On a content milestone and more to come…
It was two years ago this week that Nalden first approached me about joining the WeTransfer team. In classic Nalden style, the email arrived completely out of the blue, with a subject line all in capital letters — “THE FUTURE OF ROB ALDERSON.”
In fact, the conversations we had were much more about “THE FUTURE OF WETRANSFER.” The vision Damian and he sold me was of a new content platform where we could tell the stories of some of the amazing creatives who use WeTransfer.
In sheer numbers terms, it was an intriguing offer. WeTransfer had 40 million monthly active users. I (eventually) accepted that a whole load of those people wanted to arrive, send a file and then leave, with no interest in getting any kind of content from us.
But even if we could engage a small percentage of those people with our stories, the reach would be pretty nuts.
This Works was brought into the world in April 2016, and last week, for the first time ever, we saw one million unique users in a 30-day period. The exciting thing is, it feels like we are just getting started.
From a user experience perspective, the current site has more than a few shortcomings. This isn’t a huge surprise — our design and tech team turned round this version in just a few weeks because we were eager to test whether we could and should be running a content site.
We are currently working on a new This Works, set to launch before the end of the year. We want to create an experience that looks and feels much more like WeTransfer, but we are also working hard to find the best possible ways to show off the art, design, film, music and more that we feature on the site.
We are proud of our platforms, of course. But we never lose sight of the fact that it’s our users and the magic they make on WeTransfer who should always, always, be the stars of the show.
We have also re-imagined what kind of stories we should tell on This Works. In the beginning, it was very much all about the stories behind the wallpapers — an archive of the work we showcase on the site with short interviews adding context and insight to the featured creatives.
There will still be a role for that on the new site.
But in recent months, we have started with the story, rather than the wallpaper. From our own ideas, tips from our colleagues and our wider network, and conversations with creatives of every stripe, we have gone out to commission original pieces. These included a look at how creative thinking transformed Amsterdam zoo; a one-of-a-kind eclipse-themed art show in the old American West, two poets’ love letters to New Orleans or an exploration of the legacy of the Summer of Love.
The direction of travel between This Works and WeTransfer.com has been reversed with these pieces. Once we have the story in place, we design WeTransfer wallpapers which make use of the extraordinary reach of that platform, and engage our creatively-minded audience with stories we think will resonate with them. Now we want to up the ambition of the stories we tell in 2018 and beyond.
What hasn’t changed though is this fundamental relationship between content and product. WeTransfer is all about making the creative process effortless and accessible. And inspiration plays a big part in that process, whether you’re having one of those days when the ideas just don’t seem to flow, or whether seeing new work from FKA twigs, or Andy Rementer or Camille Walala is the final push you need to finally get started on that thing you have told your mates about in the pub but never actually got started (we all have at least one).
So watch this space. We are still committed to giving 30% of our inventory — about five billion page impressions a year — to showcase terrific creative talent from around the world. That won’t change either; what is changing is the way we tell their stories, and the projects we are able to help make happen.
THE FUTURE OF THIS WORKS as part of THE FUTURE OF WETRANSFER feels pretty exciting.
