Digital Ambassador Category

Meet the Winner of the Digital Ambassador category! 

About Digital Ambassador  

This category recognises someone who uses digital technology or tools to create lasting and meaningful change. This could be in your own projects or within an organisation. You could be at any point in your career or of any skill level, so long as you are helping to transform how your organisation or community uses digital. This category only accepts self-submissions, so please encourage your peers to enter. 

The Shortlist for this category was decided by our external Judge Zak Mensah, Co-Ceo of Birmingham Museums Trust – with support from the experts from the Digital Culture Network, and Arts Council England. 

The Winner

Jonny Goode is Communications Manager at Blast Theory, a Brighton based artist group which uses interactive media, digital broadcasting and live performance to create work exploring key social and political questions.   

The winning project 

When Jonny Goode joined Blast Theory in 2021, the organisation had already identified the need to shift from a project-focused communication style to a more strategic, data-driven approach that engaged wider audiences. 

Jonny carried out a communications audit to assess existing efforts and uncover potential gaps in content distribution, engagement, and audience understanding. By implementing new methods, they started the process of refining Blast Theory’s digital content strategy, improving the effectiveness and resonance of its messaging, and enhancing global audience engagement as a result. 

Jonny introduced workshops and audience surveys, iterative testing and feedback loops, and collaborated with sector experts to improve the organisation’s approach to Meta marketing. This included making use of advance features in Meta Ads Manager such as custom/lookalike audiences, and Facebook Pixel to develop more targeted campaigns. 

Jonny also gained a clearer view of Blast Theory’s performance by utilising Google Looker Studio to create custom dashboards, which combined data from different channels. This allowed them to identify audiences’ preferences and trends, and to tweak the approach accordingly. 

One example of the impact these changes made, was the Meta digital campaign for Cat Royale – an artists’ project exploring the impact of AI on humans and animals. The campaign exceeded its target views by more than 500%, reaching more than a million people. 

As a result of the success of this digital transformation, Jonny is in demand as conference a speaker to share their insights and approach help other organisations and individuals across the sector adopt similar successful strategies.  

The Shortlist

• Daniela Zaharieva – Increasing digital awareness and engagement at the Migration Museum
  
• Simon Moore – Digital Engagement at Darlington Libraries
  
• Jonny Goode – Digital transformation at Blast Theory 
  
• Steve Spamer – Samplitude Access 

The Longlist

• Joseph Glow – Visitor Feedback and Enquiries Integration 
• Ian Rattray – Unseen  
• Joe Stricklands – Chronic Insanity Theatre   
• Callum Smart – Caidence: Democratizing access to violin education through AI 
• Stuart Leech – Seamless Connections: How the Foundling Museum is Showcasing What Smaller Institutions Can Achieve Through Integrated Technology and Enhanced Visitor Experience 
• Beth Bryan – Audience data catalysing cultural change 
• Will Harpur – Painting The Town Red-digital 

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