By Jane Dornemann

Image by Brandon Conboy

This is the first post in a two-part series on how a changing media landscape is making content marketing more attractive for brands.

I was once a journalist who went into public relations, then back into journalism, then finally settled into content marketing here at 2A. For companies looking to spread the word about their work, I’ve got a hot tip: it’s time to rethink your strategy.

Last year, the Pew Research Center found newsroom employment has fallen 26 percent since 2008.

So, what does this mean for you, my dear brands? Well, ask your public relations teams. They’ll tell you that those new product announcements, amazing customer stories, and executive spotlights have become far more difficult to land in just about any media channel.

It isn’t just that newsrooms are cutting staff down to the bare bones, leaving fewer reporters to cover the same amount of news. The subject matter itself has also become more intense. The pandemic, visible effects of climate change, and political infighting all have relegated your product-centered business story into the shadows.

There’s more.

Many of those journalists cross over to public relations jobs, pitching their former colleagues on corporate stories. The result? A terrible 6:1 ratio of PR pros to journalists. Understandably, overwhelmed journalists are increasingly vitriolic about the volume of business-related pitches that flood their inboxes every day, decreasing the chances that your cool story will ever meet the journalist’s eyeballs, much less cultivate a headline. During my years in PR, I saw genuinely great brand stories—ones that I would have picked up in a second as a journalist, had I a leaner inbox—go unpublicized.

It’s 2018 and PR people still call me when I ignore their 17 email pitches

— Dustin Volz (@dnvolz) August 6, 2018

To generate revenue, bigger news outlets like Business Insider, Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times have gated all or some of their content behind paywalls. So even if you do land some killer coverage, a fair portion of your target audience won’t ever read past the headline. Additionally, PR teams have become fond of sweetening the pot for journalists by offering exclusives, meaning only one journalist can write about it first. That makes the story less desirable to other journalists, who usually don’t want to recycle a news story that another outlet already broke.

All the while, brands are paying hefty annual retainers to PR firms regardless of whether those dollars translate to media coverage or not.

The difficultly of attaining journalist-written coverage (known as earned media) has prompted brands to turn to owned media—brand-created assets like social media, blogs, case studies, and whitepapers.

But why? What makes content marketing so extra special all of a sudden? Find out in part 2 of this series.

By Katy Nally

Image by Guangyi Li

My dad was a bit strict when I was a kid. In high school I either had to join a sports team or get a job so I’d be occupied after school and less likely to get into trouble. By college I figured this rule no longer applied and was excited at the prospect of nearly two months at home doing nothing. The time between my finals ending and my summer job starting could be filled with episodes of The Wendy Williams Show and napping in the sun.

But alas, he was on to me. He told me I had to find something to fill those few weeks. This presented a challenge, as not many companies are willing to hire a completely untrained 18 year old for less than two months. So I got creative. I looked at summer study abroad programs and discovered I could spend that time on the island of Rhodes in Greece. Napping in the sun here we come!

When I returned to the states, I had a few Greek phrases in my pocket, like σας ευχαριστώ (thank you) and πόσο κάνη ένας σαλάτα (how much is one salad). I also knew the alphabet well enough to read the fraternity and sorority houses on campus.

I wish I could say my Greek faded away unnoticed, but lately the alphabet has been making a comeback into my lexicon. This time, though, the alphabet doesn’t remind me of snorkeling and cliff jumping, it just gives me the heebie jeebies that COVID-19 is a comin’.

As COVID zooms through the Greek alphabet, we’re trying not to freak out, and instead put our energy toward helping our friends and neighbors. In lieu of a year-end gift for 2A’s clients, we donated on their behalf to organizations that are making a real difference in our community. Thanks for helping us support Black Girls Code, Duwamish River Community Coalition, and FEEST Seattle.

And who knows, maybe 2022 is the year that Greek surrenders its variants in favor of sandy beaches and street food.

