From September 14 to 16, CBC/Radio-Canada hosted Public Broadcasters International (PBI), a conference bringing together hundreds of representatives from over 60 public broadcasters worldwide to focus on the challenge of engaging with the digital generation. A number of key themes emerged during the conference and I’ve compiled a list below of the ones that stood out the most for me.
Maxime St-Pierre, Executive Director, Digital Media Radio-Canada
Authenticity
All public broadcasters were unanimous on this point. The importance of authenticity and emotion in conveying our content (and our brands) was central to discussions. The main challenge being to strike a proper balance – to continually explore innovative narrative forms, while staying true to ourselves and aligned with the mandate and values of public broadcasters.
The never-ending quest for engagement and impact
How do you engage audiences in a two-way, reciprocal conversation? And how do you create impact to achieve the widest possible reach? In theory, we all agree that granular data is a powerful strategic tool in the quest for engagement. In practice, though, big data has yet to really take hold in broadcasters’ business processes. You can bet that this topic will be revisited at future conferences.
Exploration: the dichotomy between the search for perfection and the right to fail
Another aspect that stood out was the near-total lack of product development philosophy, where we allow ourselves to explore a lot of small initiatives and test out approaches with the right to fail, so as to better develop products that become more robust over time. Although a handful of public broadcasters have initiatives in place, there’s still room for progress in adopting these new operating models. All in all, we’re still trapped in the mindset of once a project is over, you move on the next one, just as the first one is starting to take off.
The clash of generations
During the event, the term “them” was thrown around a lot in reference to millennials and gen-Zers, to the detriment of the “we.” The fact that there was a panel on this topic also says something about how preoccupied public broadcasters are with millennials and generation Z. There are still many hurdles to overcome before we can start applying the “we” to everyone and ensure that we include all generations in the big content strategies, but also in the container strategies, as these containers are no longer simply TV sets, but a personalized multiscreen ecosystem tailored to the audience’s viewing context. So there’s still a lot of work to be done. Having these issues on our radar is the first step in the right direction. A few public broadcasters have implemented “by millennials, for millennials” team models and seem to have had some success. Is that the key to engaging the next generations? Let’s not take these initiatives lightly, but see them as an opportunity to expand our overall offering, while continuing to build on what we do well – inform, educate and entertain.