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Fourth Estate Creative
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Fourth Estate is a content creation company with a simple philosophy:
Content with substance, in any medium, is the most powerful way to communicate.
There are more ways than ever to communicate a message. The digital age has given us more content types, more platforms on which to publish them and many more – niche and newly accessible – audiences.
But it also has producers chasing their tails, trying to find content to fill space in a dozen different media, and consumers trying to make sense of the cacophony of communication that pervades all our lives.
For businesses and marketers, it can be difficult to know which platforms should be used, what content should appear on each one, and what results to expect.
Always lead with the content. Before you communicate anything, you need to decide what you want to say and why people should want to hear it.
And for communication to work, a message must travel. The best platform to use depends on the particulars of that journey.
We don’t believe the medium is the message, we think it’s the vehicle. And it should be chosen carefully.
We approach the task through an analogy with transport:
➊ Identify the message – this is the cargo that must be carried
➋ Identify the medium – this is the vehicle that will carry the message
➌ Identify the audience – this is the destination to be reached
➍ Identify the marketing – this is ‘Going the Last Mile’ (see below)
In logistics and telecoms, the proverbial ‘last mile’ is the part of the network that extends directly to the end user.
For an internet provider, for example, getting the network to your local exchange is easy. Getting it into your house, and those of all your neighbours, is the difficult – and expensive – part.
Publishers face the same problem. While they can be great at making it, often publishers are bad at taking content directly to end users. They print magazines and leave them on shelves. Or publish websites and social feeds, and wait for end users to stumble across them.
We take on the challenge of the last mile and deliver the content directly to those you want to consume it.
In any form, content is the at the centre of what we do. We seek to make that content as purposeful, meaningful and compelling as possible, and to tailor it to the medium that makes most sense for the consumer.
But no matter how compelling and lucid your message is, it’s of little use if it’s not delivered to the right end users. Our marketing services continue our creation process to help you complete your content journey.
Service: Our expert content team will help you develop and shape any message, story or context.
Uses: No-one knows your message better than you, but content creation is a craft best guided by skilled experts.
Cost: Project fee basis
(guide rate: £250 per day)
Service: Using quality, context and relevance, we’ll drive traffic with the right mix of SEO and PPC.
Uses: Leading users to your content, when their search terms are unpredictable, requires intelligent SEO.
Cost: Project fee basis
(guide rate: £250 per day)
Service: We’ll help you shape your message and put it in front of the right journalists and organisations.
Uses: Breaking through with your message is hard to do. We’ll give you the insider access that can make all the difference.
Cost: Project fee basis
(guide rate: £250 per day)
Service: We’ll develop organic and paid-for social campaigns from an existing social presence or help you to develop one.
Uses: If your message is best heard by people in their personal space, social media is a good approach.
Cost: Project fee basis
(guide rate: £250 per day)
Service: We’ll develop and run email campaigns including content, design and even an audience list.
Uses: If customers might need time to think about your service, emails are a good way to gently remind them.
Cost: Project fee basis
(guide rate: £250 per day)
Service: We’ll advise on and place any budget for online or offline advertising, and can also assist with artwork development.
Uses: Old-fashioned advertising still works for simple products and services with a wide appeal.
Cost: Cost + 10%
(Artwork rates as Display Creative)
There are many other, more immediate, ways to consume most types of information than print. But it is still an incredibly strong and engaging format for experiencing surprising, colourful, deep content.
Whether we make a print product with you or about you, readers will sit down, lean back and enjoy the tactile, sensory experience of quality print, free from distractions. And they’ll want to keep it around to enjoy again.
Service: We offer a full service from planning, production, design and editorial content right through to marketing and sales.
Uses: Quality print magazines show your audience how seriously you take your communications.
Cost: From £15k per issue
(40pp, 2,500 copies)
Service: We’ll help you develop a detailed but accessible print guide, getting to the heart of even complex or dry topics.
Uses: When you need to lay out both the challenges and your company’s solutions to them.
Cost: From £8.5k per issue
(16pp, 2,000 copies)
Service: We’ll help you create regular or campaign-based print communications to post out to your customer base.
