Bristol-based video production agency Skylark Media has been announced as a finalist in the Creative Shootout 2025, a national competition that celebrates innovative and impactful campaigns. The final will take place on 30th January at BAFTA in London, where Skylark Media will compete against five other top creative agencies.
This year, the competition’s challenge centres around Epilepsy Action, a leading charity supporting people with epilepsy. Skylark Media will have just four hours to brainstorm, create, and present their campaign idea live to a panel of industry experts. The winning agency will scoop Epilepsy Action as a client, a £10k prize and a £250,00 media package with inventory from partners including The Guardian, Clear Channel, Acast and Google.
“This is an incredible opportunity for our team to showcase the creativity, strategic thinking, and passion that define us at Skylark.” says Nina Postans, managing director of Skylark Media. “Representing the South West as a creative agency is a huge honour, and we’re thrilled to pitch our ideas to a stellar panel of judges, a live audience, and Epilepsy Action—a cause that resonates deeply with our mission to create meaningful, impactful content.”
The Creative Shootout, now in its 8th year, is recognised for its fast-paced format, putting agencies to the test under tight deadlines while raising awareness for vital causes. They join Propellernet, Muckle Media, Boldspace, Brands2Life and PHA Media in the final.
For more information about Skylark Media and their work, visit www.skylarkmedia.co.uk.
UWE Bristol has unveiled its new immersive Sound Shower experience at Bristol’s Cribbs Causeway and Cabot Circus. Showing a mesmeric snapshot of campus life, the film was created by Skylark Media.
Filming took place at the university’s Frenchay campus and city with the support of student contributors. Multiple locations include the Atrium cafe, Centre for Sport, student union, library, as well as at the Arnolfini in the city centre.
Stephanie Lee, Marketing Communications Manager at UWE Bristol says, ‘This is a really exciting film project with Skylark Media where we’re creating a film for a specific sound shower unit which will sit in Cabot Circus and Cribbs Causeway shopping centres to promote the university and bring campus life to the people of Bristol, so they can get a real immersive experience and sense of what it’s like to study here on our campuses.’
Skylark Media MD Jo Haywood adds, ‘For a unique out of home experience, we came up with a fully immersive concept using an Insta 360 camera on an extendable pole. It sits within the stitch line which then becomes invisible in post-production. The result is a fully immersive film that mimics a FPV drone – flying around from location to location or locking into subjects for detail. Diegetic sound is added in so that the viewer can eavesdrop into those private moments.’
You can experience UWE Bristol’s immersive Sound Shower at Cribbs Causeway or Cabot Circus this month.
Samaritans is launching an ambitious fundraising campaign to get people talking about the ‘S’ word. The charity’s winter campaign, which runs from November through to January, includes a TV ad created by Skylark Media Bristol and Campfire Agency.
#BreaktheSilence is a fundraising campaign where Samaritans is calling on supporters to donate and share their support with others via their social platforms. The campaign includes a series of short videos featuring callers and listening volunteers and a television advert to run in unison with the campaign. Skylark was appointed to handle creative production which included all live action content and photography for the integrated campaign.
Bristol based Skylark Media MD Jo Haywood says, ‘Talking about mental health and supporting each other is important within the Skylark team. So we are delighted when the Samaritans asked us to deliver their winter campaign, #BreaktheSilence. We hope that the impact of the emotional storytelling in the TV ad, ‘Silence is painful’ and the authenticity of the callers and listeners in our short video series will encourage people who feel isolated to break the silence and reach out to the Samaritans this winter.’
Paul Power, Creative Director at Campfire Agency adds, ‘I know that all of us at Campfire Agency are proud to be working with Samaritans on their Break the Silence campaign – because silence really does cost lives. When you think that someone in the UK dies by suicide every 90 minutes, it brings it home how it important this winter campaign is.
With the cost of living crisis, it’s going to be a tough few months for so many people, so there couldn’t be a better time to launch these powerful communications, from DRTV and direct mail to digital and social.
With distinctive photography, powerful stories and hard-hitting messaging about suicide, we believe this integrated fundraising campaign will create an emotional connection with millions of people across the UK.
If it encourages one person who’s reaching crisis point, to start talking about suicide, then all the hard work will have been worth it. If we can raise nationwide awareness and essential funds for Samaritans on top of that, then we know the Break the Silence campaign has been the success we all hope for.’
Samaritans Executive Director of Income, Sonya Trivedy says, ‘The #BreakingtheSilence campaign is an opportunity to drive the conversation in these times of continued uncertainty, with issues such as loneliness, isolation and the cost of living crisis, meaning it could be a challenging winter for many people.
