Building consumer trust by pairing multi-channel content strategy with top-tier earned media.

Client

Yelp is a global platform for discovering and supporting local businesses. Founded in 2004, Yelp boasts 280 million reviews of almost every type of local business and a monthly average of 32 million app unique devices.

Challenge

Yelp’s success depends on consumers trusting the platform to deliver accurate, high-quality reviews and local business information. The company couldn’t talk about how it recommended or verified information since unscrupulous users and businesses may use that information to manipulate the platform. We had to do more than ask consumers to trust us — we had to demonstrate Yelp’s high-quality data and earn their trust. A bonus challenge: expanding the perception of Yelp as a place to find all kinds of local businesses, not just restaurants.

Action

I led the creation of a data science journalism program at Yelp, bringing engineers, data scientists, marketing folks, and senior leaders together to collaborate and experiment. We dug through mountains of data to uncover fascinating stories that were worthy of widespread media coverage. Then, we prioritized the projects that had the best chance at success and mapped out guidelines for how to collect complex data, analyze it, translate it into layman’s terms, visualize it, and work with media partners to place exclusive stories.

By writing blog content, creating branded imagery, and building the content into the Yelp platform, the program created a wealth of multi-channel marketing content. As the program grew, I led the expansion of the original premise into new iterations, including Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat (the Michelin Guide for everyday eats) and Yelp’s Local Economic Outlook (a trend report on the health of the local business economy).

Result

We spun up an incredibly successful marketing machine that earned consumers’ trust and inspired them to support local businesses — the crux of Yelp’s mission. By templatizing the program for release in local, national, and global markets, we amplified its effectiveness and created content that brought users and businesses back to Yelp again and again.

Our pitches to local and national press secured millions of dollars in favorable earned media coverage. The Local Economic Outlook helped to establish the company as a source for economic forecasting. The program attracted partners including FiveThirtyEight, Women’s Health, and Realtor.com.

A selection of media coverage and content:

Wired: Yelp's New Maps Help You Find Bacon, Avoid Tourists

Women’s Health: Social Cities: The 20 Best Up-and-Coming Cities for Every Social Scene

Yelp Blog: Yelp’s Local Economic Outlook: Using Data to Track Small Business Opportunity & Economic Health in America

Washington Post: You are not going to believe where the hottest ‘hipster’ market is

Yelp Blog: Yelp Data Shows Economic Impact of Minimum Wage Increase in Harvard Study

Yelp Blog: Yelp Data Reveals Top 100 Places to Eat: Bookmark These Babies Now!