Noble Performs Celebrates Five Years in Bristol
Digital marketing agency Noble Performs is celebrating five years in Bristol with a record year in business for its team, who have broken the £1million turnover barrier for the first time.
Established in 2018, Noble Performs was started in Bristol by US West Coast agency Noble Studios and Mr B & Friends, with one on-the-ground employee – current managing partner Kate Sikora. Tripling the size of the business during the pandemic, with significant client wins including premium footwear brand Rockfish, and Bristol’s beloved St George’s concert hall, Noble Performs is hoping to double the size of its 11-strong team during the next three years.
Built on the same ‘Be Better Every Day’ ethos as its US sister company, CSR has been at the core of Noble Performs since day one. During the last financial year, the business donated £12,000 of digital marketing support to local charity Heart of BS13 as part of its ‘Noble Deeds’ initiative. Recently launched, this year’s Deeds programme will receive a 30% increase in funds in line with Noble’s turnover increase, to support a local not-for-profit or registered charity with its digital marketing performance.
“I am so proud of all the team has achieved during the past five years and being able to give back to the local community and create more employment opportunities for others at the same time is incredibly rewarding, said Kate Sikora, managing partner, Noble Performs.
“Bristol has been the perfect home for us – it’s a thriving city with some great businesses and networks, but what underpins this is a real sense of community and collaboration and a genuine desire to do the right thing. This really resonates with our values and we’re excited to see what the next five years brings,” she added.
To celebrate its fifth anniversary, the UK team took a trip to the US earlier this month to visit sister company Noble Studios in Nevada. The celebrations will continue in September in the UK with the ‘Be Better Bash’ – a party for employees and their families, friends and associates of the business, and Noble Deeds recipients past and present.
Ahead of the festivities, Noble Performs will also host a Masterclass, where speakers will be invited to share a quickfire twenty minute ‘Five things’ session on a diversity of topics from AI to ESG.
More details on the Be Better Bash and Masterclass, including speakers and how to register attendance, will be announced in the coming weeks.
As we celebrate our 14th birthday this week, we’re looking back on 2023 to date. As always, we’ve been doing everything we can to help our clients thrive and survive in the current economic climate. We’ve helped clients launch new products and services, expand into new markets and to new audiences. We’ve also adjusted work and media spend to suit changing price points and profit margins. We pride ourselves on being with our clients through thick and thin, and 2023 has been no different.
Our clients have seen some great successes in 2023. In many instances we’ve helped clients to exceed target ROI and hit KPIs, showing that businesses are still thriving in today’s climate. Our managed Google media spend is up 80% year on year – a testament to our team and their ability to keep delivering strong results. To learn more about recent successes, see our case studies here.
It’s been a strong start to the year for Loom, too. We’ve had six new businesses join our client portfolio, We’ve achieved some fantastic accreditations and our team continues to expand. And while we’re also adapting to current circumstances, we’ll continue to work hard and help our clients get through even the toughest of challenges.
A big thank you to all our loyal clients and our extremely capable team, who have made all of this possible. Below, we take a look at some of the key changes in 2023 and reflect on the progress we’ve made.
We’re delighted to be working with a number of new clients this year. From gardening and cooking to education and kitchenware, we’ve teamed up with a variety of B2B and B2C businesses in 2023, which include:
Representing a diverse range of industries, we’ve already helped them get closer to their business goals with our digital marketing strategies.
And it’s not just new clients. This year we’ve also had three new digital marketing experts join the team; Tegan, Hugh and Daniel.
Our new additions have already been invaluable in ensuring Loom delivers the best possible service to our clients, and we’re delighted to have them onboard.
As well as returning from maternity leave myself, we’ve also welcomed Tommy back from parental leave. He’s dived back into work and is already making us wonder how we survived without him.