By Nora Bright

Image by Thad Allen

Whenever I read a best-of list of music albums published at the end of the year, I often think about how critics decide what to include. Do they focus on the albums that pushed a genre’s boundaries, that encapsulated the year for critics, or something else? 

When I was in high school, I was an avid reader of Pitchfork and loved how the popular music blog rated albums on a scale of 0–10. It felt so clean to assign numbers—so black and white. 

As I got exposed to more music genres and subcultures in college, I began to feel strongly that the quality of a song or album (and all art, for that matter) is in the eye of the beholder. Trying to assign a definitive number began to feel silly. I went to concerts with bands that I adored but critics didn’t. They were criticized for riffing on old garage rock tropes that weren’t relevant anymore; or maybe they weren’t so good at their instruments, but damn were their live shows fun; or their music meant everything in the world to a small group of people. 

So what makes an album worthy of an annual roundup? I’d argue it’s different for everyone at 2A who chose an album for this list. For some of us it was the music that gave us the strength to keep going amid another year of the pandemic. It made us feel cozy at home, or represented our values.  

I can’t resist making a marketing metaphor here—at the end of the day, it’s about what matters to the customer. 

I hope you give some of these tracks a listen, and that the reasons behind our choices give a tiny window into what matters to each of us.  

Emile Mosseri – Minari Soundtrack  

Favorite song: Big Country 

Emile Mosseri soundtracks have landed in my regular rotation the past couple years, and especially 2021, as the warm and dreamy sounds of Minari were great company while hanging around at 3am with a newborn. – Aaron Wendel 

Adele – 30 

Favorite song: Easy on Me 

This album captures the longing, melancholy an uncertainty of a COVID year. – Laura Templeton 

Her music has an ability to pierce the soul and reminds me I can conquer any mountain I face. 30 is a masterpiece in storytelling. – Tammy Monson 

Chromeo – Date Night: Chromeo Live! 

Favorite song: Don’t Sleep 

Electro-funk duo Chromeo has a playful retro style that I’ve enjoyed for years, and their 2019 tour was one of the last live shows I went to before the pandemic shut everything down. Chromeo approached the situation with typical good humor—recording a Quarantine Casanova EP and releasing a “2020 tour” shirt with a blank list of shows on the back, both sending proceeds to support those in need. The release of the live album was another joyful counterpoint to a year-plus of no live shows—delightful to revisit their funky sound boosted by a full backing band. – Thad Allen 

Lil Nas X – Montero 

Favorite song: That’s What I Want 

My favorite album of the year has to be Montero by Lil Nas X. All of the music videos from this album are amazing, and really fully celebrate his Blackness and queerness. It’s been the bright point of my year. My friends and I anticipate and text each other about every new music video drop. He really commands social media well and sets the conversation. – Annie Unruh 

Sophia Kennedy – Monsters 

Favorite song: Orange Tic Tac 

Monsters has 13 unique tracks that take you into the mysterious mind of Sophia Kennedy. The flow of the album is interesting to say the least. Beats Per Minute put it best, “Sophia Kennedy hops between styles on each track as if she’s escaping what’s come prior.” Monsters is an album that I kept revisiting through a year that sometimes had a similar feeling. – Mitchell Thompson 

The National – The National (re-release) 

Favorite song: American Mary 

If nothing else The National’s band-titled album, remastered in 2021, is reminder of just how much this band has grown. Best saved for writers who are editing (not creating), the track list sounds like Bruce Springsteen was run through a country washer and finished off in an indie dryer. “American Mary” is the best song on there, mostly because it carries the sounds of the better band The National became. –  Jane Dornemann 

Japanese Breakfast – Jubilee 

Favorite song: Paprika 

I’ve dug Japanese Breakfast’s punk-ish earlier releases and love how Jubilee layers funky basslines and gorgeous strings on top of her already stellar songwriting. It’s been fun to see her music explode in popularity this year including late night appearances, her Be Sweet Video for the Sims in Simlish, and of course her bestselling book Crying in H Mart. It’s J Brekkie’s world, we’re just living in it. – Nora Bright 