“Hopefully this new campaign will reassure people that Samaritans volunteers are here for people to talk to when they are ready to break their silence. Mental health, wellbeing and suicide are things that affect every one of us. With #BreaktheSilence we want this bolder messaging to encourage people to sit up, take notice and be moved to take action so that we can work towards our vision that fewer people die by suicide.‘
‘Silence is painful’ airs from 9th November on ITV Digital, Sky Media amongst other channels. The campaign runs until January 6th. For more information visit www.samaritans.org.
Bristol production agency Skylark Media has scooped three awards at this year’s The Drum Roses Awards. The agency is among three Bristol-based businesses that won GOLD. Aardman Animations and The Collaborators for Butternut of London (Bristol), also received top honours.
The Drum Roses, which celebrates the UK’s most talented creatives outside of London, has been running for over 35 years. Skylark won GOLD in the Animation/Illustration category for its work with Viva!’s This Is Fine animation. The animation also picked up BRONZE in the Viral Video category. Viva!’s TV ad, ‘Takeaway The Meat’, placed SILVER in the esteemed TV/Cinema Campaign category.
MD Jo Haywood says, ‘We’re absolutely ecstatic to win at this year’s The Drum Roses Awards. To be recognised by industry peers for our creativity is a real stamp of approval. We were up against some big brands and excellent campaigns including our friends at Aardman Animations. We are proud of our team’s creative work in building some successful campaigns for our client, Viva!’.
Skylark Media is proud to announce that it is an officially certified B Corporation!
It’s a pretty big deal for us Skylarkers. Being a Certified B Corporation means that we’re joining a community of over 4,000 companies and organisations worldwide including Patagonia, Brewdog, and Bristol brands Pukka Herbs, Greenhouse PR and Triodos that are using their businesses as a force for good.
As an environmentally-conscious video agency, we aim to balance people, planet and profits. In fact, Skylark Media was conceived in 2005 by Jo Haywood, whose mission in life has been to use video as the best communication platform to tell the story of environmental solutions. To this end, we are launching our self-funded Skylark Originals series this year, kicking off with ‘Why our digital addiction is killing our planet’.
“We are absolutely thrilled to be a certified B Corporation. Over recent years, we’ve ramped up our environmental credentials and made B Corp accreditation one of our top priorities,” says Jo. “We’re excited to be part of a community of like-minded people who share our values and want to drive positive social and environmental change.”
In short, B Corp measures a company’s entire social and environmental impact. The certification is a designation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials.
To be certified by B Lab UK, Skylark had to meet rigorous stands across five impact areas: governance, workers, community, environment and customers. Skylark needed to achieve a cumulative score of over 80 by providing evidence of socially and environmentally responsible practices including energy suppliers, worker compensation, corporate transparency and waste/water use.
Skylark is also a member of the Bristol Green Capital, Future Economy Network and is Ad Green accredited. Watch Skylark’s ‘How our digital addiction is killing the planet’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP0M_PSVN1w&t=15s
Vegan charity Viva! has launched its first-ever TV ad, with a brave concept by Bristol video production agency, Skylark Media.
The renowned vegan charity hopes to raise £40,000 to screen the advert to more than 16 million people on Channel 4.
The ad follows a meat-eating couple ordering a takeaway online from ‘Just Meat’, a fictional delivery app. They order ‘pulled pork’ and are shocked to discover a small piglet, with the delivery driver holding a butcher knife. Voiced by actor Peter Egan, the ad centres around the lost connection between animals and our plates – and leaves the viewer with a dilemma: would you kill the pig?
Skylark worked collaboratively with Viva! founder Juliet Gellatley and Canpaigns Manager Laura Hellwig. Skylark’s concept took its inspiration from the popularity of food delivery apps, and the disconnect between the nation’s love of pets and farm animals. Juliet says, ‘We worked with Skylark on some smaller projects and we were so impressed that I felt really comfortable going forward with this bigger project. Ultimately Viva! is about saving animals and Skylark completely get Viva! and what we’re about, and that’s been really important to us too.’
‘We wanted to reflect the passion behind the Viva! brand with an impactful creative,’ said Skylark’s MD, Jo Haywood. ‘Once we had talked to our advisors at Clearcast and got the script cleared for broadcast we could get into production, the hardest part of which was definitely casting the pig!’
The project was awarded to Skylark following the creative production of Viva!’s Vegan Recipe Club and This Is Fine campaigns this year.
For more details of Viva!’s crowdfunder: https://viva.org.uk/tv-ad/
Ecosurety has announced the first round recipients of the Exploration Fund. The Ecosurety Exploration Fund invests £1 million in projects that aim to reduce environmental impact of packaging, batteries or WEEE through innovation or research.
Reuse Network, Impact Recyling, Impact Solutions and London Waste and Recycling Board share a £500k boost to its UK projects in the first round of the fund.
Skylark is proud to have partnered with the fund to create four films promoting its winners. We travelled to Scotland, London and Newcastle to meet the innovators behind the projects. This is just one step closer to moving our society to a more greener, sustainable future.