“After a few months off to spend time with my little girl, I was so excited to return in February. Nikki and the team did an incredible job whilst I was off. It’s not been an easy climate in which to run a business over the past year, and I’m really proud of how committed the team are to clients and their success. Whilst we love celebrating strong results with clients, we also pride ourselves on being able to navigate through the tricky times with them.” Karen Pearce
2023 also saw a milestone Loomiversary for Tom Spooner, marking ten years as part of the team! Since joining Loom back in 2013, he’s made an undeniably huge impact on Loom, creating and implementing market-leading digital marketing strategies . Anyone who has had the pleasure of working with Tom knows the level of thought, understanding and strategic input he has on accounts. A real marketing force and we’re proud to have him.
“It’s been a genuine pleasure to mark a decade at Loom and reflect on the evolution of our industry and Loom as an agency. I firmly believe that we’re currently delivering the best service to our clients with an incredibly talented team. I’m immensely proud to be a part of Loom and look forward to helping existing and future clients overcome challenges to succeed.” Tom Spooner
It’s always nice for achievements to be recognised. We’re proud to have three new accreditations this year for our performance and employment practices.
As always, we couldn’t have achieved any of these without our clients and team. We provide all the support we can and are grateful for those who support us. We’re 14 years young and we still have clients from day one.
“It’s been a great start to 2023 at Loom. We’re so proud to now be awarded the Great Place to Work accreditation, as well as being part of the Google Employment Charter South West. Both accreditations are a testament to the culture, values and team here at Loom. We’re always looking for ways to make it an even better place to work and have lots more planned for our 15th year.” Vicky Hockley
As our team continues to expand, we needed a new office to accommodate everyone. Fortunately, we didn’t need to move far. We’re now on the second floor of Temple Studios, located just by Temple Meads station in the heart of Bristol, meaning we’re still easily accessible for both our clients and team members travelling from further afield.
Each quarter we book an evening as a social for the Loom team. In March, we took part in a pottery evening hosted by local potters Pottymouth Workshop at The Star and Dove pub in Totterdown. While we might not be quite ready for The Great Pottery Throw Down, everyone enjoyed the opportunity to get together as a team and take their handiwork home with them.
In June, we went on a glamping trip to the Wye Valley. After canoeing down the river Wye, the team took part in guided foraging lessons and farm tours and played games at the campsite, with refreshments provided by a mobile pizza oven and cocktail bar.
The weather can make or break a camping trip, and fortunately, we were blessed with sunshine (which also helped dry out the occupants of a capsized canoe). It was a great opportunity for everyone to relax and bond, and for our new Loomies to meet the rest of the team.
Keep up with life at Loom by following us on Instagram.
Our Illoominate initiative aims to deliver digital skills to the next generation of professionals in Bristol. As part of this, we have advised charities on how to improve their digital marketing strategy through Media Trust and also offered work experience internships at Loom for all ages.
This year, we’ve already welcomed two Loom interns, Tyler and Jazmine, who were given an introduction to digital marketing at Loom and did a great job getting stuck in with some tasks set by the team. Find out how they both got on here and here.
As well as dealing with tougher circumstances, there have also been some huge changes to the digital marketing industry in 2023. Notably, the transition from Universal Analytics (UA) to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has meant a huge amount of work collecting as much data as possible and ensuring the transition went smoothly for our clients. We have invested in GA4 training for all our Loomies and have supported this with regular sessions for personal development and team knowledge shares, ensuring we were well prepared to guide our clients through this process.
Find out more about GA4 in our guide.
At the tailend of 2022, Google updated their Quality Rater Guidelines, expanding the concept of E-A-T (‘Expertise, Authority and Trust’) to include ‘Experience’. This update was designed to tackle poor-quality content, which, of course, wasn’t a problem for clients using Loom’s SEO and Content services! With AI tools and boilerplate content quite common on the web, it makes sense that Google made this change to promote valuable content written for users, rather than search.
Find out more about the EEAT update in our blog.
