Mary Carty

Back in March I ran a workshop with Media Evolution on building Lean Creative Companies. I was very pleased with the diversity and scope of the participants, all wanting to build sustainable, innovative organisations; both profit and non-profit. I promised then, to check in on progress on my return visit, and so the time has come to evaluate!

This follow-up session will focus on implementation, working on the Lean Business Model Canvases we devised last time, looking at progress under each section and devising road maps to succeed.

All this work proves to me that there is a need for Lean to be adopted by the creative industries. In my experience it REALLY works and pays HUGE dividends to all the companies I have worked with so far.

If you want to take part on Wednesday morning, May 22nd, book you slot by emailing me mary@spoiltchild.com.

We will meet at Media Evolution City, room Kupérummet, kicking off at 8.30am. There are a limited number of sessions left and are offered on a first-come, first-served basis.

My thanks to Heidi in Media Evolution for all her help and support.

Image (CC) Ashley Rose

Setting out on a startup journey is a goal of many people these days. And it is true to stay that this culture is on the rise. From my travels around the web, I have gathered together the best 3 articles from the past ten days. I hope they will spark off some creative thinking and possibly solve a few problems.

If you find something you think I should read, send along to mary@marycarty.com or Tweet me @marycarty. Happy to credit you for the find and share!

Have a great week!

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Brilliant summary video from Dan Pink’s latest offering:

6 new pitches for selling your product, your idea, or yourself

13 Slides That Landed Two Founders $500,000 In 3 Months

How VCs think: Is your startup a feature, a product or a business?

Last week I went along to a master class by beActive Media on building a low-budget film franchise. Every time I think about beActive and their approach, I think of Lean. For me beActive is one of the best lean creative companies. Their approach to concepts, projects, audience, team and marketing espouses the very best of Lean startup thinking. So how do they do it?

Nuno explained that adopting the beActive approach to creating multi-platform stories, came about from not wanting to loose control of their content.  By testing this new approach, be Active disrupted the very nature of how film and transmedia projects are conceived, produced, launched and marketed.

Traditionally, film makers let go of their content when the film is released; handing it over to a distributor. The film shows for a few weeks and then months later comes out on DVD. There is only one opportunity to make any kind of money from your movie and getting cinemas to show your picture is very tricky indeed.

This is not the business model beActive use. Last week the team talked in detail about BeatGirl, a transmedia project about a young girl who decides to take a different approach to her life.  At each step of the way, the BeatGirl story was tested and tweaked from the original concept to the photo albums placed on Pinterest,  the very first storytelling experience on that channel. This strategy built a huge buzz about BeatGirl and received a massive amount of press and media attention. As Nuno commented, “the concept is the hub”. The hub is the key message here. Build a ‘sticky’ hub and then expand it outwards across multiple platforms.

By creating a universe and telling parts of the story in different places, it gives the story a longer life. It also gives viewers many ways in, to find and to engage with the characters. The relationship is not forced. beActive decided early on to test where their market was for their content and only go there if the target market was there.  Another great example of this was creating play-lists on YouTube. As the target market for BeatGirl was 18 to 25 year old’s, it was an obvious choice to use these platforms.

In each case, fans interact with the material in the places they hang out already and can navigate between new and extended material on other platforms. Crucially, and this is a very big rule to adhere to, no content is ever replicated. As Nuno explained  ” the story changes when it interacts with audience. How you read audience reaction is very important”

Instead of financing a movie in the traditional sense, beActive financed the BeatGirl IP. And from this they can licence the BeatGirl concept to other partners ( if appropriate and good for the brand) and further grow the brand across territories and new platforms. This is a very smart and innovative more for a creative company. The brand IP is incredibly important and extremely valuable.

So may creatives do not treat their IP with this type of respect or understanding. The business  and financial benefit of structuring the financing around an IP like this is twofold. Firstly, you retain control of your IP and secondly it gives you the opportunity to earn revenue from multiple platforms and third party licencing deals. You don’t depend solely on a movie release or a third party distributor to define your fate. In fact, BeatGirl will make the most revenue from video on demand.

The final part of the secret to BeatGirl’s success is marketing.  A well defined and worked out marketing plan is devised for each project and constantly tweaked. It is intuitive, smart and proactive working across platforms both online and offline. beActive nurture the process and manage the communication constantly, listening clearly for fan’s reactions and feedback. They encourage fan input and give users as may opportunities as possible to engage and co-create content. beActive know their audience and invest a lot of time understanding their relationships with each brand. As Nuno remarked ”we are storytellers. Storytelling and marketing goes hand in hand.”

