Agency Archives | Page 43 of 52 | Bristol Creative Industries

It goes without saying, 2020 was just a small departure from the norm for most of us. But there were a few silver linings peppered throughout the year.

Here at Proctors, for example, our video department experienced the highest growth we’ve ever seen. We’ve been moving into new markets, offering entirely new products and generally adding more polish.

So better late than never – yes, we know it’s a quarter of the way into 2021 – here’s a look at some of 2020’s more notable projects.

TOUGHBOOK vs. Sam Warburton – Panasonic

Tackling COVID head-on

‍Cast your mind’s eye back to the heady days of January 2020. After months of planning and strategic plotting, we’d just begun to organise a full contact rugby-inspired shoot for Panasonic TOUGHBOOK. What could possibly go wrong?…

Not to be defeated, we turned to industry union BECTU’s superb COVID webinars and guides to get ourselves up to speed on how to plan and run a COVID-safe shoot.

Shooting under COVID restrictions comes with its challenge, but that doesn’t have to mean bloating up a lean budget. So, we set a small, tight-knit group to work. Clear communication is key, and after a quick socially-distanced scrum we formed a new plan: turn the shoot into a training day, and put ex-British and Irish Lions Captain and all-round rugby legend, Sam Warbuton, through his paces, alongside our leading Panasonic TOUGHBOOK tablet.

One risk assessment, a few tracing forms and a quick change into PPE later, we were ready to go. Shot across two days, we produced a huge amount of video content –enough for a full, multi-channel campaign showing how TOUGHBOOK and Sam ‘Lead from the Front’.

The results:

Energy for Change – Daikin

We made the small screen

‍After getting to grips with COVID shooting, we met our next challenge: to produce a TV ad which would promote Daikin’s range of eco-friendly heat pumps.

This time, we had a number of parameters upfront: A list of features we needed to advertise, a total run length to the frame, the need to push content through Adstream and Clearcast to ensure it was TV-ready, a Mosaic profile of consumers to target, plus the need to make the ad look like it was shot in the winter months, whilst filming it on one of the hottest days of the year.

A solid team effort pieced the ad together in record speed: it was written, prepped, casted, shot, edited, titled and graded, ready for delivery in just under four weeks. The result is testament to our team’s perseverance and the great relationships which allow them to accomplish huge amounts, together.

The results:

All-new Training Management – Bud Systems

Not just a pretty (inter)face

How do you make a film about software that’s akin to a Mary Poppins’ magic bag of employee training – without losing your viewers’ attention by explaining every last detail?

Bud’s training management platform is built to solve the pain points that training providers are up against. But with online attention spans sitting between the 2 to 3-minute mark, our challenge was to wrap up the platform’s benefits into a succinct, engaging video and encourage people to book a demo for more info.

Luckily, we had the Bud team’s great branding to work with as a jumping-off point. Their bold, clean appearance meant we could use some technicolour flair to design an equally bright and brilliant visual style. We extended Bud’s multi-coloured logo form into a visual suite of colourful geometric shapes and key lines which would simply and elegantly represent the simplicity of the platform. We then brought these shapes to life with various motion techniques and sound editing, interspersed with shots of the platform in action.

The resulting video echoes the vibrancy, enthusiasm and enjoyment Bud’s users rediscover in their work with the help of this all-in-one platform. It’s not just any old, animated infographic. It’s a masterclass in engaging video.

The results:

Bud have only just launched their film, so right now we can only wax lyrical about how chuffed they were with our work. But watch this space for soon-to-come results…

Multiple Clients – Panasonic, UKHO, Sanlam

Video Toolkits

2020 was the year of video calls and streaming. The working day became a flurry of Zoom calls, Teams meetings, Skype sessions, webinars and virtual conferences – not to mention the evenings spent helping your nan figure out FaceTime.

But there was something missing: a way to professionally and consistently brand your self-generated videos, ready for recording, live-streaming and sharing. So we put together a video toolkit for our clients.

These toolkits pull some of the most commonly required and useful assets into one package; from lower thirds, to intro and outro sequences, title screens and transitions, along with a few extra, bespoke assets depending on what our clients need. We provide them in an editable format, so they work with pretty much any software you use, meaning you’re always on-brand.

