Justin Spooner & Matthew Shorter from Unthinkable were invited to give the keynote speech to the Arts Marketing Association's Digital Day on 22 November 2012. They invited us to speak about content strategy, and we took the opportunity to outline our thoughts about the balance between planning, adaptation and allowing room for emergence in the creation of digital strategies. These slides will make sense as an aide-memoire to those who were present, and we hope to supplement them in the near future with notes that will make sense of them to everyone else.
5. some assumptions we are
making about arts marketing
marketing contributes to an overall
content system
there is no hard line between the
promotion and the experience itself
6. some assumptions we are
making about arts marketing
arts marketing creates experiences
that complement, extend and even
create art
arts marketing is often done by the
audience
10. some assumptions we are
making aboutdigital strategy
it should describe the whole experience
it should be practical
content is only one piece of the puzzle
the fuller picture includes staff, skills, users, tools,
process, data, design and brand
11. some assumptions we are
making about digital strategy
strategy should make clear a bias for investment
set open permissions to enable
delivery, experiment and learning
12. some assumptions we are
making about digital content
content is one component of the experience
formula
if we combine our understanding of:
People + Place + Time + Content +
Functionality
we get closer to experience
16. plan
a good strategy should speed up the
process of identifying the critical
components of your plan
17. plan
the components of a good plan
aims beneficiaries benefits ideas delivery
organisational target audiences user described content tasks
(personas) benefits
project functionality roles
participants user motivations
platform skills
partners non-idealised
device tools
journeys
organisation
situation
18. plan
experience
aims beneficiaries benefits ideas delivery
22. plan Smithsonian Institute
1. (Pre) visitor starts a casual online search for information on the Smithsonian. Types “visit
Smithsonian” in Google search.
2. She clicks a Google result that talks about the basics when planning a trip to the Smithsonian –
hours, events, exhibits, etc.
3. On the si.edu page, she sees a promo about all the “must-see” artifacts and clicks to view more.
4. She’s amazed at all the cool things on exhibit at the Smithsonian and had no idea there were this
many museums! She gravitates toward those items with high user ratings and reviews. She begins
adding things to a Trip Planner.
5. Her Trip Planner tells her where all of the things she’s collected so far are located. She prints out a
copy and also saves it to her iPhone.
6. When finished, she’s presented the option to download a GPS-enabled phone app that gives extra
info about the collections on view.
7. While viewing [x] at [x] museum, she pulls out her phone to learn more. Because it’s GPS enabled,
the app shows her location and the item she’s currently viewing, and plays a behind-the-scenes
video tour of [x] that are not yet on exhibit.
8. She has a question about the artifact, and browses FAQs that have been collected from citizens and
answered by Smithsonian experts.
9. She takes a few pictures with her phone and shares them on Facebook. Smithsonian data is carried
with it. (reference Brooklyn Museum iPhone app)
10. When she’s home, she returns to the Commons and notices that she’s earned Commons Cash. She
reads a short explanation of what Commons Cash is about. She also sees related information on the
items that she’s favorited while on her trip
32. adapt
users - stakeholders - technology - markets
experience
aims beneficiaries benefits ideas delivery
observation
evaluation
what’s new in your world?
33. adapt
what should you reduce? what should stay the same?
what should you do more of?
experience
aims beneficiaries benefits ideas delivery
observation
evaluation
what’s new in your world?
54. Thank you
Thanks to Tellartfor visual material and stories
& Fitzroy and Finn for design guidance
justin@unthinkableconsulting.com
matthew@unthinkableconsulting.com
@theunthinkables
Notas del editor
JWho we are, and why we are remotely qualified to talk about content strategies. BBC experienceUnthinkable Consulting: arts, culture, music, broadcast and charity sectors. Barbican, Glyndebourne, Wellcomeuser-centredThanks to AMAthree interlocking approaches….
MThanks to Jo for introduction& Cath for inviting usThis whole session is based on what we have learned & observed over the last 15 years or so.looked back at back at methodology to discern patternsJThanks to you lot for turning upTop-level overview of what we mean.Each approach: strengthsthecombination = balance
J
Jcontent that an organisation creates forms part of a dynamic system in relationship to all the other content and in relationship to user experienceexample: blurb you write for an upcoming event might form a springboard for the sharing of user memories after the event – not necessarily the use you are currently anticipating.
Jmention the two opera example: Twitter Opera & Mini operas
Mthe art is not sacred – it is often formed in response to user needs, market conditions and available technology
Maudience attention
JRijksmuseum – marketing for the gallery but also being an experience of itself & not preserving sacred nature of art
Mbe aware of people in the building, on buses, at home, on websitesshould be easy to use by your staffthe whole experience considers staff, skills, users, tools, process, data, design, brand as well content
Mbias: more video; social platforms; a certain demographic; revenue raising; learningopen permissions: be an enabling framework for ideas, not a substitute
Jbecause of dynamic nature of websites & digital (we are coming back to this theme)
10:40ishJintution – not justprocess
J
Mfrom our friends at Tellartwebsites look like magazines or exhibitions or TV channels they are dynamic systems – only exist in interaction with users. same is true of all contenttendency towards complexity – simplification or over-complicationcomponents & moving parts, not rigid linear sequencesmachine works if parts work
Jdig strategy gives you materials to work with shared components across projectsA strategy helps create the plan - it provides you with ready materials
Ja lot of the work we do with organisations focuses on these thingsmention personaspick out couple of components to talk through in more detail
Jwe see a flow to the way you think about building experience
10:45ishJJustin’s roledescribe project
Jbefore getting into a plan, we had to describe what the system wasone of a series of diagrams to understand content machine
Jhow content machine worked over timebits missingsome holes; some betsa plan can only take us so far.