Looking at beActive’s business model, audience development, financing and marketing, beAcrive are a Lean creative company; disrupting and creating new methods of working and being very successful to boot. All achieved with a core team of only twenty individuals. From this experience  beActive are developing a new platform for transmedia, scheduling across social media channels, so watch this space creatives.

Eighteen months on from the original idea,  BeatGirl has  developed into a feature length film, play lists on YouTube, a novel,  iPhone game, a fan fiction book,  a web series, a partnership with Samsung and a prime time TV series in the US; all from a very short trailer.

In conclusion, the BeatGirl story answers two questions perfectly. Why transmedia and why Lean?  By combining both approaches, the Lean Startup business model and transmedia storytelling, beActive validated their idea, found and built an fan base, tested stories, controlled marketing and distribution, created an brand, scaled the business and yes made money. Gold standard Lean. It’s an impressive and inspiring process and this is only chapter one! I’m excited to see what chapter two holds in store.

BeatGirl the movie opens tomorrow May 10th in Ireland, UK and Portugal, go see.

Here are my top takeaways from beActive’s Masterclass:

Transmedia

1.  Put story at the centre. Never duplicate content. Make stories for each platform unique to it.
2. Your most valuable asset is your character.
3.  Your audience is your currency, bring your audience in early, validate early.
4.  Bring users back to your channel. Keep users with you in the long term.
5. Do everything together, make the most of your budget. Actors working on other content during the shoot for other platforms. Saves money and time.
6. BeatGirl book was being written while movie was shooting.
7. Don’t hand out scripts. Build a buzz with great visuals. Have actors demand the script. – Mairtín DeBarra, Director
8. Position your short film/trailer as the promo for the franchise.
9. Create visuals for your pitch.
10. Bring in your audience. Show your validated idea.

1.  Find every way you can to get your brand out there. Online is just as important as offline. Partner up.
2.  Social media strategy: Go where users already are.
3. Create brand ambassadors for each story. Use a mix of online and offline marketing.
4. Use feedback received, in real time, to improve your story.

Maybe you were fortunate enough to go to art school. Maybe you studied under a world renowned professor. Maybe your classmates were the most creative beings on earth. Maybe the competition was out of bounds. Maybe you had to fight to survive. And in surviving, you learned the hard way to guard your ideas; protect your process; mind your notebooks and not to talk too much to colleagues, or tutors for that matter, and to protect your creative self.

For ‘art school’, substitute drama school, music school, film school, liberal arts; the choice is yours. Suffice to say secrecy was the name of the game. Give too much away and suddenly your hard fought idea becomes somebody else’s idea. Your idea got a first class honours degree when ‘taken’ by a classmate, even your professor won a coveted award from honing in on your practice. Art school sucked, big time.

Fast forward to the present day, taking this experience and applying it to creative companies. At their very heart they are founded by creative types, employ creative people, engage with creatives and service creative folk. The outlook for openness, sharing and cooperation? Negligible.

It’s human nature to work off past experiences, especially those that are more negative than positive. It’s the survival instinct kicking in; live or die; run or die; or in this case, conceal or die. This ‘secrecy bias’ is the undocumented narrative of the arts. It has been around for so long, it is not even questioned and its impact is not widely understood.

Unfortunately, the very ground on which we tread, do business, make our art and follow our dreams is changing. Everything is being disrupted, from how we hail a taxi, to buy films online. The whole world has changed and so to, the practices creatives take for granted must change, particularly this secrecy, protect at all costs culture.

The time has come, this era being the disruptor’s paradise, where creatives have to share, to cooperate, collaborate and talk to others about ideas and take risks. Yes, it can be a big risk. The day of the ‘big reveal’ at the exhibition opening, app launch or business launch is over. By that time it’s too late. Others may well have got there before you, with a much better product, service or idea, simply by talking to the end user, customer, or buyer earlier. Just like Jung’s ‘collective unconscious’, similar ideas coming to the fore at the same time.

Let’s look at how creatives conditioning to practice looks like, using the ‘secrecy bias’.

