Financial Times Digital Learning Week

Case Study October 2012

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Overview

From 9-11 October 2012 the FT held its first Digital Learning Week (DLW), aiming to inform, educate and create a dialogue with FT staff about all things digital and social media.

DLW included 40 events in seven FT offices around the globe. It consisted of presentations, panel discussions, interactive workshops and online learning courses covering themes of social media, data analytics, digital in the media industry, mobile and digital advertising. A range of internal and external speakers presented.

Several hundred staff attended sessions in person, with key presentations filmed and added to Neo for later viewing.

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Objectives

Enhance digital skills and awareness of FT staff

Inform, educate and create dialogue with staff about all things

digital and social media

Raise awareness of the FT’s digital strategy and

how this impacts advertising, editorial and

product development

Enhance the FT’s reputation as digital

employer through external promotion of DLW.

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Key messages

 

Digital Learning week will educate staff about the FT’s digital

strategy, how this is relevant to their work and how we compare to

our competitors.

The FT’s inaugural Digital Learning Week will empower staff with digital skills and knowledge, ensuring they

are ahead of the curve with all things digital.

The FT’s digital strategy positions us as a leader in the media and publishing industries. Our digital

access model powers growth and we use smart data analytics for

audience understanding and development.

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Speakers and schedule

500+ staff attended 40 events in seven FT offices over three days, with presentations from:

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Internal communications

•Schedule, RSVP system & details hosted on intranet

•Email and poster teaser campaign

•Desk drop on DLW launch day

•New internal screens promoting schedule

•Staff notes from CEO and Communications team

External communications

“From what I’ve observed today, from both my workshop this morning and one on mobile I sat in later, there clearly is a strong desire from FT people to take advantage of a unique learning opportunity to gain insight – much of it undoubtedly actionable – from the menu of choice offered over the three days.”- Neville Hobson, Blogger & DLW Presenter

400 tweets with #ftdlw12 & #ftdlw

formed 730,000 impressions

Storify wrap-up of online activity

FT press release generating external

media coverage

The FT has just held Digital Learning Week for all 2000 staff across editorial and commercial teams,part of an on-going effort by the FT to ensure that all staff are up to speed on the latest trends and products in an area that has redefined its business model. The paper has a good track record of being quite innovative digitally and no-doubt this is part of it. They held sessions in all of the paper’s seven offices with internal and external speakers from companies including Facebook, Google+, NYT, BBC and Enders.  That’s not a comprehensive list, but interesting the mix of new and old media and by definition, the FT’s competition- Stockwell Digital Drop

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Top tweets

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Results – DLW feedback survey

• 73% of respondents said DLW has expanded their personal knowledge levels in the digital space

• 71% said they feel motivated to go on and find out more in this area

• 67% said they are applying learnings from DLW to their day-to-day job

• 58% have shared specific content from DLW session with a colleague

• 85% rated the quality of discussion very highly

• 86% rated the relevance of sessions very highly

• 88% said cross-company awareness of DLW was very good

• 88% said communication around DLW was very good

• 81% said the FT should run regular DLW events to keep staff up to speed

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Staff feedback

A chance to see the impact of digital on the other teams in the building and get to see their take on developments and how it affects them. Really good way of getting new perspectives and get input on where people see things going next.

DLW has definitely made me think about some alternative ways to raise the profile of the brand and myself within my target prospect clients. There are a few sessions I couldn't attend, however I am looking forward to catching up via Neo on what I missed.

DLW was a refreshing and welcome opportunity to hear how other companies are operating in the digital space and how other areas of the FT business are contributing to our overall objectives. It was also a great way to make FT staff feel part of a united cause and I'm sure it will prove to be a catalyst for future collaboration and innovation.

As someone who has only been with the FT for one month in a Program Lead BA role, it was very helpful and interesting to learn more about FT's vision, success and challenges. I will be hoping to use the enthusiasm, motivation and curiosity clearly present in the London office to facilitate progressive thinking around innovation, delivery and product development in B2B.

From an L&D standpoint, I think it was great to connect with people from various companies/backgrounds to better understand how we can integrate social media into our digital training.

A fantastic way of connecting the digital divide. There should be more events like this. Maybe at least twice a year?

Great innovations can originate from the simplest of things.

Thank you