Editorial Calendar – Ubisoft

The Collective Editorial Calendar was designed to facilitate a coordinated and efficient content production process across multiple Ubisoft teams. The goal was to create a structured action plan for sharing knowledge internally, highlighting thought leadership, and producing high-quality, actionable content. The calendar was governed by my team, ensuring consistency, relevance, and alignment with Ubisoft’s priorities.

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The Calendar’s Purpose:

The editorial calendar supported over eight internal Ubisoft teams, as well as external contributors such as subject-matter experts and thought leaders. It provided a centralized location for teams to plan, track, and manage content creation for The Collective blog.

The key objectives of the calendar were to:

• Establish a content action plan that included problematics, content types, and deadlines.
• Align content with Ubisoft’s strategic priorities and key expertise areas.
• Provide clear publishing guidelines to ensure consistency and high standards.
• Organize and manage contributions from a wide variety of teams and thought leaders.

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Content Guidelines:

The calendar formalized content creation by outlining several key guidelines that contributors followed to ensure quality and alignment with Ubisoft’s knowledge-sharing goals:

1. Global Access:
   • Content must be accessible and valuable to all Ubisoft employees globally.
2. Expertise-Focused:
   • Articles must share, highlight, or discuss different areas of expertise within Ubisoft, showcasing internal knowledge and talent.
3. Examples & Case Studies:
   • Content should be practical and useful, providing real-world examples, use cases, or post-mortems to make it applicable to teams’ work.
4. Original Content:
   • The focus was on sharing content created by Ubisoft, for Ubisoft. External resources were only shared as references or supplementary materials.
5. Usefulness:
   • Every piece of content must help readers learn something new, understand Ubisoft’s strategic priorities, or provide actionable takeaways that teams could implement.
6. Actionable Knowledge:
   • Content needed to be informative, relevant, and easy to act upon, whether through practical steps or inspiring ideas for implementation.

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Features of the Editorial Calendar:

• Hot Topics Action Plan: The editorial calendar included a hot topics section where trending themes, critical content areas, and emergent discussions were identified and formalized with deadlines, targets, and content formats (e.g., post-mortems, case studies, explainers).
• Content Types & Formats: The calendar accommodated various content types, including:
  • Post-mortems (reviews of completed projects)
  • Case studies (deep dives into specific Ubisoft experiences)
  • Explainers (educational content on industry topics)
  • Research-based articles
• Guiding Pillars:
  • Content in The Collective had to follow five key guiding pillars:
    1. Global: Accessible and relevant to Ubisoft’s worldwide teams.
    2. Expertise: Focused on sharing expertise.
    3. Examples: Practical and useful content.
    4. Original: Created internally by Ubisoft.
    5. Actionable: Directly applicable in day-to-day work.
• Collaborative Planning:
  • Weekly editorial meetings were held with representatives from various teams to discuss upcoming content, new ideas, and content ready for publishing. This ensured that all contributors were aligned and had a voice in the content strategy.
• Contributor Management:
  • Teams were encouraged to contribute based on their expertise. The Collective calendar tracked each team’s progress, deadlines, and the format of their contributions.

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How This Calendar Benefits Any Organization:

Although created for Ubisoft, the Collective Editorial Calendar methodology is applicable across industries. Here’s how it can benefit other organizations:

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Provides a platform for multiple departments to align on content goals and strategies.
• Structured Planning: Ensures content creation is strategic, targeted, and aligns with business objectives.
• Knowledge Sharing: Promotes the sharing of internal expertise and actionable insights across a global company.
• Consistency and Quality Control: Establishes clear guidelines for contributors, maintaining high standards and relevance.