 The Secrecy Bias

Inspiration – the big idea (business idea, creative work)
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Lots of work and perspiration
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More perspiration
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More work
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Nearly there
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Ta-dah! The Big Reveal
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Feedback
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“If only” – “Better next time”

The ‘big reveal’ teaches you nothing; the learning comes too late. There is nothing you can do now with this feedback. There is no time to re-frame,  redraft or reprogramme. ‘If only’ is a bitter and costly refrain. Opportunities are lost. And this is the most upsetting part.  It robs us of opportunities to learn, to receive feedback, to grow, to improve and to engage with our audience. The secrecy bias leaves our users in the dark. It robs them of a vital part of our story; the how. How did you get there? How did you do it? How can I be part of your story and your vision? The secrecy bias does us all a disservice.

Now lets plot the ‘new collaborative model’ using Lean.

Lean collaboration model

Inspiration – the big idea (business idea, creative work, game)
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Ask questions, evaluate my idea:
Who needs this? What problem am I solving? Will people pay?
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Feedback from my target audience
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Work on my idea more
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More questions, more feedback from users
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Minimum Viable Product
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More feedback
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Pivot if necessary (change tack a bit)
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Great product, with great audience
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Scale
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Continuously improve, bringing happy audience with you!

In bringing in our users earlier, we give them the space to be part of our team, part of our process. And in doing so, they become valuable resources. Their feedback is gold, their enthusiasm gives us energy and their voices amplify our voices. They bring the real into the picture earlier. Like the first shot in battle. No one can prepare for battle until the war really starts. Just the same, an idea is only and idea until it leaves the studio and engages with real people. As well as all these positives, engaging with the audience gives them opportunities to talk and tell others about us and what we do. They market our product for us and evangelise for us. What is not to like!

Perfection and the drive to hide, conceal and put-off until perfection is reached also robs us. It robs us of time with the end user and their needs. Perfection and ego and the secrecy bias is detrimental and we must work hard to overcome these traditional modes of operating.

Asking for feedback and being open requires humility, bravery and trust. Yes, it is scary as hell. Any artist, programmer, or creative will tell you that launch day and opening night are nerve wrecking beyond belief. Why not put simple strategies in place to improve, learn and make better, before launch night arrives. Everyone gets rewarded.

In being open and trusting, this gives creators the space to be ever more open, proactive rather than reactive; to take risks and to ask for help. This new concept is refreshing and liberating. Secrecy creates barriers for change. Adopting these lean practices will create instant wins; real-time feedback, long-term engagement and more open creatives living in a perpetual culture of collaboration and sharing.

Time to get to work!

Over the last few months, I have been talking to creative startups about their practice and how our mentality and conditioning can be a damaging force that keeps us stuck and hinders risk taking and testing. Thanks to Cathy, Mark, Cecilie, Alan, Claire, Gary and all my workshop participants for your insights and experiences. What do you think, how can we break this secrecy cycle and begin to be more open and sharing? As always your feedback is very welcome.

Image 1 (CC) by Kestrana
Image 2 (CC) by eek

I am very honoured to be invited back as a dragon at Nordic Game 2013 Live Pitch Event.  It was so much fun learning about the very best  startup and games talent from the Nordic Region. Last year’s winners Boldai were acquired by Linden labs after their win and well deserved too. I am very excited to help another fantastic company on their way, along with a great team of investors and experts.

This year and I would love to see brilliant Irish companies compete with the best European has to offer. Get your applications in by 12th of April to info@gamescapital.eu  and  jacob@nordicgame.com. Very much looking forward to meeting you at Nordic Game. Good Luck!

Nordic Live Pitch Session – Dragons declared

Nordic Game is pleased to announce the 5 dragon investors who will judge the finalists at the event on Thursday May 23rd in Malmo:

These are:
Paul Heydon of Avista Partners, Doug Richard an original investor dragon from the UK TV series, Ian Baverstock of Tenshi Ventures. Mary Carty of Spoiltchild and Justin Stoltzenberg of European Games Group

These dragons have a mass of experience with helping start –up companies, have all been mentors to start-ups and all are potential investors in projects:
Paul Heydon and Ian Baverstock have an intimate and hands on experience of the games business and investing in it, Justin Stoltzenberg and EGG invest in marketing, and distribution of games, and help put the finishing touches on your online games. Mary Carty is an experienced and sympathetic mentor to creative businesses.

Doug Richard is offering 3 places to attend his ‘School for Start-ups’ in London in September 2013 with travel paid, to competitors who enter the Nordic Live Pitching session. Doug Richard is playing a key role in the UK government’s enterprise strategy.

