The other day was the first in the Cross Creative Series I’ve been invited to take part in. Cross Creative is a networking and training series of events for people in the digital industry. Episode one got the series off to a flying start:
This year’s delegates (is that the right word? How about participants?) include:
- Justin Eames from Fish in a Bottle – They create superb interactive experiences, including online games for some of you favourite TV series.
- Sarah Tierney from Twig - Twig is a sort of “video wiki”. Delivering informative video content through a clever interface that encourages exploration and discovery.
- Kat Hebden from Shed Media - An independent UK TV production company specialising in contemporary original content and are pioneers of multi-channel delivery.
- Nick Roy from YuVa - YuVa has a groundbreaking ambition to create innovative digital signage, and digital installations. To make our visual environment a little more alive and interactive.
In addition, we were joined by three people who had some really interesting stuff to say:
Firstly, Gareth Langley, from Stardotstar, joined us to talk about his experiences of Cross Creative ’09. Cross Creative is a series of sessions in which participants discuss key issues in the digital sector and learn from each others’ experiences. It also includes a sort of school trip to meet some leading lights in the field out in San Fran. Gareth had some great insights from his tenure:
- Elevator pitches – He described how he’d learned how to wow someone in 60 seconds. I usually just mutter an introduction that succinctly covers our remit: “uh, websites and stuff.” Hopefully I’ll learn to improve on this!
- UK/US cultural difference - He talked about how inspiring the US companies had been. Their openness and willingness to share was key “These days it’s more important to tweet an idea that patent it.” (can’t remember who said that, but it neatly sums up the approach these companies take). He also talked about the different networking technique they had – working the room rather than standing in the corner (I need to learn that one for sure!)
- Preparation – This is more a mental note for me, but it appears we’ll get to meet some really interesting people, and preparing questions in advance is important in order to get the most out of the discussion. Companies like Pixar, Get Satisfaction, IDEO etc are on the list to visit.
Next up was Iain Ritchie, a godfather of digital. Iain has worked with a huge range of organisations and, amongst other things, is currently chairman of Iomart PLC, Computer Application Services Ltd, The Interactive Design Institute and Caspian Learning Ltd. He talked about the opportunities and pitfalls with creating digital start-ups, seeking venture capital funding and selling your business to one of the largest manufacturers of consumer electronics in the world.
Finally, we were joined by James Kirkham from Holler. Holler is a digital strategy agency who have been doing really exciting integrated digital marketing for a range of big names including: Channel 4, E4, Jergens Naturals, Kickers, P&G and Red Bull. His main focus was on the importance of collaboration to create great integrated communications. This is an interesting and timely subject. What we already know is that to engage an audience online, companies need to talk in a more personal, entertaining way than they are used to - The passive consumer no longer exists; they are now active participants; “Technology facilitates but the audience creates”. This means that the marketing department no longer pulls the strings, it’s the audience that’s in control.
There are a few quite high profile examples of this happening. Most notably is Tim Kring’s decision to change the storyline of Heroes right in the middle of Season 2 based on fans’ feedback. This sort of responsiveness to the hard-core fan-base has become a must-have ingredient of a successful enterprise.
James’ assertion is that by teaming digital experts with more traditional production houses it is possible to create raw unique content that entertains. Then by capitalising on existing online brand fans, it is possible to create immensely effective campaigns that generate ongoing support rather than the flash in the pan effect of more traditional advertising channels – Branded Entertainment.
An example of his work in this area is the Jergens Naturals camapign where Holler created a 5 part compact TV series about skincare, designed to be screened on Youtube. Not only did it successfully engage viewers, it was commissioned as a full TV series in Australia.
Another example is their work with Red Bull to engage with blogger fans and inspire them to create the branded entertainment content that would power wider Red Bull communications. This was acheived by “super-serving” the fanbase; contacting them directly with neat gifts and an incentive to talk about the events and create photography and video content around them.
To be continued…
This first session in the series is by definition, just the beginning. I think I’m going to learn loads of useful stuff (like only doing my email before lunch and before the end of the day – thanks Justin!) so I’m going to try to discipline myself to write a post after each one to capture what went on. It’s useful for me and, dear reader, may be useful to you too.
As always, if you’re bubbling up with annoyance or inspiration about anything I’ve written, please leave a comment, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Tags: channel 4, cross creative, design, digital, equator, fish in a bottle, gareth langley, get satisfaction, holler, iain ritchie, james kirkham, jergens, Justin Eames, kat hebden, Nick Roy, pixar, red bull, sarah tierney, shed media, stardotstar, YuVa
