KFAS Labs (Proposed Concept)

This project is a newly proposed project in which I built a concept of content generation and IP ownership for the Kuwait Foundation for Advancement of Sciences (KFAS). This has been submitted for review to the client in early 2019.. The project has two main goals: The first is for KFAS to enter the video production vertical with modern & quality content. The second is to generate IP that not only provides useful & educational content in Arabic but to also generate Intellectual Property that can be monetized to fund and create more educational content & IP. All sensitive data from the original technical proposal such as financial offering, detailed demographics and so on have been removed.

Today, video has even reached the educational market with phenomenons such as linkedin learning and kahn academy. These multimillion dollar companies have shown us that users would rather ingest and learn through video rather than traditional methods.

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A Brief Introduction: The “iGen” Demographic

It is no surprise that the “Centennials” or how we’d rather call them, the “iGen”, have grown up with these smart devices since a very young age and some have been born after. This generation is of the birth year 1996 and up. The language they speak is that of connectivity, devices, social media, and the latest trends. To target this generation, and to improve their learning experience, build loyalty and optimize their time, we need to start to speak their language in the way they ingest content. It is no longer enough to focus on textual based methods of knowledge dissemination. The experience needs to be extended everywhere, from the television screens to the palm of their hand.

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On Demand, Socially Fueled

It would be ignorant to peg video only to the iGen demographic. Video, especially after on demand services such as youtube, netflix and other streaming websites has ensured maximum convenience for viewers. Today, video has even reached the educational market with phenomenons such as linkedin learning and kahn academy. These multimillion dollar companies have shown us that users would rather ingest and learn through video rather than traditional methods. Another phenomenon that has added to this is the simple integration of social media and how it integrates with video so well for its purpose (likes, commenting, customized playlists and sharing).

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Numbers to Take into Account

It is not a surprise that video is king when it comes to content consumption. It is faster to consume, more engaging, and provides the ability to become more visual. A few numbers to consider:

- Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to 10% (text based).
- Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined.
- Nearly 50% of all video is watched on a mobile device.
- By 2019, internet video traffic will account for 80% of all consumer Internet traffic
- More than 500 million hours of video is watched on youtube each day

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The Lab/The Studio

The concept of this studio is to create a multi-function video studio that caters to different types of video content. Within this studio we’ll be able to create videos for social media outlets in both long and short form video, interview style and talk show based informative programs, use the facility to record and conduct educational content such as experiments, and also be able to use the post production team to create content for digital publishing mediums such as the website, OTT platforms (such as netflix or web based streaming service) or even supplementary tutorial style courses for Udemy or even universities in the region. Of course, the equipment will also allow for on the go recording such as documentary or field recording, or even live event streaming.
We have conceptualized the name and logo below to depict this studio as we believe the lab is the perfect name for this brand. A place to experiment and provide ground breaking results based on experimentation and innovation.

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The Risk: Swimming Against The Tide

Today it is difficult to fight for attention in a world where there are too many distractions that can stray us away from the right content. A world full of options when it comes to content consumption, especially amongst our youth. Entertainment and social media have taken over our time and motivation. This is no surprise as it is the form of digital media that both people and brands have invested in the most when it comes to content consumption. However, the knowledge based strategy organizations have seemed to fall behind and follow an older model of content creation. To reach our youth and ever technologically based population we need to enhance their development and quality of content they consume in order to ignite scientific thinking, environmental awareness, and better their knowledge acquisition in order to develop and drive our development (both economically and personal) and quality of life.
Of course with newer technologies, comes newer problems. However, organizations have come to fight this battle for attention to bring in their demographics to learn and acquire knowledge better through content creation. The risks of not pursuing better quality of content to consume and not partaking in a project of this stature are outlined as follows:

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The Benefits:

1) Enhance Knowledge Transfer
With video, it has been reported that information is retained more effectively than traditional knowledge transfer when considering content creation such as the text based approach. Leading to a better knowledge based society.

2) Socially Fueled & Viral
With video based content, we have seen a rise in the willingness to share amongst peers, meaning more content that is created via video is more likely to be shared and go viral. Resulting in a wider acceptance and reach for knowledge transfer.

3) Lesser Bounce Rates & More Engaging
Quality video content tends to keep the user not only consuming content for longer periods of times, but also keeps users consuming different types of content for longer. The time to consume a video is much less than reading an article. So if a user is not happy with the content their viewing, instead of leaving, there is more time for them to discover other videos to stay engaged in the content distribution chain.

4) Promoting Innovation
By producing quality content that users desire and consume conveniently, we are powering them to become more innovative with their train of thought and research. By creating these videos, we also invite leaders in the field to contribute their innovative research and studies to be presented through this video platform.

