This year, we have been on a journey with Wall’s developing their new brand comms platform. From working through their strategic challenges, audience insights, and brand proposition we have landed on a brand line to bring their comms together under a single, unifying idea.
With a best-ever recipe, Wall’s continues to do everything it has always done, but now it’s better, not only in terms of quality and taste, but also there’s also a plan for the brand to do more for the people and communities that it serves, by tackling hunger.
When hunger calls, grab a Wall’s!
We have used the new recipe campaign to launch the new line.
With a challenge to use the new recipe story to get sausage rolls into people’s minds and shopping baskets, we developed a high-reach social campaign focused on awareness and consideration.
With 64 layers of moreish flaky pastry and mouthwatering sausage filling, Wall’s sausage rolls are better than ever with their best-ever taste and highest-ever quality. What more do you expect from the nation’s favourite?!
We knew that the creative needed a key focus, for us this was ‘hunger’ – one of the key purchase factors for the product (and brand!) and something we can all relate to.
And so ‘Chomp, chomp, chomp’ was born! A mouthwatering animation that highlights the product’s new recipe as the beautifully photographed sausage roll disappears, one chomp at a time! (Hungry yet?)
The animation uses a warm voiceover and most importantly, ends with our new brand line…
When hunger calls, Grab a Wall’s
The campaign is live on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube currently stopping thumbs and grabbing attention as we speak!
You’ll be seeing more of this line in months to come as we have lots of exciting things coming your way…. Watch this space!
2023 has turned into another milestone year for ADLIB.
To recap:
In 2019 ADLIB became a certified B Corp, with a score of 82.3.
In 2020 ADLIB became 100% employee-owned.
In 2021 ADLIB launched the MotherBoard Movement.
In 2022 ADLIB broke all of its records.
In 2023 ADLIB recertified as a B Corp, with a score of 130.3, invested into HeyFlow and proudly refreshed our brand to reflect who we truly are today.
We’ve said for a long time that ADLIB is so much more than a recruitment agency.
ADLIB is a true talent partner, we go beyond candidate acquisition, we’ve created business solutions that tackle inclusivity, health, well-being and retention head-on.
We care authentically about the planet. We track and publicly report on our footprint, working with suppliers to support the regional business community.
All of which needed translating into our refreshed brand. From the look and feel, we opted for sustainable risograph techniques that reflect the business to perfection, whilst technically ensuring lean UX, negative space and page weights were priorities throughout our website build.
With our propositions growing at pace, geographical reach expanding into the US and influence happening at the government level, there has never been a better time to join ADLIB and make a difference.
Globalisation has done wonders for many businesses. The development of global technology and delivery solutions has resulted in many businesses being able to open their doors to a much wider range of consumers. And consumers have access to a much wider range of products and services . Lead times on global shipping and air-freight continue to decrease as new distribution channels are optimised around the world. If I order something from America to the UK, I can typically expect it to arrive within a week or two.
When using Ad Management software such as Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising, selecting global audiences is an easy step built into campaign creation. For Google Ads, the steps of exactly how to target foreign audiences can be found here.
Finding success through Google Ads in foreign locations is dependent on a number of factors. Sometimes, merely sticking your ad copy and keywords into Google Translate isn’t enough to replicate results in foreign markets. Even in other countries that speak the same language as you, you may find your ad success vary. If this is the case, don’t worry! Using this simple tool can help shed some light on why your ad copy isn’t as effective in other countries.
The further you spread from your hometown or country, the more differences you might see in peoples’ behaviours, cultures, wants, needs, art, music, work habits – the list goes on. Therefore, your ad copy should be reflective of the cultures and behaviours of your target audience, not on your own. In 1984, Geert Hofstede wrote a paper about cultural differences in other countries. Later, this has been developed into a handy online tool for analysing the differences between cultures. He categorised 6 dimensions of culture:
– Power Distance (the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally)
– Individualism (the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members)
– Masculinity (The fundamental issue here is what motivates people, wanting to be the best (Masculine) or liking what you do (Feminine))
– Uncertainty Avoidance (the way that a society deals with the fact that the future can never be known)
– Long Term Orientation (the degree to which society maintains the past and tradition, or looks to evolve to present challenges)
– Indulgence (the extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses, based on the way they were raised)
By understanding what impact these metrics have on a culture, we can start to apply them to our foreign ad campaigns. Let’s take a look at the differences between the United Kingdom, and the United States.
