The Digital Snapshot 11.3.2025

So you might remember that in the last issue I ran a poll asking you all for your opinions on Wine Gums and Fruit Pastilles. The sort of hard-hitting, cutting edge content that I'm sure you've come to expect from my tenure with the Snapshot.

Whilst I don't agree, I'd be remiss if I didn't share the results. Only 39% of voters correctly believe that Wine Gums are shit Fruit Pastilles. Which, you know, is kind of confusing seeing as Fruit Pastilles are pretty much just sugar coated Wine Gums and literally everyone knows that coating something in sugar makes it better. It's literally a saying when you've got terrible news to deliver. For instance, "I'm afraid we've only got Wine Gums, but here's some sugar to coat them in so that they nearly resemble a Fruit Pastille".

But I hope that we can look past our differences and move on (whilst I investigate for potential voting interference). Below is some non-Fruit Pastille related digital news from the sector.

• Register your interest for Let's Get Real: AI! We've already got some fantastic organisations joining the programme and we'd love to have you too. Find out more on our website.
• In response to Trump's executive orders and the general political environment in the US, Google renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America" for US users (and it's in brackets for everyone else), as well as no longer marking Pride Month and Black History Month on Google Calendar.
• BuzzFeed is launching its own social media platform. Not sure how I feel about it, but thought I'd tell you anyway.
• The Charity Digital Skills survey is live to fill out for non-profits (of any kind) based in the UK. Whilst it's not arts / culture specific, the findings are always insightful and useful to use as a benchmark of the digital skills of your own organisation.

• Our Let's Get Real: AI collaborator, Jocelyn Burnham, has written a great article for us on AI innovation in the cultural sector and the importance of vulnerability. If you'd like to chat about the programme, drop me a line (alec.ward@theaudienceagency.org).
• This was an interesting article from Amy Brown, who is the ex head of socials at Wendy's and known for being a pioneer of content on the platform. Amy has written about the slow death of Twitter and what you might do next.  
• Supercool are also running a cultural website carbon footprint study and the more organisations that take part, the better their data.
• The Government has published an AI playbook for civil servants. Potentially, it's a useful starting point for you to start considering your own policies and strategies around AI.

• The Royal Shakespeare Company have teamed up with immersive game producer iNK Stories, to develop their first ever video game reimagining the story of Macbeth in a modern setting.
• The National Trust are making some really interesting content at the moment - cementing themselves into online culture and I've seen their TikTok videos reshared a lot recently on various platforms.
• You might have noticed the 'Time Traveller POV' account on TikTok recently, which uses AI generated content to give a first person view of historical events. It's truly garbage content, BUT people clearly like it. The BBC published an article talking about the account and getting the opinions of people from the sector.
• Ash Mann is running a survey asking people to share the times that their digital projects fell short. I often find it difficult to source case studies talking about failure (in a positive way). So this is a good chance to contribute to the idea that the only time failure is bad, is when you've not learned from it.

• My Local Authority has joined in on a game called Beat the Street, which aims to get people out and about exploring their community. It's made quite a buzz around my area and it's doing a great job of getting young people outside exploring their local spaces. One to check out.
• Two Point have created Two Point Museum, a game focused on creating, designing and curating your own museum. Two Point took over the mantle of the old Theme games, from back in the 90s, where you could create and run hospitals or theme parks. The reviews for their new museum game are pretty good, may be worth a play. H/T to Kelly Forbes for telling me about it.

And that’s all for this edition.

Don't forget we're here to support you with training, research and consultancy, so please do get in touch.

You can find all past editions of the Digital Snapshot here.

The Audience Agency

workwithus@theaudienceagency.org

Image credits: Hanna Barakat & Cambridge Diversity Fund / Better Images of AI / Turning Threads of Cognition / CC-BY 4.0. Image link.