Whitney K – Two Years 

Favorite song: Last Night #2 

Two Years is the kind of album that makes me want to abandon all responsibilities and travel around the country hopping trains. But I’m definitely not going to do that. I’ll just listen to this album. Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, and plenty of country/folk influences ring out on this, scratchy, rambling 10-song LP – Mike Lahoda 

Taylor Swift – Red (Taylor’s version) 

Favorite song: Babe 

Red is perfect to put on while I’m doing work, making dinner, or driving in the car. Something about the updated songs takes me back to years past and is just so good. I can’t help but sing along. – Rachel Adams 

Sun June – Somewhere  

Favorite song: Singing 

Somewhere by Sun June was my 2021 soundtrack for when I wanted to bob my shoulders and focus on the beauty and intimacy of regular life. Even without the words—which are engaging—the music tells a floaty, deep-breath-inducing story. – Abby Breckenridge 

By Kelly Schermer

If you fell asleep during any of the Star Wars movies and felt annoyed when you awoke because the red and green shooting lights were STILL piercing the dark screen, you are not alone! And, if you think I’m a heartless jerk for falling asleep in the first place, get in line—colleagues are picketing my apathy as we speak. In the past, I would have argued that Star War-iors and Star Snore-iors inspired Rudyard Kipling’s saying “…ne’er the twain shall meet,” but recently a colleague and I tag teamed a keynote address that drew on the strengths of both camps. And what we ended up creating together was quite the force to reckon with!

Building a technology keynote from the ground up is a labor of love (and my oh my, do we ever love it!). At its core you might think, a keynote is just a PowerPoint deck and a talk track. While that’s not wrong, the practice of building a keynote looks nothing like what it takes to make a normal pitch deck. A keynote is its own special snowflake for a lot of reasons (sounds like fodder for another blog, doesn’t it?), but from a writer’s perspective, what makes it especially fun is the added challenge of making the content relevant within the context of the event and weaving in the speaker’s personality to help them engage and connect with the audience.

A couple months ago, my brilliant teammates, Guy and Forsyth, were asked to create a keynote to kick off a multi-day developer event. It was kind of like they got a box with a bunch of parts (most of which were still under development) and were asked to build something new with them. Forsyth started by sifting through the pieces for a story that would make their final product inspire the developers in the audience. Fast forward a bunch of zany brainstorm sessions later, and they had landed a fun Star Wars theme in which the technology describes a bridge to a universe of possibilities.

While we call it a theme, Forsyth made it so much more. She wrote a highly nuanced storyline comparing the capabilities of Jedi at different levels of their training to the benefits of specific databases. She referenced inter-character backstories and iconic movie scenes. It was a sheer work of art for anyone, especially pro-sci-fi developers and Star War-iors.

However, as it tends to happen in keynotes about burgeoning technology (and war-torn galaxies), our heroes faced setbacks. Forsyth was called on a higher mission (the highest really—her first family vacation post-COVID), and I stepped in to get the keynote over the finish line. Whereas she wrote her Star Wars heart into every line of that talk track, I picked, prodded, and googled every reference to find the ones that would appeal to a broader audience, so Star Snore-iors would connect with it too.

The final keynote talk track struck a solid balance between the Star Wars enthusiasts and…the rest of us. In hindsight, our tag-team approach worked better than we imagined. We delivered a fun, relatable, and highly informative keynote that our clients loved—and so far we haven’t heard of one person who fell asleep lost in space.

By Guy Schoonmaker

Image by Thad Allen

Have you ever started to make pasta, and then realized you forgot the sauce? It sucks. I never think of grocery shopping as part of cooking, but you can’t follow a recipe without the right ingredients.  

The same goes for creating great customer evidence videos. It’s all in the preparation, with some improvisation sprinkled in (we’ll get to that). 

Preparation is important in a lot of the marketing assets we build at 2A, but maybe none more so than filming videos. Why? Because in most cases, you only have one shot to get it right!  

