This site is an informal archive of sorts. Enjoy!
Author: julieneumann
Purple carpet coverage of the 2012 Grammys and Oscars
A major part of my gig at Yahoo! is to tell the story behind our stories, sharing our editorial successes and celebrating our content leadership. But I returned to my entertainment journalism roots as a contributing editor to Yahoo!’s record-breaking coverage of the Grammys and Oscars.
Moderating Yahoo!’s massive 2012 Grammys live blog, which attracted more than 130,000 visitors in six hours and peaked at over 10,000 active participants, was certainly a unique experience. In addition to writing about the awards show as it happened, I was pulling in select questions and comments from an endless stream of user generated content, as well as publishing relevant posts from the Yahoo! Music and official Grammy Twitter feeds. Here are a couple mashed-up examples of how we engaged our audience and added value for our users:
Things were a bit more relaxed for the Oscars. I contributed several articles on fashion to the Yahoo! Academy Awards blog, including an especially popular post on the Golden Girls of the Oscars that made it to the Yahoo! Homepage. Metallic sparklies have always had a special place in my heart.
So what records did our awards coverage break? Funny you should ask, because as soon as my editorial duties were done, I put my corporate storytelling hat back on and started digging through the data. The overarching bragging rights:
- Users spent over 270 million minutes consuming 2012 Academy Awards content on Yahoo!, a 23 percent increase from last year. Our Oscars coverage attracted 10.7 million unique visitors during the week of the awards show and drove nearly 500 million page views in total.
- Yahoo!’s record-setting coverage of the 2012 Grammy Awards drove over 700 million page views and 4 million video streams. On the day of and the day after the awards ceremony, users spent over 120 million minutes on our Grammys site, an 18 percent increase from last year.
It was an honor to play on both the content and the comms side for these tentpole events.
Visualizing the story of Yahoo!’s success
The Brag Sheet is my biggest project at Yahoo! in more ways than one. Published approximately twice a month and distributed to the entire company, it is over 15,000 words of bragging rights that prove Yahoo! is the world’s premier digital media company. Unfortunately it is an internal document, which means I can’t publish it here, and though it has become an indispensable resource for our employees and partners, 40-plus pages of facts isn’t exactly light reading.
In an effort to create a version of the Brag Sheet that was easy to consume and share, I developed the No. 1 infographic. This companion asset highlights the most popular data from the Brag Sheet in a single visualization. I was the creative director, data analyst and copy writer for this project. I worked with the fabulous folks at Fission Strategy on the initial design, but I kept my Adobe Illustrator skills fresh by updating the graphics every month with the latest worldwide comScore numbers. In addition to being our most downloaded visual asset, this infographic has been leveraged for quarterly All-Hands meetings and is frequently used by C-level execs.
Celebrating a decade of difference with Billary, Bono and Gaga
Playing at the big purple mothership in Sunnyvale is a pretty sweet gig, but there are perks to working out of the Santa Monica office too, like easy access to the Hollywood Bowl for Yahoo!’s Decade of Difference Concert. Lady Gage, Bono, Kenny Chesney and a slew of celebrities helped us celebrate the Clinton Foundation’s tenth anniversary on Oct. 15. Check out my top five moments of the Clinton Concert on Yodel Anecdotal.
Story of the Yahoo! Homepage
When the Storytelling Team was tasked with creating a video on Yahoo!’s content leadership, I immediately gravitated to the homepage. With 700 million visitors and 1 billion clicks per month, the sheer amount of traffic is truly awesome. But it is the combination of our proprietary Content Optimization and Relevance Engine (C.O.R.E.) and our award-winning journalists that make the homepage so special. Over 13 million personalized variations of the Today module are created each day, ensuring our visitors get the news they need and the content they love.
I directed the video, wrote the script, interviewed our experts on camera and managed our fabulous production team from Beyondpix Studios in San Francisco. The best part of this project was getting to work with some of the coolest Yahoos at the company. They personify the elusive combination of science plus art plus scale that Yahoo! strives for in every product.