On the whole, the two look very similar across the 6 metrics. This is expected, as the United States and the UK share a lot of western culture influences, music tastes, films, and strong political connections.
But understanding the differences where they are present could mean the difference between a conversion or not. If you’re providing a service for example, we can have a look and see that the United States scores lower on long term orientation. This indicates that the USA has more of a focus on short-term results, more frequent performance reviews and this also drives individuals to strive for quick results within the workplace. You may therefore wish to update your ad copy to focus on these insights – What are the instant benefits of your product, what the value of return is, and how it makes them come out on top of the competition.
Let’s take a look at another – Germany.
Whilst the obvious difference here between the UK and Germany would be in language, translating ad copy should also reflect culture differences, not just language.
If we again look at the long term orientation score, we can see a stark difference between what the US scored and what Germany scored. Utilising the same ad copy in Germany as proposed in America, we would expect to see less success in Germany. This is because German culture is oriented around the success of the future. Therefore, Ad copy suggesting long term success, organic growth and consistency of results from a product or service would probably be seen as more attractive, trustworthy and better value than what may be interpreted as flash-in-the-pan short term success.
When looking at the uncertainty avoidance metric, we can see that Germany has a much higher score than the UK. As a culture, this means that the UK on the whole is much happier to wake up not knowing the specifics of what the day has to offer, happy to be more adaptive as new information is presented, and in work terms are happier to accept loosely detailed plans and information. Germany, however, prefers to be more detailed and insightful – be it in thinking, presenting or planning: the systematic overview has to be given in more detail. What does that mean for a business advertising through google ads into Germany? Ad copy should be more descriptive, outcomes of using a product or service should be clearly listed and prices transparent.
Even marginal changes in ad copy may greatly influence the success of campaigns targeting the world stage, or influence consumer perceptions of your products or services. By leveraging the differences within cultures, you may just push yourself ahead of your competition.
Having started the process in 2021, they join around 70 other companies in the region who are committed to making business a force for good.
B Corp Certification is holistic, not exclusively focused on a single social or environmental issue. To achieve certification, a company must:
saintnicks achieved a score of 88.9, but as with any company to gain the certification, they acknowledge that this is just the beginning of a commitment to do even more.
“We’re incredibly proud of the work we’ve done to become B Corp Certified, but we’re just getting started. We’re committed to continually reviewing our standards across the board, to not only maintain our efforts, but improve them.” said company Director, Chris Price.
“We’re very proud to be working with some brilliant clients, who are also committed to making positive changes to their business, so it’s a journey we’re going on together.” Price added.
Read more about the journey to becoming B Corp Certified on the saintnicks website.
Unfold are a design and development agency based in the heart of Bristol. We work with the founders, marketing or technical leads of SMEs, startups and innovative corporates to help them increase revenue and profitability or save them time (or ideally both!).
Over the past five years Unfold has seen a lot of change. We’ve grown as a team, embraced new challenges and opportunities, and welcomed many new clients along the way.
We felt it was time to take a moment to properly reflect on our journey and how we’ve evolved as a business; to understand who we are, why we love doing what we do and how we make a difference to our clients’ businesses.
Today, we are thrilled to share our newly revamped website with you, showcasing our full range of services, the impact we create for our clients, and ultimately the Unfold way of doing.
Unfold started five years ago with the objective of building beautiful, user-centred websites and web apps, which provide exceptional experiences for end-customers and fantastic results for businesses. This mission remains at the heart of what we do, but has evolved significantly as we’ve expanded our expertise, knowledge, team and client base.
As a result our service offering has grown to encompass five key areas:
Our method for analysing and refining concepts, using the latest insights and trends, will show you where the big opportunities lie, reduce risk and produce real results.
