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Building a Digital Strategy for Arts & Cultural Organisations
- 2. A practical guide John White Chief Operating Officer The Space 29/01/2017 Building your digital strategy
- 3. • Audiences: reaching and engaging audiences online • Content: Using technology to create content for online or offline engagement: e.g. creative content, captured content, cultural learning content • Organisation: using technology to drive organisational efficiency/sustainability See Arts Council England Digital Policy and Plan Guidelines co-authored by The Space and MTM What do we mean by ‘digital’? 29/01/20173
- 4. How much/how long etc.?
- 5. • Integrated with business plan: mission/objectives, creative/curatorial, marketing, education, staffing and budget • Audience-led: puts audience reach and engagement at heart of the plan • Focused on strengths or opportunities specific to the organisation rather than spreading efforts too thinly • Realistic: recognises current starting point, skills and resources available and importance of effective advocates, partners and suppliers • Adaptable/agile: digital landscape changes rapidly so plan should be top-level and have scope to iterate, learn and evolve • Senior stakeholders involved in policy and plan rather than e.g. limited to digital marketing function Principles for a good digital strategy 29/01/20175
- 6. Year 4 plan The planning cycle 29/01/20176 Investing in major initiatives Digital policy Year 1 plan Year 2 plan Year 3 plan Project iteration/review
- 7. ‘Big splash’ vs ‘iteration’ 29/01/20177
- 8. • Link to overall mission • Current status of digital practice • Opportunities for digital to support mission and objectives • Key digital principles and commitments • Responsibility for policy and review process • What will success look like? Digital policy requirements 29/01/20178
- 9. • Digital objectives • Key activities to meet each digital objective • Targets: set clear, ambitious but realistic targets • Budget/resources for each activity • Deadlines: include a clear timeframe and milestones • Responsibilities: identify who will oversee and who will deliver each activity Digital plan requirements 29/01/20179
- 11. • Starting point: what is your current online reach and engagement (see ‘Effective use of data’ below)? • Segments: are you targeting activities to specific audience segments (e.g. Audience Spectrum)? • Audience outcomes: are activities focused on achieving clear outcomes (e.g. building brand awareness, marketing creative programme, engaging with creative content, building brand loyalty, generating online income, gaining feedback)? • Audience interests: have you considered different audience needs/interests (e.g. new audiences vs existing, traditional arts audiences vs others, in area vs out of area, diverse audiences, children and young people)? Audiences: who and why? 29/01/201711
- 12. • Have you focused on realistic channels for your audiences and content? • Sustainability: do your plans support regular content/communication on each channel or do you risk spreading efforts too thinly? • Audience usage: have you selected channels where your audience segments already consume content and will content work with the devices those audiences use and typical interaction patterns (duration, frequency)? • Usability and accessibility: have you considered audience access (e.g. mobile vs other devices, subtitling of dialogue, user testing of significant builds)? Audiences: channels 29/01/201712
- 13. • Marketing budget: is the budget/resource allocated to marketing at least 10% of content/production budget (ideally greater, especially if there’s a high expectation of new audience acquisition) • Content discovery: have you considered how the audience will find the content? • Social media: paid for promotion of content (can be very targeted and cost-effective e.g. budgets in the £10s per promoted post)? • Influencers: using your contacts network to promote content via social media (e.g. trustees, friends, high profile talent)? • Search engine optimisation: ensuring text has key search terms and new websites are optimised • Retention: does your marketing plan include driving repeat engagements with existing audiences (cheaper to retain than to acquire new)? Audiences: marketing 29/01/201713
- 14. Do you have realistic targets for reach, engagement and audience outcomes? • Are targets set from a useful baseline? Be wary of metrics like social media “impressions” and Facebook video views which don’t necessarily mean content has been engaged with • Do you know your current level and growth rate for your target metrics? Plans which assume greater than a 30% improvement in growth rate are ambitious • Do you have a plan, skills and time to: focus on the most relevant, actionable metrics; set up dashboards for easy monitoring; regularly interpret and share data across the organisation to evolve plans? Audiences: effective use of data 29/01/201714
- 16. • Produce one at a time to gain learning and apply to next project allowing 3 month+ pre-production timeframe • Clear audience targets, distribution and marketing approach • Cross-departmental and senior buy-in (e.g. creative/curatorial in conjunction with educational and marketing) • How will the plan build after year 1, learn intelligently and share learnings rather than just doing more of the same? • Long-form capture typical budget range £35k to £100k (below £25k likely to be archive usable only) Content production: long-form video 29/01/201716
