Building MyCreativeEdge.eu

MyCreativeEdge.eu was originally established in 2013 under Creative Edge, an EU Interreg IVB Northern Periphery Programme (NPP) project helping the creative industries sector to access export markets and employment opportunities.

New trends in technology, user feedback and the experience of project partners prompted ‘a creative momentum project’ to re-develop & expand the site. A new version of MyCreativeEdge.eu was launched in March 2017 as a free hub for creatives living in Europe’s Northern Edge who want to showcase their work, be noticed, and connect with each other as well as a network of creative spaces. In this sense, MyCreativeEdge.eu was thought of as more than a website – as a network.

Working with a Belfast-based creative agency called McCadden and its sister agency Minus40, ‘a creative momentum project’ developed a visually engaging and user-friendly platform centered on creativity.

Between 2017 and 2018, the name ‘MyCreativeEdge.eu’ has appeared at international trade fairs and festivals; it has been an opportunity for the project to develop support opportunities such as the ‘Photoshoot’; it has been the focus of multiple digital marketing campaigns reaching out to international markets; it has been the subject of multiple Creative Exchanges and it has become synonymous with unique products and services made with passion by a transnational community of SMEs based in Europe’s Northern Edge.

‘a creative momentum project’ has come to an end, but MyCreativeEdge.eu will continue to run, nurtured by the amazing content generated by its members.

We have looked back at our experience as developers and promoters of an online showcase platform, and we used this experience to compile a report on building MyCreativeEdge.eu. We wanted this report to be visually appealing, in line with the rationale behind the re-development of the website. Far from being a mere summary, the MyCreativeEdge.eu report offers a critical approach to the design, promotion and implementation of a transnational showcase platform.

The report includes the following sections:

Section 1: Introduction

‘a creative momentum project’ and the partners involved in the MyCreativeEdge.eu activity

Section 2: Re-development of MyCreativeEdge.eu

This section presents the needs and rationale addressed through the re-development of the website. It reviews the process of managing and implementing a multi-stakeholder re-development process.

Section 3: Structure of New MyCreativeEdge.eu

This section presents the sitemap, addressing the challenges and opportunities linked to each section of the website. In doing so it reviews the performance of each section, referring to best practice examples of Profiles and articles.

Section 4: Driving engagement with MyCreativeEdge.eu

This section focuses on Communications and, particularly, how to engage different users with a new platform. It reflects on the difficulties linked to engaging diverse creative communities located in different countries, and offers tips on how to organise Communications activities in the context of a transnational EU-funded project. It also highlights the importance of ‘visuals’ and discusses how high quality visual content can be created in collaboration with multiple project stakeholders.

Section 5: MyCreativeEdge.eu Digital Marketing campaign

This final section focuses on digital marketing and reviews the social media channels used by the project, outlining a number of practical ‘lessons learnt’.

The full-length report and a summary are available in the Knowledge Centre under ‘a creative momentum project Output Reports’. Or download directly:

Summary Building MyCreativeEdge.eu report 2018 (PDF 225.07 KB)

Building MyCreativeEdge.eu report 2018 (PDF 3.75 MB)