Access Creative College, Condense and LocalGlobe are proud to launch the second round of their funded scholarship focusing on bringing live events to virtual spaces, starting 30th October 2023 and running until mid-February 2024. The scholarship was created to respond to the growing diversity problem within the tech sector and in metaverse development, relating to a lack of women and people from minority ethnic groups.
“The gender equity gap in technology is higher than in any other sector, with women holding just 17% of technology roles in the UK.”
The Chartered Institute for IT (2023)
“Less than a tenth (8.5%) of senior leaders in UK tech are from ethnic minority groups, a sixth (16%) of IT professionals are female and a tenth (9%) of all IT specialists have a disability.”
Prospects (2022)
In early 2023, 4 young Bristol creatives embarked on the first round of this innovative and unique scholarship with very successful results including one participant, Olivia, being offered an Accounts Manager role at Condense upon completion of the course.
“Participating in the Condense Scholarship allowed me to broaden my horizons, learn some incredible new skills, and contributed to shaping my future. It has opened doors to endless possibilities for my career. The knowledge, practical experience, and networking opportunities gained through the program have significantly enhanced my opportunities in the tech industry.” – Olivia, Condense Scholar, 2023.
Applications opened in July for anyone over the age of 19, with 8 spaces available on this intensive programme that takes in 3D modelling, Digital Graphics, Realtime VFX and Virtual Worlds, all funded by a bursary of £1800. Applications from women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds are particularly encouraged.
Click here to find out more and apply.
For websites and blogs to receive organic traffic, search engine optimisation (SEO) is essential. Google is the primary search engine that SEOs concentrate on since it generates the majority of all web traffic, which is increasingly important in today’s digital environment. Google utilises complex algorithms to index, rank, and choose which pages to display when a user types in a particular word or phrase.
Understanding Google’s algorithms, their modifications, and how they affect SEO and websites will assist companies, organisations, and website owners use this knowledge to boost traffic and reach their target audience, so helping them achieve their goals — whether marketing- or otherwise-related.
Google’s algorithms are based on general algorithms, which are guidelines for how a problem should be handled in a finite number of steps and are used in computer science and other fields.
Google’s search engine result pages are ranked according to a set of guidelines known as algorithms. In this scenario, the issue that these algorithms address is how to order websites in accordance with various ranking criteria and guidelines.
When someone does a search on a search engine, they retrieve data from the pages on websites and blogs, attempt to comprehend them, and grasp what the user is looking for. They then rank the pages based on their quality, context, and relevancy.
The amount and quality of backlinks going to a page, the speed at which a website or page loads, the use of keywords in headings and text, user interaction, the authority of the website or page, readability, and many other variables are all taken into account by the search algorithm. Google’s search engines are said to use hundreds of parameters when deciding how to rank a page or website, according to experts.
Google is constantly working to provide users with fantastic search results while preventing users from abusing its systems. Because of this, the organisation continuously modifies and updates its algorithms. Although the corporation claims to deliver modest algorithm updates every day, the adjustments that are made every few months or years are well known.
Depending on how they are developed and optimised for SEO, these modifications may have either a beneficial or negative effect on rankings.
Because it would encourage abuse, Google doesn’t make its algorithms, how they operate, or the changes it makes to them public.
It is impossible to keep up with every adjustment Google makes to its algorithms. To have a better idea of what to focus on when performing SEO, core updates can be examined. Here are a handful of the recent Google algorithm updates that have had the biggest effects.
Although Google had already altered several of its algorithms before Panda, this is still one of the most significant modifications. The update targeted unethical SEO techniques including keyword stuffing and duplicate content. The goal was to rank web sites in search engine results based on the value of the material and how readers would interpret it.
Once marketers and companies understood how Panda will affect them moving forward, they had to move to informative and high-quality material, often editing what was already on their websites and blogs to get it to rank again.
Sensible keyword tactics are credited as being developed as a result of the Google Panda algorithm adjustment. The greatest strategy for marketers to rank their content highly on search engine result pages is to employ relevant keywords for their intended purpose rather than focusing on how many they use.
Even though it was intended to counter so-called “black hat” SEO techniques, this change would still have an effect on people who use term stuffing. Because marketers were aware that backlinks were a crucial ranking element, these techniques included spammy backlinks and link directories.
The Google Penguin upgrades heavily favoured high-quality content that contained only useful and pertinent hyperlinks.
This algorithm modification, which was made in 2013, was intended to guarantee that only pertinent and educational content would appear on the first pages of search results. It made sure users found the content they needed or wanted rather than extraneous pages that were well optimised.
Marketers had to begin producing content that matched the expectations of users by putting pertinent search terms and keyword variations in it.