- 17. Costs from Canvas for 3-5 minute videos (excluding rights clearances): • A) £1k - £1.5k = freelance producer/camera operator/editor charging £300-£500 per day. 1 day shoot and 2-3 day edit • B) £1.5k - £2.5k = small production company perhaps e.g. second camera operator, dedicated editor, simple graphics • C) £2.5k - £5k = 2-3 camera operators and/or 2 days shooting, dedicated editor, experienced exec producer/production manager, more elaborate graphics • 360 degree filming: typical budgets in the £5k to £7k for short-form but budget range can vary substantially Content production: short-form video 29/01/201717
- 18. • Planning phase to consider: user journeys, accessibility, mobile optimisation, SEO, content migration/redirecting from old site where applicable • Clear schedule with time for testing, content population and iterative development (3 months minimum) • Plan for ongoing content management responsibilities, maintenance and hosting requirements • Simple website with open source CMS from £10k. E-ticketing additional £5k to £10k for separately hosted solution or from £30k to £100k for something seamlessly integrated into the main website • Assume site will require substantial reinvestment/replacement every 3-4 years Content production: new website build 18
- 19. • Plans should focus on user experience and be technology agnostic: once experience is clear, what is the best technology to enable the audience to engage with it? • App store discoverability, getting users to install and to return to the app are major barriers to reach and engagement • Reduce costs by using software/toolkits to create apps for e.g. Apple and Android or deliver regularly used features: e.g. augmented reality location/image detection • App development from £10k for the app (that’s before cost of content/animation and marketing, so typically £50k+ total cost) Content production: apps and Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality experiences 29/01/201719
- 21. • Combine a holistic approach to digital (i.e. not just marketing or standalone software) with small practical steps • Consider using lower cost software-as-service providers rather than investing in bespoke systems • If making large investments look at options to cost share with other organisations or to build systems that can be reused in future • Consider long terms costs (e.g. hosting, maintenance, updates) • Do your timescales and budgets allow for prototyping and then refining and iterating (i.e. ‘agile’ development)? Operations, resilience and sustainability 29/01/201721
- 22. • Have you thought about future digital exploitation of new physical pieces (e.g. ensuring digital rights are clearable even if not any immediate plan for online publication)? • Have you considered rights ownership for any bespoke digital production (e.g. for a new website have you considered ownership of code, design and content)? • The Space is exploring with industry stakeholders the potential to develop more standardised digital rights frameworks for publicly funded UK arts Rights management 29/01/201722
- 23. Is there a clear plan to gain and/or sustain the following skills either in-house or through partners/suppliers? • Board/trustee experience with digital? • Skills in data tracking and analysis? • Digital marketing skills? • Digital production skills? Leadership and skills: organisation planning 29/01/201723
- 25. • Integrated with business plan: mission/objectives, creative/curatorial, marketing, education, staffing and budget • Audience-led: puts audience reach and engagement at heart of the plan • Focused on strengths or opportunities specific to the organisation rather than spreading efforts too thinly • Realistic: recognises current starting point, skills and resources available and importance of effective advocates, partners and suppliers • Adaptable/agile: digital landscape changes rapidly so plan should be top-level and have scope to iterate, learn and evolve • Senior stakeholders involved in policy and plan rather than e.g. limited to digital marketing function Principles for a good digital strategy 29/01/201725
- 27. • The Space! • Audience Agency: digital marketing for arts organisations • Chartered Institute of Marketing: digital marketing • Creative Skillset: funding for training and accreditation • Decoded: from coding to digital leadership • Digital Action Plan: digital skills training for charities • E-marketeers: digital marketing and project management • General Assembly: design, marketing, technology, data • Ten Ten: rights management • Webcredible: all aspects of digital training Training providers 29/01/201727
- 28. • See links in ‘Useful Resources’ p.21 of Digital Policy and Plan Guidelines • The Space: online resources e.g. case studies, how-to guides • Audience Agency: Digital Snapshot newsletter • Chris Unitt: Cultural Digital newsletter • Capacity Interactive: New York arts digital marketing consultancy. Articles and email newsletter • IPA: best practice guides on e.g. finding and briefing an agency • We Are Social: social media blog • Thinking Digital: annual conference on technology, ideas and future Online resources 29/01/201728
- 31. Abandon Normal Devices: In the Eyes of the Animal • Forest based VR experience with online extension • Exploring the visual world of different animals in the forest they inhabit • Distribution: forest installation, festivals, YouTube 360, Country File 29/01/201731
