Objective: Inheriting hundreds of thousands of multimedia cultural & creative assets with varying amounts of metadata, tasked to creatively structure and conceptualise a unified story for a behemoth, diverse body of content. Deliver a polished, engaging and publicly accessible digital culture project on a short timeline in a fast-paced environment, and maximise the impact of a high profile launch campaign with global reach.

Approach: Developed and executed the creative presentation, content & storytelling of a 10+ year initiative to document Mali’s heritage across music, literature, architecture and art, in collaboration with 6 global cultural institutions (including UNESCO), music industry partners, and cross-functional internal teams. Achieved through:

• Close review of a pool of hundreds of thousands of assets (video, audio, stills, design, copy), from scans of ancient manuscripts and record collections to original music and films.

• Dedicated effort to conduct further cultural, creative, historical and political research into Mali and West Africa’s legacy across visual language, music, architecture and storytelling.

• Identified themes and storytelling angles, as well as cultural alignments and connections within music, literature, and visual culture in target audience markets (NA, EMEA). Proposition of a thematic architecture for storytelling across four themes: music, manuscripts, monuments, and modern art.

• Development of a unified visual identity, storytelling and creative strategy for the project, aligned with global go-to-market strategy and international target audiences. Produced the project’s core landing page, hero visuals, and promotional assets.

• Developed detailed briefs for cross-functional teams across marketing, PR & comms, and partnerships with clear messaging and assets in preparation of a multichannel, multi-partner global launch.

• Collaborated with music industry partners to jointly launch the album Maliba by Grammy award nominated artist Fatoumata Diawara as a companion to the project. Briefed in designers and creatively produced the album’s cover.

Solution: Developed creative concepts for visual language, messaging, and project identity and content. Sourced and briefed in designers, animators, filmmakers and cultural partners to create & curate the project’s hero visuals & assets. Crafted content structure, design, storytelling and copywriting for core project content and assets. Created a suite of multimedia assets and communications materials, and briefed global PR and marketing teams on project messaging and identity to prepare for global launch and media coverage.

Result: Delivery of a rich project page with unified visual identity, clear presentation of key themes, creative storytelling, and content design encouraging users to delve deeper into points of interest. Hero content included:

• the original album Maliba by Fatoumata Diawara

• a short documentary about the Timbuktu manuscripts narrated by Morgan Freeman

• a music video for Ali Farka Touré’s Howkouna covered by musicians from across Mali

• 3D modelling and audio tours through endangered Malian monuments

• short educational videos exploring the roots of the blues in West Africa with DJ Spooky

A globally resonant project launch across multiple surfaces, including the Google Arts & Culture platform, brand owned surfaces and social channels, earned international PR and media coverage, and internal and partnered communications. A bespoke facade was designed for the Brooklyn Public Library and NPR radio feature were among notable launch communications.

Successful creative direction, production, presentation and delivery of the project led to further collaborations with UNESCO and several other new and existing international cultural partners, as well as with local and global cross-functional internal teams, journalists and creative industry partners.

I went on to continue creatively producing cultural projects at Google Arts & Culture with 40+ international partners, including some of the world's leading cultural institutions (UNESCO, World Monuments Fund, and Global Heritage Fund), launching 11 projects and developing several more in the following 2 years.