Mdifferent kind of planSI published dig strategythis is just one component: user journey‘idealised user journey’: planning for successcreate success scenario and work backwards from that. you are not planning to fix anything broken or look outside your assumptionsoften these things describe the user as if they only live in our world
Mwhy we like non-idealised user journeysstarting point:either existing user journeyor idealised user journey based on our new planstalk through red boxesthen last green boxMONA gallery in Tasmania does just that
Janother example of stress testing a planENO – Mini Operas – Planning (critical friends) – rapid conceptual iteration – huge room for adaptation
Mexplain what Chrome Web Lab is – Google, Science Museum, TellartChrome Web Lab tells our story backwards – emerge – adapt – plan v open creative brief from Google (we’ll come back to this)
but huge amount of planningdigital projects – machines not documentsweb experience at front of diagram, physical at backway to handle complexity is working with objects & pictures – not linear structure & documents
Msometimes core tools not contentorganisational levelsimple idea of stable, persistent web page for every programme on the BBCinherently empty of content – but that gives it power – vessel for new things. we’ll look at an example later
10:55ishJa plan presumes you know what to do at the start; adapt assumes that you will learn by doing & make adjustments
Jyou need to notice the success you didn’t plan for – unintended consequencesbe careful what you measuremetrics vs intuition
Jmention Agile
Jfeedback loop: evaluate & observeevaluate with metrics & dataobserve with knowledge & intuitionyou might have been setting out to do the wrong thing
Jthe ‘strategic toolkit’: a tool we offer our clientsthis process generates detailed actions, but also a feedback loop to refresh the planrequires understanding of success at start – you can always change it
Jso – having seen what has changed in the world, what needs to change in you?
Manother approach is figuring out the plan by doing - the prototype loop. in other words – plan – adapt – emerge don’t always go in that orderyou can plan by prototyping; you can plan to prototype and then re-planideas > small deliveries > refinementsmention agile again
Msolving a problem by doing, not thinkingSteve Jones
J
Madaptation is sometimes radical not iterativenot like the nozzle storycommissioner’s attitude is keyinitial plan was marble run / science of speedrealised most interesting question was how can user have interaction with kinetic sculpturedeveloped concept of how the web worksthen 5-experiment web connected exhibitteam gelled through this phase. had they done more abstract analysis earlier on they might have wasted more time – and had less fun.
J
11:03ishJ
Jdo you have a process or a forum by which new ideas can come to you?do you ask for them?do you communicate what problems you are trying to solve?do you know the right people?are you opening up your data?set the right kind of environment up – it’s the only thing you can control!set your permissions to openWho is innovating in this field? Do we have a relationship with them? Are they our friends?How do we invite new ideas??Do we only commission what we want or are we happy to be told what we should have?What small discoveries have we made? What are we learning from failureHow can I commission what I don’t know I want?Unanchored innovation
Jyou have your planned processideas will emerge from new relationships & contextsexamples of emergent environments:BBC Connected StudiosBarbican’s policy of reaching out to the digital community on its doorstepHeart n Soul fostering its relationship with Goldsmiths
Jplan for core project, but then massively open brief for installation in SC.emergent process – Goldsmiths; students etc. ideas from all over the place. primary school. new DJ mixing software
Jand here it is
Mshow & explain the functionality
Mshow & explain the functionality
Mthere was no plan for clickable tracklists2 reasons why they happenedAPS was hospitable to emergenceBBC was hospitable to emergence10% timeprototypingI built a plan for it after I saw it – not before
Mthere was no plan for clickable tracklists2 reasons why they happenedAPS was hospitable to emergenceBBC was hospitable to emergence10% timeprototypingI built a plan for it after I saw it – not beforeorganisation-based – no end in sightsmaller orgs might need to make space outside
Magain – sometimes the journey can go from emergence to planGoogle’s brief for the CWL was very loose. it was about using a palette of materials. there was plenty of scope for interpretationthis project became so very creative because it commissioned in a creative wayGoogle was great because they trusted, supported and participated in this design process. They never questioned our leaving behind early experiments, prototypes, concepts for better ones - never any worry that we were wasting time or resources if we didn't keep everything. www itself extremely emergentas commissioners – think about controlling only what you need to control to guarantee good management.allow freedom
11:10ishJ from here – outlining some tactics for applying the schemaUsing all three methods means you won’t find yourself having to ignore great ideas because you have planned all your resources away.