Is your digital work reaching the right people?

When arts organisations embark on a new production, whether it is adapting an existing title for the stage or screen, or making a new interactive digital product, it is often the assumption that the most creative thinking rests in the early stages. 

What follows - the mechanics of getting a show off the ground through to the final presentation to audiences - can sometimes lack momentum. Reflecting this early-stage creativity in the final distribution of a piece is where the most exciting results lie. 

In the last two years, organisations have looked for ways to diversify their income streams by monetising their digital programmes during unprecedented challenging times. Artists, producers and marketers have also had to work innovatively to reach wider audiences, by planning multi-layered distribution campaigns.

Reaching the nation in their living rooms 

Open Clasp, a women’s theatre company based in the North East, devised a new piece just before the first lockdown. The show, Sugar, shines a spotlight on three women ‘doing time’. Carly McConnell, its creative producer said “Sugar is a state of the nation production, so it was important for us to reach the nation – people sitting in their armchairs at home watching on their TVs”. 

Convinced that it should have a home on BBC iPlayer, accessible to a national audience at a time when domestic violence was increasing, Open Clasp got in touch with The Space looking for a connection. The conviction paid off and it was hosted on the platform in summer 2020. 

To celebrate, Open Clasp mounted a plaque in one of the women’s centres involved in co-creating characters in the play. “The plaques recognised the strength and resilience of the women who helped us to create Sugar and put their trust in us to tell their stories in the hope of making change a reality,” says McConnell. 

“There was great pride in our community having working class women’s stories, performed by talented actors, available across the UK on a national platform, in people’s living rooms.”

The importance of partnerships 

This successful mission to align the production with the BBC brand might have marked the end of a successful campaign for some. But the team at Open Clasp knew an important part of their community would be left out: those their art spoke to most directly. 

They felt strongly that the women from HMP Low Newton, who co-created the show, should be able to see it, as well as women with similar experience in prisons across the country. 

So they formed a partnership with Wayout TV, an educational television channel operating inside prisons. As the women had no access to BBC iPlayer, Open Clasp worked with Wayout TV to broadcast to some 45,000 cells across the prison estate enabling the women to see their lives reflected in Sugar too.

While some of the most inventive approaches involve such free-to-view plans, there are opportunities for experimentation in the world of monetised content too. 

Exploring wider horizons

Ex Cathedra’s Christmas Music by Candlelight was a Space commission from 2019. Its company’s General Manager, Peter Trethewey, wanted the film to be available for future broadcast, even if it was not picked up immediately. 

The principal objective was to reach a wider geographical audience. This was achieved by their initial, free-to-view online distribution. Removing some of the barriers for audiences, people were able to try something new, risk-free and the company had further opportunities in their sights. 

When venues were forced to close because of the pandemic, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group launched a family-focused YouTube channel - The Shows Must Go On. The Space pitched content to them that we thought would appeal to their demographic.  

Christmas Music by Candlelight was selected as part of their advertising-based video on demand (AVOD), receiving a share of advertising revenue. It attracted 70,000 views and a global reach, with a large US audience as well as significant numbers from Canada, Australia and Germany.

In 2021, the company fulfilled a long-standing ambition when Sky Arts re-broadcast the film on the morning of Christmas Eve.  

Have a clear distribution goal

Having a clear distribution goal from the outset was key to Ex Cathedra’s overall success. It’s something The Space always impresses on any company undertaking a digital capture project. 

But it’s important to be realistic about revenue too. The distribution fees they received were modest and, as Trethewey says, “we don’t expect to recover the costs of making the film, so it was only possible thanks to the original funding from The Space”.

Distribution is not easy. There are limited opportunities to make a significant income, and competition for audiences is at an all-time high. But with clear goal-setting, forward planning and a creative approach, it is possible to take your work to the right people, at the right time. 

Sarah Fortescue is Head of Distribution at The Space (Digital Arts).

 www.thespace.org
 @thespacearts

This article, sponsored and contributed by The Space, is part of a series spotlighting new ways of creating and distributing digital content and exploring the wealth of new technologies and platforms coming online.