Speaking of AI, the rise of artificial intelligence continues to make waves in the industry, as content generation becomes more sophisticated and accessible. We explored what it can offer and its limitations but concluded it’s no match yet for the skills, expertise and human touch of the Loom content team.
Given the challenges our clients have faced this past year, it’s more important than ever to keep on top of the latest marketing trends in order to help our clients adapt. We’ve been pivoting our work to accommodate both industry developments and the external factors businesses are currently facing, creating intricate strategies that build and maintain strong online visibility.
To stay up to date with the ever-changing digital marketing industry, explore our Insights section.
It’s not easy running a business right now. With so many challenges to navigate, 2023 hasn’t been the easiest year for everyone. Saying that, we’re here for our clients every step of the way and are proud to be sharing our journey with them.
We’re delighted with all that we’ve achieved this year and look forward to seeing what the next one brings. We’d like to give another big thank you to our clients, partners and our team for all that they’ve done to make 2023 such a success.
“We’re really proud of what our team has achieved in our 14th year, doing what they can for our clients and taking our strategies from strength to strength. Our next year is all about focusing on building a more purposeful-led agency, and understanding how we can embrace machine learning to achieve even more for our clients and build on the successes of this year.” Nikki Ellison
If you’d like to find out more about our digital marketing services, whether that’s PPC & Biddable or SEO and Content, then browse our website or get in touch today.
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.
Bristol Light Festival invites artists to register interest to showcase their work to more than 250,000 visitors when it returns from 2nd to 11th February 2024. Those interested should register their interest here: https://bristollightfestival.org/call-for-artists/
Offering local, national and international artists a platform to showcase the best in installation art, the Bristol Light Festival has a reputation for show-stopping immersive experiences at iconic locations across the city.
The 2024 edition will return across 10 days and two weekends, offering a captivating journey through the city illuminated by stunning light installations, accompanied by shopping, dining and exploring.
Bristol Light Festival celebrates artistic freedom and experimentation, providing a platform for artists to push boundaries, think outside the box, and breathe life into groundbreaking ideas. The festival is looking for light artists, painters, sculptors, architects, performers, or other artistic disciplines, to bring a unique perspective and submit visionary concepts for the 2024 edition. Students and institutions are also invited to apply to collaborate with the festival curation team. Those interested should register their interest here: https://bristollightfestival.org/call-for-artists/
Katherine Jewkes, Creative Director at Bristol Light Festival, said:
“At Bristol Light Festival we love to support artists and makers from all disciplines who are excited to bring their playful and radical ideas to light. We’re looking for installations that will challenge our audiences and that will change the way our community both remembers and responds to our city spaces. Some of my favourite past commissions have come through previous open calls. With the city as our playground, I can’t wait to see what ideas are presented as part of this call out process.”
Vicky Lee, Head of Bristol City Centre BID, explains:
“This year’s event delivered a spectacle at every turn – and Bristol was alight with people from near and far and of all ages keen to see the festival. Next year is set to be just as – if not even more – special. Working with the creative industries in the city – and providing them with a platform to showcase their work to local and national audiences – not only supports our beloved cultural scene in Bristol but in turn supports our city’s high street businesses. Bristol Light Festival has delivered significant additional economic benefit year on year, with the most recent edition encouraging a 250,000 footfall boom and additional spend in city centre businesses of a staggering £3.3 million.”
Gemma Mills, one-half of the light artist duo Illumaphonium, presented Halo and Continuum at Bristol Light Festival in 2023. She explains:
“Through Bristol Light Festival we had the opportunity to install Continuum in the magnificent Temple Church. Teaming such an incredibly beautiful site with such a keen-to-engage audience was quite simply magical. Since this show we have had multiple bookings from all over the world to put this piece of art in similarly exquisite historical and architectural spaces. This is no doubt as a direct result of our collaboration with English Heritage and Bristol Light Festival.”