- 32. Cath Le Couteur & Nick Ryan: Adrift 29/01/201732 • Film, physical installation and Twitter interactive piece focused on subject of Space debris • Launched at Royal Astronomical Society. Generated national and international media coverage • Film placed on sites such as Nowness • Installation will appear at science festivals and museums
- 33. Serpentine Galleries: Zaha Hadid VR • Four VR experiences in Gallery developed from individual paintings • Partnership with Google Arts & Culture emphasises benefit of seeking technology partners • Architectural nature of paintings works well in 3D virtual reality environment as comparatively easy to model well at lower resolutions 29/01/201733
- 35. Miracle Theatre: Cinderella 29/01/201735 • Part of a series of ‘lo-fi extends’ from The Space • Using social media to market and extend reach of live performances/events • Short-form content and promotion on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram • Use of consultants to establish a model for future low-cost project support
- 36. Artichoke: London 1666 Extending audience for a live event in which a replica of City of London was burned on Thames to commemorate Great Fire of London: • Pre-event short-form content for social media • YouTube live stream (including Visit London) • BBC Four documentary following day resulting in pick-up from e.g. Songs of Praise 29/01/201736
- 37. Streetwise: The Passion 29/01/201737 • Capture of Easter performance by homeless charity Streetwise working with professional choir The Sixteen • Broadcast on BBC Four and via Streetwise’s own YouTube channel • Helped build social media audience for future projects • Raised brand awareness of the charity and its activities
- 38. Complicite: The Encounter • Binaural live stream of sold out show • 7-day online availability with distribution including Guardian, Timeout, Barbican • Used supportors network: video snippets and countdown clock embedded on websites of supporting organisations • Online international audiences made business case for additional tours in USA and Australia 29/01/201738
- 40. Glyndebourne: opera guides 29/01/201740 • 5 different interactive guides with re- usable, mobile friendly framework • Concise text with embedded video content • Teacher resources tailored to subject, key stage and learning format • Budget structured so that costs significantly lower for future iterations because of investment in reusable technology
- 41. Tyneside Cinema: Time Machine • Interactive game, website, mini films, classroom resources with finale in cinema • Encourages engagement with history of the cinema via creative themes and venue itself via finale • Won multiple digital awards • Income of £150-£300 per school session • Launched in 2012 and still investing in refreshing content today 29/01/201741
- 42. Nottingham Castle: Riot 1831 29/01/201742 • 2014 Digital R&D Fund for the Arts project • Augmented Reality exhibition with 3D real time environments and animated first person performances • 77% of visitors found AR engaging • 85% agreed interactive elements made experience more memorable
- 43. Detroit Institute of Arts: Lumin 29/01/201743 • Uses Google Tango technology with GuidiGO augmented reality platform creator: cost benefits of frameworks • Tour stops include e.g. • X-ray view of the skeleton inside a mummy • See the original vibrant colours of a beige limestone sculpture • Reconstruction of gates of ancient Babylon in front of a section of wall • Launched 25 Jan 2017
- 45. Cinegi: public screenings of filmed content • Digital service for public screenings to reach audiences in e.g. village halls, community centres, arts centres, pubs • Filmed theatre, dance, ballet, opera and music – from the major arts companies to the mid scale and smaller • Content of varying lengths – from 3 hours to 10 minutes – venues can create programmes of multiple titles • Launched January 2017 29/01/201745
- 46. The Old Market: #TOMTECH • Story Hack event and blog exploring use of VR and other technologies in creative story telling • Building a digital community around an venue and encouraging collaboration and R&D 29/01/201746
- 47. Tyne & Wear Archive and Museums: Collections Dive • Collaboration between Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums, Nesta, AHRC and Microsoft Research • Promotes serendipity in search: scrolling speed alters choice of related items or random new topics • Complements a more traditional search interface • Three iterations of user testing and improvement • System learns from user interaction 29/01/201747
- 48. • Useful resources at Collections Trust ‘Digital isn’t Different’ and Museums Computer Group • Consider the audiences for archives projects, from museum staff, trustees and sponsors through to public audiences • Consider the use cases from free use, social sharing to commercial exploitation • Ensure systems have technical standards to support a Create Once Publish Everywhere (COPE) strategy • For archiving of digital creative projects there are challenges around future access to works that depend on hardware/software that may then be unavailable. Video walk-throughs are a low cost reliable way to archive aspects of an experience Preservation and archiving 29/01/201748
- 49. John White – Chief Operating Officer john.white@thespace.org http://www.thespace.org http://www.facebook.com/thespacearts https://twitter.com/thespacearts Thank you! Any questions or suggestions? 29/01/201749
Editor's Notes
- Given the span of digital activities and their relevance to different scales and types of arts organisations it is hard to be prescriptive. The answer to many questions about e.g. budgets and timescales is ‘how long is a piece of string’. We will focus on some key principles illustrated by practical examples
