Agency Archives | Page 15 of 45 | Bristol Creative Industries

The programme is aimed at Bristol-based young people aged 18-24 from an ethnic minority and/or from a low-income background who want to gain insight and experience in the creative industry.

The scheme sees many of the city’s most well-known creative companies offering six-month full time paid placements to applicants in roles covering advertising, marketing, design, animation and digital.

We held interviews last month (see image above) and we were so impressed by the talent and skills on display from the young people who applied. It was a very hard decision but we are delighted to announced the successful interns.

Watch the videos below for some insights from three of the agencies about why they are involved in the programme and the need to improve diversity in the creative industries.

Paula Newport, Aardman Animations

Nina Edmonds, Halo

Shani Hawthorne Williams, Newicon

Bristol-based digital marketing agency Noble Performs, has announced the return of its ‘Noble Deeds’ programme for South West charities and not-for-profits.

Launched in the city last year to mark the 10-year anniversary of its US predecessor run out of the company’s HQ in Nevada, once again the Noble Deeds initiative will provide one local charity with a package of digital performance marketing support.

With the prize fund increasing each year in line with Noble Performs’ own growth, this year the package of support will stand at £18,000, an increase of over 30% on last year’s inaugural programme.

Open to all Bristol and Bath based registered charities and not-for-profits who wish to enter themselves as potential recipients, the support package up for grabs includes upskilling of the existing marketing team ensuring a long-lasting impact for the winning organisation.

The first charity helped by Noble Deeds in 2022 was Heart of BS13, a south Bristol social enterprise which supports and promotes a healthy, thriving community for Hartcliffe and its surrounds.

Working in partnership with the Noble team, Georgina Perry, chief executive of Heart of BS13, speaks about the impact the Deeds programme has had on helping the social enterprise and its initiatives thrive.

“We have so many great streams to our work which generate valuable revenue, from event space to bouquets and wedding packages from our sustainable flower farm, to frozen ready meals to support our community freezer. It was just hard to know where to start when it came to getting the word out and invariably these days that means doing it online and via social media. There is always so much to do and time is limited across a small team, so having the Noble guys come in and work with us to focus in on where our efforts could be best spent has made a real step change.

“We’re reaching people we never would have before through our website and understand how our social media and online presence can be optimised to achieve this. Our comms manager and I have both massively benefitted from this newfound knowledge and learning these skills. It’s given us a real confidence boost and is already helping us in other areas of the business. The Noble team were great fun to work with too!”

Helping clients such as Adobe, Rolls Royce, Yosemite and Kerv with their international digital presence, Noble’s Nevada Deeds programme now donates over $200,000 to charitable causes each year. The Noble Bristol team hopes to replicate this as its UK footprint grows, helping more charities and not for profits in the local community each year.

Noble’s UK managing director, Kate Sikora, explains; “Bristol has welcomed us with open arms since we opened our first UK office here in 2018, it’s such a vibrant, collaborative environment to live and work in. We’ve always felt a real sense of community here which really gelled with the ‘Be Better Every day’ mantra Noble Nevada was built on. Another thing we wanted to bring across the pond was of course the Noble Deeds programme, after launching last year it’s really exciting to be bringing it back for 2023. Not to mention being able to increase the amount of support on offer.

“So many charities and not for profits are struggling with the rising cost of living so sadly still need help to keep going and doing the vital work they do. Working with Heart of BS13 our Deeds winners last year was a stark reminder of this, but with such a driven, hard-working group of people at the core we’re confident they’ll continue to do amazing things. We’ve loved working with them, being able to get out and about and work with grassroots local community organisations is enriching in so many ways for our team, while making a difference at the same time.”

To enter, registered charities or not-for-profits must be Bristol or Bath based and complete a simple application form, which will be live on the Noble Performs website from May 18^th to May 31^st. The entries will be judged by a panel made up of an internal committee of the UK Noble team, with the winner selected by mid-July.

The Bristol-based charity that wins a place on the programme will secure a package of digital marketing support and skills training tailored to suit its specific needs, however this could include; SEO, PPC, Analytics and Paid Social. The package of support is anticipated to run from September 2023 to February 2024.

Discover how Something Familiar prioritises mental wellbeing in the workplace during Mental Health Awareness Week. From exciting activities like cold-water swimming and rock climbing to encouraging open conversations, they share their journey towards building a supportive and mentally healthy team.

How are you feeling? Really.

Wellbeing, and particularly mental wellbeing is something that’s come into focus since the pandemic. With people being much more aware of it, supported by things like Mental Health Awareness Week (this year May 15th to 21st), there are now far more conversations and articles about it than ever before. And most positively, there are lots of businesses putting energy into it.