“Bristol is without doubt one of the most creative and fun places to be, it’s often where we come when we seek inspiration and to reconnect with why we make the art we do in the first place. As artists, we strive to reconnect people with the childhood curiosities that are so often lost in adulthood. We facilitate togetherness and encourage play, and in our experience, Bristol needs very little encouragement! A joy of a city to work within.”
The festival encourages applications that prioritise environmental sustainability and use green energy solutions in their design, embody best practices in their execution, explore the potential for artwork reuse and foster novel and ambitious artistic ideas.
The 2024 edition of Bristol Light Festival is celebrating a new partnership with colleagues at the Redcliffe & Temple BID as they become our presenting partners after two successful years of artwork partner sponsorship.
Steve Bluff, Head of Redcliffe & Temple BID explains;
“We are delighted to be working in partnership with the Bristol Light Festival team and colleagues at the Bristol City Centre BID exploring opportunities to further extend the festival within our area – especially as it plays host to both new and ancient architecture. After the success of the stunning interactive art installations Continuum at Temple Church, BEAM on Castle Bridge and Ophelia in St Mary Redcliffe Church, we’re excited to see what the Bristol Light Festival artists will create for us this year to get residents and visitors exploring the area and supporting our businesses along the way”.
Artists with a relationship with Bristol who express interest will be prioritised. The submission deadline is midnight on Friday 28th July 2023, with the shortlisting deadline set for August 18th, and conversations with the selected artists will commence on August 25th. Shortlisted artists will be invited to visit the festival site and engage in pre-production meetings from September to November, leading up to the grand opening of Bristol Light Festival from February 2nd to 11th, 2024.
Studio McGuire was chosen as an artist for the 2023 edition of the event. Its stunning Ophelia light installation was a showstopper – depicting a serene, life-size hologram of Ophelia, from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Kristin’s ‘Sirens’ holographic mermaid projection also transformed Bristol’s iconic harbour into a mythical underworld at the 2023 festival.
Talking about the experience, the artist said: “It was fantastic to be selected to exhibit at Bristol Light Festival. Having our installation projected in St Mary Redcliffe Church was so special and a real career highlight. The planning and organising stages were very smooth and the event itself had a phenomenal turnout in terms of attendance.
“Since exhibiting at Bristol Light Festival, we’ve had other cathedrals get in touch to enquire about hosting the hologram and some of our other flagship works, which is so encouraging to see.”
The review process for expressions of interest will be conducted by the Bristol Light Festival team, including Creative Director Katherine Jewkes.
*This event is subject to licensing and site permissions approval.
The government’s long awaited creative industries sector vision has been launched with an aim to grow the creative industries by £50bn and support a million more jobs by 2030. Dan Martin looks at what it could for creative businesses, particularly those in the Bristol Creative Industries region.
Describing the sector as “a global British success story”, prime minister Rishi Sunak’s foreward to the full vision document says:
“As well as projecting our values on the world stage, the creative industries drive our economy at home. The contribution they make has often been underappreciated. These industries generate £108 billion a year. Employ over 2.3 million people in every corner of the country. And there is a real sense of energy in the sector, which has grown at more than 1.5 times the rate of the wider economy over the past decade.”
The vision promises to drive growth by “facilitating innovation and investment, alongside building a skilled workforce”. It includes £77m in new government funding.
Culture secretary Lucy Frazer said:
“The imagination and ingenuity of British designers, producers, content creators, writers and artists are spearheading growth right across our economy.
“The government is backing our creatives to maximise the potential of the creative industries. This sector vision is about driving innovation, attracting investment and building on the clusters of creativity across the country. And from first days at school to last days of work, we will nurture the skills needed to build a larger creative workforce to harness the talent needed for continued success.
“Working with the industry this vision is helping the UK creative sectors go from strength to strength – providing jobs and opportunities, creating world leading content and supporting economic growth across the country.”
