McCann supports Forth with the launch of ground-breaking female hormone mapping blood test

October 2022: McCann Bristol has created a new TV campaign to support the launch of MyFORMTM, a ground-breaking female hormone mapping blood test from Forth.

The ‘Warrior’ TV and social campaign fights against the societal pressure on women to soldier on and brush off any symptoms of the menopause they may be experiencing, highlighting how MyFORMTM can provide the information that women need to end any uncertainty around their symptoms.

MyFORMTM involves a two-step blood test which, when combined with AI mathematical modelling and clinical analysis, maps how the four key female hormones fluctuate across an entire cycle. Forth then provides a report on hormone function and ovarian responsiveness, which can indicate whether they are in perimenopause or not. The report can then be taken to a GP to support diagnosis and help manage any symptoms.

Melissa Down, Creative Director at McCann said: “We are thrilled to be launching a ground-breaking, category-first product in women’s health. Our ‘Warrior’ campaign shares a powerful and emotional metaphor, visually showing the lonely battle women face to soldier on through the difficult and confusing signs of perimenopause.

“We have an array of amazing female talent across McCann that we are fortunate to be able to draw upon, and for this campaign, we created a team made predominantly of women, including those who are of perimenopause age, in order to provide a unique insight into the product and a deeper connection and understanding with our audience.”

Sarah Bolt, CEO and Founder at Forth, added: “As a woman who has experienced perimenopause, I instantly connected with the creative idea behind ‘Warrior’.  For too long women have been asked to suffer in silence and have been unaware of the changes happening within their bodies. Our mission at Forth is to empower women to become experts on their own body through scientific knowledge and understanding. The team at McCann instantly connected with our mission and showed their passion and understanding of the product right from our first meeting.

Louise Balmforth, Head of Growth at Forth, also commented: “With this being our first TV campaign for what is quite a complex product, the creative narrative had to be carefully curated. Not only is perimenopause still a sensitive topic for some women, but many do not realise their symptoms are due to this early transition to menopause.  We wanted to create that light bulb moment in a sensitive way that positioned Forth as the light at the end of what can be a very dark tunnel for women. McCann impressed from the start, immediately getting under the skin of the brief and the challenge we are wanting to address in women’s health. We are very excited to see our product reach a wider audience of women who are living with the uncertainty of perimenopause.”

 

Creative credits

 Creative Director: Mel Down

Art Director: Amy McGowan

Copywriter: Georgina Devonport

Producer: Kristen Clare

Director: Adam Riozzi

Production company: Fetch Films

Strategy: Jordan Adler

Senior Account Director: Alex Lake

Senior Account Manager: Abbey McGrane

Media: Chris Lucas

 

JonesMillbank, Bristol-based video production company, worked with Matter to help launch a Kickstarter campaign for their product, Gulp; the world’s first microplastics filter for washing machines.

Every time we do our laundry, up to 700,000 microfibres are released from our washing machines and pumped into our waterways.

Gulp captures these microplastics before the ocean does.

It’s the first, sustainable, long-lasting solution, with zero additional filter costs and no disposable parts.

JonesMillbank worked with Matter’s team, including Founder Adam Root and Product Director Lucas Horne to bring Adam’s story and Gulp’s technology to an audience across Kickstarter and social.

“Working closely with the team at Matter was a great experience; it’s always nice to work with a client who are open to and trustful of your ideas” said Russell Jones, Director at JonesMillbank, who was also scriptwriter and assistant director of the production.

“The fact that the story and product is green-purposed and aligned with our strategy and net zero credentials was a benefit to boot”.

Lucas Horne, Product Director at Matter said “JonesMillbank did a fantastic job in pulling together a compelling creative that really told the story of Gulp and Matter’s development in a captivating way and the campaign was fully funded in under 30 minutes.”

You can view and back the campaign at www.kickstarter.com/projects/aroot/gulp-self-cleaning-washing-machine-microplastic-filter and view the campaign content at jonesmillbank.com/work/matter/gulp-kickstarter.

