As the year draws to a close, we’re celebrating a strong 12-month performance. Seven new team members have joined us, as we’ve undertaken 22 new client projects in 2022 – including work for LITELOK, Western Global and Knightsbridge School. We’ve also been awarded Best Use of Search for Retail/eCommerce (PPC) for work with Infinity Motorcycles at November’s UK Search Awards. In total, our 18-strong team has managed £4.5m media spend over the last year.
With new recruits across all disciplines, this year also saw us introduce a Graduate Programme for the first time. With support from mentors and the rest of the specialist team, the two new graduates will gain advanced qualifications and kickstart their careers in the digital marketing world.
Loom Digital’s seven new team members are:
Originally from Italy, Marco has worked in both countries and has managed digital accounts in different languages. With two Masters degrees in digital marketing and SEO, he is passionate about the growth opportunity well executed SEO strategy can bring. Jack is experienced in working across global accounts in a range of sectors. With a focus on technical SEO and its alignment with PPC, he is keen to apply his learning to clients at Loom Digital.
PPC & Biddable specialist, Dan, is fascinated in building campaigns that understand both the needs of clients and customers. He’s worked at tech startups and larger firms and is focused on creating stand-out ads that are relevant, timely and impactful.
Meanwhile Charlotte has been in the industry for eight years and has specialised in PPC & Biddable roles for three of those. She’s worked in-house for sectors including ecommerce and hospitality. Having cut his teeth in agencies in Bristol and Bath, Alex has had a fruitful career in PPC & Biddable, including a standout campaign for a homeware brand, which he grew to over a six-figure monthly revenue.
Meanwhile graduates Tamas and Harry have already hit the ground running. Mihaly has a first class degree from the University of the West of England and has interned at digital marketing agencies, while Pearson carried out a year in the industry during his Bournemouth University course.
“It’s truly been a strong year for Loom”, commented Nikki Ellison, founder of Loom Digital.
“Our team has grown in strength and depth, and we’re particularly excited to have the structure in place to support emerging talent with our Graduate Scheme. It’s been a busy year, with a wealth of new projects with media spend to match, but the team have delivered across all areas and the recent UK Search Awards win has capped off our year perfectly. There’s a lot to look forward to in 2023.”
Loom Digital scores 9/10 in the global agency ratings The Drum Recommends, entirely voted for by clients.
We are delighted to have won the Best Use of Search B2B and Most Innovative PPC Campaign at the UK Search Awards 2022 UK.
The UK Search Awards took place at the Bloomsbury Big Top in London this month, November 30. The evening is the premiere annual event for the digital industry in the UK, celebrating the best of SEO, PPC and content marketing across the country.
The two awards were in recognition of our work driving global revenue for an ISO consultancy firm based in the UK. It follows hot on the heels of Launch winning PPC Campaign of the Year for the same client at the UK Agency Awards in October.
The judges said: “The Launch campaign had a great innovative approach with value-based bidding. They had clear, ambitious targets which were all achieved. Overall, an impressive and successful campaign.”
Jaye Cowle, Founder and Managing Director of Launch, was delighted with the award: “Our mission is to be the happiest performance agency. I believe that happy people do great work, and by empowering our team to do their best, we continue to get impressive results for our clients.”
See the full list of winners on the UK Search Awards 2022 website here.
saintnicks have promoted Finance Director Chris Price to company co-director, alongside Fraser Bradshaw and Steve Davies, as the company approaches its 10-year anniversary.
CEO, Fraser Bradshaw, said that “Chris will continue to oversee all company finance but also moves into a broader commercial role, including corporate governance and partnerships, as we expand the business.”
The move comes following a successful period for the company; with new business wins including Admiral, Akkodis and Ascot, and 9 new hires across all areas of the business.
Bradshaw added “Chris has been integral to our success over the last 4 years, always acting in the best interest of the agency, and joining us in making some of the more progressive decisions along the way. His experience and desire to grow the commercial side of the business will be invaluable moving forward”.
saintnicks is a brand agency with a strong reputation for its integrated strategy and creative campaigns, with offices in Bristol and London. The agency prides itself on being as commercial as they are creative, for their client partners. With a leadership team from client side and network agencies, the agency delivers huge expertise from an expert team. Recognised as a UK Great Place to Work this year and with B-Corp pending, the business believes in being a force for good.
