Using Data to Tell a Story

When leveraging press coverage, data can be a powerful tool.  

From in-depth data journalism to PR campaigns built around data sets, numbers, statistics and insights can be a tremendous hook.  

But putting together a data-backed story isn’t as straightforward as just asking questions and then reporting back on the answers.  

If you want to stand the best chance of your data-driven stories making it into the media, there are a few things you need to consider.    

What journalists look for in a data story  

To get the attention of the media, a story needs to have the usual elements; clear narrative, timeliness and relevance to the publication. For data-driven stories, there are a few other things that you’ll want to consider:   

• Good objective data – not just the numbers you want people to see  

• Data that either raises an issue or solves a problem   

• A representative data sample   

• Data that’s interesting or out of the ordinary.   

Points one and two are just good editorial and PR policy. Data sets driving an obvious agenda rarely get the cut through into media. Likewise, media stories with no clout, or meat on the bones, serve little purpose.  

To get these two elements right, start with the actual design of your survey.  You have to think about the headlines you want to achieve, then work backwards.   

Your data sample size will depend entirely on your desired audience. For example, if you’re aiming for widespread media and national cut-through, a survey needs to be at least 2,000 people.   

It also needs to be built on representative quotas, rather than skewed towards any group. The fourth point, while not obligatory, is certainly where the magic happens. Let's take a look at two examples of this.  

Spotify Wrapped  

Spotify Wrapped certainly does not offer answers to the most pressing issues of the day. Wrapped captures and reflects broader cultural trends, making it newsworthy beyond just individual user experiences. It has become a cultural touchpoint and masterclass in social shareability.    

Personalisation is its most effective tool. Each user receives a custom report of their listening habits, a visual representation of their listening habits over the last 12 months.  

Wrapped often gains significant traction across the media. From the likes of MusicWeek - which breaks down the global trends regarding the most listened-to artists. Pre-emptive coverage and reactionary media coverage ticking over, creating a real moment in time.    

Aldi’s Consumer Habits  

Aldi recently made headlines on the BBC, with news on its changing consumer habits.   

While the story itself is ostensibly about Aldi’s growing success. It’s couched in data on consumer habits. Validity is given to the data, as it comes from international market research experts Kantar, rather than Aldi itself.   

The BBC can be a notoriously difficult entity to pitch commercial stories into. Its charter makes pitching outright commercial stories, without some human interest or editorial angle next to impossible.  

What the supermarket chain has achieved here, is there perfect balance of this. The BBC article leads with shifting consumer habits, before going into the huge rise of Aldi’s share in the UK grocery market over the last 16 years.  

How to tell a compelling story with data – and get press coverage  

Identify your story  

The first step is to conceptualise the idea. What is the story you’re trying to tell? Try not to get bogged down by practicalities at this point, just focus on the idea.   

How are you getting the data?   

Are you in a position where you can use your data? Or will you need to approach a third party, such as YouGov or Censuswide to gather this data?  

Develop the narrative   

This is where your idea begins to take life. Developing the questions themselves will help you shape the narrative. The boundaries of what’s possible and practical come into effect here. Your original idea may shift at this point. But that’s fine, this is about honing and developing.   

 Ask yourself:  

• What are your goals for this story?  

• What results or outcomes do you want to get from this?  

• Will this outcome drive your business’s bottom line?  

If you can’t sufficiently answer these questions, you’ll want to go back to the drawing board.   

Slice and Dice the Data   

A data set can be a fairly significant investment, in terms of financial and resource requirements. So,you’ll want to ensure you’re making the most out of it.  

You’ll want to break down your results into many different stories and angles. Beyond the ‘hero’ narrative, look at how specific questions – or groups of questions – can be brought together to tell a more detailed story.   

This is where your efforts in building on the narrative will come to fruition.   

Activation   

Drafting a press release is one thing. But how can you take that further?  

Consider what visual assets you can create to further entice media with your stories. Visual infographics to act as supporting images and video, or even animated video. Having variant press releases can be a great way to target sector or vertical-specific media, with more tailored and relevant content.   

Looking at ‘new media’ consider how you can take your results and spin them out into podcast pitches.  

In Summary   

To make the most out of your data-driven PR, you consider the end goal right from the start. Understanding what it is you want to achieve will help you shape your approach to creating research materials.   

But like with all media pitching, timeliness and newsworthiness are key.  

You might have incredible, in-depth research, but if those numbers don’t align with an editorial angle, then the pitching process is going to be difficult.   

But you shouldn’t just stop there.

Don’t treat these kinds of projects as one-shots. You need to ensure you’re getting great value out of this cost... and that means sweating the assets.  

Consider how you can activate your findings across a breadth of channels, from earned media, paid opportunities and especially your channels.  

Maximise the activation of data, slice and dice your findings in as many ways as you can – while still retaining value and interest. Take those numbers and spin them out into blogs, LinkedIn posts, infographics and videos, and even white papers.  

There’s more to data-driven stories than just numbers.