***

JonesMillbank are a passionate full-service video production company

They work exclusively in-house with a talented team of multi-disciplined creatives, all the while telling authentic stories long before it was cool for a range of clients such as University of Bristol, IDLES, NHS England, The Royal Mint and Battersea.

jonesmillbank.com
01173706372
[email protected]

Torchbox, a leading digital agency for the not-for-profit / third sectors and founders of Wagtail CMS, is celebrating after winning a prestigious accolade at the 2022 Employee Ownership Association (EOA) Annual Conference.

The company, which became employee-owned in 2019 and which has offices in Bristol and Oxfordshire, scooped the EO Stories 2022 Delivering Good Leadership award at a Celebration Dinner at the ACC in Liverpool after coming out on top in a public vote.

It showcased in its entry how, having been founder-led, it set out to become more sustainable for the future after transitioning by finding ways to develop leaders across the company.

Torchbox transformed the way it works so employees can play a crucial role in its success – investing in training and leadership coaching to ensure the team leads and inspires each other. 

These changes in leadership and culture helped make Torchbox more sustainable, with better communication, and with increased productivity, enabling it to double its profit margin and become financially free within three years.

Torchbox CEO James Leavesley said: “Winning this award for the Good Leadership category is the icing on the cake for a significant year for all of us at Torchbox, as we are celebrating becoming financially free two years early!

“Our business has fundamentally changed; not only in our constitution and funding but most importantly in our mindset. Each and every one of us are owners and our focus is on creating value for existing and future Torchbox employees. 

“Like many agencies, we were very much founder-led, but over the last three years, we’ve been channelling this owner mindset to develop our people into leaders and custodians of the business. It’s a massive credit to the whole team for pulling together and working so hard. I feel proud of all we have achieved and excited about what’s ahead.”

In total, six businesses were crowned as EO Stories award winners at the EOA Conference Celebration Dinner.

The accolades highlighted best practice in ways in which businesses develop an effective employee ownership culture that leverages the benefits of employees having a stake and a say in the business.

The EO Stories 2022 competition celebrated the stories of employee-owned businesses and the impacts they are having on employees, the performance of the business, and on the economy and society.

The 28 insightful and inspiring stories submitted were put live for the public vote on EO Day, June 24, and thousands of votes were cast to establish a winner in each of the four categories – good leadership, good engagement, good governance or an outstanding EO culture.

Additionally, there were also two special prizes judged by EOA Trustee members and Celebration Dinner sponsors GLIDE and Gripple, and the President’s Pick award chosen by EOA President Patrick Lewis.

James de le Vingne, Chief Executive of the EOA, said: “The growth of the employee-owned sector in size and impact during such turbulent social and economic times highlights its relevance as a model for the future for the benefit of employees, business and communities. 

“The impact of the sector is greatly strengthened by the stories people are willing to share, which aids the learning and development of businesses looking to activate their employee ownership. 

“I’d like to congratulate Torchbox on its award and for the exceptional insight it has provided into one of the key pillars of good employee ownership – good leadership – which helps to unlock the potential of future employee-owners and businesses.”

Five new recruits, including Business Director and Media Director, join UM, McCann Bristol’s media operation

 

UM Bristol, part of McCann Bristol is strengthening its media operation with the appointment of five new team members, including a Business Director and Media Director, following a successful first half of the year for the agency.

The media team form part of the overall integrated creative services offer at McCann Bristol and provide media buying consultancy and delivery across all channels.

Georgia Vine-Thomas joins the team as Business Director, bringing with her a wealth of experience working in planning and managing media buying for a number of leading global network agencies across clients in entertainment, automotive, banking, tech, retail and travel. Her experience includes working with blue-chip brands such as P&O Cruises, Netflix, HSBC and Paramount.

Meanwhile, Aled Schell joins as Media Director, bringing over ten years’ experience working at independent media agencies and media owners.

In addition, the agency also welcomes Grace Perrett as Senior Media Manager, Beth Cooper as Media Executive and Shabrina Hidayat as Digital Media Executive.