We’re one of those businesses, and perhaps because Something Familiar was formed just before the pandemic, the wellbeing of everyone here has always been something we’ve tracked and worked on. It’s an ongoing focus for us, and we’ve consciously put lots of activities and measures into place to ensure that we can all maintain a healthy mental outlook.

In our previous post, Kris briefly talked about his interest in mental health, and his positive experience doing a mental health first aid course. In this post, we’ll take a look at some of the things we’ve been doing to help maintain our team’s mental wellbeing in the potentially stressful agency environment.

We’re fortunate in that the ‘young’ agency environment has always been a fairly relaxed one. So things that other businesses are introducing to help employees feel better about being in the office, are ideas that we’ve always embraced. Who hasn’t been in agency with a dog or three wandering about (ours is a Romanian rescue dog called Moon)? Been buzzed by someone on a skateboard? Or nodded along to the agency’s playlist?

More exciting than you think!

As great as those things are though, we’ve reached the stage where the approach needs to be considered and evaluated. Which admittedly, doesn’t sound like the most exciting thing in the world. But although it does demand initial focus, the benefits, the activities and the rewards of it all are certainly worth it.

We’re going to talk about some of the things we do, and how they all feed into the wellbeing of all of us here.

But before we do this, we’re sharing in case what we do inspires you to try similar things. This isn’t to highlight how amazing we are, but to show how fairly simple things work really well for us. The idea is just to start having conversations about mental wellbeing and help to ‘normalise’ it in the workplace.

So what do we actually do?

There are two main strands to our approach. The first is the activities we do (often, but not always together), where the wellbeing element is below the surface. It’s all about bonding, or challenging ourselves and just having/sharing experiences.

So we have cold-water swimming, rock climbing and a running club, but we also have a trip each year (Bruges last year), plenty of casual socials, training and in the summer months we have shorter working hours so everyone has more time to do these kinds of things.

The whole team is encouraged to get out of its comfort zone so none of us feels in a rut. If someone loves hitting the half pipe on their BMX, or risking their vitals with Taekwondo, then we don’t want to get in their way. Literally or metaphorically. Why? Because that’s what makes them feel good.

Talking it out

The second strand is more formal (but not entirely, as you’ll see), but it wouldn’t work without the looser activities above. By ‘formal’, we simply mean that we’re addressing mental wellbeing directly. Everything here relies on people being comfortable enough to truthfully talk about how they’re feeling, and to open up to others. And that’s exactly why the activities we do are important – they build those bonds of friendship and trust that open the doors to the kind of conversations which could make somebody feel vulnerable in front of others.

These take many forms, and have evolved over the time we’ve been working on this. For example, for a long time we’d been having a beer of the month – just a simple sit-down beer once a month to talk about the projects we’d been working on. It then became more focused, with ‘thank yous’, encouraging the team to talk about people who’d made the work possible. It then evolved further to include feedback and to actively reflect on projects; the good, the bad and yes, the ugly too. It can be awkward of course, especially at first, but now everyone realises why we’re doing it.

We also make it a priority to ask people how they’re feeling, but with the aim of actually finding out! If someone asks, we need to answer truthfully, and out of 10! If someone’s feeling low, or angry, we want to know so we can leave them alone, make them a cup of tea, or give them whatever support they need.

This kind of thing doesn’t work unless people are willing to tell the truth, and we have a culture here in which everyone feels comfortable enough to do that. We all understand that it’s not prying, it’s looking out for each other. That’s actually one of the best things that can come out of this higher level of awareness: recognising the signs in others (and yourself) and not being afraid to flag them up.

Getting started…

There’s no denying, it can be a leap to go from saying ‘good morning’ to someone to asking them how they feel, how they really feel, and it can’t be done overnight. But it’s important that we’re all on that journey. For anyone looking to start the process, we created a Wellbeing Workshop for Miro which will give you a framework to talk about wellbeing, and help you to put a plan of action together with the rest of your team. It’s a good first step, and ignoring the fact that we created it, it’s a great starting point if you’re looking to develop your business’ wellbeing plan.

Another great source of info on wellbeing is mind.org.uk, which gave us a lot of insight when we were building the workshop.

…and keeping going

One thing to note is that the things we need to remain happily mindful change over time, so our support should continually evolve. What worked last year may not be as effective this year. We’re always looking to bring in new ideas to keep those conversations going, whether they are silly social events like a charity-shop tracksuit-a-thon (which we’re seriously considering, see below), to different ways to share the mental tools we’ve all developed, such as our workshop.