Relevance and search intent were the main focuses of RankBrain. Informed and pertinent material that matches a user’s goal is what Google is trying to encourage with this upgrade. For instance, based on the other words in their search phrase, a person looking for dresses was more likely to encounter either instructional or purchasing content.
Google released its Search Quality Rater guidelines for the first time in 2013, with a focus on Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust in 2014. In 2022, Experience will be added to the algorithm modification.
According to Google, these rules are intended to identify high quality material that has been published by someone who is an authority and subject matter expert in their field, has strong trust signals, and has demonstrable hands-on knowledge of the subject matter.
For instance, a post published by someone who has been to the Bahamas is more likely to be ranked higher by Google than one written by someone who has never gone.
To ensure that their websites continue to rank in accordance with the Google algorithms that marketers are already aware of and that Google may release in the future, marketers and website owners should adhere to a few essential guidelines.
Google places a lot of importance on websites giving its users and visitors a fantastic experience, and they reward these sites with a high ranking. The best user experience on mobile can be achieved in a number of ways. The most obvious one is making sure the website runs quickly on every device a user uses to access it.
The numerous Google tools may be used by marketers to check for further possible problems, such as buttons that are too small for mobile visitors, a website that loads too many assets, images that are too large in terms of weight and dimensions, and much more.
The amount of individuals utilising voice search to get information or items is increasing as voice assistants and other devices become more and more popular. Using long-tail keywords that people are more likely to employ when speaking as opposed to typing is necessary for conversational search optimisation.
Because many individuals type like they speak and are therefore more likely to utilise them in their typed searches, using these long-tail keywords also helps a marketer’s or business’s overall SEO.
Marketing professionals and companies can lessen the effects of Google algorithm adjustments by acquiring useful backlinks because Google places a lot of importance on the quantity and quality of them. Moreover, the correct backlinks can raise a website’s authority, which raises its rank.
Businesses can either develop their own link building strategy or work with SEO specialists to find high-quality backlinks on their behalf. Businesses can then obtain the best SEO bundle for link building and other SEO requirements.
When a corporation is creating its own backlinks or has hired an SEO firm to do it for them, context and anchor texts are very important. The information surrounding the anchor or backlink, which is the text used for the link, provides context. Both should be closely related to the material on the website or page that the backlink is pointing to.
Google favours recent content over older content as well. The business does this because it wants to provide its users with the most recent information and search results.
A website’s content can gain a lot from updating, whether it has aged naturally over time or has dropped to the second or third page of search results. A fresh update ensures ranking improvement by supplying new data and facts.
Marketing professionals and business owners can address any SEO problems that can arise on their platforms by updating the content of a website. While freshness can boost ranks, it is the combined SEO work and plan that cause content to remain in the top places and be discovered in the first place.
Whether it’s one line of text or several, duplicate content gets removed by Google algorithms from websites. Utilising duplicate content tools, marketers, companies, and SEOs may determine whether websites have duplicate content. Anyone can use these tools to enter two or more URLs and determine whether there is duplicate content.
If so, the pertinent party needs to make sure the content is unique. It would be wise to update it at the same time with fresh data and details.
Marketers should conduct keyword research and apply relevant terms to the pages they wish to rank for. They should incorporate them into the content, headings, URL, opening and closing sentences. Using the same keyword repeatedly without any content is known as “keyword stuffing,” which helps a page rank. It is recommended to stay away from this because it is no longer effective and you will be reprimanded.
The ranking of pages and the search terms, keywords, and phrases they appear for are determined by Google algorithms, which are potent pieces of code. Every marketer should be aware of the most recent changes to the Google algorithm in order to position their content better and avoid being penalised or demoted on search engine result pages.
People can locate your website online thanks to search engine optimisation (SEO). By doing it correctly, you can make sure that your website appears prominently on search engine result pages when users enter queries containing the keyword(s) you’ve optimised it for. To perform SEO correctly, you need to comprehend a few essential concepts, with link building ranking as the most crucial one.
When a person clicks on a link, they are directed to another website. The website where the webpage is located may be the same or different. Links fall into two categories: internal links and external links. One of the first things anyone learning about SEO as a newbie should grasp is these types of links and how and when to use them.
There are primarily two sorts of links that connect different domains. Backlinks, also known as inbound links, come first, followed by outbound links. Outbound links are links on your website that connect to other domains or websites, whereas inbound links are links posted on other websites that point to your website.
The majority of debates in SEO centre on inbound or backlinks. The rationale is that they are a significant ranking element. Google has confirmed that, assuming other SEO best practises have been followed, having a large number of high-quality backlinks results in higher rankings.
We’ll cover all you need to know about outbound links in this post, including how to use them effectively and how they affect SEO.