Managing Director at McCann Bristol, Andy Reid, said: “The Bristol media operation has achieved great things so far this year and these new appointments are a reflection of the success and growth we are seeing in the business right now. It’s great to welcome five new members who will strengthen the Bristol team and drive even more success in the future.”

Georgia Vine-Thomas added: “I’m really excited to have joined Bristol’s media operation. It’s a brilliant opportunity to be a part of a growing media team which is producing excellent work for its clients, whilst evolving with a number of new joiners. Together, there is huge enthusiasm for what’s ahead!”

If you live in or regularly visit Bristol you will have noticed an explosion in film and TV production over recent years. Well, the popularity of the city as a location for shows on the big and small screen generated £20.8m in 2021/22 for the local economy. That’s the highest figure for a decade.

We’d love to know your favourite Bristol filmed movie or TV show. Tweet us at @Bristol_CI

The Outlaws, Chloe, Showtrial and The Girl Before are just some of the screen hits made in Bristol which contributed towards the record high in revenue. It compares with the pre-pandemic figure of £17m in 2019/20.

Success of film and TV production in Bristol

According to the data from Bristol Film Office, the amount of filming in Bristol rose 10% in 2021/22. There were 1,067 filming days at The Bottle Yard Studios and/or on location, with 709 licenses issued for filming on council-owned streets, properties and green spaces.

An example of a location is Bristol Creative Industries member Origin Workspace which was used in Stephen Merchant’s The Outlaws.

Some Doctor Who filming action in Bristol 🎥 #dwsr @BristolBID @BrisFilmOffice #Bristol #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/3r1P0R83Sw

— Bristol Creative Industries (@Bristol_CI) June 15, 2022

Laura Aviles, the senior film manager who oversees Bristol Film Office and The Bottle Yard Studios, said:

“These figures paint an extremely healthy picture for Bristol’s thriving film and TV sector. £20.8 million is the highest economic contribution generated by film and high-end TV production that we’ve seen in a decade, since the BBC took the decision to move Casualty’s production to Cardiff in 2011.

“The numbers were no surprise to our Film Office and Bottle Yard staff. We knew that production had kicked back into gear quickly after the production pause during the first lockdown in 2020.

“Since then, our teams have been busier than ever supporting productions on the ground. The skilled crew, companies and facilities we work alongside, all play a vital role in making Bristol one of the most film-friendly cities in the UK. With The Bottle Yard’s new TBY2 facility opening this Autumn, Bristol’s capacity for production is increasing significantly and we look forward to supporting more titles in the year ahead.”

The Fence, an independent movie set in 1980s Bristol, is showing in local Showcase cinemas for a week from today 🎥

Watch it and support #Bristol filmmakers!

Here’s the trailer: https://t.co/S2R2NRfPut@jaydeadams @TheFence_film pic.twitter.com/M0Yob0oykr

— Bristol Creative Industries (@Bristol_CI) September 2, 2022

Am I Being Unreasonable?, a new comedy starring Daisy May Cooper, is the latest Bristol filmed show to air on BBC One.

Executive producer Shane Allen said:

“Bristol proved a terrific choice for many practical reasons and in giving the show its identity. Aside from the well-run Bottle Yard base, there is a wealthy array of city and rural location options within a relatively short radius.

“There’s something of the soul of the West Country in Am I Being Unreasonable? which was creatively important to co-creator and co-writer Daisy May Cooper.

“Bristol is a very film friendly place, from cityscapes to bucolic beauty nearby, its versatility is impressive. Bristol is fast becoming the destination for shows and films with its advanced production infrastructure, experienced crews and superb locations.”

Daisy May Cooper on the set of Am I Being Unreasonable?, BBC/ Boffola Pictures/Alistair Heap

Daisy May Cooper on the set of Am I Being Unreasonable? (image: BBC/Boffola Pictures/Alistair Heap)

Councillor Craig Cheney added:

“Bristol’s film and TV sector is a valuable contributor not only to the city’s fiscal economy but to our social economy too. Despite the industry continuing to recover to its full strength post-pandemic, it’s clear to see the value brought to Bristol through the hundreds of productions supported this year.