They’ve proven truly cost-effective – both to produce, and for our clients to deploy. Meaning less room for errors (like accidentally becoming the world’s first Lawyer Cat).

Results

A comprehensive Video Toolkit for Panasonic, Sanlam and P+S

One City, Zero Homelessness – Caring in Bristol

Giving a little, achieving a lot

2020 was a struggle for any business. But some services were hit harder than others.

Rather than produce our typical Christmas video of jolly japes, we donated our time and resources to local charity, Caring in Bristol. Their amazing work includes providing hot meals, shelter, medical care and support to people experiencing homelessness within Bristol. But donations often suffer during times of national hardship, so we needed to rally the local troops and call them to donate to this well-deserving cause.

So we created a film. But don’t expect your typical ‘pulling on the heartstrings’ donation message. We wanted to celebrate Bristol culture: the edgy, vivacious spirit of our city, calling our Bristolian family to action, and secured their much-needed donations in the run up to Christmas. But with COVID restrictions meaning we weren’t able to film the city and its people in action, we had to get creative.

We went full force with a script and art direction that entertained, with plenty of nods to local celebrities, inventions and fabulous quirks, while delivering the cold hard stats about people experiencing homelessness. Using graphics and animation to make the message as uplifting and entertaining as possible, we were able to create a powerful film which called for an end to homelessness in our city – for good.

The results:

…And there’s no sign of stopping

From the tech behemoths and the multi-international market leaders, right down to local, grassroots charities changing the world one view at a time. Whatever story you have to tell, we’ll help you share it with the world. Talk to Proctors, today.

Trying to maintain healthy relationships in our personal lives has been a key focus in the last year. Some have been tested and some have flourished. And the same can be said for professional relationships too.

But what has the power to make or break a relationship when it comes to you and your clients?

It’s all a question of commitment. To maintain and grow client revenues, agencies should match what they expect to gain with what they are prepared to give. Authentic, mutual commitment is the glue that bonds agencies with their clients.

As in our personal lives, having relationships doesn’t guarantee successful ones. They take work and now more than ever. Good times in the past won’t mean business in the future. Clients may have played it safe during 2020, with little switching, but they’ve now seen new agencies and ideas, found better ways of getting things done and changed the standards they expect.

So, when it comes to your business, ask yourself how committed you really are. And what real commitment means for your business and how you work with your clients.

Real commitment starts with transparency, which underpins all good relationships. Being real, showing who you really are across your proposition, personality, people, processes, pricing. It demands a genuine willingness to actually invest in your clients; always going above and beyond and choosing or even recruiting a team better matched to the needs of your clients. Finally, taking a long-term view and setting the foundations so that your relationships grow in line with the growth of your business and theirs. Create a joint vision of where you and your client want to be in three years’ time. It may be hard to do, but don’t fall into the trap of only focusing on a few months ahead.

You can read about overcoming commitment issues and more in our Future Positive Clients guide.

Bristol’s world-renowned product development agency Kinneir Dufort (KD), has launched a new initiative, XXEquals – the UK’s first majority female team designing products for women across the consumer, industrial and medical markets.

Fuelled by the growing need to design more female-centred products, and to improve the gender balance in the design industry, XXEquals is already working on projects including smart femcare solutions, sustainable period products, voice recognition software, and futures research.

KD has previously developed pioneering women-centred products including a revolutionary breast scanning bed.

Comprising a multi-disciplinary collective of KD experts – 75% of whom are women – XXEquals is pushing for better gender balance across product development, in a move which is set to potentially benefit millions of female consumers worldwide and KD’s global blue chip clients.

The initiative breaks new ground in the product design industry, and is helping to pave the way for young women interested in careers in product and industrial design.

KD’s CEO, Merle Hall, says: “We are incredibly proud to be the first UK consultancy in the product design industry with an arm which pro-actively focuses on products and experiences for women. It feels like there is truly a need to bring more women to the forefront of innovation and product design.

“XXEquals offers female-focused insight and an empathic design approach, resulting in innately intuitive products. We need to develop a deeper consideration of the physiological or psychological differences for female users.