The vision outlines the following funding announcements:
The government says it will invest at least £50m in the next wave of the Creative Industries Clusters programme. It will be used to identify and support at least six new clusters specialising in creative subsectors, helping entrepreneurs and businesses in these areas innovate with new technologies, secure investment, and access global markets.
Bristol and Bath is currently one of the clusters supported by the programme through Bristol & Bath Creative R&D.
Alongside the creative industries
sector vision, it was announced that 300 creative companies across the UK have received a share of £13m in government grants to help them innovate and reach their high growth potential.
The government will increase the budget of the Create Growth Programme by £10.9m, bringing it to a total of £28.4m until 2025. It says the increased funding will enable it to double the number of regions it covers to 12 and support 2,000 businesses to commercialise their ideas and access resources, knowledge and private investment to scale.
The West of England is one of the six regions currently part of the programme. The other regions are Greater Manchester, East Anglia, North East England, South East and East Midlands.
Alongside the creative industries sector vision, Innovate UK announced 108 creative industry businesses across the six current regions that get a share in the latest £3m of funding from the programme. It includes the following 13 companies from Bristol and the West of England:
The next round of funding (£4m across the six regions) launches in autumn 2023. Keep an eye on our funding guide for the latest information.
In the West of England there is also a support scheme as part of the Create Growth Programme run by Watershed and West of England Combined Authority. It includes training, workshops and a £2,500 grant to spend on mentoring, consultancy and coaching.
The second cohort for the support scheme launches in May 2024. Register your interest here.
Creative Catalyst is a £30m programme to help creative businesses commercialise their creative ideas.
Alongside the vision, Innovate UK announced a new partnership between the Creative Catalyst Programme and Creative UK. It will engage with key senior industry stakeholders and create exciting funding opportunities for small and micro businesses to address important industry challenges.
It also announced that the first Creative Catalyst sector-specific competition will focus on MusicTech. The £1m competition will launch later in the year.
Finally, Innovate UK announced over 200 creative companies across the UK that have received a share of £10m of innovation funding from the first round of Creative Catalyst. As part of the programme, the successful companies also will receive business growth support, join a peer network to encourage collaboration and have access to international missions to help expand their global ambitions.
The government said the majority of the funding has been provided to companies outside of the Greater South East including Bristol, Bath, Exeter and Cornwall.
Keep an eye on our funding guide for the latest information on the grants available through Creative Catalyst.
The UK Games Fund, run by UK Games Talent and Finance Community Interest Company, launched in 2015. It provides grants for prototype funding of up to £30,000 and supports graduate talent development.
The creative industries sector vision announces £5m in additional investment for the UK Games Fund which it says “will provide UK games studios with larger grants for content funding, supporting development of intellectual property that will allow companies to attract investment and reach their next stage of growth”.
The government will expand Arts Council England’s Supporting Grassroots Music Venues Fund by providing an additional £5m over two years to support around 400 grassroots music venues.
Funding for the Music Exports Growth Scheme, which provides grants to support touring and help emerging musicians break into new global markets, will be expanded to £3.2m over the next two years.
The most recent round of funding provided £500,000 to 28 UK artists including Bristol singer-songwriter Katy J Pearson.
The government referenced the announcement in the Spring Budget which reforms audio-visual reliefs into expenditure credits with a higher rate of relief than under the current system.
The vision added that the government is “considering the case for further targeted support for visual effects work, and will provide an update on this later in the year”.
On securing investment the vision says:
“While parts of the creative industries are attractive to investors, many entrepreneurs and creative businesses find it hard to access investment. The value of creative businesses commonly lies in their intangible IP, which can be hard to value, and project-based business models often create peaks and troughs of activity and revenue.
“Moreover, some products such as music or films can be ‘hits’-based, with unpredictable consumer demand. These factors, coupled with a lack of market intelligence and data, can make creative businesses appear a risky proposition to investors.
