Hello folks,
And welcome back to edition 4 of Cultural Content.
The theme of this week is Blue Monday.
In the first section, I’ve paired how two different organisation’s put their own stamp on Blue Monday on Twitter.
In the second part, I take a longer timeframe and look at a pair of examples of mindful content on social since the start of the pandemic.
The MERL: #MooBlunday
As with a lot of the MERL’s content, it’s about:
🐄. Shoehorning sheep/cows/ducks/other farmyard creatures into a wider cultural event, and;
🐄🐄. Soliciting responses around said farmyard animal theme, and;
🐄🐄🐄. Really going to town on engagement
The MERL got sent a lot of cows as a result.
Which made their Twitter feed quite a pleasing antidote to Blue Monday.
It’s an approach that delivers – if audiences know they’ve got a high chance of the organisation reposting your comment with a witty repartee, it incentivises engagement, all of which builds a dynamic and two-way Twitter handle.
The Royal Opera House: the Bluebird
Royal Opera House’s clip of The Bluebird was a well played antidote to Blue Monday. There’s nothing too complicated or meta here, just a contextual reminder of how culture can help us out of our blues.
It’s also a nice segue into the next section, which takes a longer view (from 2020) at organisations who did a great job on creating content around mindfulness.
Mindful content from 2020
Royal Academy: Mindful Moments (Instagram Stories)
During lockdown, the Royal Academy did a whole series of these on Instagram Stories. It felt a good match between RA landscape art, Instagram story functionality, and understanding the mood of audiences at the time.
V&A: ASMR YouTube series
Museums don’t necessarily easily lend themselves to audio visual content (in the way that performing arts do). I really love how this series leans in to the restorative side of visiting museums / libraries / archives, as well as giving you a wonderful glimpse at things that go on behind the scenes.