Mynewsdesk NOW

Background

MyNewsDesk is an multimedia platform that allows companies and brands to have their own newsrooms, publishing their news stories on their own websites as well as across social media.

The task was to raise awareness of MyNewsdesk using the MyNewsDesk platform itself.

Idea

Kerstin Wolgers was 82 years old and, like one million other Swedes, had never been online before. The digital divide in the connected society was a relevant and important issue for MyNewsdesk because for online PR to work well, it needed to reach as large an audience as possible.

The idea was to let the world follow Kerstin's first steps online in real time broadcasts. With a camera strapped to her chest, she invited viewers to see the world through her eyes.

MyNewsDesk provided the platform for the entire campaign, this particular ongoing story named Mynewsdesk Now. The whole world listened and got engaged. How could they not, when getting a chance to discover the Internet for a second time?

Results

The campaign had an earned reach of close to 200 million people around the world, with an estimated media value of $5m USD. Kerstin became an online celebrity and her AMA on Reddit became #1 on Reddit's front page, starting an important conversation about the digital divide. In addition, MyNewsDesk now had a case study to show how it could help other organizations spread the word. Sales leads increased by 60%

Our Thoughts

I’ll come clean, I’m over 60 myself and the internet is pretty much a desert in terms of content for and content created by us Baby Boomers. So I was excited

to see Kerstin become a star, tweeting and putting out YouTube videos of her first encounters with the online world. I was tickled by how hilarious she found Tinder. On Reddit, the questions weren’t all patronising and ageist, though plenty were.

gabriellajones: Kerstin, what weapons do you preferplaying BF3?

KerstinWolgers: Ha ha, the helicopter. It was intense:)

Splatypus: First time using the internet and flying the helicopter. Now I feel shit at that game.

My point is people over the age of

60 have all the money but they are ignored by advertisers. (See p.16 for the numbers.) Kerstin seems to have gone quiet in the last few months, which is

a pity because it’s not just brands that need more bloggers than vloggers than the current array of millennials, tens of millions of people do too.