There are do-follow and no-follow links for outbound links. You’ll be able to choose which to employ and when, once you comprehend their distinctions.
These are external links that provide the websites they point to PageRank. To help their respective search engines index and rank these websites, they direct search engine crawlers or spiders to other web pages on the internet.
SEOs conclude that these links convey PageRank to the linked pages by making your website a “bridge” between these crawlers and the linked domain.
No additional coding is needed because do-follow links are the default type formed when you create a link.
Some examples of places you would use do-follow links include:
In contrast to a do-follow link, a no-follow link does not send PageRank to the website it links to. These outbound links used to have no SEO advantages for either the connecting website or the website being linked to. Google’s perception of them, however, changed in March 2021.
According to Google, the algorithm has been modified to treat no-follow links as a suggestion for crawling and indexing rather than a directive, as it does with do-follow links. In this way, if Google’s algorithm determines that a no-follow link is valuable for ranking and indexing, it may still pass PageRank.
There are different types of no-follow links, including:
If the website or domain you are connecting to is reputable and trustworthy, and you want to transfer your PageRank to it, you should only employ do-follow links. For sponsored, compensated, dubious, and user-generated material or web sites, no-follow links should be used.
Create a no-follow link if you are unclear about the type to use. By doing this, Google will not penalise you if the website is suspect or ought to have been designated as a no-follow according to its policies.
Outbound links enable visitors to your website to explore information or content you believe is important for them to read or consume on other websites. You can link to other websites to provide readers with extra information, support claims and data, help users check the accuracy of material, and uncover other crucial resources, among other things.
For other types of marketing, such social media or affiliate marketing, outbound links are also crucial. In the first instance, they connect to your social media channels, enabling visibility and discoverability.
In the second instance, they direct visitors to websites where they can make purchases from companies and brands with whom they have collaborated. Such use cases make them a crucial component of your monetisation strategy.
It could seem counter-intuitive to employ outbound links to direct readers away from your website in addition to linking to your other resources, such your social media accounts and affiliate pages.
The one thing that many people overlook is the impact outbound links have on your SEO. In other words, not included them could significantly harm your SEO.
For your website and content to be more relevant, outbound links are essential. Outbound links act as a trail that search engine crawlers can follow to evaluate your content, determine the industry or niche you are in, and learn more specifics about your website and its contents.
These links can also aid search engines in comprehending the issues you are attempting to address, the information you are attempting to offer, your rivals, and related content.
When Google is aware of all of this, it will know which keywords, subjects, and search terms to rank your website and content for—even if it means ranking it alongside stuff that your rivals already rank for.
When used properly, outbound links have several benefits:
Backlinks are the most effective approach to raise authority, as is commonly believed, and this is accurate. Outbound links, however, are also a fantastic method for doing this. Metaphorically speaking, Google tends to arrange webpages according to who they are associated with. Google likes to give websites with authoritative outbound connections a higher authority rating, which improves their SEO position.
People adore companies that direct them to the resources they require at the appropriate time.
Finding high-quality and highly pertinent websites and material can be difficult for most people, especially while conducting research. If you can direct them in the proper direction, your reputation will grow and they will see you as an authority.
This is related to giving your customers a better user experience. A better user experience will encourage visitors to remember and return to your website in the future.
Because they now regard you as an authoritative source that provides them with the information they need, there is also a higher possibility that they may convert on a second or third visit.
Smart marketers and SEO specialists constantly evaluate their traffic sources to improve their tactics. You may be sure that their marketers and SEOs will take notice if you link to enough websites. When they do, they may go to your website, determine that it is beneficial to them and their audience, and then link to you.
This kind of organic link building is significantly more advantageous. One reason is that you are aware that the other website wants to link to you because you did not ask for the backlink. Second, because you two have an interest, you are more likely to attract quality visitors.
How do you pick the links to include on your website now that you are aware of what outbound links are and why they are crucial? There are a number of things to take into account, with relevancy maybe being the most crucial.
These are websites with audiences and content that are comparable to yours. For instance, linking to a beauty website does not help you much if your website is a tech one. In this case, the likelihood that the beauty website will connect to your tech website is far lower.
The second factor to take into account is semantic significance. The links you provide should be pertinent to the content of your page. The wording immediately around the outgoing link and the location to which it directs should be closely related.
Lastly, you should avoid pages that have:
Keep in mind that Google groups websites together, so you do not want yours to be among those that Google considers bad or unsuitable for ranking.
While the majority of SEOs and marketers place a strong emphasis on backlinks or inbound connections, outbound links also have a lot to offer. There are hyperlinks leading to other websites that are pertinent to the content to which the hyperlink is pointing and the readers of the information. Outbound links should therefore be a crucial component of your link-building strategy.
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.
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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.
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