Notes from #WebSummit: Constants and Variables: Creativity where humans and data meet

How BuzzFeed uses data to make decisions about what to make next

Details
Date: November 8, 2017
Time: 15:55
Conference stream: Content Makers

Speakers
Ze Frank, President, BuzzFeed Entertainment Group & Branded Creative

Web Summit Summary
Data is everywhere. But creative humans and data aren’t always good bedfellows. Creative humans have instincts and emotions, pride and love; data says, “Hey, it’s not personal, it’s just business.” But this intersection where humans and data meet is full of opportunity. Join President of BuzzFeed Entertainment Group Ze Frank for a conversation about the pitfalls and the sometimes bizarre magic of using data to inform creative decision making.

Main Theme

Understanding the jobs that different kinds of content do for BuzzFeed’s customers, and combining that with data as inspiration rather than discrete guidance, allows them to create new content that resonates.

The Key Quote

“Figure out how to connect data with the things that are fundamentally important in people’s lives.”
- Ze Frank

Key Points

1. Earlier on, BuzzFeed’s data on its content was limited to titles and numbers. These weren’t sufficient to make good idea choices. It was like being an artist and trying to become famous by studying painting titles and their sales values. BuzzFeed had to look wider.
2. BuzzFeed looked at their top hits — for example, a video they put together on creating concrete hand planters. It was a signal of something that could potentially break through the barriers of normal, expected results. When analyzed as a content formula, the constant could be hand planters, and the variables could be cement, metal, wood. Reversely, the constant could be cement, while the variables could be stools, cups, or brushes. These ideas were tested and none of them performed at the level of the original one.
3. They realized from reading comments that the content‘s success (it had 167 million views and 2.5 million shares on Facebook) was not because of BuzzFeed’s original premise of teaching people how to make concrete planters, but because of other jobs it performed for its viewers. An example of a job would be that it made the person who shared the content think of the person they shared the content with.
4. BuzzFeed learned to look at the value people get at the point of consumption. Content can fulfill different jobs — all those things can be thought of as social content jobs media can play.

Reflections

This was a fascinating talk by Ze Frank. The obvious reference that comes to mind is the Jobs to Be Done framework — we at TWG use it to guide product decisions. It was so refreshing and inspiring to see the JTBD framework applied to content, and how critical it has been to the way they approach work, especially when their work has high creativity demands.

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