legacy - based on biodiversity rather than natural beauty. But what do they aim to achieve?
CGTN Europe was a fledgling channel on YouTube at the time but the video achieved hundreds of thousands of views on Weibo in China.
Protecting China’s Biodiversity: Presenter Kyle Obermann, Producer Elizabeth Mearns, Yubin Du, Video Editor Terry Wilson. Copyright: CGTN Europe