The cultural and creative industries — one of the world’s most rapidly growing economic sectors
“The creative industries are growing — and will continue to play an important part in the future. What makes Norwegian creative industries unique is the diversity of people making it happen”, says Margit Klingen Daams, Innovation Norway’s head of creative industries.
Written by Innovation Norway, and assembled with input from the startups AmmaCreative, Atelier, and RQST Music.
The cultural and creative industries (CCI) are one of the world’s most rapidly growing economic sectors. The sector provides 29.5 million jobs globally, and with a global revenue of 2,250 billion $US, the CCI exceed Telecom services revenues, and surpass India’s GDP (EY 2015).
There is a need to find new areas of development that encourage innovation and development, and research shows that culture and creativity has an increasing influence on both sustainability and resilient growth. In Europe, the CCI have become well established as an important asset in strengthening the economic structure and maintaining its competitiveness in the global economy.
The goal for Innovation Norway’s work with the companies within the sector is to help contribute to growth, value creation and jobs by increasing investment in, and sales of, cultural productions and art. As well as creating awareness of the possibilities which lies within enhanced focus on this important and prosperous industry.
With the upcoming Creative Technology Day at Startup Campus (on September 5th 2019), the spotlight is once again being put on Norway’s future in the CCI. In total, there are 11 sectors within the CCI; architecture, gaming, design, film, literature, music, advertising, print media, TV and radio, visual arts and performing arts. Several of these will be represented at the event.
One of the Norwegian startups that have signed up for the event is AmmaCreative, who are aiming to innovate the process of looking for freelancers available for creative work. Mathias Hov, CEO and co-Founder of AmmaCreative, explains what their innovative product is.
Employers in the creative industry all over the world have the same problem when putting together a team: they don’t know who’s available for a project. AmmaCreative solves this by simply showing who’s available, thus eliminating countless wasted hours every month. There are millions of creative freelancers who spend time looking for work. We fill up their calendar quicker, reduce unwanted interruptions and gives them an easy way of keeping track of their projects.
AmmaCreative’s solution enables freelancers to connect their work calendar to the AmmaCreative system, which makes it possible for employers to see the availability of freelancers. Creativity needs focus to thrive, and so it is AmmaCreative’s mission to remove the noise — by streamlining the hiring process.
Creative minds in high demand
Events such as the Creative Technology Day enable attendees to become inspired and connected with relevant entrepreneurs and investors within the cultural and creative industries in Norway. Our hope is that the Creative Technology Day will contribute to building a climate for such businesses to grow, which is a top priority for Innovation Norway.
In the UK, the CCI are driving economic growth across the UK — and are on track to create one million new jobs within the sector between 2013 and 2030, twice as fast as other sectors (Nesta 2018). This fast growth partly reflects digital technologies which allow creative businesses to create content that can be easily exported worldwide, and a demand for creative services. In the future, creative jobs are likely to gain importance because they are harder to automate.
In Norway, the total value creation within the CCI was 46,9 billion NOK in 2014, with a 15% increase over the last 7 years (BI/Menon 2015). This shows that Norway has lots of creative talent, and potential!
At the same time, Norwegian cultural producers have challenges in retaining property rights and thus income flow in Norway. There is a need for commercialization and focus on increased export, as well as Norwegian ownership of intellectual property rights.
In addition to the fact that the CCI are important in themselves, they possess several skills and methods that can be used successfully in other industries. With their expertise and mindset, the CCI can contribute to greater diversity in other industries, which is essential for the innovation and transformation of tomorrow’s Norway.
Sharing the creative experience
Atelier, a startup aiming to make art more easily accessible for the public, say they want to counter a negative trend in the market. Christian von Hanno, Co-Founder of Atelier, says their service connects art buyers with the artists — outside the art galleries and auction houses.
The art market is still controlled by an exclusive elite of art galleries and auction houses. The galleries favor established names and makes it difficult for artists to get exposure. As a result, lots of high quality art are stored in art studios everywhere and never exposed to an audience. Atelier lets you discover and buy art directly from professional artists online or at the artist’s studio. New artists are reviewed by other professional artists which assures high quality art in the service. So far over 300 professional artists have created profiles and uploaded over 1500 artworks in Atelier.
Innovation Norway has been working with cultural and creative industries for several years. And in October 2013, we initiated a three-year focus on cultural industries. In 2017, we were given our first assignment from the Ministry of Culture, to implement initiatives aimed at companies with growth ambitions and potential within the CCI.
RQST Music — who are creating a streaming platform designed around the social listening experience — are also coming to the Creative Technology Day. Christoffer Riseng, founder of RQST Music, says that there aren’t any other music services aimed at delivering “worthwile value to listeners in social settings”, or allowed for an interaction between the people and the music environments. More or less all current music platforms focus on the individual listening experience.
RQST Music is a social interactive music platform designed to be used in social settings. We are reviving the successful aspects of the old jukebox into a modern, more social digital experience- designed to be used at home or any social setting where music is played. With RQST Music you can tune in and listen to songs being played in real-time and interact with the Host by sending in requests and voting on songs in the queue. Whether that is at a house party, on an epic trip with friends, a wedding, or at the VIP section of your favorite nightclub. Our niche is the social music space, when people are together listening to music from one source. We give everyone the ability to connect and influence on the music being played in real-time.
LastCall is also among the attending companies for Creative Technology Day. The startup’s product is a new way of distributing tickets, by communicating directly to users based on their interests and geo-location. This is done through an app created by LastCall — and by using this solution, cultural organisers will save time, decrease their marketings expenses, and have a high conversation rate. The users of the solution will never miss out on an offer and only receive offers that they like and want. For LastCall, the innovation lies in the technological back-end for distribution, and the simple user experience that makes discovering and purchasing tickets fast and easy. Pouria Ruhi, the founder of LastCall, says the company is disrupting the familiar sales process.
By focusing on creating the best solutions possible and trusting each other, we have enabled a culture where creativity is a standard that we live by. Our team has replaced “yes, but” with “yes, and”. The result is visible in the products we release. Our business creativity lies in changing the notion of how you can communicate a cultural event and how you can discover a cultural event.
Engaging the whole community
Innovation Norway’s target group is companies with growth ambitions and potential within the cultural and creative industries. The assignment from the Ministry of Culture calls for the use of Innovation Norway’s existing instruments, combined with expert knowledge on the sector, to develop programs for companies within the sector.
Many of the programs are executed in close collaboration with several key partners in the field; such as Angel Challenge — as well as the Norwegian Arts Council, organizations in the Norwegian Arts Abroad and other relevant partners.
We already see good results from the work, where companies from all the 11 subsectors are participating in different programs. Our goal is to increase the number of higher growth, scale-up creative businesses. What makes Norwegian cultural and creative industries unique is the diversity of the people that make it happen. By inviting everyone to arenas such as Creative Technology Day our goal is to engage the whole community.