Price, who has been at the agency for 4 years, has previously held the position of Group Financial Controller at Jones Knowles Ritchie, as well as spending 5 years across the WPP group finances with MEC and Grey.
Speaking about the new role, Price said “I’m delighted to join Steve and Fraser as a co-director of saintnicks. I‘ve felt a close connection to the guys since joining in 2018, and have seen a lot of changes in that time. We’ve got an incredibly strong team and brilliant clients; I’m very excited to continue working alongside them to help us go further”.
Find out more about Chris and his role at saintnicks here.
Your brand – you’ve spent years getting it to the exact place you want it to be in and now it’s there, in that perfect position in your market. Your audience can now make an informed, rational decision on your brand. Everything’s perfect.
Except, it isn’t perfect. And your audience won’t make a rational decision.
Let’s take a step back for a minute. It has become increasingly accepted that your brand is no longer simply your logo, or visual identity, but is more about the experience or environment linked to your business, product or service. Your brand can no longer be considered a vehicle through which to facilitate a desired transaction, from business to consumer. It shouldn’t even be considered the sole property of the business it is associated with.
Your brand is shaped by the relationships formed in that space in-between business and people, and importantly between people themselves. It is in this acknowledgement of brand being about relationships that we must appreciate two key points:
no relationship remains the same – relationships always evolve
no-one wants to be in a relationship with someone perfect
In order to have healthy relationships you need to appreciate that people will not seek to understand your brand intellectually. Decisions are very often not made intellectually but intuitively. What is important isn’t what people know about a brand, but what they feel about a brand.
Evolution
Consider a personal relationship that may well be close to your heart – you and your mum. In one way your relationship with your mum will always remain the same, she is your mum and you are her child. That will never change. However, is that really your relationship, or is that simply a label?
Let’s consider the actual relationship you have with your mum over a lifetime. If we think about the relationship rather than the label we can see how our roles and expectations are constantly evolving. At birth we are totally dependent on our mum, without her we would die. As we grow into childhood we are nurtured by mum, but we are becoming less dependent. As older children / young adults we challenge mum, pushing for independence. Entering adulthood we become friends and equals with mum, still getting support and guidance but being able to share some of our own guidance. As mum ages we find that the dependency role switches, with mum becoming reliant on us and relying on our support. Throughout our life we remain mum and child, but the relationship is constantly evolving.
When considering your brand be aware that your relationship with people will evolve. Be open to changing roles and expectations.
Perfection
So what about perfection? Well, how would you like to be in a relationship with someone who is perfect? Someone who never does anything wrong, is always right, always the best, infallible. Sounds pretty awful right? Of course it does because we know that no-one is perfect, we all make mistakes and bad decisions. That’s not a bad thing though, it is what makes us likeable. It’s what builds relationships as everyone is fallible, we are all prone to mistakes. ‘To err is human’.
So if you are hoping to build a relationship with people through brand then forget about trying to seem perfect. We are all fallible and prone to mistakes, but what that gives is the opportunity to show growth, improvement, self-awareness. Perfection leaves no room for improvement – it is a dead state. Forget perfection.
The Space In-Between
When considering your brand, consider it the ‘space in-between’. Your brand is the space in-between numerous contributing factors, such as your business, staff, product, visual identity, customers, detractors, the current environment.
This ‘space in-between’ must be a space of vitality, of evolution, of imperfection, if you want people to relate to the brand and the brand to remain relevant. This ‘space in-between’ is not static or stagnant, it is always in-process. It should be considered temporally rather than spacially. It will most often be appreciated and experienced intuitively not intellectually. When considering your brand – the ‘space in-between’ – it’s not rational, it’s emotional.
Contributed by Paul Bailey Strategy Director Halo
For over 20 years, I’ve been working in or running my own branding agency. First design side, and then moving strategy side, I’ve learned a thing or two in my time. However, there is one thing which I seem to learn but then need to relearn again and again, and that is the need for and the role of transparency.
Now, what has led me to relearning the need for transparency you might ask? Well, in my current role I am Brand Strategy Director. This means I’m not only responsible for the brand strategy work with clients, nor does it mean I’m only responsible for the rest of our strategy team. No, what I take this role to mean is that I am responsible for the understanding and application of brand strategy from the whole of the agency.
