Monday, 10 October 2016
Creative Industries: Funding (Tutorial 5, DES401)
Task 1: Select a funding body
UK Games Fund: http://ukgamesfund.co.uk/
Task 2: What Is Their Funding Programme?
What have they funded in the past? (3 Examples)
What is likely to be funded in the future?
How to apply for their funding?
1. Deadlines
2. Documents to submit
3. Person to contact/online application form link
Task 3: Learn from other projects
Select one successful project:
1. Analyse the project
- Look t their website, how well do they convey the information about what they do?
- What sort of clients are complicit in their set up?
- How have they made their work appealing to funding bodies?
2. Analyse their social media presence
- Who do they communicate wit and why?
- Which platforms are they on?
- How effectively do they use them?
Task 4: Lessons for your own project
- Which funding body would be best for your project?
- What can you learn from how other artists, agencies, crowdfunding groups we've looked at in regards to your own project?
Presentation:
- Think about your own project and which of the funding bodies would be best for it, why? Present your group's statement. 2 minutes.
UK Games Fund: http://ukgamesfund.co.uk/
Task 2: What Is Their Funding Programme?
What have they funded in the past? (3 Examples)
What is likely to be funded in the future?
How to apply for their funding?
1. Deadlines
2. Documents to submit
3. Person to contact/online application form link
Task 3: Learn from other projects
Select one successful project:
1. Analyse the project
- Look t their website, how well do they convey the information about what they do?
- What sort of clients are complicit in their set up?
- How have they made their work appealing to funding bodies?
2. Analyse their social media presence
- Who do they communicate wit and why?
- Which platforms are they on?
- How effectively do they use them?
Task 4: Lessons for your own project
- Which funding body would be best for your project?
- What can you learn from how other artists, agencies, crowdfunding groups we've looked at in regards to your own project?
Presentation:
- Think about your own project and which of the funding bodies would be best for it, why? Present your group's statement. 2 minutes.
Monday, 26 September 2016
Business Plan: Executive Summary (Tutorial 4, DES401)
BUSINESS
1. What is your aim? The problem and the purposes solution.
2. Who is your audience?
3. Your uniqueness on the market
4. Your competition
5. Introduce the founding team
Present - pitch
or
GAME / PRODUCT
1. What is your aim? What kind of a game are you making?
2. Who is your player?
3. Is your game unique, different? How?
4. Do you know your competition? Other similar games? Their weaknesses and strong points?
5. Introduce the team and their skills
Present - pitch
Writing A Business Plan:
1. Ask yourself where you are now and where you aim to be in the future (strategy)
2. Determine your goals and objectives.
3. Outline your financial needs.
4. Do not forget about marketing.
5. Think how you will reach your target group.
6. Always remember. It is the people that sell ideas. Be prepared to pitch your idea
convincingly.
An Example of a Detailed Business Plan Outline:
1.0 Executive Summary
1.1 Problem
1.2 Solution
1.3 Team
1.4 Market
1.5 Competition
1.6 Financial Highlights
Summarise the idea / solution to a problem. Think about your target market. Introduce briefly
the founding team. Treat this part as your pitch. Be concise, convincing and enticing.
2.0 Products and Services
/ Business description
2.1 Problem Worth Solving
2.2 Your Solution
2.3 Validation of Problem and Solution
2.4 Roadmap/Future Plans
3.0 Market Analysis Summary
3.1 Market Segmentation
3.2 Target Market Segment Strategy
3.2.1 Market Needs
3.2.2 Market Trends
3.2.3 Market Growth
3.3 Key Customers
/ you target group
3.4 Future Markets
3.5 Competition
3.5.1 Competitors and Alternatives
3.5.2 Your Advantages
Remember about your customer needs and benefits! Think why you are unique?
4.0 Strategy and Implementation Summary
4.1 Marketing Plan
4.2 Sales Plan
4.3 Location and Facilities
4.4 Technology
4.5 Equipment and Tools
4.6 Milestones
4.7 Key Metrics
5.0 Company and Management Summary
5.1 Organizational Structure
5.2 Management Team
5.3 Management Team Gaps
5.4 Personnel Plan
Think about how the business will continue on a long term basis!