“I’m delighted to see the sector continue to go from strength to strength and applaud the continued efforts of the Bristol Film Office and The Bottle Yard Studios in supporting this sector growth and continuing to meet our ambitions as a UNESCO City of Film.”

film and TV production in Bristol

Filmed on location with assistance from Bristol Film Office in 2021/22 (clockwise from top left): Sanditon (BritBox UK/Masterpiece); The Undeclared War (Channel 4/Peacock); The Lazarus Project (Sky Max); The Long Call (ITV)

The new Bristol Film Office figures follows other data released last year which showed how film and TV benefits the economy as a whole.

The Bristol Creative Industries year in review for 2021 outlined how the UK economy was been boosted by over £132m between 2019 and 2021 as a result of Netflix productions created in the South West of England.

Bristol Creative Industries 2021: A year in review


We’d love to know your favourite Bristol filmed movie or TV show. Tweet us at @Bristol_CI

Find brilliant Bristol-based production companies in the Bristol Creative Industries member directory.

Top image credit: The Outlaws series two (BBC One/Amazon Prime Video)

 

 

South Bristol charitable organisation, Heart of BS13, has been announced as the first winner of the city’s newly launched ‘Noble Deeds’ programme. The initiative will see Heart of BS13 receive a £12,000 package of digital marketing support. This will help it develop its social enterprise work to further support a healthy, thriving community in Hartcliffe and Withywood.

Already well established in North America, the Noble Deeds programme was launched at an event in Bristol in June by the Noble Performs UK team. Local charities and not-for-profits were invited to attend and hear more about the programme before crafting their entries.

Despite receiving entries from a number of extremely worthwhile organisations, the Noble Deeds UK committee had to select a winner. Heart of BS13 was chosen due to the crucial role it plays in the community to support people through the cost-of-living crisis and to improve health equality in the area.

Lorenzo Campbell, Noble Performs and chair of UK Deeds committee explains; “It was of course a tough decision to make with so many deserved Noble Deeds winners. However, after seeing the amazing work they are doing and how we could help them really engage people in the local community to build on this, it became an obvious winner.

“Not only does Heart of BS13 strive to become self-funded through social enterprise initiatives such as selling produce from its flower farm, on-site kitchen ready meals and unique outdoor event-hire space, it puts the benefit gained directly back into the community. The community fridge, outdoor volunteering and social opportunities are all focused on improving the health and wellbeing of the local community. There’s also a climate action and community stewardship of the local environment element to Heart of BS13, which really resonates with our own values at Noble Performs.”

The digital marketing support from the Noble Deeds programme comes at pivotal time for Heart of BS13 as it accelerates is social enterprises to offer more to the community.

Georgina Perry, chief executive, Heart of BS13 explains; “We are all thrilled to be the first UK community organisation to become part of the Noble Deeds programme. The past couple of years have seen us take stock of what we’re doing and which of our initiatives will help us most efficiently achieve the health outcomes we want in our local community. There’s so much passion and support for what we’re doing, the next stage in our evolution is about how we harness that and focus our efforts for maximum positive impact.

“Working with outside digital marketing experts will really help us to sharpen up our thinking around this and where we should focus our efforts to promote what we are doing. It’s also a great opportunity for our team here to build their digital skills through working with the Noble Performs team. We’ll be able to retain these skills for the future and make more informed decisions when we’re considering marketing activities.”

Helping clients such as Adobe, Rolls Royce, Air Asia and Yosemite with their international digital presence, Noble’s ambition is to replicate the scale of its Nevada Noble Deeds programme in Bristol as its UK footprint grows.

To find out more about Noble Performs go to https://nobleperforms.co.uk, to find out more about Heart of BS13 please visit https://heartofbs13.org.uk/

Bristol based agency, Flourish Direct Marketing, have been recognised as the ‘Best Email Marketing Agency’ in the South West of England in the Acquisition International Research & Development Awards.

