A night at the Royal Academy

Last night Tayler and I had the pleasure of attending the premiere opening of David Hockney’s A Bigger Picture at the Royal Academy, at the invitation of our wonderful client and generous friend Wayne Sleep.

For three hours, we were immersed in a world of rich colour, texture and creative talent. Hockney’s latest masterpieces – on canvas, film and prints from iPad drawings - are mind blowing. The sheer scale and the amount of time and thought that has gone into creating this exhibition is inspiring. It’s not surprising that it looks likely to outsell the Monet retrospective – the RA’s most successful to date.

Of particular interest was a huge video wall with a piece staring dancers from The Royal Ballet, “improvised” by (and also staring) Wayne Sleep. He was invited by Hockney to create the piece – his brief was simply “colour”. We will be interviewing Wayne next week to find out more about his relationship with the artist and how he went about creating the work.

It was a night we will never forget – a huge gathering of stars from TV, film, fashion and the arts were there including Sirs Michael Caine, Ian McKellen and Bob Geldof, plus Bill Nighy, Tracey Emin, Zandra Rhodes, Andrew Lincoln… we were surrounded by the most creative talent in the world. What a treat. Thank you Wayne!

Tayler, Bill Nighy, Daisy and Andrew Lincoln at the Royal Academy

My week working with Liberty842

I had the pleasure of working with Liberty842 for the week on a work placement and I definitely learnt a lot!

For the first day, Tayler gave me an introduction to the company and took me through the ins and outs of what they do. I started looking at the incredible websites they had created and also interviews with celebrities such as Alan Carr and Lee Evans. From this I went on to create my own questions I would like to ask them in forth coming interviews. (It is very difficult trying to come up with questions that haven't already been asked!)

I also went along to a meeting at Shoreditch House with measurement specialist David Ellis from Station 10 who spoke about Google analytics and techniques to help promote brands online which I found very interesting. It's clear he inspires many people!

I have to say my highlight of the week was going to interview and film Alan Carr at the Brighton Centre which was so much fun! He is just as lovely in real life, and even funnier! To top it off I got to watch his 'Spexy Beast' stand up show which had me in stitches all night.

It has been lovely working with Tayler and Daisy who made me feel very welcome the entire time and I look forward to hopefully working with them in the future! Thank you for the great experience :) x

Zeebox & Desperate Scousewives – a new era in interactive TV begins…

Our friends over at Channel 4 have got together with Zeebox to trial the Zeebox app in conjunction with Desperate Scousewives (DSW) on E4. Over the course of the broadcast, users would be fed specially commissioned content and see what cast and viewers were saying about the show as-it-happened.

So last night I settled down to watch, iPad in hand. In a nutshell, it was like Bad Movie Club (which I loved!) on steroids. All the answers to “What’s that track?” Who’s that?" "Where’s that place?" were answered. I could also read reactions to the show from hundreds of programme-related tweets from viewers, participants and the official Scousewives stream.



Content for Desperate Scousewives on Zeebox including Zeetags on the left giving users access to further branded content.

The app is well designed (not surprising seeing as Anthony “BBC iPlayer” Rose is behind it), and really easy to navigate.

The content feed was nicely timed. During the ad breaks, 'Zeetags' popped up on the left, giving viewers the chance to access richer content, namely short videos from the cast. Whilst the generic Zeetags were a bit tenuous (pulling up Wikipedia entries on football and Jesus Christ!), those created specifically for DSW were well produced and included intros to cast members, a handy Scouse glossary and links to iTunes where you could download music from the programme. If you’re that engrossed that you can’t tear your eyes from the telly during broadcast, you can scroll back through the Zeetags in the ad breaks or after the show

I only had a couple of minor niggles using it:

• I thought you’d have to leave the app completely to jump to your own Twitter stream – I did manage to access it via related links to the official Scousewives twitter account, but it would be great to have easier access.
• The generic Zeetags seem a tad pointless. I know what football is! The real value of this app will be in tailored content around a programme.
• I signed in to both Facebook and Twitter with the app, but clicking on the link to join DSW on Facebook, I was prompted to sign in.
• Clicking on one of the programmes means I’m showing up as watching it (I wasn’t watching Assault on Precinct 13 last night, if you were wondering, just looking at the page on the app).

All in all, I really liked Zeebox, for the same reason I love Twitter. It’s instant and a really simple set up. Desperate Scousewives isn’t my cup of tea, so I’m not sure I’ll be watching again, but I liked the addition of the app with its tailored content. I think it could be used for more serious programming (thinking back to my blog post about Channel 4’s The Promise back in April).

Incidentally, it’s a great way to access TV listings – and I think one of its big selling points will be that (once more of my friends are using it) I may be swayed by their viewing choices and joining a conversation online with them. It’s an extension of audience behaviour which is why it should work long term.

The history of my own experience as a viewer/listener goes like this…

• If the phone rang straight after The Archers or Coronation Street, I’d know it was my mum calling to talk about the programme.
• I sometimes spend a lot of time during a programme texting– one to one – with friends and family talking about a programme we're watching on TV.
  
• The Bad movie club experience – It's only happened the once, but I watched in awe as a torrent of tweets about The Happening whizzed across my screen in Tweet Chat
  
• Twitter interaction between friends and family has more recently extended to a wider network, for example an enjoyable late night discussion with people I’ve only “met” on Twitter about Ian Dury during a programme about him on TV – everyone else in my house had gone to bed!

The big difference with a conversation online is that broadcasters and programme makers can listen in to our conversations and get to know us a little better. They can also use this knowledge to inform future programming.

Congrats to Jodie Morris and her team at Channel 4!