6.0 Financial Plan
6.1 Revenue/Sales Forecast
6.2 Expenses
6.3 Projected Profit and Loss
6.4 Projected Cash Flow
6.5 Projected Balance Sheet
1. What is your aim? The problem and the purposes solution.
2. Who is your audience?
3. Your uniqueness on the market
4. Your competition
5. Introduce the founding team
Present - pitch
or
GAME / PRODUCT
1. What is your aim? What kind of a game are you making?
2. Who is your player?
3. Is your game unique, different? How?
4. Do you know your competition? Other similar games? Their weaknesses and strong points?
5. Introduce the team and their skills
Present - pitch
***
Task 1: What is your aim?
- Think about the problem and the solution. The aim of your business. What market niche are you filling out?
- What kind of game are you making? Why?
Task 2: Who is your audience?
- What is your target audience? Do you know your customer?
- Who is your player?
Task 3: Are you unique?
- What is your unique selling point?
- Is your game/project unique or different? How?
Task 4: Who is your competition?
- Do you know your competition? Who else operates on the market you are about to enter
- Is your game/project unique or different? How?
- Introduce the founding team.
- Introduce the team and their skills.
***
1. Ask yourself where you are now and where you aim to be in the future (strategy)
2. Determine your goals and objectives.
3. Outline your financial needs.
4. Do not forget about marketing.
5. Think how you will reach your target group.
6. Always remember. It is the people that sell ideas. Be prepared to pitch your idea
convincingly.
An Example of a Detailed Business Plan Outline:
1.0 Executive Summary
1.1 Problem
1.2 Solution
1.3 Team
1.4 Market
1.5 Competition
1.6 Financial Highlights
Summarise the idea / solution to a problem. Think about your target market. Introduce briefly
the founding team. Treat this part as your pitch. Be concise, convincing and enticing.
2.0 Products and Services
/ Business description
2.1 Problem Worth Solving
2.2 Your Solution
2.3 Validation of Problem and Solution
2.4 Roadmap/Future Plans
3.0 Market Analysis Summary
3.1 Market Segmentation
3.2 Target Market Segment Strategy
3.2.1 Market Needs
3.2.2 Market Trends
3.2.3 Market Growth
3.3 Key Customers
/ you target group
3.4 Future Markets
3.5 Competition
3.5.1 Competitors and Alternatives
3.5.2 Your Advantages
Remember about your customer needs and benefits! Think why you are unique?
4.0 Strategy and Implementation Summary
4.1 Marketing Plan
4.2 Sales Plan
4.3 Location and Facilities
4.4 Technology
4.5 Equipment and Tools
4.6 Milestones
4.7 Key Metrics
5.0 Company and Management Summary
5.1 Organizational Structure
5.2 Management Team
5.3 Management Team Gaps
5.4 Personnel Plan
Think about how the business will continue on a long term basis!
6.0 Financial Plan
6.1 Revenue/Sales Forecast
6.2 Expenses
6.3 Projected Profit and Loss
6.4 Projected Cash Flow
6.5 Projected Balance Sheet
Monday, 19 September 2016
Crowdfunding Campaign Exercise (Tutorial 3, DES401)
Task 1: Which Platform to choose?
- IndieGoGo?
- Kickstarter?
- Crowdfunder?
- Gofundme?
- Patreon?
- Pozible?
Task 2: How did others make it?
- Choose a campaign from one of the platforms. Try to find one that is interesting because of the way that it succeeded, failed, or how it is tracking if it is currently live.
- Analyse the team’s social media presence – what platforms are they on, and how active are they? How integrated is their social media strategy with their operations, and how do they use social media to keep backers updated on their progress?
- What is the funding target? How realistic does it seem?
- Overall in your opinion, how would you rate the crowdfunding campaign?
- What could have been done better?
- Specify and analyse the components necessary in a crowdfunding
Task 3: It's your turn
- Describe your project
- Introduce the team
- Think about the pledge levels and reward design
- Pre-design the budget
Other Questions to Consider
- How many person-hours per week would you estimate that the crowdfunding campaign takes up on top of the project itself?