“As an agency with a strong purpose – to design a better world – we feel it is our responsibility to instigate change. We are proof that a better gender balance is possible in the product design industry and we would love to support other businesses driving equality where possible.

“We’re not where we want to be yet, representative of the world around us, but we’re focused on our goals. It’s important to us to remember that men always need to be part of the solution too, so we draw on the brilliant expertise of our male strategists, researchers, designers, engineers and makers, who are well versed in allyship and also very engaged in the initiative.”

Around half of the world’s population is female and women buy 85% of household products, yet data shows only 5% of the product and industrial design industry is female.

With the femtech market predicted to reach $50 billion by 2025 and 93% of women currently buying over-the-counter healthcare products, the business case for gender balance in this industry is powerful.

Merle Hall continues: “Without expert female representation throughout the innovation and development process now, more opportunities will be missed to leverage real life experience and create brands and products which close the gap between assumption and reality.

“XXEquals launches as we are seeing women being adversely affected by Covid, and shortly after the issuing of a Government call-out for views to inform the new Women’s Health Strategy for England, which aims to change the male-by-default approach to health and care system.”

KD has longstanding partnerships to help solve the design industry’s gender balance issue. One is with Kerning the Gap, a campaign to encourage more women into leadership roles in the industry.

Founder, Nat Maher: “I think XXEquals will be highlighting an issue that has been long understood and long accepted, and it should be accepted no more. But also, what I think KD will do as pioneers is work with their peers to work out how they get better at it. KD wants change for the industry, and not just for itself. That is why XXEquals has my full and unbridled support.”

KD’s CDO, Craig Wightman adds: “As a man working in design, I have, for too long, felt uncomfortable about the number of situations I’ve observed or been directly involved with, where products used by women are conceptualised, designed and developed by men. That is not to say that male designers cannot design well for women, but why would you not want to have your audience and users better reflected in your design and decision-making team? It just makes sense.

“I have always felt that it’s important to have respect for the people we are designing for. It is about empathy and putting yourself in the shoes of the product user. Having a more gender-balanced team is an important part of achieving that goal.”

Agencies of all shapes, sizes, locations and sectors have participated in BenchPress 2021, providing a benchmark for agency owners all over the UK.

Thanks to the large number of agencies that took part, this year there are more reports than ever before.

Proctor + Stevenson, one of the UK’s longest-established marketing, design and technology agencies, today announced the formation of Proctor + Stevenson Limited Group and with it, the creation of three new companies within its family.

The three new businesses – Proctor + Stevenson Strategy, Proctor + Stevenson Creative and Proctor + Stevenson Technology – reflect the key areas of specialism within the Group, and provide a roadmap for expansion, outlining an ever-growing range of services to clients around the world.

The move represents a division of the business into three ‘pillars’, with each company having its own Board of Directors, budgets and targets, while still benefiting from the shared resources and services provided by the Group.

“Despite the challenges of the past 12 months, Proctor + Stevenson has enjoyed a year of success,” explains Roger Proctor, Managing Director of Proctor + Stevenson Limited Group. “This is a time of great change and opportunity for us, and we’ve always believed that staying still is actually going backwards. Our new structure will not only mean greater transparency and accountability for our clients, it will also allow the businesses within the Group to be more flexible, more independent and provide more value in the areas it’s most needed.

“The restructuring is the next chapter in the Proctor + Stevenson story, demonstrating once again our desire to lead, rather than follow, and to enhance our position as a world-class agency with a world-class (and expanding) roster of clients. And while our ambitions are global, the new companies will remain as committed as ever to the local community in which we live and work. As a business, we’re Bristol born and bred, and we’re proud contributors to the ongoing success of the South West and the UK.”

For more information on the Proctor + Stevenson group of companies, or to discuss our services in more detail, please email [email protected].

There is a lot going on in the world right now – a pandemic, Brexit, and a lot of global uncertainty, but there are also a lot of opportunities.

Global trade is rebounding far quicker than it did after the 2008 financial crisis. Shipping volumes returned to levels in half the time that took to reach post-Lehman. Central banks are continuing to steam ahead with unprecedented financial support packages, driving some global stock markets to record gains.

Most importantly, different countries will recover from this period at different speeds. Which ones will recover faster? Which markets show the opportunity most suited to your expansion plans?

