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Editorial Calendar – Ubisoft

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.