A practical guide

John WhiteChief Operating OfficerThe Space01/05/2023

Building your digital strategy

• 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’?

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How much/how long etc.?

• 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

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Year 4 plan

The planning cycle

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Investing in major initiatives

Digital policy

Year 1 plan Year 2 plan Year 3 plan

Project iteration/review

‘Big splash’ vs ‘iteration’

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• 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

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• 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

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Audiences

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• 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?

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• 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

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• 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

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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

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Content production

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• 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

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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

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• 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

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• 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

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Organisational

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• 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

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• 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

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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

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In summary

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• 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

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Sector resources

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• 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

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• 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

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Example projects

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Creative content

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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

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Cath Le Couteur & Nick Ryan: Adrift

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• 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

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

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Captured content

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Miracle Theatre: Cinderella

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• 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

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

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Streetwise: The Passion

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• 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

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

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Cultural learning content

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Glyndebourne: opera guides

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• 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

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

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Nottingham Castle: Riot 1831

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• 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

Detroit Institute of Arts: Lumin

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• 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

Content distribution & exhibition

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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

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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

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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

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• 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

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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?

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