Together we define, develop and deliver different design solutions by putting the customers’ needs at the centre of your website.
Our expert team of engineers are experts in dealing with complex requirements and creating intelligent, flexible solutions to match.
We’re serious about growing your business by providing the CRO tools you need to engage and convert higher-quality leads.
We don’t shy away from taking over existing projects and fixing difficult bugs, in fact it has become a core speciality of our team.
Day to day that means we work with the founders, marketing or technical leads of SMEs, startups and innovative corporates to help them increase revenue and profitability or save them time (or ideally both!).
At Unfold we take a user-centred approach to our clients’ work. Meaning that we seek to put the end-customer at the heart of everything we do, from design, right through to development. This approach enables us to produce outstanding and technically complex websites and platforms that have a real impact for customers.
We push boundaries and challenge thinking to transform our clients’ vision into reality. We’re focused on building close, transparent partnerships that drive innovation and achieve shared goals.
We’d love to hear what you think of the new site! Please feel free to get in touch and share your thoughts with us.
Do you have a project in mind or would you like some expert advice? Perhaps you know a friend or colleague that might benefit from working with us? If so get in touch and see how we can help you achieve your goals.
We’re also in the process of expanding our team. If you’re interested in working with us we’d love to hear from you!
And finally, stay updated on the latest news events and valuable resources from our team by following us on LinkedIn and Instagram.
The inaugural Tim Marsh Memorial Award has been announced by Bristol-based creative business Istoria Group. The award was set up in memory of former team member Tim Marsh, who sadly passed away after a short illness in 2022.
About Tim Marsh:
Tim Marsh was formerly a Co-Founder of and the Head of Technical at Solverboard – an Istoria Group Incubator Hub business. Istoria Group’s Incubator Hub supports fledgling businesses based on great ideas in their earliest stages, helping them develop and explore their potential until they become independent.
Management innovation platform Solverboard was a great success for all concerned, going on to be purchased in 2022 by AIM-listed global software and services company Sopheon, where the innovation product was re-branded as Acclaim Ideas. Tim led the programming team on the platform’s entire development, drawing on expertise from his impressive background in large-scale technical projects for the Royal Mail, the Post Office and the RNLI.
‘Tim was an exceptionally talented person’ Istoria Group CEO Sam Rowe commented. ‘He was highly regarded by his peers in the tech world and also hugely appreciated on a personal level by all who came across him because of his kindness and constant readiness to offer support and mentorship. Tim was a born educator and never happier than when sharing his expertise and helping bring people of all ages and backgrounds forward to realise their potential.’
About the Award:
The award is intended to further Tim’s legacy of ‘using tech for good’. When creating the logo for the new award, the design team at Istoria Group referenced Tim’s love of birdwatching, incorporating a bird icon into the identity.
The award will encompass an intense six-month programme of mentorship, aimed at helping an incipient tech business become market-ready. The mentorship is offered at Director level by Istoria Group’s in-house experts and will cover every aspect of developing a tech business, along with marketing expertise and a web and brand refresh by sister agencies Tiny Spark and Phoenix Wharf respectively. Half a dozen ‘Ask Me Anything’ sessions with Tim’s Co-founders at Acclaim Ideas – Phil Atherton and Charlie Widdows – are included, ensuring the recipient gets the very best real-world business advice.
The First Recipient:
The first recipient of the Award for 2023 is Bristol tech company Founder Angela Loveridge, whose initiative, Better Together, supports parents in keeping their children safe online by signposting them towards practical tools, techniques and resources, as well as by facilitating safe spaces for those awkward safety conversations and coaching parents so they are empowered to respond, not react, in a way that will keep channels of communication open with their kids and encourage constructive conversations.
Angela’s innovation is to recognise that people have very different parenting styles, meaning that safety guidelines need to be approached without judgement and adapted to and aligned with the unique needs of the child or children in any household.