As a full-service agency, we have people doing all sorts of roles, from design, to development, to client partnerships. Everyone will, at some point, work with the strategy team on projects, and so I believe that the more they can understand strategy the better and more effective our agency’s work will be. Now, of course, in meetings people get a little window into what we do in strategy, but I realized that in order to really make the strategy teams work transparent I needed to find ways to open up our working. So, I decided that I would decorate the walls with some of the models and frameworks that we might use in a project. (See above)
Models and frameworks seem to be either loved or loathed by strategists, but the use of a good one can create much needed focus at a critical point in a project.
The thing about them is, they’re not intended to give you an answer. In fact, even the best use of the smartest model only ever gives you an approximation of the answer. But for me, that is fine, because in strategy there is never really an answer, there’s just one of a number of answers.
So, I looked through the models I’ve used over the years, printed out some of the best and most used ones, and stuck them on the wall. This immediately led to some great feedback and some very interested people passing our strategy area. Conversations about models, their uses and application, and what they would be useful for, flowed freely. You see, once you put your ways of working out there, people are invested and interested.
In a project, models should be used as your hidden secret. We use them to create focus from a wide range of inputs, but we rarely show them to clients. They’re not really the best way to present work, so we use them as a tool for focusing our work, not presenting it. Good models should be used to cut, to hone, to give you less and not more.
Now there are many models I no longer use, they no longer meet my standards and have been dropped. As I said previously, I’ve spent over 20 years doing this, and one of the things I have learned is what models work, and which ones don’t. So, here’s a short list of a few of the models I still use, and what I use them for.
1. PESTLE
This model is old, and many people knock it, but I still use it. Why I use it is I find it a simple and helpful structure to work through one of the aspects of the context within which our brand exists – market forces. The six areas the PESTLE name stands for (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental) are still a good way to break down the market forces at play on a business and its associated brand. I find that they help me focus, but also they give an indication as to the areas in which a business has more to think about.
2. SWOT
Yet again, another old model that doesn’t get much love these days. Well, I still love it. When we are researching a brand project there are two key areas we need to find out about – the context (market forces, audience, competition) but also the business itself. The SWOT gives us a very simple model to learn something of what the business is good and bad at, and where they see opportunities and threats. Now, the slight variation in my model is that I use a grid which sets out the strengths and weaknesses, and the opportunities and threats on the outer edges, but on the inside where they cross over there are four panels where you can start to set out strategies for improvement (S-O, S-T, W-O, W-T).
3. Brand Pyramid
Now I don’t think I’ve ever shown this as a pyramid to a client. The reason I find the pyramid useful is that it mirrors the process I go through mentally to try and reach a core brand proposition. At the base of the pyramid is the context within which the brand exists (market forces, audience, competitors). The wider this base is (the more research we can do at this stage) then the more stable the pyramid will be. Diagnosis of the context of a brand is the foundation of a good brand proposition. At the other end of the pyramid is the point, the tip, the core proposition that encapsulates the core value of the brand to its audience. You might manage to get this down to only a few words, or at most a sentence or two, because this should be the distillation of all of your work so far.
4. Evolutionary Brand Cycle
There are many models like this, but this is the one I use. It is a simple breakdown of a never ending process of evolution which every brand should constantly go through. Because, although we’ve just written a distillation of the brand, in reality the brand is always changing and shifting to a point. A brand is a dynamic entity which evolves over time. So, this model has four stages; Understanding, Clarifying, Communication, and Evolution. Understanding is your research phase. Clarifying is your distillation phase. Communication is your communicating phase. And Evolution is your listening phase. Keep doing these phases, over time, and your brand can shift and move at the right place and the right times.
5. Marketing Sales Funnel
The Marketing sales funnel is yet another old and supposedly broken model. Not as far as I am concerned it isn’t. Now, my approach to the marketing sales funnel is quite loose, and we don’t put strict rules on how we use it. What we do find it useful for is assessing what marketing touchpoint should be used for which part of the journey through the funnel. At the top of the funnel we are looking at Awareness, and so touchpoints such as OOH and TVC will feature heavily. At the bottom of our funnel we have Advocacy, so Google Reviews or user reviews may feature here. Really, we find the funnel a helpful tool to give our touchpoints a role and responsibility.