- How much time will you devote to campaigning as opposed to designing your product? (real versus ‘dummy’ project)
- How will you attract pledges and keep your audience updated?
Consider Crowdfunding Failure
Zano: The rise and fall of ickstarters mini-drone
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35356147
Consider Crowdfunding Models
- Rewards-based crowdfunding
- Community shares
- Equity crowdfunding
Monday, 12 September 2016
Monday, 5 September 2016
Module Aims and Outcomes
Group presentation - 50% (Oral group presentation: week 10, Submission of websites and documents/slides: week 15): Early in semester you will be split into groups, each of which will develop a pitch for a hypothetical funding application or crowdfunding campaign (probably for a creative work). You will also need to develop a mocked-up web presence which introduces your team as a professional group, taking on board what our guest lecturers say about C.V.s, portfolios and so on. The group will pitch these projects in Week 10 to peers and the lecturers. Treat the oral presentation as an opportunity to develop a strategy to present yourself to future grant givers or crowdfunders. It is also an opportunity to research why some pitches and campaigns are successful while others fail, and to position your work accordingly.
Note that this assessment is essentially creating a profile for a project which (probably) doesn't exist, so while it is important to come up with a creative idea that maximises on the talents of your group, be sure to focus your efforts on the part (the pitch or crowdfunding campaign) that matters directly for the purposes of this class. Also the project should be something reasonably achievable by a small creative agency or team in a relatively short timeframe and to a modest budget - speak to your lecturer if you're in doubt.
Key criteria for assessment of Group Presentations:
- Quality and Confidence of Presentation/Mockup Website and Documents
- Viability of Proposed Business Model/Idea
- Appropriateness of Crowdfunding Campaign or Grant Body
- Innovativeness of Campaign/Pitch, Clarity of Explanation for your Creative Decisions
- How well the disciplinary talents of each member contribute to the hypothetical project
- Use of insights from Guest Lecturers
Grant Proposal
|
Crowdfunding Campaign
|
Points to address:
|
Points to address:
|
Essay Expanded Guidelines
Essay - 50% (Submission: week 15): 1000 word-long mission statement manifesto. A document introducing your artistic scope, professional planning and location, potential market, target group, and funding (expressing either a future job scenario or a self-employability focused plan). This does not need to be a fully developed academic essay in the sense of a well-supported argument with sources and so on, but does require you to display a knowledge of your prospective industry and identify key companies, opportunities and funding sources that you are looking towards in your post-graduation career. Working in insights from the guest lecturers is also a key to success.
DES401 Professional Contexts & Entrepreneurship Essay Guidelines
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 13/12/2016
This essay is designed to get you thinking about the steps you will take after you graduate. That means it is not an academic essay in the sense that you have to cite academic sources and engage with theoretical materials. Data from industry, writing by professionals working in the field, journalistic resources, white papers from advocacy bodies and cultural institutions – all of these are acceptable in this context in a way they wouldn’t be in an academic paper.
Unlike the Group Presentation which was about a hypothetical project, this should reference real information and statistics.
However, it is an essay that requires engagement with the course’s materials and guest speakers, as well as displaying an awareness of the state of the sector you wish to enter (whether creative industries, games, animation, independent production, advertising, academia or another field). These aspects of the essay will require basic referencing (ie. Let us know where you get information from if you’re quoting data from a particular source so we know it is reputable). This could include focusing on a particular firm and identifying key personnel and contacts.
It is also important to take stock of the way that you will achieve the career goals you set out for the first steps you will take post-graduation. This means incorporating your plans or links to completed versions of your portfolio, C.V., work-related social media profiles, and so on. Describe how this will articulate your skillset and appeal to the target audience of your planned career path, drawing on the insights of the guest lecturers about the industry,crowdfunding, creative industries funding or whichever goal you have chosen.
The paper will be marked according to how well you meet the following criteria:
- Clarity of your stated goals.
- Knowledge of the intended field/industry from an employment standpoint.
- Incorporation of ideas from the course and guest lecturers.
- Comprehensiveness of plans for an effective web presence.