‘We first met Angela as a finalist in our women-led Micro Business Incubator Hub Competition’, Sam Rowe explained, ‘and were all very impressed by her as a person and also by her vision for her business. We knew at once Angela was someone we wanted to support, to help ‘Better Together’ reach its full potential. When we launched the Tim Marsh Memorial Award, Angela immediately came to mind as the perfect fit.’
Angela Loveridge commented ‘I am absolutely delighted and truly honoured to be the first recipient of the Tim Marsh Memorial Award. Although I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting Tim myself, I can already sense that he was clearly a remarkable individual, both in terms of his talent and his commitment to using technology for good. The award is a wonderful initiative and the incredible benefits that come with it are very exciting. I look forward to working with the team so that Better Together can empower more parents to keep their children safe online.’
To receive a successful return from your link-building efforts, it’s important to ensure effective outreach lists are created targeting the correct publications and bloggers for the client. Without an effective outreach list, you may not receive the number of high-quality backlinks you hoped for. Websites with higher quality backlinks from authoritative sites are also likely to rank better, therefore it’s important the outreach lists are created to deliver on increasing the number of offsite links.
Here at Varn, we use a range of tactics to ensure outreach lists created for our clients are successful in increasing the number of backlinks, so when outreach is performed clients see an increase in rankings for relevant landing pages.
An outreach list is defined as a list of contacts that can be journalists, publications, influencers, independent bloggers, and magazines. It’s one of the first steps when conducting outreach because the list will include prospects you wish to work with. This can include hosting content about a PR campaign, product reviews, and guest posting. It’s vital to also bear in mind the target audience for the publication as well as its domain authority, and trust/citation flow.
Here at Varn, we use a software called Buzzstream to help us search the web using appropriate keyword search phrases. Not only does the software allow us to search the web for PR-friendly publications to reach out to, but it also gives us the ability to reach out to our lists and send automatic follow ups.
Buzzstream also helps us to select sites that have a good domain authority (DA), a search engine ranking score that predicts how likely a site is likely to appear on SERPs. In most cases, we set a filter at 20 and above. If the website’s domain authority is on the lower side, the intention is that over time the domain authority of this site will grow organically.
Here are a few key considerations to take into account when creating effective outreach lists for digital PR.
It’s important to consider your client’s target audience when putting together your outreach lists. Of course, strong links from good quality websites bring the SEO benefit, however the traffic may not be relevant to your client, and the publication may not post your content at all.
For example, if your client is in the watersports industry, targeting watersport bloggers and publications will not only increase the likelihood of a reply, it will drive relevant traffic back to your client’s site which can build brand awareness as well as a higher conversion rate.
This is a really important step when building your outreach lists because if you are asking bloggers to review products, you need to ensure they are open to receiving items in exchange for a review.
The obvious way of doing this is to browse their site yourself to see if they receive gifted products, however, there are other ways you can narrow down your search in Google, as well as outreach software like Buzzstream.
You can search for an exact match by putting a keyword in quotation marks. An example could include: Lifestyle Blogger [‘PR friendly’]
The screenshot below shows two keyword search phrases on Buzzstream, and how you can narrow down your web search:
If you are creating an outreach list for guest posting, it’s important to ensure the targeted websites accept guest content. Some websites have specific guidelines to follow also.
Building warm prospects increases the likelihood of your content being posted, and you can add them to outreach lists for future clients. For example, bloggers will be open to review multiple client products over time. If a blogger decides your campaign isn’t suited to their blog audience, they may know a blogger who will be a good fit and give you their contact details. This helps increase the quality of content being posted to relevant sites.
If you would like more advice on creating effective outreach lists for Digital PR, get in touch with a member of the Varn team today.
Global leaders in procurement and supply chain management, Efficio are the largest independent consultancy in the world. With this sole focus for more than 20 years, their specialist consultants are equipped with the expertise and technology to dig deeper, innovate faster, and deliver greater efficiencies for clients.
Talisman Sparro has played a critical role in Efficio Consulting’s repositioning and rebrand programme, delivering an impact that has helped the company stand out as the only remaining independent, specialist consultancy in the procurement and supply chain consultancy marketplace. With Efficio’s unique approach to delivering sustained client success at the core, Talisman Sparro has helped to shape a comprehensive strategy that has driven internal engagement and reflected Efficio’s ambitious growth plans.
