I’m a digital analyst working in Marketing & Audiences for BBC Digital.
The Director of Marketing & Audiences, Philip Almond, recently challenged us all to bring innovation to the BBC in ways that would help us better understand and connect with the BBC’s audience, in more compelling and more cost efficient ways.
I responded to this challenge with an idea for testing new products. The exact method is new to the BBC, but it’s inspired by Pretotyping and Lean startup, which have been around since 2011. I first used it with my colleagues at Corke Wallis, when I worked there, before I joined the BBC. At Corke Wallis, we thought of it as a way to figure out what to do next.
It works like this: you do a small amount of digital promotion for a prospective new product, before the product is ready.
You use multiple versions of the product, side-by-side. Some people learn about one version of the product; others learn about another.
You test each different promotion and the description of the product featured in it.
When you measure (using digital tracking) people’s reaction to the different versions, you can make a more informed decision about how to develop the new product, or who to develop it for.
Using promos to test a product in this way gives us extra insight, and an ability to test against new audiences. We know the demographic of the audience whose reactions we’re measuring, because we’ve targeted that demographic with the promos; and a small amount of paid-for media lets us reach people with the product test who might not normally visit the BBC.
An approach like this takes some of the risk out of product development. You don’t have to guess how to develop your product, or who will love it the most: you can find out first.
Trying something out before it’s ready? That rings a bell: sounds a lot like BBC Taster. When I shared my ideas with my colleagues, lots of them thought the same, so together we’ve developed this product testing methodology as a part of Taster. That Taster had already been created has been a great help, because it provides an online place at the BBC to set out something new and unfinished, and gather feedback early on in the development process.
What does this mean for the BBC's audiences?
- It means some people will start seeing online BBC promos for things that aren’t ready.These things, the new products, won’t be featured on the Taster homepage; only a small controlled audience will see them via the promos.
- When the trails are clicked on, you’ll go through to Taster, and we’ll be measuring your behaviour. Like Taster generally, when you rate or share the idea, you’ll be contributing to a decision about that prospective product’s development.
- When the BBC tracks its audience like this, the data collected is anonymous, unless the individual chooses to identify themselves by, for example, logging in to the BBC. You can read more about the BBC and privacy, here.
- You might see a promo for something that never gets made, or which gets made differently from how it was promoted when you saw it.
Questions? Please leave a comment!
