BBC Innovation Labs: How the West Midlanders got on

(NB apologies if you saw an earlier, mangled version of this post yesterday - my mistake!)

Last Friday (30th March) I went to the final day of the Southern BBC Innovation Labs on behalf of Digital Central

Here’s a quick run-down of the day, including a few interviews I did with some of those involved.

[12:00pm]

I’ve come down to the Spread Eagle Hotel in Midhurst West Sussex to catch the last part of the BBC Innovation Labs South 2007 project. We’ve had two West Midlands agencies in the running this week (383 Project and Persuaders Media) so on behalf of Digital Central I’ve come to see how they get on.

The Innovation Labs is a nationwide challenge set by the BBC. Each year they ask a number of companies to pitch, then if succesful further develop innovative ideas around communicating in new ways with their audience. If the ideas go down well, the companies may be commissioned for futher developmental work with a view to some being used by the BBC in the long term.

For more info on the project background it’s worth checking out the original brief.

The week by all accounts has been a very intense, focussed period of activity. Each group has been working through their ideas with help from a number of established mentors with a view to final presentations delivered today. I must say everyone seems very chipper even though no-one seems to have had any sleep!

I’ve come down to catch the last part of the presentations (which I’m watching right now) and to be here for the final decisions later today.

[12:30 pm]

The presentations are now finished. I caught the last five, including Persuaders Media whose pitch I must say I thought was very impressive. Their idea centres around a sports based game which aims to get young people to be more active and works both on virtual and actual level. I won’t try to describe it here as I won’t do it justice but I’m sure they’ll be putting more info up on their own site soon.

Nice to see Fitz providing a bit of musical accompaniment too.

[12:45 pm]

I just had a chat with John and Sukhi from 383 Project who pitched an idea around new, graphical ways of delivering content.

I also spoke to Matt Marsh from Firsthand Experience, a user research and design strategy consultancy. Matt was one of the mentors and I asked him for his thoughts on the week so far:

[16:00]

We’ve just had the final results.

First, the mentors gave their own awards – including “Best Use of Virtual Characters” for Persuaders Media and “Best Storytellers” for 383 Project.

The commissioners then went through each agency one by one with feedback and decisions on further commissions. Here’s how the West Midlands companies got on:

383 Project:

Although 383’s idea wasn’t given further funding, the feedback they received was one of the best I heard out of all the companies.

Some quotes from the commissioners:

•  “One of the best projects I’ve seen in the 4 weeks of doing this”
• “You are people we can do business with”
• “You have clear visual skill especially when working with 14-16 year olds”

The commissioners clearly felt that they wanted to work with 383 Project in the future so I imagine this will lead on to some really interesting stuff.

It’s worth remembering that from the BBC’s point of view the Innovation Labs is just as much about finding new talent than just the ideas that are developed - 383 did very well in this area.

Persuaders Media

The response to Persuaders Media’s project was exceptionally positive – the main problem being that the commissioners felt that the idea was “Too big for the BBC” (their own words!).

Also there was an issue raised in that BBC Sport doesn’t have an agenda to get kids to be more active.

In light of this Matt Locke felt that the idea would suit the 2012 Olympics New Media agenda better and so will be putting some time into helping the agency pitch directly to the 2012 New Media department.

Matt Marsh, in my interview with him felt that the Persuaders’ project was the best one he’d seen all day (full interview above).

I spoke to (a very tired) Stephen and Fitz from Persuaders Media after the project to get their reactions.

I think this is great news for both companies and fantastic to see West Midlands agencies doing so well in a national project like this.

I’ll post updates as I receive them.

Links

• The Innovation Labs Blog
• The Original Brief