The grocery list of factors you need to consider before filming can get long: 

• Interviewees – Are they prepped? Have they done this before? Do you have the right questions to get the best soundbites? 
• Shot list – Think through the story you’re trying to tell—what are the visuals you need to support it? 
• Location – Will there be background noise? Or giant digital disco globes right next to your set? 
• Equipment – How much space do you have to work with? Or maybe you’ll need to keep your equipment to a minimum so you’re nimble enough to move through a crowded airport while shooting b-roll! 
• Permissions – Do you need any special permissions from your filming location? How do you get consent from people that will be in the background? 

The list goes on! While preparation is the most important ingredient, you should always come to filming wearing an improvisation apron, just in case things get messy.  

Maybe an unexpected thunderstorm is rolling through town, messing up the natural light for your interview. Or a marching band decided to take a right turn down the street you’re filming on. It’s more the rule than the exception that something completely unexpected will happen.  

But if you’re prepared and ready to roll with the punches, then a willingness to improvise will help you quickly figure out solutions to those little speed bumps.  

Wait, speaking of improvisation, I already have olive oil, diced tomatoes, garlic, salt, and pepper—I can make my own sauce, and it will be even better than the original recipe. 

By Laurie Krisman

Image by Guangyi Li

During a recent cycling class, in the middle of a particularly tough climb, Peloton instructor Denis Morton shouted out something like “I’m getting better and stronger every day.” Then he shook his head and said, “sometimes it’s the truth, sometimes it’s a mantra.” I wiped away my sweaty tears and smiled because what he said captured my general philosophy of exercise, business, and even parenting. In my experience, when you keep showing up and do  the work—especially when you’re tired or too busy or don’t think you can do it—the work fuels you and pushes you forward into something better, something stronger. I sometimes dread exercising, but I never regret how I feel after getting those extra steps in. And it felt extra rewarding to step it up for 2A Giving this September.  

Research from Iowa State University confirmed a hunch that too much sitting can do a real number on morale, so the 2A Giving team came up with a challenge to boost wellness and productivity, and contribute to our community. This fall, we stepped away from our laptops and got some much-needed exercise in an agency-wide competition to support four incredible community organizations: Page Ahead, Washington Building Leaders of Change, Shoes that Fit, and No Kid Hungry.

Who doesn’t love a win-win?  

As one of the Step It Up for 2A Giving participants I can tell you, with all the WFH-induced extra screen time and homemade banana bread I’d indulged in, I was happy to have a little extra motivation to exercise. 

In a fierce national competition, 2A collectively logged enough steps to travel 3,234 miles! That’s like walking from Seattle to Oaxaca, Mexico, or about 6,648,388 steps.  

Wellness experts say the best kind of movement starts with, you guessed it, movement. It’s all about picking an exercise you like and sticking with it. If you hate treadmills or hiking don’t do it. Choose downhill skiing, Zumba, quiet neighborhood walks, or cycling instead. 2A team members engaged in a wide variety of exercises to meet their step goals and shared fun photos of their workout journeys in action.  

Along the way, we all discovered that making the decision to exercise was a lot easier than following through. Here’s how 2A team members found their motivation to get moving and stay consistent:   

 My “To Do” list stares up at me from my desk every day. Running is always on the list, and I’ve tricked myself into thinking that it’s just as important as anything else on the list. I also add exercise to my work calendar to make sure I fit it in before, during, or after work. Once I’m outside, I never regret it. I often think of solutions to challenges or have creative breakthroughs while I’m exercising. I bring my phone to take notes, so I don’t forget fresh ideas. Sometimes I walk; sometimes I run. Who cares?! I love the way I feel after! I get to cross something off my list and do something good for my body, mind, and soul. It’s never too late to Step it Up!  

