1646 – Issue 3

based on reporting fromHuffPost, or popular video formats from our food brand “Tasty,” things can have ‘the legs’ to be recreated as feature films or episodic series. I saw the opportunity to convince TV commissioners or film studio executives to finance these projects, and trust us to make them into films or TV shows. I think what makes us extra attractive to commissioners is our loyal audience and strong data and analytics. We use our data to help inform the creative process, and we use our scale and reach to drive awareness for the shows we make. What are some of the films or TV shows you have coming up? TV wise, there’s a cooking competition show hosted by Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart on the US streaming service “Peacock”, but then we also have a hard hitting documentary series we just released on Sky Documentaries called “Once Upon a Time in Londongrad” detailing the Russians assassinations on UK soil. In film, we released Book of Love as a Sky premiere in February and have My Fake Boyfriend (an LGBTQ+ romantic comedy) and 1UP (a video-gaming comedy) releasing on Amazon and in cinemas this June and July. And those films came from BuzzFeed Intellectual property? Those two examples were actually developed specifically for our audience after seeing topics they were interested in from the content they were consuming online. But we have another film releasing in cinemas around Halloween this year called ‘Dear David’ which is directly from BuzzFeed IP – a ghost story that was told by one of our writers over Twitter. (it’s scarier than it sounds!). You’ve mentioned data a few times. Is all your content built from data? We believe in creativity, but creative ideas that get shaped using useful data. There’s so much data generated from the internet and much of it is irrelevant or used in the wrong way. However we publish over 700 pieces of content a day and we learn from everything we publish through the data – always looking to improve it for our audience. How do you measure what is improving your content? For us, high performing or successful content isn’t just something that gets a lot of views – it’s something that drives an action. When we started, our focus was on content that people chose to share with one another. People liked a piece of content, usually because it sparked an emotion, or taught them something new, or made them feel seen/heard. That drove them to share that piece of content and connect with others. Growing up my dad used to cut out clippings from the newspaper about Arsenal and leave them in my room for me. He saw a bit of content and thought of me, and that piece of content became something we connected over. Our aim with our content was the same principle – connecting people. That has now evolved into people actually doing things as a result of our content. Actually cooking recipes we publish, visiting places we suggest, changing habits, picking up new hobbies, buying products, watching films etc. When our audience uses our content to take action, that is success for us. Social media is a hot topic – how do you feel running a business that was born on the internet? I’m not here to be a spokesperson for social media. To be honest I probably slate it daily, annoyed at some nonsense I read, even more annoyed that friends shared that nonsense believing it to be true. But equally it is also a place where you can learn, connect, be entertained, and find a community. A few years ago we launched a mission to “Spread truth, joy and creativity” across the internet. Using our scale we set out to flood the internet and social platforms, with content for good. With more publishers acting responsibly, stronger regulations, and more pressure on advertisers and the duopoly (Google and Facebook), I believe the good can outweigh the bad. Thanks to social media I can chat with my friends from Blue Coat every day in our Whatsapp group, despite being on the other side of the world, and we can use platforms like ‘RBC Connect’ to stay connected with the school community! Both the digital media and entertainment spaces seem incredibly turbulent right now, is that fair? Absolutely. From a digital perspective we are largely at the mercy of the major platforms and their algorithms constantly shifting to keep advertisers and consumers happy. News and media is suffering from vast disinformation, echo chambers and the disintegration of local news, and then entertainment is going through a long drawn out dynastic change with streamers fighting over content discovery and consumer fragmentation. It’s exhausting to be in the middle of it all! What advice would you give to a school leaver starting a career in entertainment? There’s many different ways into the industry, don’t feel pressured to follow a certain route. Say yes to things, be confident in your own perspective and sap up everything you can learn along the way. Oh and build relationships! How did your time at RBC prepare you for later life and your career? I learned so much at Blue Coat that I’m sure I use every day now. The school offered so many opportunities to try things and the staff were very encouraging with no one subject put above the others. I think that helped me stay open to new things and keen to learn different perspectives. What is your most outstanding memory from your time at RBC? I loved the school plays, and the CCF exercises! Honestly too many great memories to mention. I miss it! 13