Maybe you have spotted an opportunity?

You need to consider these three things when looking to expand into new markets in 2021.

1. Find the right partner: what to look for

You have been working with your agency for a couple of years. They have a solid team and presence in a few different countries. You have talked to them about moving into different markets. It was a conversation that brought you excitement. They may have even offered to hire in specific countries for you. “Great,” you thought.

Do not remain with your existing partners for multi-market growth unless you have an extremely good reason to.

Dig into their network properly – assess their depth of expertise in different markets. Do they partner? Do they have a handful of account handlers in different countries and call that ‘international’? What is their client base? Which markets do their client base operate in? Are they showing bias by leading you into new markets based on their own experience?

The key to having a successful international partner is that they genuinely demonstrate to you that they have a substantial network that they have full control over (not partnerships). They need to be focused on the ways and means of providing the agility and connectivity that powers that network.

2. Knowing your customers: getting the tone right

Customer experience has been an excellent buzzword for a few years. And yes, worry not, we have a customer journey loop we are proud of as well.

If you are looking to expand into a new market, the fundamentals should be understanding the culture and context of a new market. It is not about customer journey mapping in a conventional sense, but it is about truly getting to understand the culture, the context and how to reach customers in your new market. You can only really do this by assembling a team of people who deeply understand the markets you are moving into.

Get your context and cultural understand wrong and you have spent a lot of money and time launching into a new market badly.

3. Planning your expansion: local insights, context, data

What we have seen from clients who engaged with us throughout 2020 is that almost 100% needed help in planning their entry into new markets. The business case was there and strategically it made sense, but the substance in a business case needed building.

This comes from deep exploration into new markets. And by that, I do not mean spending time on ‘Google Market Finder’. I mean local insights – insights based on cultural understanding and a very deep level of data that is well assembled to digest and interpret.

Processing this data, at speed, is very difficult to do well across multiple markets without the right toolset and teams experienced in handling this data. Look for true added value from tools that your partner is offering or look to acquire some. Find a partner who will present you with assimilated data in ways you did not know possible to give you the context you really need.

Spend time interpreting and analyzing this data and ensure your entry into a new market is data-led and well researched, so you fully appreciate the opportunity (and pitfalls) of your strategy.

Almost without exception, agencies are embracing a more flexible attitude and approach to work and an overwhelming majority of employees would like to see this continue. But as you get to grips with what the future of work might look like, some aspects of agency life should become less flexible and even non-negotiable. And this is actually a good thing.

Flying in the face of constraints, the winning agencies will be the ones with an uncompromising focus on their culture, focusing on how they can support their people to be their best selves and do era-defining work. An awakening for some perhaps, but really just smart business as the battle for talent ramps up. The quality of agency culture is topping the list of reasons for the top talent to stay or go.

So where does an uncompromising approach pay when it comes to the codes you set, the teams you build and the way you work together?

We know from recent research and extensive work with our clients that a new cultural contract is emerging. Operating with a clear purpose, solid values and an unwavering commitment to wellbeing, diversity and open communication is non-negotiable. Structuring and supporting teams to play to their strengths, build healthy habits and be impact-driven is non-negotiable. Creating a connected working experience that makes the most of time and space wherever you might physically be, is non-negotiable.

We explore this new cultural contract and more in the Future Positive Talent guide, which you can download today. Find out more about what a new era of work demands and gain some critical advice on how to master it.

Advanced SEO techniques. SEO optimisation. How to rank where it counts. The pressure really is on businesses to prioritise SEO when it comes to their content marketing strategy or apparently risk disappearing forever into the black hole of – gasp – page 6 of Google Search results.

Don’t get me wrong, yes, SEO is an important element of any strategy and there are plenty of technical on-page steps you can and should be taking to make sure your website and online content is performing well. But to anyone who still believes that SEO just means peppering your website and blog with keywords in every other sentence, you’re forgetting something crucial. Google Search isn’t your target audience. It’s a channel to reach your target audience. If you’re a slave to the SEO keyword, you may tick a few of Google’s boxes (actually not as many as you think, more on that below) but you will undoubtedly alienate your prospective customers because your content will read so badly that they’re unlikely to then trust you with their business.