Liz Mangini, 2A Consultant 

I recently parted with…almost all of my shoes. As much as I didn’t want to accept it, my feet grew for each baby I grew, and after welcoming three children into the world (two within 6 minutes of each other), my shoes were a literal pain. New shoes for me this year. New shoes for three kids every year. New shoes x new shoes x new shoes x new shoes. New shoes matter. No jungle gym should be unclimbed because their shoes are too tight. No puddle un-stomped because boots are a luxury. When a donation for Shoes that Fit was up for a competitive vote, my partner and I schlepped those strollers and STEPPED IT UP!  

Annie Wegrich, 2A Senior Consultant 

So, make sure to move your eyeballs away from the screens from time to time and keep on stepping it up, friends! The goal of adding movement to your day is to improve your mental and physical health. This feels especially important as the shorter days of winter will soon be upon us.

By Katy Nally

Image by Rachel Adams

His name is Mano: He’s amorphous, invisible, and slightly threatening. And he’s the latest addition to a family of monsters who persuade my 2-year-old, Rowan, to complete basic tasks.  

The book Hunt, Gather, Parent inspired the creation of Mano, who convinces Rowan to wash his hands when he comes home. You see, Mano lives in our sink drain and eats the dirt from your hands. Luckily for me, he’s insatiable. If you don’t feed him as soon as you get home, he’ll suck you down the drain. Mano is very effective. 

Just a few weeks after introducing Mano, Rowan not only washes his hands, he also polices everyone else to make sure we all wash our hands, lest Mano escape and chase after us. Mano is so effective, in fact, it made me want to invent some technology monsters I can hide in ebooks who persuade technical decision makers to act.  

So, in the spirit of Halloween, here are a few spooky buggers lurking in the shadows of your cloud technologies. 

• Niner: He jumps up and down on your cloud trying to hamper your availability. Every 9 he finds, he swallows whole. It’s getting serious—you’re already down to 99.9999. 
• Corny: She eats the last two rows of data in any table you migrate, making it a dark and scary journey to the cloud. Beware! 
• Webs: He lives in your data warehouse, pulling out APIs and gumming up the works so you no longer have real-time insights. You have (gasp) yesterday’s data! 
• Kondo: She swims in your data lake and is sick of bumping into mismatched data. She’s on a mission to organize, culling sources so you’re only left with one size, shape, and speed.  

The good news is, 2A knows how technology monsters operate and can help you convince your audience to fight back!  

By Clinton Bowman

Image by Thad Allen

Back in 2015, when my nose was to the grindstone studying for the GMAT and applying to business schools, I found myself seeking content that was going to help me be a more well-rounded applicant. That meant ditching (most) of my binge TV and reading the Economist, tuning into Marketplace, and watching Shark Tank. What can I say? I loved that show.  

Kevin O’Leary, aka Mr. Wonderful, had a laser-focused philosophy on investing back then. For him, it was all about creating shareholder value, which depended solely on cash flow projections and the presence of a hard-working, business-savvy leader. His algorithm didn’t allow a whole lot of room for creatives. It simply came down to the thing that mattered most to him—money—which makes sense since he’s fairly obsessed with adding as many zeros as he can to his net worth.  

I don’t devour Shark Tank like I did in my pre-MBA days, but recently I stumbled across some clips of Mr. Wonderful that I couldn’t click past. Imagine my shock when I saw him doing interview after interview after interview not about just shareholder value and cash flows, but also about the importance of hiring people who can tell the business story.  

At 2A, we congratulate Mr. Wonderful on his breakthrough, and we wholeheartedly agree that a business needs to be able to tell the right story to the right people in order to get traction with customers. Because, while businesses need positive cash flows and savvy leaders, they also need a heart and a history—that’s what the right story provides.  

It’s a shark-eat-shark world out there. If you find your products or services aren’t reeling in the cash the way you planned, maybe you need to cast a stronger storyline to catch some attention.   

By Abby Breckenridge

Renato is leaving 2A. This is a big deal for us and comes with so many emotions.  