6. Experience Ecosystem
Finally, we move into the Experience ecosystem. What is this you might ask? Well, it is something that we do to give a function to every ‘moment’ a person comes into contact with our brand. A ‘moment’ is an audience-centered view of a touchpoint. Brands are shaped through ‘Associated Memorable Moments’, and every one of these moments in time should be used to encourage a desired action or reaction. Whether that action or reaction is just awareness of your brand, or is a driver to purchase, if you attribute a behavior you would like to encourage from that ‘moment’ you are creating a focus for everything you do. Make sure every moment is clearly identifiable as you, and is remembered for something you would like.
BJ Fogg’s Behavior Model is also useful here – motivation + ability + prompt = behavior.
So, there are six models I use pretty often. Of course, there are many more worth using. From Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism to Keller’s Brand pyramid, Stephen King’s Planning Cycle to Kotler & Armstrong’s 3 Product Levels. But remember, a model is only there to help you cut and refine. It will never give you the answer, and what you get out is only ever as good as the quality of research you put into it. As I said at the beginning, there is a value in and a need for structure.
Contributed by: Paul Bailey, Strategy Director at Halo
Bristol-based direct marketing agency Flourish has been recognised for its email marketing achievements at this year’s national Performance Marketing World Awards.
The awards were held at The Grosvenor Hotel on Park Lane in London and Flourish scooped the Email Marketing award for their work with well-known consumer electronics brand, Samsung. They were one of 22 winners out of more than 90 shortlisted finalists, alongside other award-winning entries including the likes of Asda, Specsavers, Boots, Primark and M&S.
Robin Langford from PMW wrote: “The victors reflect outstanding work across a number of product sectors, alongside awards for the best people, agencies, innovations and teams.”
Flourish also has an office in Dubai and a long-standing relationship with the Samsung Gulf team. They were asked to work on the launch of the Galaxy S22 Series across several regions and in multiple languages. The team assisted with the planning and implementation of a communications strategy that helped Samsung to achieve a high number of pre-orders, and exceeded results from their previous launches of similar devices.
Ian Reeves, Managing Director at Flourish, said: “2022 has been a fantastic year for Flourish, and we are extremely proud to top it off by winning an award that celebrates the game-changing results possible when data, technology and people come together to create customer orientated journeys. This award is credit to the whole team at Flourish and their dedication to pushing boundaries in CRM.”
The campaign has also received recognition by industry body reallygoodemails.com and an internal Samsung marketing award for the campaign with the best use of segmentation.
You can find out more about Flourish via the website.
We are proud to share the first annual impact report from MotherBoard – the non-profiting initiative that is powered by ADLIB and sponsored by Not On The High Street. MotherBoard is a Business Charter, Event Series and Community that is creating real long-term change for mums working in the tech industry.
Over the past 12 months the MotherBoard Community and Charter have offered a platform for people to connect and discuss taboo subjects, whilst our growing signatories have committed to, and achieved change. Topics include:
• Mentorship • Promotion & leadership • Coding courses & funding • Infertility • Pregnancy • Sexism • Racism • Parental bias • Miscarriage • Menopause • Toxic cultures • Still birth • Redundancy in pregnancy • NDAs
Within the report you will see the positive impact MotherBoard have achieved since launching in 2021, we are excited to see what the next year holds!
We hope you enjoy having a read, if you would like to hear more about MotherBoard please email the team at [email protected].
MotherBoard is a Business Charter, Community, Event Series, and Podcast driving tangible change for mums working in the tech & data industry. We are on a mission to transform the industry to be more inclusive of mothers by tackling stigmas and supporting employers who want to create real change.
Sarah Warewinter joins Bristol operation as Associate Director, Strategy
McCann has bolstered its strategy team in Bristol with the appointment of Sarah Warewinter. Sarah joins as Associate Director for Strategy having headed up IMA HOME’s insight and strategy team in Leeds for 11 years.
Prior to her time at IMA HOME, Sarah worked across a diverse range of sectors, with her portfolio including major brands such as Argos, Dr Oetker, Interflora, Jet2 and the NHS.