All the dragon-investors will be available in the Pitch and Match area for meetings, and will prioritise the companies who dare to pitch. Last years winners Boldai and their game ‘Blockworld, were recently acquired by Linden Labs.

How to compete in the Nordic Game Pitching competition:

Please submit a one page document summarizing your project to info@gamescapital.eu  and  jacob@nordicgame.com.

Deadline for submissions is April 12th.

The one pager must outline a) what problem the project solves b) the investment proposition c) the principals in the team and their track record, d) the investment needed and e) how it will earn investors a good return on investment.

The pitches can be for game projects, tech or internet and digital business propositions.

All submissions will receive feedback from the Games Capital team, and 3-5 will be chosen to take part in the final on Thursday May 23rd.

All finalists will be offered additional analysis and feedback from the Games Capital team, and help with preparation of their presentations.

Further information, prizes and benefits will be released shortly.

For more information please mail info@gamescapital.eu

 

Image thanks (c) Morten Skovgaard

Back from my trip to Malmo last week and reflecting on my Buff keynote speech and workshop with twelve amazing companies at Media Evolution City. One thing really struck home; opening yourself up to new ways of doing things is very hard. If we want to try new things; then we need the tools to do so. As well as that; we need examples, case studies. We need to learn from a diverse range of voices and experiences. We need to have conversations beyond and outside our cosy circle. And most of all we have to SHARE.

New things are hard. We get blinkered, doing the same things, the same way all the time and often shoot the messenger when new possibilities are communicated. But by not looking up and sounding out new ideas, opportunities are missed. Seeing what other industries have learned and how this might help you, is very worthwhile. The big idea from the past week in Malmo is to try. Try, try, try again. Test your ideas and your assumptions and learn from the people who matter the most; your customer. We get so involved with our vision we forget the person we are communicating with.

So many companies are actively redefining and disrupting every conceiveable type of business. Take for example Machinima, a platform built harnessing YouTube’s distribution and broadcasting potential, showcasing fan generated content, films and animation. The smartest step for them business wise, was not building a platform. Instead, Machinima concentrated on the core, their community and great content. Machinima wisely left the distribution vehicle to a platform already built and serviced by Google, YouTube.

Business is all about making smart and strataegic decisions, knowing your user and knowing your core business; that golden nugget. The rest is history. Machinima have conquered the 16 -35 year old male demographic in nearly every country. Now large studios send exclusive trailers and material specifically for Machinima’s audience to build buzz and traction for new releases.

Business models can be borrowed and tested. Learning and practice from one industry might just save or reenergise your own. Companies like beActive thrive in this testing, tweaking world and use multiple platforms for different projects and audiences. They never fully commit to a platform unless the audience is there. beActive have many years experience doing this; coming from a wish to tell stories in 140 characters. This practice has produced amazing results from Sofia’s Diary to Beat Girl.

Innovation and taking chances are where it is at. One constant is change. Maybe it is time to test some things. Bring your film idea, business idea or animation sketches out into the open and talk to your target market. As a good friend once said  ”never underestimate the value of pizza and beer”!  Over a coffee many things can be discovered. A few testers and a few conversations will give insight and value beyond your wildest dreams.

No, it does not have to be perfect. Nothing in this world ever is. Perfect is not the goal; learning is. Making it better is. Getting to a better product or service your user really WANTS is the objective. Yes it is scary. Yes, your idea might be taken. But if you execute on your idea faster and better than your competitors; along with having a committed, energetic community, you get to market first. Simple as that. The more you take on these lean practices, the easier it is to do them again in the future.

The challenge now is to bring this methodology out of tech and into the creative world. If games companies, SAS companies and healthcare companies can do this, so can creatives.
From my workshop with a cross-section of industries, games, broadcasting, app developers, communications, non-profit, film makers and product designers, it is completely possible to put these strategies to work. In every case last week, we saw amazing benefits from working through some case studies and applying this thinking to each individual business.

I am back in Malmo for Nordic Game in May and the challenge for these twelve companies is to put the workshop into practice. A follow up session is planned and I’ll report back on their progress. For me this work begins and ends with the customer. Solving the customer’s problems and making everything we do better.

Most of all, I’m excited, very excited. There is a sea change happening all around us and it is fantastic to be part if it and leading the charge.

