Biography:
Over the last five years Duncan has been the creative force behind BBC Worldwide’s biggest digital projects, including highly successful websites for Top Gear, Radio Times, Good Food, and Lonely Planet.
A good part of those five years has been spent exploring the agency world in the UK, US, Australia and Northern Europe – and recent leaps in the quality and performance of BBC Worldwide’s digital products are widely attributed to Duncan’s decision to move towards working in partnership with major creative agencies.
Award nominations for Duncan include a BAFTA Interactive, two Official Honorees for the Webbys, and numerous short-listings from the British Society of Magazine Editors, Association of Online Publishers, Periodical Publishers Association and Revolution.
Notes
Duncan Swain’s role is to head up BBC Digital Worldwide, responsible for a range of BBC brands such as Top Gear. In this lecture, Duncan explains what it is like to be accountable for maintaining and extending important BBC brands around the globe as part of the organisations business enterprise beyond our shores.
For students and teachers alike, there is plenty of interest in this lecture as it serves to give a view from a part of the BBC’s massive operations that is perhaps not immediately apparent. One important note for future practitioners watching this lecture is Duncan’s run down of the top digital agencies he currently works with.
As a client, Duncan explains what he expects from the industry, highlighting the current state of talent here and abroad whilst hinting at what is needed from tomorrow’s digital creatives.
Andrew Piper
Blackburn College