In her new role, Sarah will build on the strength of the existing team to deliver meaningful work for the agency and its clients. Talking about her appointment, managing director Andy Reid said: “Across the globe, McCann is known for providing our marketers with best-in-class strategic and creative services to help brands play a meaningful role in people’s lives.
“For us at McCann Bristol, Sarah’s appointment is central to delivering this core function, as we continue to proudly create award-winning work for our clients. Sarah comes with an impressive track record, along with a wealth of expertise across a range of sectors and I’m pleased to welcome her to our senior leadership team as we head towards 2023.”
Sarah added: “I’m really excited to join the McCann family. The ambition and direction of the business is really exciting, and I can’t wait to be involved in the next stage of growth for McCann Bristol.”
JonesMillbank, Bristol-based video production company, were commissioned by leading engineering consultancy firm Hoare Lea to celebrate the arrival of the National Satellite Test Facility (NSTF).
As unseen stewards of communication, man-made satellites keep us safe, informed and entertained, and their voyage into space demands phenomenal technical skill at every stage.
World-class science research, expertise and innovative testing transports them from concept to lift-off, and the unique design of the NSTF’s ‘cathedral-like’ facility means the chaos and challenges of space can be recreated here on earth.
Specialist equipment shakes, bakes and blasts satellites in the final phase of their ground development, testing them to their limits and arming them with the best preparation possible before their final journey into the unknowns of the cosmos.
JonesMillbank worked with Dr Jackie Bell, PhD, an aspiring astronaut and theoretical physicist who featured on BBC’s Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes?, whose own journey through the space industry has tested her in every way imaginable.
The film was shot on location at the facility in Oxfordshire with support from RAL Space.
Visit https://jonesmillbank.com/work/hoare-lea/national-satellite-test-facility to view the film and https://hoarelea.com/2022/11/03/the-national-satellite-test-facility to find out more about the project.
***
JonesMillbank are a passionate full-service video production company
They work in-house with a talented team of multi-disciplined creatives, all the while telling authentic stories long before it was cool for a range of clients such as University of Bristol, IDLES, NHS England, The Royal Mint and Battersea.
jonesmillbank.com
01173706372
[email protected]
Bopgun, a brand, strategy and digital agency, has been selected from a number of agencies to support Puzzler Media with the UX, design and development for a new lead generating B2B website.
Puzzler Media is the UK’s largest supplier of printed and digital puzzle-based content, backed up by end-to-end content management and support. With over 50 years’ experience, Puzzler Media is the go-to name in puzzles, working with business worldwide from national and regional newspapers to magazines, membership organisations and individual brands.
With only a consumer-facing website, Puzzler Media identified the need for a new B2B website to improve their online presence, increase brand awareness and ultimately generate leads. The website will showcase the huge range of puzzles on offer, alongside solutions to deliver content and client case studies that demonstrate their experience and capability – all delivered in a clean and user-friendly design.
“B2B is an exciting and growing part of our business. We help a multitude of clients in supplying print and digital puzzle content and tech solutions. We didn’t have a site that reflected the breadth of content and the quality of our client base. We chose Bopgun because, based on the good work we have seen them deliver for other clients, we believed they were the best agency to deliver our Puzzler Business Partnerships ‘shop-window’. We’re really excited to be partnering with them on this project.” Lynda Newland, Deputy MD, Puzzler Media.
Launched in 2008, Bopgun is a multi-disciplined creative agency with an unrivalled background across the publishing industry. With both the founders having worked in various roles at Future Publishing for over 14 years between them, Bopgun has grown into a substantial and distinguished company working with some of the world’s leading industry players including Elsevier, Story House Egmont, Anthem Media, Hachette Partworks and Kelsey Media to name a few.
From engaging websites for the likes of Marvel and Disney, to e-commerce subscription sites, promotional campaigns, animations and illustrations, Bopgun prides itself on delivering real value to the publishing industry.
“We were thrilled when we heard we’d won this project with such a prestigious brand as Puzzler, known by their existing clients as the UK’s largest puzzle supplier. Knowing how important it is for their business to convey their detailed and wide range of puzzles is the sort of challenge we love!” David Mathews, Managing Director at Bopgun.
You need to load content from reCAPTCHA to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More Information