Arts Marketing Association Digital Marketing Day: 2009 Seminars Hannah Rudman (chair), David Stark and Toby Coffey Innovative approaches to working with digital media Hannah Rudman is Project Lead of AmbITion (http://getambition.com), a national digital development programme. She advises on national cultural policy around digital development for England, Scotland and Wales and is Specialist Advisor to the Scottish Arts Council, the Mission Models Money programme, to IC:Innovative Craft and is a Project Mentor to the £1m Edinburgh Portal Project Pilot. She is also Arts Professional’s ‘Harnessing IT’ columnist and on the boards of Milk With 2 Sugars and New Media Scotland (http://consultrudman.com). Hannah recently founded Envirodigital (http://envirodigital.com) – a change agency that encourages organisations to become environmentally sustainable through digital developments. Envirodigital is helping to establish the new National Theatre Wales. David Stark is Director of Marketing and Communications for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, one of five Scottish National Companies supported by the Scottish Government. He joined the marketing team in 2002 before spending a year with Scottish Opera and then returning to the RSNO in 2006 to see the Orchestra’s renaissance, as audiences grew by a third, subscriptions by 120% and the launch of a number of successful new audience series such as Classic Bites, Symphonies at Six, Naked Classics, Out & About and orchestra+. David’s passion for orchestras comes from twenty years of trumpet practice, culminating in a music degree at the University of York. Prior to this, David embarked on an abortive course in Electronic Engineering which left him with an interest in gadgets and things that blink. Toby Coffey is Senior Digital Designer at the Royal National Theatre. He works across many key projects, is a member of their digital steering group and chairs the digital producers forum. Projects at the National have included the design of the National's Digital Archive, the design and production of The Big Wall – a large touch screen interface and the development of online and digital branding, including the design of the National's new website which launched in June 2009. As part of the National's new Digital Media Unit, Toby has also recently co-produced the feature length documentary Making War Horse for DVD and broadcast release. This seminar explored innovative approaches to enhancing our programmes, distributing content and increasing engagement with the public via digital media. It explored the potential for collaboration across the sector to leverage the budgets and resources required to maximise the potential of digital media for the arts. Collaboration and building communities via digital strategies Hannah Rudman introduced the session by introducing the speakers and outlining some key themes, especially looking at the operational organisational framework within which we are working. What is an innovative approach to digital media? It’s probably about changes in the way we are working, such as collaboration and building communities. Why is this happening? Digital development is the result of technological change, which is having economic and social impacts and in turn is leading to significant cultural behaviour changes. 29 Arts Marketing Association Digital Marketing Day: 2009 These developments have hit the cultural sector hard – not just on account of the technology but also because we have spent the last hundred years trying to control the way we work with people. It’s now necessary to work with people in a different way. A question frequently asked of me is: does this technology make everyone an artist? The answer is ‘not really’. Just because people have snazzy digital cameras, doesn’t mean they don’t still look to artists for inspiration. It’s about people choosing to be an artist by vocation. However, the masses want to create and innovative. Some businesses are leading and they do this because they understand that ‘our focus should be not on emerging technologies but on emerging cultural practices’ (Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture, When Old and New Media Collide). If we go back to medieval times, culture such as mummers’ plays used to be participated in. Then over the last 100 years we have professionalised our art; it is made in special places by special people. Now we are in an era in which people have the tools and the connectivity to make culture together again. This affects cultural behaviour. HR then played Charles Leadbeater’s video promo of his book We Think (www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiP79vYsfbo) which makes points such as ‘we want to be players … we want to take to the stage.’ This can strike terror in those who have been traditionally responsible for bringing work to the stage. But it’s not about amateurs on stage as such; it’s about them wanting to be involved. Dell has done this. It has opened up the debate through ‘Ideastorm’, asking people to say what they would like Dell to do next. It’s saying – this product is yours, tell us how you’d like us to make it. Users not only post up their ideas but they are then voted on, so Dell can incorporate the most popular ones, knowing they already have support. The people with the best ideas don’t necessarily work for the organisation. Sony are making computer games such as ‘Little Big Planet’ in which users create the levels, the play spaces and then you swap them with friends. You play their games and they play yours. Ebbsfleet Community Football Club is owned and run by the community, entirely online. There are now 250 million people on Facebook and 75 million people on Twitter (November 2009). 76% of social network members upload photos, up from 45% the previous year The number of people reading blogs has started to level off, with 71% of active internet users reading blogs, up from only 70% the previous year 17% of active internet users access online content through mobile devices as well as home, work, or school computers 30 Arts Marketing Association Digital Marketing Day: 2009 Every business is digital. Information is everywhere and readily accessible. Our customers are online and we can’t control the message. ‘Company boards don’t recognise what IT is or what it does anymore. It used to be a thing that you used to increase productivity or automate processes, but that’s been done. Even CIOs who thoroughly understand enterprise IT have been left behind by social IT – which they can’t control. Today’s technology is about communities.’ Steve Prentice, Gartner (IT Consultancy) These might be niche communities of people using one application. The Royal Opera House put together a libretto using Twitter; interesting project, weird libretto. Or iFringe, an application for the iPhone from Edinburgh Festivals, which required a great deal of collaboration because of the need to compile a range of listings and reviews. We’re beginning to see people measuring the social media output. There are aggregators which can measure words like ‘good’ or ‘bad’ in relation to your organisation. Of course, this goes beyond marketing to a range of interesting initiatives. Other people are raising money through social media; for example through ‘Super Chirp’. Most of the money for The Age of Stupid film was raised online. National Theatre Wales has developed an online community before it has even announced what its artistic programme will be [see John McGrath above under keynotes]. Hoipolloi Theatre [see Simon Bedford session below under seminars], is using all sorts of innovative online media to communicate with their audiences. David Stark: National Performing Arts Companies of Scotland David began by wishing everyone a Happy St Andrews Day. After 18 months of collaborative work, this project is only at the beginning of developing a new digital platform. So there aren’t any lovely websites to show, gadgets to demonstrate or screenshots to dazzle you. This though, is the story of the collaborative process so far: the highs and lows of what is necessary to get five large, well-established and highly strategic organisations to work together, learn together and take big decisions together. The five National Performing Arts Companies of Scotland (NPACS) receive core funding directly from the Scottish Government. They are: • National Theatre of Scotland: an innovative touring company which works with actors, directors and theatre companies – who tour across Scotland and internationally. • Royal Scottish National Orchestra: 90-strong symphony orchestra performing in Scotland’s six cities and touring to smaller towns and villages, and internationally. • Scottish Ballet: 36 dancers, 41 staff and 70 p/t freelance orchestra. Performing across Scotland, UK and abroad. 31 Arts Marketing Association Digital Marketing Day: 2009 • Scottish Chamber Orchestra: 37-piece chamber orchestra, performing across Scotland and internationally, including annual tours of Scottish Highlands and Islands. • Scottish Opera: Scotland’s national opera company and largest performing arts organisation in Scotland performing main scale opera in four cities and performances in 50 other theatres, village halls and community centres. It’s a diverse group but there is much in common, perhaps most importantly all have to deliver across Scotland whether in a small community in the Highlands or the middle of Glasgow. All five companies have major education and community engagement programmes. Catalysts for collaboration If you are going to collaborate there must be reasons to do it. The Scottish Government is keen to see cost savings by sharing resources or services whenever possible. So far, this had led to small wins on the infrastructure side and, though the companies talk with each other regularly, we had not yet embarked on a complete project together. The five companies also shared a desire to work together – in order to improve delivery and reach, giving more people the chance to experience great art.