There is no doubt we’ll miss him. Renato started 2A on his own back in 2010, then Daniel and I joined him a few years later. It’s that entrepreneurial spirit, the sauce that emboldened him to start 2A, that we’ll miss the most. He brings the guts it takes to break out on his own, paired with the vision to see how something can be made from nothing. That, his sunny sense of humor, and his deep commitment to caring for the people around him will leave the biggest legacy.  

I’ll always remember the first time Daniel, Renato, and I got together. It was a breezy summer dinner around a fiery grill in my backyard, after Renato and I had finished the MBA program at Foster and Daniel had moved to Seattle with his girlfriend (my childhood friend). It was a lot of fun, included a lot of wine, and set the stage for the fruitful relationship we now share.  

Since then, the three of us have led 2A through countless wins and humbling challenges—a journey that looks more like a doodle than a straight line. From a team of four to almost 40. From one amazing client to over 40. From a shared room in a to-be-torn-down house, to 6,000 square feet on Capitol Hill. And from the youthful idea that all the steps are laid out in front of us to a more seasoned view that plans are just that.   

What we do know is that 2A, the team, Daniel, and I are all stronger because of Renato. We also know this change is a great move for all of us. Daniel and I will get to flex our skills in new directions as Renato’s departure, even with all the planning, will surely leave gaps. There’s an ocean of new possibilities for Renato as he unleashes his entrepreneurial spirit toward new ventures. And while our partnership in 2A is over, breezy backyard dinners around a fire will surely continue.  

By Mai Sennaar

At 2A Nora Bright has found a place where her prodigious people skills and acuity for creative approaches to business problems work in tandem. Her knack for the arts, culture, and imaginative business strategies lead to the surprising and innovative approaches to marketing that her clients can’t get enough of. 

Nora first explored her creativity as a multi-instrumentalist musician. Before killing it on the drums as part of the opening act for some major artists (Ty Segall!) on campus at Scripps College, Nora was already uncovering her knack for leadership. She worked in the non-profit sector at several prominent arts and culture organizations in Los Angeles including the Colburn School, a music conservatory where she studied clarinet with world-class instructors. She impressed the leadership of Colburn, eventually following the director to New Roads School, where she had her first formal position as a Development Assistant. 

But Nora truly discovered the extent of her talent for people management when she served as a 23-year-old co-owner of her family’s recruiting business. Instead of taking a backseat to more seasoned team members or sticking close to the script of how things had always been, Nora immediately took on the challenges of leadership, managing the day-to-day operations of the company with an eye on growth. She sought one-on-ones with colleagues and clients with a sincere interest in gaining a more nuanced understanding of their challenges. She understood that her greatest strength as a leader would lie in her ability to empathize with and understand the perspectives of her collaborators. It was the beginning of Nora honing what she refers to as “servant-leadership”, an approach that allows her to see her role as one of service, even when it comes to employees. 

Through a commitment to gaining greater awareness of the needs of her customers and team, Nora managed to quickly build a positive rapport with the company’s clients. She supercharged the work culture, successfully diffused internal conflicts, and brought new creative strategies to the company’s marketing challenges. Her hard work paid off, ultimately propelling the company into a new era, with a 47% increase in revenue. As a testament to her people skills, many of the new clients under her tenure at the recruiting firm were former employers, including the Colburn School, where she successfully placed several key roles, including a Deputy Director. 

Following a transformative experience with her family business, Nora was inspired by the depth of her impact on people. She was excited by her ability to help others realize their strengths and was prepared to take her leadership and marketing skills to new dimensions. She decided on an MBA at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. 

It may have been the oysters that first attracted Nora to 2A’s on-campus recruitment happy hour, but the more she learned about the company’s reputation for combining creativity with marketing expertise, the more she wanted to know. Once she had an opportunity to personally meet with several members of the 2A team, things really clicked for Nora. She found the culture extraordinarily creative, welcoming, dynamic, and nourishing.  

When she’s not brainstorming fresh marketing strategies for her clients at 2A, Nora’s grooving to Yo La Tengo, Riot Grrrl, and honing her own electric guitar skills.