When it comes to content marketing, the not-so-secret ticket to success is quality. In today’s world of keywords, topics and featured snippets, it’s easy to forget that Google actually places far greater emphasis now than ever before on content that is well written, and rewards said content with a higher ranking in search results. In fact, unintelligible content that’s been written for an algorithm rather than a human will now actively count against you.

But don’t panic if you’re finding that your content isn’t performing as it should or not driving quite the interest that you thought it would.

1. Quality is king. That means that your blogs, whitepapers, e-books, case studies and the like need to be well written, error-free, no typos or dodgy grammar, no keyword gibberish. But they also need to be on the right topic and engaging for the reader, and that means content which helps or educates is far more likely to perform better than a brochure which sells your product directly. It sounds like some sort of paradox, but content marketing is at its very best when it raises awareness of your business without pushing your services directly. Good content should position you as the go-to expert for your particular specialism, ensuring that you spring to mind first when the reader, a prospective customer, needs your services. It should drive loyalty which in turn drives purchase consideration. But we’ll say it until we’re blue in the face – quality, quality, quality.

2. Keywords should be treated like seasoning – a light sprinkling of the right ones leaves a much better taste than a dredging with every word possibly associated with your business. It’s very easy to find yourself down a keyword rabbit hole when deciding what to hook your content on, particularly with so many online tools available, but I guarantee you’ll be left with more questions than answers: should I include longer tail keywords with a lower MSV, or a shorter keyword with broader reach but fierce competition? What even is a long tail keyword anyway? Keywords are important as they do after all ensure that your content will pop up when people are searching for that subject, but we really want to avoid keyword soup at all costs. We suggest you keep it simple, particularly as an SEO beginner: start by thinking about what you want to be famous for as a business – content marketing, for example – and then consider the key questions that prospective customers may have when searching for help on that subject – Should I write a company blog? How do I start an e-newsletter? What is the difference between a whitepaper and an e-book? Turning each of those questions into a blog post or how-to guide will make sure you’ve got the most important keywords covered. We’re not big-headed enough to suggest that this is the only way to work with keywords, but it will at least start you on the right track. Keep it tightly linked to the services that you offer to make sure it’s relevant (Google takes this VERY seriously), and don’t forget to link back to your website.

3. So, you’ve written a brilliantly engaging, insightful blog post with just the right number of relevant keywords. But there’s little point in getting this far and then have the blog sit on your website with no eyes on it. The final consideration then when it comes to content marketing should be how to disseminate your content properly. Here it helps to think first about the channels that you already own, such as your social media, an e-newsletter out to your customer database or internal comms to your own employees and then out to their own networks. And then you can think about other people’s channels that you can piggyback on. Can your content sit as a guest blog on someone else’s company site? Can you do some simple PR outreach to target media and see if they’re interested in running the piece? Can you repurpose an older blog that has already run by turning it into new shorter ‘how to’ social media posts?

If you’ve made it this far and would love to know more about how to improve your existing content marketing or take the leap into content for the first time, we’re happy to chat.

Ted Talker Anne Thistleton headlines virtual event around the power of creativity in decision-making

We’re extremely excited to announce that at Create Health we have re-launched under the banner “Creativity is the Cure ™”. Committed to injecting a dose of creativity into healthcare communications, we kicked off the re-launch with a virtual event headlined by renowned TedX talker, ex-global marketer and Mind Science practitioner, Anne Thistleton.

This re-launch comes 12 months after our management buy-out led by Ed Hudson, managing director, and Phil Blackmore, creative director. It’s been an exciting year as we also secured an investment of £500,000 from Creative Growth Finance from Creative England in October 2020.

“We firmly believe that Creativity is the Cure™ for the future of healthcare communications – it’s behind everything we do at Create Health, and we’re really excited to share this more widely. Brilliant ideas aren’t just good for business, they make a positive difference to healthcare professionals and their patients. We need to appeal to the subconscious mind, not the rational one, if we truly want to change behaviour, and our creative campaigns have shown this time and again,” comments our creative director, Phil Blackmore.