My thanks to  Cecilie, Julia and all at Buff and MEC for entrusting me with the keynote speech on Buff’s 30th birthday; it was an honour I will cherish. Thanks to Heidi at MEC for organising the workshop and to the participants for being so open, enthusiastic and positive. Thanks to all for allowing me to bring them on a new journey. I’m still buzzing after both events. Big thanks to Mark who was back at base for help and research. Every business needs a great team!

I am interested to hear your thoughts and experiences, comments and feedback more than welcome!

it’s day two in Malmo and this morning after my keynote yesterday, I’ll be facilitating a workshop on building Lean Creative organisations.

The workshop is designed specifically at creatives who are building businesses in the creative sector; games developers, graphic designers, film makers or producers.

Using Lean Startup methods; build, measure, learn, and customer development techniques, the session will equip creatives to better understand their product, their target market, gain more customers and keep them for life. It will give them the tools to ask the right questions; to discover who and where your market is and how to build a product your customers really want.

The workshop will focus on your business idea, addressing three key questions:

1. Do I have a problem worth solving?

2. Is there a market for my service/product?

3. How do I find and keep my customers?

This session will help clarify

- What is your business
- What is your product
- How to test your ideas before you build and launch

Participants will be introduced to Lean Startup tools they can put to work for their business straight away.

I am very excited to share and explore building lean creative businesses with such a diverse range of professionals.

It’s going to be an amazing day.

Thanks to Heidi from Media Evolution for organising this event as part of the BUFF Film Festival.

This afternoon I am very honoured to be giving the keynote at the BUFF International Children’s Film Festival. BUFF is celebrating it’s 30th year this year, a truly amazing achievement.

Along with very special speakers, Filipa from beActive, Richard from Tarsier and Ida founder of Crimeville, we will discuss new business models for the creative sector. I’ll be focusing on the big picture; business models that have arrived from the advent of web 2.0, the power of the disruptive entrepreneur and the network effect with an engaged, active community.

Along with this, I will be showing how to go about finding the right model for you using lean methodologies and customer development tools.

It seems right now that every day the ground changes under our feet. The speed and the reach of change is breath taking. However, this constant flux and reimagining offers great opportunities and the internet with all it’s social media tools, gives us a platform to communicate beyond limits of boundaries, countries, and old distribution networks.

At the very heart of this discussion is the user. We can get to the user faster, receive feedback instantly, learn on the fly and change course if necessary.

For creatives there is no better time to start something. Think about your practice as a business and learn ways to make the most from your creativity and all the opportunities available to us.

Fascinating round up of internet trends at the end of 2012 by KPCB. My favourite slide has to be

“Easier for consumers to get what they want when they want. Easier for crafty and flexible people to make money”

Looking at this presentation it is easy to see that there is huge potential in this industry, in fact, in every industry. The levels of smartphone adoption is staggering, so is the level of internet use in emerging economies. Looking at how Waze has disrupted the sale of satellite navigation devices, for example, is a lesson that everything is up for grabs. Instagram and Facebook have redefined and reimagined new ways of engaging with users and solving every day problems at a click of a button.

Three things to remember

1. The internet provides huge potential market along with smart ways to convert them to users
2. Smart companies disrupt and give users what they really want now
3. Design is very important. Connectivity, great design and ease of use makes your product/service a winner.

Top 3 takeaways

1. Everything is being re-imagined, from health care, to learning and services
2. We now have an “Asset Light” Generation – hand held devices help users carry out daily tasks and services at a press of a button.
3. Everything is shared
4. Global internet use is driven by emerging markets.

It’s all about the opportunity folks!

What do you think the next key trends are for 2013?

Really brilliant post from Ben Davis of eConsultancy today showing how three premier Art Galleries in the UK, Royal Academy, Tate and National Gallery, fare on their website design, engagement and content. Winner by a country mile was the Tate. As Ben notes;

I started writing this post intending to look at some big-hitting art gallery websites and pick out best practice.

The aim was to turn you content marketers green by showing you websites for juicy organisations whose very ethos has always been content, form, learning, information, and which are now trying to adapt and evolve to make some money, too (outside of entry fees and patronage).

You can see this as the exact reversal of, for example, a marketing agency, which stereotypically has always been trying to sell through its website and is now getting its collective head around the idea of information, learning and content as the very top of the sales funnel.

You can read the rest of the article here. Great job eConsultancy!