I heart purple
I can barely believe it, but it’s official… I’m the newest member of Yahoo!’s Storytelling Team. Yes, my title will be Storyteller, and I’ll be bringing a creative twist to corporate communications and brand management. My first day will be Dec. 6 at headquarters in Sunnyvale. Which means in addition to starting an exciting new job, I’ll be moving from Austin to the Bay Area. A crazy and incredible end to 2010!
Where responsible money management and a minor fashion addiction coexist
The past few months have been hectic! And even though Austin is finally cooling off, the heat is still on at Offers.com. I started the summer working on several major content upgrades, including a successful relaunch of our credit card section. In addition to implementing a new structure for credit card content, I spent countless hours translating fine print into real words. Fortunately the results have been worth it. SEO profits for the category more than doubled in Q3 and we blew away the revenue forecast.
The real fun came in August when I created and launched two new columns for the Offers.com blog. Money Monday is all about taking a practical approach to personal finance. The goal is to provide helpful content to readers and increase community involvement while working in some profitable search terms. My favorite, The Posh Penny, features the best deals for fashionable frugalistas. In addition to highlighting our great clothing and accessory offers, it has been a huge hit with partners like Barneys and 7 For All Mankind. So it looks like I’ll keep getting paid to write about hunting for jeans and hot new handbags.
With the holidays right around the corner, work won’t be slowing down any time soon. I miss my side projects, but obviously my full-time job has to come first. Though I did take time out last week to get Lasik. I was a little nervous about being awake for eye surgery, but I’m thoroughly enjoying my laser-enhanced superhero vision.
Joining the retrotech typosphere
After writing all day at work and writing in my spare time for nonprofits, motivation to work on personal writing projects is fleeting at best. And the distractions of a connected computer don’t help. So this winter, in a fit of retrotech rebellion, I bought a typewriter. And then another. Which lead to a third. Because everyone needs at least three typewriters in 2010, right?
But my little typewriter collection really has been inspiring. I find myself looking for excuses to use them. Sometimes I’ll sit down and start typing just because I want to hear the sharp clack of the keys. When I do have an idea, I can begin work without fighting the distractions on my laptop. And, no disrespect to my sleek MacBook Pro, they are truly beautiful machines. The entire experience has helped me reconnect to my writing on a more visceral level.
So without further ado…
Hermes 3000
Torpedo 18
Olympia SF De Luxe
Lacy Dogs and Life After People
I’ve had quite a few interesting and unique experiences thanks to my insane dog Sadie, but this project certainly earned a spot in my top 10 list of Lacy stories. The History Channel’s award-winning series Life After People examines what would happen if humans suddenly disappeared. Producers were looking for a breed of dog that would defy the odds and survive without mankind. Well, Lacys certainly fit that description, plus feral hogs added an interesting twist to the narrative. I worked closely with the director and producers on the Texas-centric “Road to Nowhere” episode. In addition to collaborating on the storyline, recruiting dogs and handlers, prepping our expert and securing shooting locations, I was the de facto animal trainer for the show. Even though we started shooting at dawn and didn’t wrap until sunset, Sadie never stopped performing for the seemingly endless supply of cheese in my back pocket.
lacy dogs in life after people on Vimeo.
You can also watch highlights from “Road to Nowhere” on YouTube, but trust me, everything looks better on Vimeo.
True Blue Lacys is live
TrueBlueLacys.com — because every Lacy needs a job but not every person needs a Lacy.
When I began researching Lacys in 2006, there was very little information about the breed online. I now know most of that was merely a sales pitch, focused on promoting Lacys as the State Dog of Texas to increase the demand for puppies, and I fell for it. Though I’ve worked with several organizations and publications to address those issues, I felt it was time to create my own space. True Blue Lacys is a place for me to independently share what I’ve experienced and learned along the way. Obviously I’m not a breeder and I don’t sell dogs or registration papers. I’m just a Lacy owner who loves writing, photography and her dog. So I hope people looking to educate themselves on this unique breed will find the microsite honest and helpful. But in the end, all I can do is tell my story, and post pictures of my dog, because she really is the prettiest Lacy in the world, don’t you think?
julie anna neumann 