WHY YOU SHOULD CONSIDER A NICHE SAMPLE
In journalism, having an angle is essential to telling a coherent story. It helps define the story's point or theme, even the direction it will take. You can think of it as the lens through which the writer filters the information, focusing it into a clear, understandable narrative.
Take, for example, a news story about education policy reform. While what the legislature decides in the Capitol is one angle, other angles could include how parents feel about it; what the teachers’ union says in response; the impact it will have on school districts’ budgets; etc.
On the other hand, when being pitched a story by a public relations professional, a journalist will be first and foremost considering what angles the story may contain. The more options, and the more clearly they are defined, the more likely they are to consider a story for coverage.
When embarking on a survey-led news story with us, a client should likewise take these same factors into consideration.
One of the best ways to help your story stand out is giving the media multiple angles from which to cover that story. There are several ways to do that, including leveraging unique panels of respondents and delving into the survey results’ demographic breakdowns.
Niche panels
One of the best ways to help make your story stand out is by utilizing a niche sample of respondents. The media at large is flooded with stories about X% of Americans doing this or that. And unless your survey-led news story will yield never-been-done-before results, it’s unlikely that its resulting headline will break through the noise.
By narrowing your sample to a specific group of unique respondents, you’re automatically giving that ensuing story a unique angle. Consider a story about travel. While there’s nothing wrong with asking a sample of 2,000 Americans their opinions on hotel stays, by narrowing your sample to 2,000 hospitality workers, the floodgates open for interesting – and potentially unique – takes on the same topic.
Journalists dealing in the hospitality sector will naturally take notice of it, of course, but the odds that regular, broad-topic-focused journos will be interested in that story will greatly increase, as well. Again, that’s due to the allure of the fresh take (or angle) on hotels/travel.
The possibilities of niche sampling are essentially endless. Actively dating millennials and Gen Z respondents? People who read romance novels? People who wear makeup? Parents of school-aged kids? All of these are examples of niche panels that 72Point Inc. has helped fill in recent months.
The highly talented and creative editorial account manager assigned to your project can help you find the right sample to poll to give your story that extra edge.
Compare/ contrast
Another way to help give your story a unique spin is by leveraging the demographic breakdowns accessible through the survey results and framing the story through those comparisons. Doing this can yield a robust set of options for interesting story angles.
The team will always include breakdowns for age, gender and region within the survey results. By exploring the differences in how men and women answer the same question, for instance, you already have an interesting angle for the story. By that same token, comparing or contrasting different generations’ survey results can do the same (think millennials vs. boomers, for example). Same for region: people in the midwest may answer the same question differently than people in the northeast.
By layering on a niche sample, you can draw out even more surprising results. Think “millennial moms vs. dads” or “female office workers vs. male office workers.” All of a sudden, multiple fascinating angles are on the table – and all the more impetus for journalists to sit up and take notice.
State by state
Among the most comprehensive options for unique survey results is polling people in every state, then pulling out or highlighting interesting takeaways from that data. Again, in thinking about the end result – the news story we’re producing – you’ve immediately given journalists in all 50 states an opportunity to highlight their state’s results, and a reason to cover the story.
72Point recently produced a story for the cleaning brand Lysol. While the original thrust of the story explored how often Americans clean their homes, one radio station group in Michigan took the story and highlighted how their state fared on their corresponding websites. Editors at these hyper-local sites love to highlight their state's unique take on, well, just about anything, as it's a great engagement driver and opportunity for social conversation. The radio station in question leaned into that sentiment, creating this great headline: “Michigan's Dirty Secret: How Many Days a Year Your Home is Clean.”
Another great example was our story for Amazon Fresh. The overall story was about pizza preferences, including how often people eat pizza, what time of day people prefer to eat it, their favorite toppings, etc.
But by exploring those results on a state-by-state basis, the results yielded all kinds of interesting – and in some cases, hilarious – angles. The study revealed not only the nation’s best and worst toppings, but also unique insights on pizza-eating habits and what each state’s “perfect” pie looks like. For example, Arkansas was found to love cheese pizza the most, but Delaware also stood out for a bizarre combination of hot sauce and olive oil drizzled on a ricotta-topped pie.
All of this resulted in a mountain of coverage for the brand, including broadcast coverage. In one case, the hosts of FOX5's “Good Day New York,” a popular morning TV news program in the nation’s No. 1 television market, spent nearly two minutes of live air talking about the story.
How can we help?
In short, if you’re looking to give your survey-led news story some extra oomph from a coverage standpoint, consider leveraging a unique sample for your survey. It’s the kind of thing that can give your story a fresh or unique angle – something the media is always looking for!
Speak to our team or your account manager, and we can help you navigate these questions and considerations and lead you to the right place.
Van Darden
Director of Media Relations,
72Point Inc.