How the true scope of content can’t be defined in one role and the tool-sharpening power of community with Content Strategy Partner, Jennifer Burgos

Tell us a bit about your background and how you came to be a content strategist…

My knowledge of content strategy – as it is now – comes from production. That’s how my career started, in a hands-on ‘how do you make something’ craftsperson-type way.?

I started at a Scandinavian broadcasting company with a remit to create promos for existing TV? shows. But then around 1993 or 94 I was approached by the Turner Empire and interviewed by Jane Fonda and Ted Turner. I joined as employee number seven. In those days, content was like the Wild West: you could do anything you wanted and there were no regulations. I guess that’s why I learned so much about it – because we didn’t have a specific job role and that really broadened my ability to look at content in the right way.?

But I was never a creative and I didn’t want to be. I was much more of a line producer, pulling together the assets and putting something out. After 17 years I moved on to Aardman [animations] in Bristol, which was extraordinary. And from there into the public sector, for the Science Museum Group, as commercial director for all three museums.?

Does content mean different things in different roles – for example, public sector versus a Group Of Humans project?

At the Science Museum Group we had one remit: how do we take our existing assets and commercialise them? It was just when the Conservatives got into power and had reduced DCMS [Department for Culture, Media and Sport] funding, so I was responsible for everything – merchandising, licensing events… We did a huge thing around Apollo 10, the Red Arrows, all these fabulous ‘content’ projects. And that takes me back to the question of what content actually is – how do you define it??

I think that’s an interesting point in terms of what it's like to work on a Group Of Humans project. – because while you’re defined as being in a specific role, you don't have to stay in it. You can bring other things to the table, other skill sets and experiences, which I think is really interesting from the client's perspective because it means they always get more than they ask for.

In a typical business model with, say marketing, when you hire a marketing executive they just have marketing skills. When you put a TRIBE together, because of the type of people involved in GOH, the skillsets are often quite broad. So the client benefits not just from the marketing or brand or content skills, but from a much deeper well of experience. We’ve become – or rather Rob Noble has become – incredibly good at putting the right HUMANS together on projects.

Is that what makes the HUMAN approach to work different?

I’ve rolled around this metaphor in my head that likens working on a GOH project to a walk on a very cold and sunny winter’s day. The cold forces you to sharpen up, it heightens your senses. The sun fills you with enthusiasm – joy even. The clarity comes from being pushed together with people you don’t know, HUMANS, with a simple directive: how do we get this job done?

I love this union. There’s no water cooler politics, no hierarchy, no boss driving an agenda, no corporate nuance to beware and no entity behind the HUMANS. Being very commercially minded, I see that as not wasting anyone’s time or energy – ours or our client’s.

How did you join Group Of Humans?

I’d done a huge project for a sports brand where we shaped its global merchandising and licensing brand positioning and product development. I showed it to Peter Drake , who I’d known and worked with for 20 years and he said, “Jen, this is amazing. But it would have been a hundred times easier if you’d done it through Group Of Humans.”?

I was a little sceptical as to how it worked at first. I’d been running my own business for around eight years but decided it would be good to connect with new people. I was actually interested in the community – I hadn’t given any thought to work!?

Ever since, I’ve used GOH as a kind of tool sharpener. Attending All Hands talks, seeing what other people are working on, always learning new stuff – always looking for new ways to broaden my skills beyond any one definition of what content actually is.