The “Partners in Progress” brand platform developed has resonated with both clients and employees, driving engagement and building a strong internal culture. The rebranding programme delivered has overhauled Efficio’s branding, messaging, and positioning to be more contemporary, modern, and appealing to a broader audience.
Our support included:
At JMP, are delighted to welcome Matt Joy to our growing team, joining as Managing Partner.
Matt has a wealth of industry experience, having spent more than 10 years in the sports industry, and most recently four years at a strategic brand agency.
His previous roles have included five years as Marketing Manager at Stoke City during their Premier League golden years, before moving south and helping create the Marketing team at Bristol Sport during the rebuild of Ashton Gate. Following that, he spent four years at Mr B & Friends in Bristol.
In regards to his responsibility at JMP, Matt will be a crucial cog in our ability to excel as an agency, offering additional strategic insights and creative campaigns to our clients.
Managing Director Joe Meredith expanded on this.
“It’s a significant role, the biggest addition we’ve ever made to the business,” he said.
“It’s something that I feel we’ve both wanted to happen for a long time. Everything just needed to align. Matt is in a position to elevate the offerings of JMP and I’m really excited to work with him to take JMP to the next level ”
Matt expressed his excitement about what lies ahead, for both himself and JMP.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” he said. “I’ve known Joe since I initially moved to Bristol and how he has grown the agency in that time has been great to see. It’s an exciting time to now get involved and add to the recent successes.
“My role is going to be quite broad but ultimately I will have a real focus on the growth of the agency. First of all to define who we are, our offerings and identify where we can add real value to our clients, both current and new.”
Matt joins our newly-formed Senior Leadership Team, alongside MD Joe and Operations Director Vicki Theobald.
Today, 6th June, marks the 17th anniversary of Mr B & Friends. Founder and CEO, Simon Barbato, reflects on the lessons that he’s learned since starting the brand and creative agency back in 2006.
It’s incredible to reflect on the journey that I personally, and the agency has been on since opening our doors on 6.6.06. What started out as a collaborative consulting gig – myself and my black book of talented creative friends – has flourished into a family of agency businesses that we are all immensely proud of.
You learn hundreds of lessons running a business – here’s the 17 that really matter to me.
If being the brightest, most experienced or most innovative person in the room is important to you, you’ll only ever grow to the level of your own limitations and probably live a life of frustration. Surround yourself with greater people and you’ll go further together. Your ego will thank you.
I have always believed in team play. We work in an industry filled with talented, specialised practitioners and power players. But unless you’re a freelancer or business of one, then successes and failures are down to the team, no matter how big or small the contribution. Celebrate or commiserate together.
One of the reasons I love this industry is because we have expertise that others do not possess. And when you use that expertise to help solve problems, to unlock the potential of your client, to do the things they cannot, then at that moment, you are at your most potent. This is the moment when selling isn’t selling, and your enthusiasm and ability to help is reframed as meaningfully different expertise. Help more.
Give without the expectation of receiving – the most important lesson I have ever learned. Transactional thinking – quid pro quo – will line your pocket today but means that you’re constantly filling your future pipeline. Be generous and think with long-term relationships in mind and your future pipeline will fill itself. I have NEVER been more sure of anything, as has been proved time and time again. Be a giver.
Is this a profession, or a business? A great question I was asked by Chris Noel-Johnson on my first day in advertising at McBains in 1992. That has stayed with me for my entire career, and at the heart of sustainable business is profit. Our staff need us to make a profit, owners and shareholders deserve a profit and good clients expect us to make a profit. Make profit a priority and life becomes a whole lot easier. Earn it.
The most impressive thing any leader can do is to give their people the environment to flourish. By a long way, the most expensive cost on the P&L is our people. But guess what, by a long way the biggest revenue generating asset is… our people. Substitute the word ‘cost’ for ‘investment’ and see the returns. Our Employee Value Proposition, The Friends Pact is just one of many of our people investments. It pays dividends.
