Cultural Content with guest Jo Jones; Senior Content Editor, V&A
Evolving the V&A's YouTube offer over the last two years
Hi there,
We’re really pleased to welcome Jo Jones as a Guest Editor of this edition of Cultural Content.
Jo manages the small and agile team of content producers within the Digital Media team at the V&A. She’s worked at the V&A in a variety of digital roles for over 17 years – always on the content side.
Over to Jo…
From the moment that we could glean stats that taught us anything useful about the consumption of our web content, ‘dwell time’, or ‘retention’, was one of those KPIs that we’d gleefully report on when something did well. Anything upwards of two minutes, no matter what the format, was deemed a win. Much above that was considered anomalous. For many years, we produced films, audio, and wrote articles aimed at securing two to three precious minutes of undivided visitor attention. Shorter dwell time went hand-in-hand with the notion that users barely scrolled beyond the ‘fold’.
Relatively unchallenged, our portfolio of three-minute film shorts and episodic articles grew and grew. And then Covid hit. With the museum doors closing and no cheese and wine parties on the horizon, all eyes were suddenly on our digital channels as a means of communicating, inspiring, educating and entertaining our audience. What came next was a period of enforced experimentation, listening to our audience and transition.
Having only been open for a matter of days, the threat of lockdown loomed and the decision was made to film a curator tour of the Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk exhibition in case it never reopened to the public.
Filmed hastily across several early mornings and without a script, exhibition curator, Anna Jackson, picked out and discussed highlights from the show that were then edited into five films, ranging from five to almost eight minutes in length. Released in one go, episode one alone has been viewed over 200,000 times with over 40% of viewers making it to the end. Collectively, the series achieved just under 500,000 views. Was their success down to a clamour to watch something other than Joe Wicks performing burpees? Or as entertainment while standing in a queue for loo roll and flour?
The YouTube comments started to reveal a desire for culture and a distraction from enforced lockdown and quarantine:
“Thank you so much for making these films, especially now. They are such a gift in times when so many of us are home and searching for great content to watch. Well done, can't wait to see more and look forward to one day soon, Visiting the V&A yet again!”
“This is a beautiful exhibition and I'm so glad I can learn and enjoy seeing this exhibition at home in times like these.”
And we began to realise that, with the right story and format, our audiences were eager to consume more – and longer – content.
“fascinating series of films. Thank you for brightening lock-down and showing us the exhibition.”
Enjoying the fruits of our labour
A meditative 40-minute-long tutorial on how to paint a pomegranate using watercolour saw over 260,000 viewers tuning in. A look at the analytics revealed that over 20% made it all the way to the end and the comments, when not marvelling at the fact that a left-hander can paint, were overwhelmingly positive:
“This is the best experience I’ve ever had on YouTube”
“Did I just really watch this whole 40 mins video without even skipping?”
We also noticed that our audience was increasingly hungry for a more sensory, immersive, and mindful experience – possibly as a counter to increased anxiety levels resulting from umpteen failed sourdough attempts.
“Calming and very beautiful.”
“Incredible artist and fantastic ASMR in this.”
Our 11-minute long ASMR film featuring senior conservator, Susana Fajardo, working on the heavily sequinned dress worn by Sandie Shaw for her Eurovision performance of Puppet on a String in 1967 was apparently so good that it instigated threats:
“make more videos or I sue”
“This is amazing! By far some of the best ASMR I have experienced and wonderful visuals too!”
It also made Susana an ASMR celebrity with a cult following and generated calls for a pay rise for the person that devised the series!
Thankfully we had another ASMR series in planning, and the appetite for these films is clear to see in the continued requests for more within the comments.
The stunning craftsmanship of Japanese Hikihaku obi weaving allowed us to continue trialling our longform content. Would anyone see out the full 25+ minutes? It would appear so…
“So much beauty and artistry in the creation of these divine obi. The obi at 19:20 was so exquisite I had to catch my breath.”
This viewer literally chastised us for our shorter (9 minute) edit!
“Thank you for a longer video on this subject. I was sad the other one was cut off so abruptly.”
Well known for our materials and techniques angle on the world of art and design, our popular How was it made? series was an obvious next focus for testing the stamina of our viewers.
The recreation of a 300-year-old carved cravat by master carver, Grinling Gibbons, gave us the perfect opportunity to combine a relaxing, intricate process with a calming voiceover, natural lighting and a gentle pace. The success of this film led to two more focusing on the printmaking techniques linocut and etching, that adopted a similar approach.
By this point, we had firmly adopted the view that films should be as long as they needed to be in order to tell the full story but not bore the audience. This turns out to be a surprisingly difficult thing to relay in a brief to external collaborators!
If, after painting a pomegranate and rustling through a sea of sequins, you’re still anguishing over who’s turn it is to walk your lockdown puppy, you might want to take some time out to watch our most full-on mindful moment yet – an immersive film that transports you to Beatrix Potter’s Lake District. Make sure you get to the end – I’ll be watching the dwell time…
Interested in content in the cultural sector? Lend us ten minutes of your time and stand to win free books!
We’ve devised the 2022 Cultural Content Survey. It’s designed to shine a light on how arts and cultural organisations plan, produce and distribute content.
We'd really like your input.
Some of the organisations we've heard from so far include the American Museum of Natural History, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, National Museums Scotland, National Theatre, Westminster Abbey, Ashmolean Museum, Horniman Museum, Royal Academy of Arts, the Fitzwilliam Museum, BAFTA and V&A Dundee.
We’ll publish what we discover in a report to be released later this year.
The survey takes just under 10 minutes to complete. Some people have even told us it was quite useful and thought-provoking.
Win a prize, help the planet and donate to charity!
To thank you for your contribution, you’ll be entered into a prize draw to win a selection of our favourite content strategy books (or a book token to the same value).
We’ll also:
plant three trees (via Ecologi), and
make a donation to the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.
It's a win-win all round, really.