And that could be where you come in. We’ve mentioned getting out of our comfort zones, and we’re looking for something new this summer. We’ve shortlisted some ideas, and are committed to doing the one that gets the most votes. So just take a second to head to LinkedIn and click on the one you think we should be doing. Whichever one we end up doing, the experience will benefit us… even if it isn’t at the time! If you have an idea you think we should be considering, then please let us know and we’ll add it to the poll.

Personalization is the zenith of modern marketing, delivering us all better customer experiences, higher conversion rates and increased loyalty. Or is it?

It’s true that by leveraging data and technology, brands can create tailored experiences that make customers feel seen, heard and valued. However, as with any buzzword, there is a danger of overusing and misusing personalization, leading to consumer fatigue and even backlash.

This is why relevancy should be the primary focus of zero- and first-party data marketing, rather than generic personalization.

More than a name at the top of an email

Using personalization has been the most often pitched tactic at every customer relationship management (CRM) conference and pitch I’ve ever heard. But what do people mean by it? Is it personalized to repeat back to someone what they’ve already shared – even when no additional thought has been put into it? I’ve got loads of emails or letters addressed to ‘Mr.’ or saying things like ‘Hey R, don’t miss out on…’. My name is not even included, and, honestly, even if they had gotten it right, does a company I bought a hairbrush from two years ago need to be on a first-name basis with me?

To the average user, personalization has become synonymous with the ever-present third-party cookie, which feels like an invitation to follow me around the internet trying to sell me a sofa I idly glanced at on my lunch break. This blunt tool means people often respond negatively to the idea of personalized digital experiences. Being regularly encouraged to do something that one doesn’t want to do can be so jarring that it will stop people from letting a brand interact with them. This isn’t just part of my campaign to force a ‘reject all’ option on all cookie pop-ups. But seriously, stop making users untick 30 boxes.

Relevancy, on the other hand, is about ensuring a marketing message or experience is useful, valuable and meaningful to the consumer. It’s looking deeper into who customers really are – not just assessing a one-dimensional scrape of their data.

Relevancy is what is useful to the individual

Working in a world of data-led marketing is a privilege. People have given us their trust, but we have to earn the right to keep that trust and keep using that data.

Relevancy builds trust, loyalty and advocacy. When a brand shows that it understands the consumer’s context, intent and value proposition, it can create a positive emotional connection that goes beyond transactional relationships.

A great example to illustrate what I’m talking about here is film trailers. Film trailers shown in theaters sometimes only go as far as to suggest films in the same genre as the ones being shown in the theater at present. But maybe a film would interest a given consumer because of a specific actor – or maybe the consumer likes comedy more than big explosions. But trailers aren’t necessarily tailored to these nuances and preferences. A truly relevant film trailer would tell consumers why they should go see the movie, tell them what time it‘s on at the local theater and then give them an offer to use on the days they might regularly go.

My much wiser friend helped me understand this principle a few years ago by talking about the purchasing cycle of something like skin cream. A personalized journey would entail reacting to someone’s purchase by telling them all about what they’d bought, making recommendations based on what other people who bought that cream bought next and hitting them with friendly nudges to repurchase. It would probably be somewhat successful. But it’s not actually interested in who that customer is or why they bought the product. What if they were trying it for the first time? What if they bought it as a gift? That journey wouldn’t maximize or entice some of those consumers; in fact, it might put them off.

Even the consumers for whom such a campaign was mostly spot-on aren’t getting any sense of real relevance; people are much savvier now. They understand that a digital transaction of any kind has implications beyond the purchase. One of my favorite tweets of the last few years saw a user poking fun at Amazon for re-targeting them for something they surely don‘t need more of – like an air conditioning unit.

What does this mean in real terms? It means looking at more of the inputs a customer provides through their behavior. What are they browsing? What does their purchase history look like beyond the last action they took? When are they likely to purchase (either in a day or as a frequency)?

But – and here’s an option that‘s too often overlooked – a brand can ask its customers specific questions. And – get this – they will probably tell you. People love being excited about the things they like. And they want more of them. And they like being seen as experts.

It’d be lazy not to (if the right tech is on hand)

Advances in marketing technology mean it’s easier than ever before to apply these extra dimensions to a brand‘s communication approach. Tools like Braze make it easy to use data-driven, multi-channel insights to create messages that are relevant and timely, leading to higher levels of engagement and better customer experiences. With the ability to track customer behavior in real-time, across web, app, email and more, businesses can quickly identify trends and patterns that can be used to create personalized messaging.