Underlining the proposition, ex-The Coca-Cola Company marketer and Mind Science expert, Anne Thistleton, took the role of Keynote Speaker at our virtual re-launch event, sharing her wealth of insights around Mind Science and how to unlock behaviour change by appealing to the subconscious mind. A massive thank you to those who attended the event as well as those who took part in the panel discussion around the challenges of reaching the audience and the power of creativity: Anne Thistleton, Karen Hand, global marketing director of ConvaTec; Craig Wightman, chief design officer of Kinneir Dufort, and Andy Milsom, CEO, Kanjo App.

Now 14-strong, we welcomed a raft of new hires last year including Polly Buckland, strategy director, and its first in-house animator, Matt Sugrim. Carrie Fick joined us as marketing manager last month too. We’re thrilled to unveil our new branding and a refreshed website as part of the re-launch.

Ed Hudson, our managing director, added: “Marketing theory is based on the assumption that minds – especially scientific ones – think rationally and make decisions along rational lines. But that’s not true – as is underscored by Mind Science experts like Anne. We’ve seen countless times that it’s the truly creative campaigns rather than the rational ones that have the biggest impacts on brand and buying behaviour in healthcare. Decision-making is led by the sub-conscious mind, and that’s why our most creative brands, grounded in insights, are the most powerful ones.”

JonesMillbank, Bristol-based video production company, marked their 10 year anniversary last week. Having collaborated together since 2008, Co-Founders Russell Jones and Adam Millbank founded JonesMillbank in February 2011 and have become a mainstay of Bristol’s creative community.

“It goes without saying that the last year has certainly been the most interesting and challenging of the last 10. It’s somewhat odd that we found ourselves forced into the freelance world following the financial crisis of 2008, and now 10 years after founding the company we’re adapting to the next one” said Russell.

“It’s been an amazing 10 years, and like most anniversaries it’s gone both fast and slow; some elements of our work have changed dramatically whilst others have remained remarkably similar.”

“That’s particularly true of equipment vs content; we used to film on magnetic MiniDV tapes where you’d have to capture footage in real-time by playing the tape back like a VHS, and now we’re shooting in 8K raw on 1TB solid state drives. And yet what’s in front of the lens is still predominantly people and their stories”.

“The last year has certainly been interesting, but way more successful than we ever thought it would be when the proverbial was hitting the fan and projects were getting postponed and cancelled left, right and centre back in March 2020.”

“In fact September 2020 turned out to be our busiest month on record. We managed to adapt rapidly; we directed two music videos for IDLES, a new sector for us, our animation capabilities flourished, and we helped our clients continue communicating through virtual tours and live streams alongside ‘traditional’ video content.”

JonesMillbank boast a broad range of cross-sector clients, with recent projects for The Royal Mint, University of Bristol, Universal Music, Toshiba, NHS, Bristol City Council and Battersea.

Adam added: “Graduating into a recession and then marking ten years in lockdown has bookended the last decade of working interestingly. Despite all the changes, the challenges, the highs and lows, what’s been constant is the absolute love for what we do. Telling stories will always be the most interesting and engaging thing I can imagine doing and to have been able to do it with the friend I graduated with has been nothing short of a privilege.”

“I think what’s ensured that JonesMillbank has had such a solid foundation throughout the last decade is the fact that although both myself and Russell are quite different people we understand each other so well and can make joint decisions on what we do. Just like any good long term relationship!”

“We’ve always pushed ourselves to get the most value out of budgets and when I think back to the very first pieces we created the attitude was just the same. It wasn’t easy back then to get a company to take a chance on two individuals with no real portfolio or experience so we can appreciate all the risks people took with us in the early days”.

“We’ve traveled the world and met the most interesting people along the way and who knows what the next decade has in store. Seeing the team grow, the projects get more ambitious and the pure enjoyment that we all get from being creative every day is something I’m hugely grateful for.”

On the 10-year anniversary, Russell said “we usually try to make the most of things like this, with previous Christmas parties seeing us spend a few days in Athens, Bucharest, Warsaw and Bruges. So we’ve decided to delay our party until the summer when we can celebrate and commemorate properly with the whole team and their families. Everyone was bored of Zoom a long time ago!”

They work exclusively 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, Battersea, The Royal Mint and IDLES.