5) Building a Brand Viewers Trust
Through video, we will be building a brand that is not only promoting science but adapting and promoting the technologies and content consumption methods that viewers consume daily.

6) Promoting & Creating a Community
Through partnerships and co-created projects, KFAS can create a community that fosters scientific and technological innovation. These projects will promote collaboration and help excel the scientific community into the forefront.

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Why Video?

- 75% of senior executives watch work-related videos on business-related websites every week and that 59% of senior executives prefer to watch the video if both text and video are available on the same topic on the same page.
- According to a survey compiled and released by Hubspot; 85% of people say they'd like to see more video from brands in 2018. This displays the customer demand for an increase in video based content.
- Studies by consultancy Insivia.com show that adding video can improve your ability to remember concepts and details — with effects that can increase over time. Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text.
- A study conducted by Cisco, has shown that there is a growth in the need for internet based video traffic. Their forecast shows that by 2019, internet video traffic will account for approximately 80% of all consumer internet traffic. This shows the growing importance of getting your message across through video based content.
- Google has released a study stating that searches related to “how to” on YouTube have grown 70% year on year. This shows the demand of educational and instructional content through video based content.

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The Proposed Formats: VOD (Video on Demand)

The key aspect of this project is to build a studio in which KFAS can create valuable video content that can be streamed on demand by the customer at their own convenience. The on demand video model focuses on several key time frames.

1. Short-term Turnover Video
2. Medium-term Turnover Video
3. Long-term Turnover Video

These types of videos are to target to different platforms and viewer requirements. Each time frame will focus on providing content within specific frameworks and strategies in order to fulfill the viewership’s needs.
Each time frame will be explained in more depth on the forthcoming pages.

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Live Video

Live video caters to a content consumption funnel that may be rare compared to the video on demand, but provides its own usefulness and strategy. The main aspect of this video funnel is to cater to the users who wish to view events or scenarios that will occur during live functions such as conferences or special events.

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The Short-Term Turnover Video

Quick, Bitesized & Plentiful

The idea of the short term turnover video is to create quick and bitesized video clips for social media such as instagram and other short form video content such as twitter. The concept of this is to recycle clips from other medium and long form content, and create new fresh bite sized video clips for daily consumption. The idea behind these videos is to have constant video based content that will keep your users engaged and coming back daily to keep updated with science videos. This type of content is created through a calendar which focuses on creating many different short form videos throughout a day to be released throughout the week. By creating 5-6 short form clips a day, these can be distributed throughout the week by posting 2-3 per day. The benefit of this is to begin creating a library of short clips to be used on social media where your users will be to absorb this type of content. We must not ignore the short form videos as the majority of our userbase will be looking for content less than two minutes to view whilst on the go throughout the day. Our main target here will be mobile and social users. Examples of this type of video can be seen through Scientific American’s 60 second science. Useful clips that are created such as spots from interviews with KFAS guests, experiments from the medium form content or even highlights and/or trailers from the long form content.

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The Medium-Term Turnover Video

Programatic, Strategic & Social

The purpose of the medium-term turnover video is to provide engaging and educational content that is to be consumed mainly behind a desk (not limiting to as mobile will also be a substantial target). The purpose of this media is to keep users engaged through more details programmatic video content. An example of this can be seen in programs such as the Science Show on youtube; that produce an average of 6-7 minute videos on scientific topics that go more in depth than the short-form video. These videos will strategically outline concepts and have a schedule based on themes and ideas. The medium term videos can also be applied to special guests that KFAS bring in for conference. The best medium to host these videos would be on the website, youtube and even on smart tv and smart phone applications through a CMS specialized system for video such as the NatGeo smart TV app. The content schedule for this would be to ideally put out 2-3 medium term videos a week. However, from a content creation standpoint, we would ideally be planning for 5-6 videos a week. Giving room to create a backlog of videos to be used as an archive, and to always have unreleased videos ready to be published in line with a content schedule. This allows for programatic posting, and clock-work like distribution of video.

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The Long-Term Turnover Video

Depth, Detail & Cyclical

The long term video is based on a cyclical schedule. This is long form, high quality, carefully created content. This schedule will see one documentary style video to be completed per year. This is to be distributed on OTT/VOD platforms such as Netflix. The purpose of creating this long form type of content is to disseminate quality programs throughout the Middle East, expanding the knowledge transfer of scientific and technological topics.
In the example seen on the left, the concept of a documentary about Kuwait’s Oceans would focus on the importance of the Kuwaiti heritage and history of the pearl divers, and how this important history is being damaged by pollution. Bringing in experts to discuss scientific methods of solving this problem can not only create awareness across the region, but also allow for the scientific community to theorize a science and technological based solution for this. The more in depth and detailed these types of documentaries are, the more effectively KFAS can reach its mission statement and organizational values.
The great thing about this long form content, is that once completed it can be broken down and recycled into the short and medium form type of content. Creating trailers, advertisements, (medium form) or even just snippets for social media and teaser campaigns (short form). This ensures and adds to the content creation funnel.