Society is full of hubris right now – too many people winging it or believing their own hype, or rhetoric. Yes, being a leader requires strength, confidence and resilience, but it also requires humility; the ability to be, well, human. The fastest and most authentic ways to build trust is to show your human side. Be more relatable.
Never has David Brent’s prophetic words been truer: one day you’re the pigeon, another day you’re the statue. The creative industry is a wild rollercoaster and when you’re up: winning pitches, awards and plaudits, you feel invincible. But this industry has a habit of biting your ass and pulling the rug from under your feet. Never forget that you’re only ever one phone call away from a shitstorm. Stay grounded.
If only we had the access to tech, podcasts, media and social channels when I were a lad! I have learnt more about the industry I love in the last five years of my career than in my first 25. If you’re not taking advantage of the wisdom on offer from the likes of Blair Enns, David C Baker, Jenny Plant, Chris Do and Mark Pollard et al, you’re missing a bloody trick. Open your mind.
I’ve met very few assholes in this industry. Generally speaking the folk we come across (staff, clients, partners and suppliers) are intelligent, highly skilled, sincere and enthusiastic people who recognise the impact of collaborating with others, and offer a fair value exchange. With this in mind I’ve learned to see people through the lens of positivity. I’ve made a few mistakes here and there for sure, but generally this rule of thumb has taken me far. Be less cynical.
Curiosity is one of the greatest characteristics of a brand and creative consultant (and agency). You cannot be ‘over-briefed’, you cannot know too much. Yes, it’s up to you to discern the nuggets from the white noise, but to get to that point you need to be thirsty and enthusiastic for knowledge, and that means exposing yourself occasionally with naïve, cringey, child-like questions. Give zero shits. Ask away.
Staff resign. You lose pitches. Freelancers don’t deliver. Projects get pulled. If everything went to plan, what an unbelievably boring industry we’d work in! I’m a competitive person but accept that I can’t have everything. Focusing on how I deal with setbacks means that I can show leadership in the negative space, internally and externally. Our agency brand deserves composure and maturity at all times. Grin and bear it.
I learnt this way too late, but if you want to sleep at night, then invest in your finance team. Your goal: one version of the truth across the business. Since we have invested in a professional finance team, our brand agency has gone from strength to strength. We make decisions based on fact not fiction. We expect, not hope, to make profit and I’m freed up to dedicate my time to growth. A total no-brainer.
I have learned that my gut is far more useful than my brain when I’m at an impasse. I don’t know what it is, but instinct sniffs out the danger or opportunities far quicker than the logical patterns of the brain. It’s a trait that most entrepreneurs and founders have but can baffle others. Your business is in your soul and your DNA and no one feels the ebbs and flows like you do. Trust your instincts.
My late mum’s name was Antoniette. She was the hardest working person I’ve ever known, and one of the most special gifts she gave me was a work ethic that dictated that nothing was ever going to land in my lap. I grew up on effort and graft and having been given a chance in this very special industry, there was no way I was going to let it slip – I still feel that way 30 odd years later and pride myself on my ability to do the hard yards and make big impacts. Don’t expect anything for free.
This is controversial. The more established you become, the more people will ask of you. If I had a pound for every time a request for a call, meeting, podcast interview, lunch came in… well, I’d have a lot more pounds. But being open-minded, thinking about where a yes could take me has opened more doors than I could have ever expected. One of my best business decisions (accepting a lunch request from the lovely folk at Noble Studios Inc) led to the formation of our successful joint venture, Noble Performs. Eyes wide open!
If I’m honest, I’m still trying to work out how I got here: three agencies in our family, 55 talented and committed staff and the most amazing clients, so while I’m here I’m not going to let my bewilderment get in the way of doing something amazing. As per our agency ethos ‘Challenge the Ordinary’ we’re thinking big at the moment: London, LA, Singapore – an adventure that’s available for all that want to join us. With greater people around me, the limits of what we can achieve have grown exponentially and while we’re now an established teenage business, it still feels like we’re only just getting started. Seize the opportunity!
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