“These challenges are felt more keenly outside of London, with early stage equity finance and venture capital investors much less prevalent. The government and industry will work together to improve data on investment into the sector, to improve benchmarking against other sectors, and to better understand new and emerging business models and their finance needs.”
It said creative businesses can access the British Business Bank’s regional investment funds which offer loans from £25,000 to £2m and equity investment up to £5m.
The Bank’s £200m South West Investment Fund launched in July. Aimed at businesses in Bristol, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire, the fund provides:
Find full details in our funding guide for creative businesses.
The creative industries sector vision pledges “a creative careers promise” to “build a highly-skilled, productive and inclusive workforce for the future, supporting one million more jobs across the UK“.
The vision adds:
“Over the previous decade, the creative industries’ workforce grew at almost five times the rate of the rest of the economy, and it has the potential to continue growing rapidly. There are a huge range of roles in the creative industries and collectively they are the jobs of the future: more resistant to automation, highly-skilled and highly rewarding.
“The sector also has high levels of project-based working and reliance on freelancers, who make up over a quarter of the total creative industries workforce (about double the whole-economy average).
“A skilled, inclusive and productive workforce is vital to ensuring creative businesses can adapt to changes, compete commercially and identify new areas to innovate and grow.”
Skills and diversity is a major challenge for the creative industries. The BCI-commissoned A Creative Force to Be Reckoned With report found that increasing diversity and inclusion is a significant priority for six in 10 (59%) creative firms in Bristol, but almost half (48%) said they want help finding diverse talent from underrepresented groups.
The government says it will:
The vision highlighted Bristol Creative Industries member Boomsatsuma as a good example of creative skills training. It said:
“Boomsatsuma has identified opportunities to build on traditional models of education to better support creative employers. With a portfolio of 10 flexible further and higher education-level courses, Boomsatsuma aligns its offer with skills shortages faced by creative businesses across South West England, including rapidly growing Createch businesses in the region that are utilising digital and tech.
“Young people are nurtured through a system that guides them from school to college to a degree and into employment. It particularly suits young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who do not want to go down the conventional university route.”
Another example of giving young people the skills they need to access careers in the creative industries is the Bristol Creative Industries internship programme which supports 18-24-year-olds from underrepresented backgrounds.
As part of the programme in partnership with Babbasa, 14 creative companies from the BCI member community are providing full time paid placements to applicants in roles covering advertising, marketing, design, animation and digital.
Graphic from the vision document:
Dr. Susan McMillan, an award-winning television producer and executive dean of Boomsatsuma, is a member of the Bristol Creative Industries board. She said:
“The Bristol Creative Industries board is looking forward to helping the city, its creative businesses and its education and training providers achieve the goals of the creative industries sector vision. The UK’s creative industries are so important to our future economy, generating £108bn a year, employing over 2.3 million people and growing at more than 1.5 times the rate of the wider economy.
In Bristol, creative industries employers make a unique contribution to the city’s identity and global reputation – think Aardman and the BBC Natural History Unit, as well as the multitude of creative companies producing everything from games to software.
“The report proposes that, as a sector, we can do more to unlock the growth potential and create opportunities for young people and the next generation of creative talent. Bristol Creative Industries is already doing that through our successful internship programme which is helping members access new and exciting creative talent. We plan to build on this success over the coming years.
“We are looking forward to working with our members on future initiatives to grow the sector, meet its skills needs for future talent and explore how the creative industries can contribute to addressing the big challenges of our day.”
The vision has the following goals for 2030. Click the links to go to the relevant sections.
Objectives are:
2030 innovation objective: increased public and private investment in creative industries’ innovation, contributing to the UK increasing its R&D expenditure to drive R&D-led innovation.
2030 investment objective: creative businesses reach their growth potential, powered by a step-change in regional investment.
2030 exports objective: creative businesses grow their exports and contribute to the UK reaching £1 trillion exports per year.
Objectives are:
2030 education objective: a foundation of education and opportunities to foster creative talent from a young age.