Providing personalized experiences to customers has become essential for building brand loyalty and driving growth. However, many businesses struggle to deliver relevancy in their CRM efforts, which can lead to disengaged customers and lost revenue. Ultimately, customers won’t feel like their privacy is invaded if a brand is providing real value – and that happens through relevancy.

The article was first published on The Drum, 15 May 2023

Written by Rob Pellow, Executive Technical Director

Ocean Spray tasked us with creating a disruptive campaign that would boost brand relevance with a broader target audience. We wanted to stand out and try something different!

Our research showed that while the brand had high prompted awareness, it suffered from low purchase consideration. To change this, we decided to take a surprising and unexpected approach by creating a weird and wonderful attention-seeking campaign that breaks away from what people typically associate with Ocean Spray.

Our perspective was that we’re all a bit bored of social media beauty influencers pushing all kinds of products and routines on us. We felt that Ocean Spray buyers would certainly relate to this.

FOR GOODNESS SAKE, JUST DRINK IT!

Why bother with all that craziness when you can just drink Ocean Spray? That’s the message we’re sending out in a completely different way. We enlisted the skills of a brilliant actor to help create a series of influencer-style films that demonstrate to people that they don’t need all that nonsense to stay healthy. Just drink the juice!

We believe that the campaign connects with consumers on an emotional level by featuring a relatable character trying her best at being an influencer, tapping into the desire many people have to be a social media star.

To optimise our reach and engagement, we decided to push the creative on TikTok and Instagram where algorithms will help to amplify the campaign’s reach and make it more likely to be seen by a wider audience.

Overall, we think this campaign is a winner. It’s creative, interesting, and emotionally resonates with viewers. It’s not your normal ad, but that’s what makes it unique. So grab a glass of Ocean Spray and let’s get disruptive!

Credits
Actor: Marina Bye
Director: Ben Mallaby
Production: Dan Hirons
Creative: Jon Knight / Charlotte Davidge / Steve Allsopp
Account Management: Katie Cutts

Luckily, the “d” word isn’t something we hear a lot. But if it’s something you’re feeling after a PR push, whether it’s one you’ve done in house or worked on with a PR consultancy, it’s really important to look at why it missed the mark. If you’re disappointed in your PR results, and campaigns are leaving you underwhelmed, here’s why that might be, and how it can be avoided in future.

You shouldn’t ever be eagerly anticipating coverage in The Economist if your story was only ever destined for a local news portal. That’s not to be disparaging – both publications have their place and both are important in reaching certain audiences. The point is, you should be given an indication of where coverage is possible (and where it isn’t) before the pitch. This conversation can even start when you first start discussing the PR campaign.

No one has a crystal ball, and you could get very lucky or less so. But a good PR agency should have targets in mind when they’re crafting content, and they should be able to share and agree those with you.

Building on the point above, PR is an art, not a science. We’ve had BBC filming lined up only for the news to throw us completely off track and for a crew to abandon a shoot to cover a breaking story. Likewise, we’ve had small stories being picked up nationally because they happened to hit the spot and be just what an editor was looking for at that moment.

This is the world of PR! Ensure any PR team you’re working with keeps you abreast of what’s happening at each stage. They can’t control some of it, but they can and should give you as much information as they know at each stage.

We work with a range of clients who have never done PR before, or have had limited experience. That’s fine, and we can take most of it off their hands. But we do explain what we’re doing at each stage, what’s needed and how long things are likely to take.

If you were expecting something to land that didn’t – did you get given the full picture? Did you understand what was happening, and when? You don’t need to be a PR expert but some knowledge of the process helps to put things in context, in our experience.

We’ve talked about why we never guaranteed coverage in a dedicated piece, but in essence, no one can truly guarantee coverage in a publication, unless that’s a paid-for spot, such as an advertorial.

If you’ve been guaranteed coverage that doesn’t appear, it’s definitely worth asking more about it, and how (and why) it was guaranteed in the first place.

This mindset shift is a helpful step away from feeling disappointed in your PR results, and big a step towards getting it right next time.

If coverage appeared but didn’t hit the right audience – are you sure it was designed to target them in the first place? Some publications are great to appear in from a profile point of view. But some are more likely to hit your objectives than others. Ensure you’re always clear who’s being targeted and why that’s the right target audience for your objectives. Start with the end – what do you want those people reading the coverage to do? And then work back from that.

For us, it’s paramount that everyone understands what’s achievable, what could make the news (and where) and that no one is underwhelmed. We do put a lot of groundwork into explaining what we’re doing, we are responsive, honest and transparent and we partner with clients. That’s what gets the best results for everyone.