Acquisition International launched the Research & Development Awards to acknowledge the work that goes into an often-overlooked industry. Indeed, many of the extraordinary advancements the public sees are due to the incredible efforts of the teams that worked tirelessly to bring a vision to reality. Awards Coordinator Holly Blackwood commented on the eve of the announcement: “It has been an absolute pleasure to speak to you all and find out how you continue to innovate and create in your respective industries. I wish you a fantastic rest of the year ahead.”

Flourish was first established in 2004 and has since built a team of around 50 specialists to deliver innovative customer journeys to their wide range of business clients. The news of their industry recognition comes alongside their recent announcement about joining independent agency collective, Harbour, as the dedicated CRM agency.

Paul Hammersley, Managing Partner, Harbour, said: “The understanding and management of customer journeys and experience are key parts of today’s marketing plans, so it’s essential that we have this capability at the heart of our offering. Flourish are one of the best independent agencies in this space, with an impressive leadership team, a strong client base and an excellent skillset across strategy, creative and media, making them the ideal CRM partner for Harbour Collective.”

Ian Reeves, Managing Director, Flourish, added: “We’re genuinely delighted to have received recognition for our contributions to improving best practice in the email community. We aim to help improve and implement a universal approach to email marketing that will not only benefit our clients, but all user experiences too. A huge thanks goes to our team for all their hard work.”

By all regards, the businesses featured in the 2022 edition of the Research & Development Awards showcase the importance of innovation, creativity, and future-thinking to the greater business landscape.

Acquisition International prides itself on its awards and winners. The awards are given solely on merit and are awarded to commend those most deserving for their ingenuity and hard work. To learn more about our award winners and to gain insight into the working practices of the “best of the best”, please visit the Acquisition International website http://www.acquisition-international.com) where you can access the winners supplement.

 

About Flourish

Flourish is a specialist CRM Agency, focused on the development and delivery of data-driven and creative communications and content in the B2C, B2B, B2G and NFP sectors. Based in Bristol, UK, the business opened its doors in March 2004. Since then, Flourish has extended its footprint with teams in both London and Dubai to support regional economic growth and a Global client portfolio.

With a heritage in Direct Marketing, Flourish has sector-leading CRM expertise, focusing on driving action at every stage in the Customer Journey, whilst acknowledging individual customers’ needs and circumstances. Flourish has helped brands like Samsung, Twitch, Coca-Cola, Nissan and Crisis revolutionise their approach to customer communications and, in-turn, maximise lifetime value through a blend of data, technical and activation solutions across a range of audiences, channels and touchpoints.

If you’d like to discuss how Flourish could help your business maximise the value of your customer audience then reach out to Ian Reeves via email on [email protected]

 

About Harbour

Harbour is an independent brand communication consultancy that sits at the heart of a collective of specialist agencies. It was launched in 2017 by Paul Hammersley (Managing Partner) who was joined by Mick Mahoney (Creative Partner) and Kev Chesters (Strategy Partner) in 2019. Its unique structure and client offering are designed as a contemporary alternative to the large legacy agency groups. Clients include McCarthy Stone, Tilney Smith & Williamson, The Athletic, BT, Match.com, Fitbit and John Lewis.

https://harbour.london

Flourish Lead Developer, Hussein Alhammad, is a founding member of the Email Markup Consortium (EMC). The EMC is a community-led group working to improve the user experience, accessibility, performance, consistency, and reliability of email markup. They have recently published an insightful report on the state of accessibility in HTML emails based on their analysis of over 35,000 emails.

More than 99% of the analysed emails had accessibility issues. This means most businesses are sending emails that are made difficult for a percentage of their audience to consume. Whether you are trying to increase conversion or simply communicate better with your customers, sending accessible HTML emails to your audience can make a huge difference.

Accessibility in email makes your products and services available to customers who are blind, colour blind, dyslexic or need to use assistive technologies or alternative input device – potentially a large proportion of your customer base.