Further info:

Channel 4 press release
Desperate Scousewives on Zeebox

Event: Talking about community management

Last night I joined folk at Tempero to speak alongside Sony, BMA, ACCA and Mint Digital about online community management and share our tips and experiences.

It was a packed house and the event was kicked off by Tempero's founder, Dom Sparks.

First up was Nico Henderijckx from Sony Europe gave us a fascinating introduction to their "Super Users" and how they are an integral part of Sony's customer service strategy.

The Association of Certified Chartered Accountants' Charlotte Garfield spoke about creating a lively community from what could seem like a fairly dry suject - namely accountacy! Working closely with Tempero's Thane Ryland, the ACCA has managed to create a thriving community on Facebook and how they're looking to extend their strategy to Twitter in future.

Andy Bell from Mint Digital gave a highly entertaining talk about developing an online presence for Channel 4's Sexperience. (Cue sniggering in the audience!) He talked about the challenges of creating a site set up to pre-moderate comments and managing users' expectations.

Gordon Fletcher from The BMA talked about how they're making the most of all communication channels to encourage engagement. Doctors, it seems, prefer email, so the BMA have made sure it's part of their strategy to keep a dialogue open with them to help with their campaign on NHS reform.

And last up was me! I talked about taking over the mantle of The Archers community host from Keri Davies and how The Archers' 60th anniversary affected the message board and listeners.

My tips?

• Keep (or seem!) calm when the going gets rough - don't take things personally
• Get to know your subject and your community (I'm lucky enough to be able to draw on a wealth of books - pictured above! - as well as Camilla Fisher, the ever-helpful Archers archivist, and the long memories of many on the message board).
• Make the most of content and conversation across all channels - The Archers has a message board, Facebook page and Twitter feed - as well as a thriving community built around #thearchers hashtag.
• Feed back to the "mother ship" regularly - don't keep all this fascinating insight to yourself!
  

You can download all the presentations from Tempero's website.

And if you're interested, that list of Archers fan characters on Twitter is here.

Thanks to Kelda Wallis for arranging it all.

Event: Community Management: Tips & Tricks - 17 Nov 2011

I'm talking - alongside Keri Davies from the BBC - at an event on Thursday 17 November organised by Tempero.

Here's the blurb about it:

For one night only the people behind C4′s Sexperience, Radio 4′s The Archers, The British Medical Association, The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, and Sony’s online communities are getting together to share their tips & tricks on managing online communities.

You’ll be able to ask them everything from how they got started to what happened once things got going.

This isn’t the usual presentations of fuzzy case studies. You’ll hear from the inhouse people championing their communities internally, to the agencies that build them and keep them running from day-to-day.

Also speaking are Mint Digital and Channel 4's Sexperience, Sony and Tempero, The BMA, The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

It looks to be an interesting night - if you want to come, you can register here. Hope to see you there!

The Need for a Digital Strategy

Businesses of all shapes and sizes, from the big players right down to one-man bands seem to feel the ever-mounting pressure of having a digital strategy in place. How to crack the social code, how to market to the masses, or how to simply make friends and collect followers?

At the private view of Hotshoe’s Other last week I was discussing the possibilities of ‘Social’ with a group of commercial photographers. Aidan McCarthy confessed the pressure he was feeling having not yet joined the global conversation and master minded a ‘digital strategy’. What was it that people online wanted from him he asked, how would Tweeting lead to more work?

A few weeks ago The Telegraph had their inaugural Festival of Business in Manchester. An agony aunt panel, made up of representatives from Twitter, Spotify, Facebook and Dell, were on hand to answer questions about digital strategy. The major gripe that many businesses had was how could they push their online presence past a website and a Facebook page. Many businesses had set up Twitter accounts but didn’t know how best to attract more followers. Jessica Verrilli, Twitter’s Head of Business Development, rather honestly pointed out that sometimes it is not always necessary for a business to have a Twitter account or a Facebook page. Creating a notable presence online for your business requires daily dedication for an uncertain gain. When time and resources are limited it is not always possible for a business to maintain consistency online. Verrilli suggested it would be wiser for some businesses to explore new digital advertising opportunities rather than ticking digital boxes for the sake of it or leaving Twitter accounts blank and inactive.

These feelings of social inadequacies that UK businesses confessed to at the Festival should be rather comforting to hear for people like McCarthy. Creatives should also remember that they have access to something many businesses don’t and that is content. Good content is what successful strategies are made of. There are very few established rules when it comes to social networking and this is what can be rather unnerving for many. However, if there is one solid foundation that Social rests upon it is sharing. It is not necessarily what you have to say that gets the conversation going but what you have to share with others.

Image by Aidan McCarthy

Tilley Harris is a recent Photojournalism graduate of the LCC

Report finds that Social Media activity boosts TV ratings

It's no surprise to us that social media buzz influences people's viewing habits. We see evidence of it every day - trending topics that have people switching over to see what everyone's talking about, and recommendations from friends and social media acquaintances encouraging viewers to switch on and join the conversation.

But it seems that, for the first time, research from Nielsen has found a correlation between the volume of social media chatter and a show's ratings.

As TV ratings measurement gets more sophisticated - as surely it has to - and as online interaction continues to rise, there is a growing opportunity for production houses and broadcasters to encourage high levels of conversation and, of course, higher ratings.

It's worth mentioning that radio is also benefiting from listeners spreading the word via social channels. One example is #thearchers tweet-along on a Sunday morning, with listeners regularly joining the conversation from their bed, kitchen, car or garden. Nielsen's findings saw the highest levels of social media activity among "the 18-34 generation", but they are by no means the only audiences with a voice online.



If you want to find out more about what we do, and how to engage with audiences through social media, get in touch.

Read our case study: Channel 4's Alan Carr: Chatty Man