2020 IASA - FIAT/IFTA Joint Conference

Currently we’re in the middle of the Corona crisis and not yet sure where it will end. What we do know, is that living in a digital world helps us get through. Families working and homeschooling at the same time couldn’t have done this a decade earlier. This counts for audiovisual archives as well; had we not been so thoroughly digital in our collections, systems and processes, we would not have been able to keep up.

Reaching our dedicated and specific audiences in broadcasting, research and education during the corona crisis has turned out to be ‘business as usual’. But our digital collections can be relevant for a relatively new audience at home as well. Especially the elderly, who are less active on social media but have more need for archival content to lift up their spirits and remind them of better times. How to reach this new audience?

During the crisis we set up a campaign titled ‘Beeld en Geluid at home’, in which we combine all of the (social) media channels we already had. We collaborate with the National Public Broadcaster to distribute archival content in lineair and non-lineair ways; airing archival content which is afterwards published online on the on demand channel of the public broadcaster NPOStart. By broadcasting the archival content we reach the audience that isn’t as active online. This requires a collaborative effort in selecting and clearing content. Two organisations with different products and priorities, who haven’t always been aligned, working together during a crisis is exciting and complex. We will monitor which and how many people we will have reached and evaluate to see if it is possible to keep the channel online after the crisis. The lessons learned will be shared in this presentation.