- Your digital policy sets key principles and will be driven by your organisation’s mission and objectives. Whilst it should be reviewed annually it’s unlikely to change substantially each year. It should consider current digital status, key digital commitments and objectives and who is responsible for the policy and its review If you make major investments in digital (e.g. new website, back office systems etc.) it’s important to plan for the fact that these are likely to need substantially upgrades or replacement every 3-4 years, as technology and audience requirements evolve. It’s important to ensure you are setting aside budget reserves for this in the same way as you would for significant capital investment. Specific digital objectives will evolve significantly year on year as requirements evolve and you learn from previous activity. An annual plan with SMART objectives that is reviewed regularly throughout the year will ensure activity is focused on your objectives Individual projects should ideally be delivered iteratively: low risk prototype, review and use learnings to shape the next stage
- It can be tempting with limited budgets to focus on infrequent larger scale projects with little or no budget to sustain content and a dialogue with the audience in between. The result is that audience interest tails off rapidly and the delivery team do not get regular experience/insight into what works and what doesn’t. This can make it hard to sustain digital audience growth. The alternative model – with smaller more frequent projects and some focus on sustaining the audience conversation in between, has a cumulative effect in building an engaged, repeat audience.
- Audience Agency useful links: https://www.theaudienceagency.org/insight/feature-get-to-know-your https://www.theaudienceagency.org/products/digital-tools Audience Agency: series of AudienceView reports using Hitwise data for 1-3 websites priced from: £250 to £1,000. https://www.theaudienceagency.org/products/digital-tools/audienceview/ Consultancy support £450 per day. Webinars £250 for multiple attendees.
- Avoid a tick box mindset to accessibility compliance. E.g. achieving comprehensive W3C AA compliance is very challenging, depending on type of content, but there are many simple practical steps you can take to make content significantly more accessible if you plan in advance and ideally combine a technical accessibility standards compliance review with user testing.
- Useful blog on Facebook ad manager: https://blog.bufferapp.com/facebook-ads-manager
- Useful free/low cost tools for gaining audience insight: Alexa: http://www.alexa.com/ website popularity Buzzsumo: http://buzzsumo.com/ content analysis, social and web Followerwonk: https://moz.com/followerwonk/ twitter analytics, identifying key opinion formers Quintly: https://www.quintly.com/ social media analytics Similarweb: https://www.similarweb.com/ SEO tool for competitor analysis
- From Canvas: Three main bands assuming we're talking about 3-5 minute one-off videos. There are certainly savings to be made by commissioning a series of videos. A) £1K - £1.5K. This would be working on a freelance basis with an individual producer / camera operator / editor who would be charging between £300-£500 per day to do everything. So roughly speaking you would get a day's shoot and two or three days editing. There would be no music rights thrown in, so if there's a requirement for incidental music, this would need to be added on (although it's a small amount if the music is generic). It may not be the most polished production and may require some editorial oversight. B) £1.5K - £2.5K. You might get a second camera operator, a dedicated editor and some simple but decent graphics. For this budget you may well be dealing with a small production company whose bread and butter is corporate work. They would probably throw in some music clearance at no extra cost. C) £2.5K to £5K. Here you might get 2-3 camera operators and / or may even get 2 days shooting in multiple locations, possibly even some travel and expenses, dedicated editors, some elaborate graphics (Aftereffects etc), and most likely an experienced hand overseeing the project as an Exec Producer and / or a Production Manager None of these costs include talent or rights clearance - there's an even broader range here, so it's worth keeping this separate. In terms of 360, we have been looking into this recently, with a view to launching a series of monthly 360 productions with different partners. There's a much bigger range here, depending on the complexity of the 360 production, the environment, and the activity being captured. The lowest quotes we received were for a simple 360 capture of an event were around £2.5K. The highest were closer to £10K. The most sensible and detailed responses we had were around the £5K to £7K mark. At the upper end is something like this that the NT published this week for Threepenny Opera. https://youtu.be/m2A12hBRhGY It will have required a lot of choreography / blocking so the costs are as much in pre-production as in the 360 capture itself At the other end of the scale are far more straightforward capture of static performances like this BBC Proms piece https://youtu.be/zY09QP6CqdM This will have required very little in the way of pre or post-production, so I would imagine it being around £3K to £5K but I may be wrong.