Uses: Customers will spend more time with your message and appreciate the extra effort.
Cost: From £750
Project fee basis
Service: Our team will help to develop a compelling campaign idea, source products, create and fulfill delivery.
Uses: If you want to grab potential customers’ attention, a charming pack with gifts works wonders.
Cost: From £3.5k per pack
Project fee basis
Service: We’ll help you boil down your company mission to its key elements and lay it out in a stylish print format.
Uses: Brochures help you make an impact with a backgrounder that you can leave behind with clients.
Cost: From £4.5k per run
(8pp, 1,000 copies)
Service: Our copywriters, designers and marketing team will help you develop print advert artwork that gets responses.
Uses: Print advertising is rarely cheap, so you need to get the artwork right first time.
Cost: From £500 per creative
With many millions of people – professional or amateur – pouring text and video content onto web and digital platforms, today’s challenge is to make meaningful, challenging, arresting content that breaks through and doesn’t perish.
Our attitude towards the web is to be bold, significant and stand out from the masses – producing beautiful, descriptive and engaging content presented in a vibrant and dynamic style.
Service: Our design and development teams will work with you on every aspect from concept to completion on every platform.
Uses: Websites have long been the primary shop window for most businesses – make yours sing.
Cost: From £5k per build
Project fee basis
Service: We’ll design, write and build a fully responsive, dedicated microsite to drive a single campaign or product type.
Uses: With a single topic to promote, a smaller, focused site shows better search relevance.
Cost: From £2.5k per build
Project fee basis
Service: Our copywriters, designers and marketing team will help you develop web advert artwork that gets responses.
Uses: If you want your impressions to turn into clicks you need to make the right impact straight away.
Cost: From £350 per creative
Service: Our skilled team can design and develop an app to suit your business on iOS and Android platforms and more.
Uses: Apps are a great way to get your brand across, but only if you have something unique to offer.
Cost: From £10k per app
Project fee basis
Service: We will build a flat or rich media version of an existing publication or one we have created for you.
Uses: Your virtual edition can be run through a magazine platform like Readly or be offered as an ebook.
Cost: From £500 per issue
Service: Our team will develop a responsive, web-friendly version of your literature, with interactive motion or video.
Uses: Turning your flat designs into user-centred digital publications makes the most of your message.
Cost: From £500 per publication
There is nothing that compares to human contact. We need to see people’s expressions to fully understand their communications, and likewise our ideas flourish when a compelling voice talks to us about them.
Video and audio are platforms that provide a level of engagement not possible with other media. Even through the barriers of a screen or speakers we are able to feel a connection to the material like that of a private conversation.
Service: Our motion team will script, storyboard and animate your message in a single video or video series.
Uses: Many products, services or concepts are quicker and easier to understand with the moving image.
Cost: £1,500 per video + audio
(45 secs)
Service: Our journalist will carry out an interview, captured by our experienced video team at your offices or in the studio.
Uses: Putting thought leaders in front of the camera makes your business messages more human.
Cost: £1,250 per video + costs
(4 mins)
Service: Our content team and videographers will help develop a simple message and deliver it in the most powerful way.
Uses: You can convey complex ideas in two ways simultaneously – visually and verbally.
Cost: From £1,500 per video
Project fee basis
Service: Our team can help to develop your podcast content strategy as well as providing professional recording.
Uses: Podcasts allow a personal relationship with listeners that is rarely afforded by other media.
Cost: Project fee basis
(guide rate: £350 per day)
Service: Our talented voice artists will work with you to develop the right tone and pace for your project, perfectly recorded.
Uses: Your choice of voice talent changes how listeners and viewers respond to your message.
Cost: Project fee basis
(guide rate: £100 per min)
Service: We will help you find and license the right track for your project or work with you to create one from scratch.
Uses: Music is incredibly evocative and can help arouse an emotional response to your message.
Cost: Project fee basis
(guide rate: £600 per track)
Where does branded content come from?
Blog Post or Article?
The Magazine Model
Is content a dirty word?
If you think you could benefit from our content creation or marketing services or you just want to find out more about what we do, please get in touch.