2030 skills objective: stronger skills and career pathways generate a workforce that meets the industry’s skills needs.
2030 job quality objective: all parts of the creative industries are recognised for offering high quality jobs, ensuring a resilient and productive workforce that reflects the whole of the UK.
Objectives are:
2030 wellbeing objective: creative activities contribute to improved wellbeing, help to strengthen local communities, and promote pride in place.
2030 environment objective: Creative industries play a growing role in tackling environmental challenges, helping the UK reach the targets set out in the Powering Up Britain plan.
2030 soft power objective: creative industries increase their reach to global audiences, strengthening the UK’s soft power and positive influence on the world.
If you’d like to share your thoughts on the creative industries sector vision, email Dan.
BRAVA today announces the appointment of professional voice actor and performer, Sally Bailey, to the coaching team
Sally has been a professional voice actor for the last 11 years, working at a high level across narration, commercial and characters. Her impressive career spans over 30 years across radio and TV, starting as a breakfast presenter on Galaxy 101, moving on to co-host the network evening show, Core/Music Control, for GCap Media plc and then co-hosting the breakfast show for Capital FM, South Wales.
Sally moved to voice acting full time in 2012 and has voiced hundreds of commercials for clients including Pukka, GAME, Costa, Coca Cola, Thornton’s and Cartoon Network. Her TV presenting credits include a series of animations on historical figures for BBC Bitesize and documentary narrations for Channel 5 & Everyman.
Sally will join principal coach, Melissa Thom, as senior commercial coach at BRAVA.
Melissa Thom, CEO and founder of BRAVA said:
‘We are delighted to welcome Sally to BRAVA. She has been a colleague for many years and the breadth of skills and expertise she brings to our offering as a professional voice actor and performer, is impressive. She has exactly the right approach as an educator and is a genuinely lovely individual. Sally will help us develop our offering to provide personalised training in voice acting, at the highest level.’
Sally Bailey said:
‘I am over the moon to be joining the BRAVA team. Being a voiceover is one of the best jobs in the world and working with people embarking on their career is both tremendously exciting and a complete honour.’
To find out more about BRAVA go to www.brava.uk.com
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.’
Award-winning art collective Squidsoup reveals innovative artworks ahead of immersive exhibition
Introducing “Beyond Submergence”, a landmark art exhibition presented by award-winning art collective, Squidsoup. Inviting visitors to experience awe-inspiring installations of light and sound as they step into Propyard starting July 1st.
The exhibition will feature a retrospective of Squidsoup’s acclaimed light installations on a huge scale, curated into a journey through the huge industrial space of Propyard.
Masterful in their use of light, space, sound, scale, movement and technology, Squidsoup creates immersive experiences that invite an emotional response from guests.
The spectacle starts with Granularities, a series of wall art that use Musou Black, a paint that absorbs up to 99.4% of all reflected light, giving an almost perfect black. This creates a flat darkness set against a backdrop of bright white to create a hypnotic juxtaposition of absorption and reflection.
A miniature spectacle, Aurora uses the lightest known solid Aerogel, which was developed by NASA to collect space dust. This other-worldly exhibit is beguiling and beautiful, embodying both digital and physical material, evoking images of icebergs or the Northern Lights.
Collective Isolation will also welcome visitors, outside the main exhibition space, where an array of sound and light will give them a moment to collect their thoughts and a hint at what is to come in the exhibition.
As you step into the darkness of the main exhibition, visitors are greeted by Circular Echoes. This circular form is a symbol of completeness and wholeness. An endless line with no beginning or end; is it the journey itself, a representation of freedom, or is it the border across which we cannot travel, the fence that surrounds us?
Wave consists of some five hundred individual suspended orbs. These points of presence are brought to life through light and sound, collectively creating a resonant and dynamic audiovisual experience. This is a sustaining space within which each orb resonates in changing harmonies to create an enveloping and entrancing physical presence.
