Clients & Projects: Strategy

A lot of our work involves helping our clients look at the broader digital media environment and consider the implications for their business. We pride ourselves on the currency of our knowledge, but more importantly our ability to help clients place developments in a critical context. Our strategy outputs range from lengthy and detailed papers to one-on-one management development. Here are some clients we have recently helped in this area.

image by EVERYDAYLIFEMODERN - some rights reserved (Creative Commons 2.0)

Barbican Centre, London
Digital strategy definition

We had already worked with the Barbican early in the existence of our predecessor, Double Shot, helping the senior management understand the implications of digital technology for their business and sector generally.

In the summer of 2011 we began a more substantial engagement with the organisation, creating a long-term digital strategy alongside a brief for a redesigned website. The strategy encompasses all aspects of the Barbican's engagement with digital, from archive capture through innovation across platforms to a consideration of structure and resources (and points between). As usual, our emphasis is on a collaborative approach to developing the ideas needed, bringing our sector expertise to bear through a set of structured engagements with domain experts inside the organisation rather than working things out alone. Our consultation comprised desk research, one to one interviews and a series of workshops.

At the time of writing, we are continuing in an occasional consultancy with the Barbican's Audiences team and are looking to manage the creation of an ontology for the centre's assets and activity.

BBC Knowledge and Learning
Strategic advice on product development

We are currently advising BBC Knowledge and Learning on the development of their product strategy. The scope of our work includes original contextual research in time-based navigation, review of prototype design work around data visualisation and advice on the commissioning of further phases of work. We are delighted to be able to bring together in this project our own interest in digital memory with the BBC's exploration of new models of navigation around time.

image by suburbanslice - some rights reserved (Creative Commons 2.0)

Southbank Centre
Consultation and delivery of a new digital strategy

In autumn of 2011 we were commissioned to work with the Southbank Centre on a major piece of consultation around their approach to digital activity and the delivery of a new digital strategy. We liaised with board members and the executive team to shape the project. We then ran a series of workshops both for staff and customers and combined findings from those sessions, a wide range of interviews and our sector research into a set of strategic recommendations and detailed action plan for the next three years.

Creative Industries Knowledge Transfer Network
Metadata & Convergence Theme Champion

Simon had his part-time role with the CI KTN both extended until the spring of 2013 and its remit extended. In addition to his existing "champion" role around metadata – a role which saw Simon spend much time in 2010-11 spreading the word about £10m worth of TSB funding – Simon will be taking on responsibility for the KTN's Convergence Strand.

We were also delighted to have CI KTN join us as co-host of our recent Group Think event on Memory and Data.

Birmingham Opera
Digital concept development

We have been helping Birmingham Opera and the BBC develop some new digital activity around an opera they are developing for 2013, with an aim to find an exciting and practical approach to multiplatform production around the event. We ran a series of structured idea development sessions and helped them shape up materials for pitch, which was successful. In addition to helping with the creation of the concepts and content for the initial pitch to the BBC, we worked with BOC’s director, Graham Vick in developing and honing his personal presentation.

Thanks for your help and support - invaluable, stimulating , challenging, informative, enjoyable!
— Graham Vick, Artistic Director, Birmingham Opera Company

Sound and Music
Concept development for One Minute of Listening

Having worked with SAM in the summer of 2010 to coordinate the redesign of their website, we were commissioned again in the autumn of 2011 to help develop the thinking and strategy for a specific educational project. Already piloted six months previously, One Minute of Listening was an ambitious project to get primary school kids listening to, and discussing as a group, a minute of sound or music every day of their school year. We helped SAM explore the core business and strategic drivers for the project and develop a road map of requirements and dependencies.

English National Opera
Digital concept development and strategy support

We have been working with the English National Opera for the last year on a range of digital concept development projects. In each case we help the team clarify the aims of the project and identify potential audiences and participants. From this basis we help the team develop a range of candidate solutions and then build an implementation plan for the strongest idea.

Alongside this work we have been helping the digital team develop their on-going digital strategy, helping devise ways to strengthen the impact of their work through a range of editorial, social and creative ventures. As part of this work we helped develop the thinking behind ENO's social campaign, editorial direction and live events that examined social media around Nico Muhly's Two Boys opera.

image by Dan Taylor - some rights reserved (Creative Commons 2.0) Royal Opera House
Editorial consultancy; strategy for digital learning; implementation of projects

In summer 2011 we worked with the Royal Opera House to sharpen the editorial focus and strategic direction of their in-house blog, but this was only the latest manifestation of a happy relationship that stretches back several years.

We delivered a workshop in the summer of 2008 looking at the role of digital technology in arts education, and what the organisation might learn from emerging best practice. We produced the interactive programme notes for the online video of Don Giovanni, creating the notes themselves and working with the platform provider to ensure a smooth user experience. We developed a Moodle-based eLearning website and programme for the Royal Ballet School. We also facilitated a strategic brainstorm to help design a new creativity competition, launched in 2009, called Fanfare, and in early 2010 we facilitated the conception of a digital creativity and collaboration offering to complement the House's outdoor big screen work.

Glyndebourne
Digital media strategy and implementation

We began working with the Glyndebourne Opera Company in the spring of 2009 (in our previous incarnation as Double Shot Consulting), having been asked to make recommendations about possible directions for their website and online services. Initially we ran in tandem a piece of desk research and a series of internal stakeholder meetings at Glyndebourne. We followed with three workshops looking at various potential development strands for Glyndebourne online. We finally delivered an extensive paper capturing these sessions and presenting a series of recommendations about not only the content of the Glyndebourne website, but also how best to resource this ambition, its technology platform and a number of business development opportunities in the realm of social media.

We later helped the team both to write specifications for a new CMS to underpin the site and integrate with the Tessitura ticketing system, and to choose the company to deliver the system.

This work bore fruit with the launch of Glyndebourne's new website in late 2010.

Glyndebourne engaged Double Shot to conduct a review of its digital strategy.  A series of stimulating and insightful workshops were followed by delivery of a comprehensive written report which helped to engage a broad set of stakeholders across the Company and provide a strategy for its online presence and its wider work with digital media.

All members of the Double Shot team added value to the process and struck a good balance between listening and challenge.  One of the outcomes of the review was the selection of a new Content Management System for the website and relationship with a new development partner. Double Shot assisted through the process of defining requirements and tendering for a new partner, offering valuable external and technical input.
— George Bruell, Head of Commercial Development, Glyndebourne.

Spread the Word
Digital strategy definition

Spread the Word works to support writers and new writing across London. We are currently working with them to refine their objectives for digital activity as well as their understanding of their users, as they plan for a redesign of their website.

Play2Improve
Developing a presentation to use with potential customers, partners and investors

Play2Improve is a startup company with some very immersive real-time coaching technology which could revolutionise eLearning and videogames tutorials. Unthinkable helped them identify and quantify a compelling market opportunity for their technology (ie the ability to convert a very large but low-spending casual games audience into much higher-spending hard core gamers) and prepared a persuasive presentation to be used at the Games Developers Conference in March 2010.

Outline Productions, London
Digital media strategy for a TV production company in the age of 360° commissioning

North London-based Outline are an award-winning production outfit specialising in mainstream, accessible but ultimately serious issues-based TV. Their work includes House of Tiny Tearaways, Dumped and The Big Experiment, and has been commissioned widely across the UK sector, from, among others, BBC Two and BBC Three, Channel 4, Five, Discovery and Sky. We worked with them through the spring and summer of 2008, running workshops with production staff, creating a digital media strategy for the company (including a template on how to respond to a 360° commission) and helping with introductions to key interactive content commissioners.