- ONLINE TICKETING SYSTEMS NOTES There are two levels of implementation that a venue may wish to investigate: hosted solution and custom API-driven solution. Hosted solutions are the easier end of the spectrum and generally are suited for small to medium size venues or venues with minimal requirements Pros - implementation by ticketing platform so little web developer input required; 'off the shelf' functionality; depending on platform some customisation is possible; quick to implement; tend to have good infrastructures for dealing with on sale surges Cons - hard to customise once implemented and usually expensive; limited functionality and support for useful features (memberships, products, discounts etc); tend to be out-dated code bases and without support for modern web features (responsive design, JavaScript); user experience often affected as solution is third party hosted requiring buyer to leave venue's website or use clumsy iframes; no control over capacity levels, vendor tie-in Budget range: £5k - £10k (web implementation only) + ticketing company licence and set up fees API-based solutions (Application Programming Interfaces allow one IT system to talk seamlessly to another) allow complete customisation of the ticket purchase experience from design/user experience to functionality Pros: very flexible, not dependent on single technology; UX and design can be branded so seamless integration; scaleable for on sale surges; cheaper to customise; updatable; can be expanded beyond just ticketing too all areas of online business Cons: longer timescales to implement; much more scoping required; requires in-house staff with expertise to manage CRM (Customer Relationship Management); requires hosting, in-house infrastructure ongoing costs; more complex = more to go wrong Budget: £30k - £100k
- Rights management advisor costs range from £400 to £1,000+ per day
- Time Machine won three Big Chip Awards recognising excellent use of digital technology, in addition to the Special Jury Prize at the Learning on Screen Awards in London and the Innovation Award at the Northern Royal Television Society Awards.
- GuidiGO can be used based on GPS location technology, image recognition or keying in existing item numbers so no need to install infrastructure. Can use location beacons though. https://www.guidigo.com/: pricing from free to $325 pcm http://hyperallergic.com/350320/more-screens-more-knowledge-testing-the-detroit-institute-of-arts-new-augmented-reality-app/
- Filmed theatre, dance, ballet, opera and music – from the major arts companies to the mid scale and smaller Must be HD and good technical quality for playout on large screens Rights owners must ensure they have all necessary rights from artists etc to allow for ‘non theatric’ ‘public video’ distribution Cinegi Arts&Film does not do capture/filming itself Secure content delivery - Cinegi Arts&Film provides full DRM Rights owners will receive a revenue share from screenings but this is unlikely to be amount to large sums Supported by Arts Council England in partnership with the BFI
- Digital Benchmarks for the Culture Sector: http://collectstrust.wpengine.com/resource/digital-benchmarks-for-the-culture-sector/ Self assessment tool to look at where you are in use of technology across 8 core areas in which digital is likely to impact your organisation Europeana: http://www.europeana.eu/portal/en 54.2m artworks, artefacts, books, videos and sounds from across Europe Note that Culture Grid, an initiative by the Collections Trust to support data aggregation and feed into Europeana closed to new accessions in April 2014. Nick Poole, CEO of Collections Trust “countering these investment challenges would be possible if doing so were to lead directly to rich end-user experiences. But they don’t. Instead, you have to spend a huge amount of time, effort and money to deliver something which the vast majority of users essentially regard as background texture.” For archiving of digital artworks see Rhizome’s Artbase project: https://rhizome.org/art/artbase founded in 1999. Used to accept open submissions but now works are added by curatorial invitation.