The Fit for reuse project will help tackle the growing mountain of old or unused electricals being recycled or landfilled. And this provides more high quality, repaired electrical goods to the people that really need them.
Led by the Reuse Network, this project is set to move significantly more EEE up the waste hierarchy.
Led by Impact Recycling, the BOSS 2D project is building on proven innovation used to sort rigid plastics. In doing so, it vastly improves the recycling of flexible plastic film.
If plastic film can be accurately and efficiently sorted into uncontaminated, material-specific waste streams, they can be recycled instead of incinerated.
BOSS 2D will enable that to happen for the first time.
The Maximising recycling from purpose-built flats project is working to address an age-old problem. How to increase capture and quality of recyclable materials from households that don’t have standard kerbside collections?
Led by the London Waste and Recycling Board, this project will trial new interventions and infrastructure.
Lithium-ion battery technology is likely to be the keystone in moving our society to a greener, more sustainable future. But without effective recycling technology in place, we are fast approaching a significant problem. This is due to the scarcity of raw materials and destructive mining techniques.
Led by Impact Solutions, CellMine could prove to be the Holy Grail solution.
Congrats to the first round of Exploration Fund Winners! Find out more about the Ecosurety Exploration Fund.
This week marks Skylark Media’s 15th birthday. Although it’s a bit of a weird time to celebrate we wanted to say thanks to the fab clients, partners, colleagues and friends who’ve crossed our paths over the years. Without you we wouldn’t be here.
It feels like yesterday that Jo Haywood, fresh from making climate change documentaries for the Beeb and Discovery Channel, mustered up the courage to set up her own video production company.
Running a creative business isn’t always easy (especially in 2020!), as our peers in the creative industry will agree. Now more than ever, it’s vital to support each other and take collaboration to another level. Over Lockdown, 92% of independent agencies have either collaborated with another agency to take a brief, or are willing to. That’s fantastic news – and we hope that in our partners we’re able to fill skill gaps, deliver great client service and aid creativity where we can. We are looking to expand our network of creatives and agencies, so please get in touch if you’d like to partner at nina@skylarkmedia.co.uk
As we enter another Lockdown, we wanted to reassure everyone that it’s business as usual, and we’ll continue to film according to APA guidelines. If you’ve got a few minutes, we’ve launched our new website this week at www.skylarkmedia.co.uk and Jo has a few words to say herself: https://bit.ly/3kQOxkH
As we crawl towards the end of lockdown, it’s unlikely that we’ll return to pre Covid-19 days overnight. Restrictions on social distancing will be commonplace for a while yet – and this will impact across businesses in how they protect staff, how they are run and how they will continue to work with external partners.
So what if you’ve got a story to tell or a product to sell and you want to do it with video? Filming in a busy office or a client testimonial is not on the cards, what other options do you have?
Like most businesses, filming at home with a basic camera has its limitations. Vlogs, community initiatives and live streaming educational videos are among the most commonly produced videos during the Covid-19 crisis. But if you’re yearning to roll out your message sooner through more professional means, animation might just be the answer.
People love watching animations, in fact one of yesterday’s distractions was the show-reel for anime streaming service, Crunchyroll, that doubled its subscribers last year and is now one of the top 10 streaming companies in the US.
At Skylark, we love anime too but it’s just one of the many styles of animation we offer. But what style would be right for you?
How about employing an illustrator to create original characters for your brand? They could be 2d vector people with stick arms all the way to photo-real characters or even a train that animates in your logo. One Big Circle had a complex story to tell about how their automated intelligent video review works on trains and they needed it explained in under two minutes to their audience of train operating companies. Here’s what we came up with:
Or if you want something a bit more minimal, how about this example for Brunel Insurance where we bring to life the two circles that make up their logo to tell the story of investment portfolios. I know, it doesn’t sound possible, but one you’ve got the visual analogy going I hope you’ll agree that the results are very pleasing and will resonate with their sophisticated, high-net-worth audience.
Animated explainers make up the bulk of our work here at Skylark. The compelling thing about this style is the way that text is given life which makes reading it so much more fun. Then when you add in animations of the icons you’ve used on your website you’ve got a winning formula for a social media campaign (see recruitment firm identifi’s social ad).
But for products or services with more complex ideas, animation has always been ingenious in that it takes viewers to the most abstract and far-reaching places. When Carbon Gold tasked us to create an explainer to inform viewers on its product – a biochar soil improver – there was only one way to go. Underground. Take a look for yourselves:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Mevs_MXwak
When you’re making an animation you start with a blank canvas which can be quite daunting. There’s no location footage to fill the frame. But it’ a challenge we love. Give us a call and we can help you to decide on the style to suit your brand and your budget whether it’s a social media campaign or a TV ad.
Other blogs you might like:
Why one promotional ‘hero video’ isn’t enough
Clever 3D techniques disrupting social video feeds
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