“Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” Anatole France
This is a start-up like digital project developed for Discovery Networks Europe! A three-month project from briefing to launch! Pets of Champions is a story about the love for animals and Anatole’s France words are the perfect motto for what we tried to support achieving Discovery project team.
A pet’s love can change one’s life. So, we aimed of bringing together some truly emotional stories about champions and their pets: cats, dogs, lizards, turtle, parrots, snakes or other exotic animals.
Pets of Champions - a start-up like digital project approach
It was Walt Disney who once said that “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible!”. For a few years I had this quote on one of my Grapefruit business cards. I still believe it and love it! In a way, I think it always had something to do with the kind of projects I got involved over the years, namely challenging ones although for different reasons. Pets of Champions project is no exception!
The way I see it, my personal challenge was to help Discovery launch a digital project in less than two months, yet without counting on too many resources. That meant choosing the tech platform, deciding on User Experience (UX) and information architecture (IA), defining content strategy, content development, social media and so on. And, of course, also manage the unexpected, but that comes with the territory!
The Big Idea
It all started with one of Discovery Networks’ internal competition. As Delia Dobritoiu, Creator, Director and Producer of “Pets of Champions”, everything started with:
“One simple phrase in a presentation submitted to an internal contest, sponsored by our management. A few weeks later an email announced that the idea was voted as the winner and that they were expecting a strategy to create and implement it. The result: Pets of Champions, Powered by Discovery! Yet, the idea was not enough! Few other believers, myself among them, joined the party!
The objectives
The Client wanted to try something new. Something they never tried before, namely to test the concept for a new type of show. What better way to test it, if not by taking advantage of the digital channels? But, the Client did not want to settle with testing a new TV show concept. Discovery also team wanted to inspire people and engage them into the conversation. Get the share their own stories!
Therefore, “Build your own Olympic moment!” became a driving principle. Yet, sport champions had to be brought on board and that’s exactly what happened. Olympic winter game champions such as Julia Dujmovits (snowboarder), Anke Woehrer (snowboarder), Šárka Strachová (alpine ski) and Konrad Niedźwiedzki (long track speed skater) agreed to share their pet stories.
The plan was for these admired champions to start the conversation. Next step was to bring ordinary people to share their touchy pet’s stories.
The Challenges
As is the case with real business life, even really great projects that are totally worth face different types of challenges. This is also the case with Pets of Champions. Basically, we promised to help Discovery team launch a digital project in less than two months. That meant choosing the tech platform, deciding on User Experience (UX) and information architecture (IA), defining content strategy and development, social media and so on.
- Launch date/ timeframe — We only had 90 days till launch when we started talking about the project. By the time papers were signed and project requirements and deliverables agreed on, we were left with less than 60 days till launch date.
- Branding — We had the naming, yet we needed to create the brand identity of the project and all visual elements library.
- User Persona — It was vital to define relevant user personas so that the whole team have a clear understanding and empathy to understand the users’ needs and goals.
- Content available — we had hundreds of hours of raw footage, yet much of the material was not finalized: video intros, logo, brand design elements, links had to be added and last edits to be done.
- Limited human resources — overall, across the development of the project there was an average of 4 part-timers involved, including Producer & Creator Delia Dobritoiu.
- Budget — Given the fact that this was a “last-minute” approved project, never included in the annual budget, we could not count on huge amounts to spend. Therefore, we had to carefully plan every penny we had.
- Budget — Given the fact that this was a “last-minute” approved project, never included in the annual budget, we could not count on huge amounts to spend. Therefore, we had to carefully plan every penny we had.
The Solution — choosing the pragmatic approach
We decided to approach Pets of Champions as a startup project. We assessed our resources and defined an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). For Discovery team involved this was something quite new. It showed them a new way of managing a production project. A new way of doing things in the digital world.
With such a digital-by-birth project and limited resources, we knew we had to settle for less than we actually dreamed of. We always had to remind ourselves that “there are perfect projects and launched projects.” Not the easiest thing to do when you have two perfectionists running the show!
As far as technology is concerned, there is not so much to tell. We decided to use Squarespace.com as a platform. Having around-the-clock IT support, hosting and a great variety of web of fully responsive templates were some of the reasons why. Plus, having an easy Content Admin User Interface was a critical factor having neither dedicated nor digitally-experienced people. We had no time for training people, and none of the interns worked with Content Management System before.
To Be Continued ...
No, this is not the whole story of how Pets Of Champions saw the light of day. There are more things to say about how we made this project happen and the content adventure we had.
Until then … enjoy lots of heart-felt stories at petsofchampions.com or follow the stories on Social Media. Don’t miss the memes on Facebook!
And to give you a little push, here are some of the stories that will make your day a lot more fun and relaxing.
Interview with a great champion who cannot imagine her life without her dog.
Project C.A.T. – help ensure a future for tigers and other endangered wildlife
A traveller’s encounter with the climbing goats of Morocco and the argan trees.