Bristol-based web design and branding agency, Squarebird, have modernised the online presence of GLOBIS University, a leading business school in Japan, to better appeal to international audiences.

Combining Functionality with Creativity.

With practicality, entrepreneurship, and a strong global network at the core of the GLOBIS offering, it was crucial that the new website reflected these strengths alongside the wider benefits of joining University. Following a period of extensive market and user research by the GLOBIS team, Squarebird was briefed, and the discovery phase of the project began, starting with functionality, sitemap, and user journeys before moving onto the creatives.

The new English-speaking GLOBIS website needed to align with the global brand and Japanese-speaking site, yet still have its own identity. To encapsulate this, the team designed a number of brand exploration style tiles to ensure all stakeholders were aligned on the overall look and feel before moving on to the more functional desktop and mobile page designs.

Driving Impact Through Leadership.

With designs approved, the website development began. The Squarebird team worked closely with GLOBIS stakeholders to ensure the functionality matched their requirements, feeding courses, faculty members, events and more throughout the site to provide users with a constant stream of information and networking opportunities. Bespoke landing pages were an incredibly imperative element in this project given GLOBIS’ extensive marketing campaigns, and a flexible template enables GLOBIS to be able to create bespoke pages for future campaigns, with tracking established to record performance.

An Ecosystem of People, Capital and Knowledge.

The new website provides a present, informative, and visually engaging website that embodies the GLOBIS difference and presents their offering to talented international prospective students, giving them an insight into what life could look like at the GLOBIS business school.

B2B and corporate PR and communications specialists, AMBITIOUS PR is celebrating the second year of achieving 50% year-on-year revenue growth.

Now, the agency is setting its sights on £1.65million revenue in 2023, securing its position as one of the largest independent PR agencies in the South West.

The agency’s expansion over the last year came from new retained clients including Acorn Property Group, Albert Goodman, BGF, Lifetime, Neighbourly and Truespeed. Growth also came from the agency’s existing client base expanding their remit.

To drive forward further development, AMBITIOUS is investing in marketing technology to deepen the insight they can provide to clients through data and analysis.

The agency will also be launching a dedicated digital PR offering and an end-to-end content strategy, creation, and marketing service.

Based on client demand for international PR support, AMBITIOUS has joined the IPRN (International Public Relations Network) – the international network for independent agencies. This will provide clients with access to a global network of PR agencies as well as driving new business and international knowledge transfer.

In the last year, AMBITIOUS owners Lis Anderson and Sarah Woodhouse have promoted four team members and have now created four new positions which will represent a 22 per cent growth in headcount, taking the agency to a 22-strong team.

Sandra Hodgson has been promoted to Finance Director, Joe Wright to Strategy Lead, Katy Barney to ESGLead and Joanne Wilson to Office Manager.

AMBITIOUS is now hiring for an associate director, senior PR consultant, PR executive, and bookkeeper. Working with UWE Bristol and The Strive Internship Programme, the agency is also committed to a comprehensive internship programme to support entry level talent.

The agency, which has experienced no staff attrition in the past three years, has invested in a competitive benefits package designed in consultation with employees and created to be industry leading.

Lis Anderson, Founder & Director, AMBITIOUS said: “Our growth has been fuelled by investing back in the business – investing in our employees through personal coaching and development, through our competitive salary and benefits package, through new hires, new software and new technology to constantly develop and move our business forward.”

Sarah Woodhouse, Director, AMBITIOUS said “Many of our recent new business wins have come from large companies based in the South West or companies with a regional office here, procuring the national, regional and sector PR and communications support they need on their doorstep.”

AMBITIOUS focuses on b2b and corporate PR in core sectors including technology, ESG, property and placemaking, professional services, financial services, education and skills, healthcare, and the public sector.

Core services include strategic planning and communications, media relations, digital PR, press office management, thought leadership campaigns, issues and crisis management, stakeholder mapping and engagement, employer brand communications and media training. Content services include content strategy, creation, and marketing.

Female-founded, owned, and run, AMBITIOUS celebrated its first decade in business in 2022.

Interested in working for or with AMBITIOUS? Please email Sarah or Lis at [email protected]

Paula Newport, Aardman Animations

Nina Edmonds, Halo

Shani Hawthorne Williams, Newicon

How are you feeling? Really.

More exciting than you think!

So what do we actually do?

Talking it out

Getting started…

…and keeping going

FOR GOODNESS SAKE, JUST DRINK IT!

Combining Functionality with Creativity.

Driving Impact Through Leadership.

An Ecosystem of People, Capital and Knowledge.

Lifestyle

Culture

Food and Drink

Kit