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The Growing Need for Live Video

Up to Date & Engaging

The potential to reach thousands (or more) of new customers with the click of a button is becoming a reality. Organization’s in today’s work are convinced on the benefits of live video from a marketing perspective. But, what about from an educational perspective? Although, most live videos are actually watched through a stream after the live video has happened, the actual rates of live viewership is growing. This presents a fantastic opportunity for quality content to be created and engaged with live. With the growth of Instagram live, youtube live, and many other video streaming services, brands and organizations are racing to acquire their share of the market of this growing desire from the market.
The great thing about live TV, is that it is RAW. It creates a closer connection with your viewership as they feel a part of the process and it begins to build and fortify your customer loyalty.
It is said that the live streaming industry in 2016, was valued at more than $30 billion. These numbers were at an early phase where live video began to rise as an online trend. It is projected that in 2021, these numbers will more than double to become closer to a $70 billion dollar industry. These numbers show the growing importance for brands, especially those in niche markets such as Science.
Live streaming can be used to capture behind the scenes from lectures and events that KFAS conduct, it can be used to show the team working on upcoming video content, it can be used to educate and disseminate knowledge such as educational content and webinars. These can be conducted in both the raw methods (instagram live and similar social live video videos) or even as a post production quality video such as youtube live streams (using the studio, we can add overlays, animated graphics and transitions during a live broadcast).

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Analytics & Usage Data

Comprehensive & Real-Time

Video is the most engaging form of content on the planet. While it is powerful as a type of media, it also provides deep insights into the behavior of your audience.
It is important to access detailed data on who is viewing your content, how it is being viewed (devices, browsers, operating systems), how long it is being viewed, and where viewers are coming from.
With these types of platforms you can analyze player loads, views, viewed minutes, percent of content viewed, new viewers, unique viewers, attention span, top domains, geography, traffic sources, search terms, and more.
With the right analytical data, organizations can make the right decisions on which videos are working for them and which are not, which comes in to heavy importance on regular scheduled video forms such as the short and medium term video.
This data is also a feed that can provide insights on ROI of video and allow decision makers to make the right decisions when it comes to their video strategy.

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Overview of the Content

Dedicated & Recyclable

The content market is in a debate about quality vs quantity. When the reality of it, is that both are equally as important. However, by focusing on quality content, especially when it comes to video, you are in turn creating quantity.
Each content length form has it’s own specific parameters in which a specific strategy is applied. In each scenario, quality is the main goal, not quantity. But, within itself, by creating quality content, you are in turn able to create a large number of quality content.
This is because each form of video is able to be shared and recycled into each other. The long form content can be snipped into short form snippets or teaser campaigns to be shared and added into the short form content schedule. The long form content can also be cut down into clips and trailers that can be shared amongst the medium form content strategy. The medium form content, can also be shared into as clips and snippets into the short form content. The same applies to live video. Events and webinars can be clipped into being shared as medium and/or short form content, but also can be repurposed and sent to post production for long or medium form content. This is the beauty of creating a realistic content schedule and focusing on quality. From there, each form of video content is able to supplement and aid in the quantity of the other with minimal work and effort from the post production team. The chart on the right hand side helps to illustrate this content framework.

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Birds Eye View of The Studio: Outlined

1. Multi-Purpose Studios & Production Team
2. Post Production & Post Production Team
3. Live Vide & Live Video Team

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The content market is in a debate about quality vs quantity. When the reality of it, is that both are equally as important. However, by focusing on quality content, especially when it comes to video, you are in turn creating quantity.
Each content length form has it’s own specific parameters in which a specific strategy is applied. In All three of these sections will outline the basic functions of the studio. Section A will be focused mainly on the studio itself. Where the majority of the video recording occurs. This studio should be dynamic in order to match sets and scenarios for different recording purposes. One of our solutions includes using a green screen drop down in order to make use of background changes in order to dynamically change the settings. Mobile sets such as desks and setups should be in place in order for the set to dynamically change. Each recording set up should be marked and prepared with presets to quickly adjust to each desired recording set up. Section B mainly consists of computer hardware, software and the team that will turn the video recorded from both the studio and live video into post production quality. This is where the editing, motion graphics and manipulation of videos happen. Section C consists of a team that is mobile and has hardware that can be used on the go for out of studio recording. This team will be focused mainly on live video, but can be used to also record and produce video for events or any other situation that requires a mobile team. Each section will integrate with each other heavily. Section B will be the intermediary that functions most with the other two sections.