Get ready to be amazed and pushed off balance by Phase Shifter, an immense kinetic, sculptural sound and light composition. The piece is an ever-shifting audio-visual landscape defined by the interplay of a line of 16 moving sound and light sources, together creating an immersive and transcendent dynamic soundscape.
Squidsoup’s famous Submergence is set in a huge industrial setting and invites you to walk through and experience it from all angles. This hybrid environment is where virtual and physical worlds coincide – a fully immersive sensory experience.
The exhibition will feature the largest installation of Squidsoup’s new Sola exhibit consisting of a wall of fresnel lenses and ultra-bright LEDs that simulates the distant but all-powerful sun. Controlled clouds along with a heavy drone will roll into view creating a feeling of flying, power and awe.
This unique experience is the ultimate day out for families and art fans alike. Beyond Submergence’s affordable ticket prices starting at £15 per adult and £35 for a family keeps this summer activity accessible to all those who wish to experience the exhibition and immerse in its magic. Student and OAP discounts will also be launched for the Summer. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit https://beyondsubmergence.com/
The exhibition will also feature a number of wellness experiences hosted at Propyard, alongside the spectacular exhibits, making the experience the first of its kind in the world. These classes include yoga, breathwork, pilates and more with some of the UK’s best wellness mentors.
Bristol-based branded podcast production company 18Sixty is pleased to announce that senior marketing business leader, agency founder and podcaster David Maher Roberts (pictured left) has been appointed as Board Advisor.
This announcement comes off the back of three years of solid growth for 18Sixty where they’ve established themselves as a renowned player in the branded podcast space, working with big name brands, talent and picking up major award wins and nominations for their premium quality podcasts.
Founder and CEO Gareth Evans (pictured right), who launched the business in early 2020 after a decade-long career in commercial radio (Virgin Radio, Absolute Radio) has his sights set on further growth over the next two years. Evans says, “I’ve been aware of David’s reputation in the marketing agency and digital content spaces for some time, having over 20 years experience in board-level roles within PE and VC-backed companies and, impressively taken digital marketing agency Dialect Inc. from a $4m to $30m business in 5 years.” He goes on to say, “having worked closely with David professionally over the last few months, I’m really excited by the prospect of having him on board to help take 18Sixty into the next stage of our growth. Our mission continues to be helping world-renowed brands reach new audiences with podcasts they love listening to whilst having a positive impact on people and planet, pushing the creative boundaries where brand meets audio and to further establish our place as one of the world’s most creative branded podcast producers.”
In addition to his marketing agency expertise, Maher Roberts also has a deep passion for the podcast space, having produced and co-hosted Podworld (a podcast that celebrates the craft of great podcast-making) with journalist and BBC podcaster Louise Blain. Maher Roberts says “I really believe in the unique power of podcasts to engage audiences and provoke thoughtful conversation. 18Sixty has already made a significant impact in the industry and I can’t wait to help further the exciting work Gareth and the team are doing.”
Driving Bristol’s growth as a leading audio hub in the UK and empowering the local economy
Bristol has emerged as a thriving audio hub, fostering numerous globally renowned podcast businesses and housing exceptional audio production talent. In this dynamic soundscape, 18Sixty stands firmly committed to amplifying the audio industry’s impact on the economy of Bristol and the wider South West region.
The surge in demand for exceptional branded podcasts continues unabated. Recent data from hosting platform Ausha revealed a remarkable 17% audience increase for this category in 2022. Notably, brands embracing podcasts as a medium experience significantly higher levels of engagement compared to other forms of media, such as video.
“By nurturing Bristol’s audio landscape, 18Sixty is committed to drive economic growth whilst capitalising on the rising appetite for quality branded podcasts,” said Gareth Evans, Founder and CEO at 18Sixty. “Our mission is to leverage the region’s exceptional audio production talent, supporting their creative endeavours and propelling Bristol as the go-to destination for groundbreaking audio content.”