Automated testing is immensely helpful, but more attention is required to truly produce accessible HTML emails. Accessibility work should be a core part of all stages – not only implemented during development, after everything has been decided already.

For example, design has a major impact on the accessibility of your email. Designers should consider colour choices and typography, as well as the dark mode friendly images.

There are also best practices to apply when writing copy for your emails, such as avoiding ‘click here’ calls to action, optimising SEO for email, and making the most of personalisation and creative subject lines.

Your unique audience could be more diverse than you think. Therefore, translation software can be considered an assistive technology. And when it comes to email, many email clients including Gmail and Outlook have a built-in translation feature. Ensuring any text that is critical to delivering your message is not embedded in an image is crucial here. Translation software is not going to translate embedded text for the user. You could make key information inaccessible by embedding it in an image.

Do you need help with improving your email accessibility, deliverability or generally your CRM practices when it comes to communicating with your audience? The Flourish team are here to help. Working alongside our in-house experts like Hussein, we can help you optimise, elevate and transform your use of email to deliver the best customer experience. Get in touch to discuss your challenges and to request a free email review.

Over the past decade I have painstakingly built a remote dev team. It took me from being a cash- and time-poor freelancer to owning something I can respectably call a web development agency.

But the process is far from straightforward, there are many pitfalls for the uninitiated, so I’ve put together this checklist for hiring remote devs.

Of course, if you’d rather not build your own dev team, you can always use ours! Our contact details are below.

The checklist:

✅ Be very clear about what you’re looking for

This sounds obvious but the first time I did this I made the mistake of just shortlisting loads of candidates without being highly specific about what I was looking for. Whatever criteria are on your list, make sure these items are too:
1️⃣ Reliability. Obvs!
2️⃣ Communication skills. It doesn’t matter how good someone is – if they can’t communicate well with you, your team, and your clients, then it isn’t going to work.
3️⃣ Adequate equipment to do the job properly. A good enough computer, connection, work room etc. etc.. Figure it out in advance.

✅ Respect your applicants. Create and share a clear protocol.

Tell people in your first contact with them how you plan to conduct the hiring process.
Respect their time – you’re likely to annoy good candidates if you forget that they’re busy people just like you.
The relationships you form should be mutually beneficial & respectful.
So do not allow the availability of plentiful skilled foreign labour at low rates (by your standards) give you a power trip: this leads to the worst kind of neo-colonial attitudes & will make you a terrible employer.

✅ CVs are meaningless. Create a test.

Interviews can tell you whether or not a person can communicate, and MAYBE whether they’re going to be fun to work with.
But for determining skills and abilities, they’re useless.
So set them an arthurian challenge. If they can successfully complete x then they get the job. Make it fun.
But … DO NOT be tempted to let candidates loose on client work (even if you’re paying them). For all you know they might wreck something, possibly your reputation.
Dan Norris (author of The 7 Day Startup and the man who launched WPCurve in a week: a very inspiring guy) talked about creating a dummy website similar to his clients’ sites and having candidates log in and perform various tasks on that as an aptitude test.

✅ Accept some level of risk – but always protect your interests

Even after 1) checking someone can communicate and 2) putting them somehow to the test, you still don’t know very much about this person.
There is still a good chance that they’re not the right fit. And there is a chance (very small) that they might be actively dishonest.
Tread carefully, especially at first, and protect yourself. Use your common sense. I would suggest not sharing client contact info or server/service passwords.

✅ Create a corporate culture you feel proud of

If you are transitioning from a 1 person company to a 2 person company then for the first time you’ll have to think about “culture”. It’s down to you to create one! How you behave towards your team not only creates the atmosphere in which you must (all) exist during your working days, it permeates your client relationships and your supplier relationships as well.
This is your legacy. Consider it.

✅ Build the relationship

Your relationship with a remote worker needs to be built up gradually, but this process takes place over strange, de-humanising platforms like video, text chat and project management software.
You are aiming for a situation – and this won’t happen overnight – where you can trust each other with money, client contacts, server credentials etc., and where you know that you can depend on each other when the pressure is on.
This cuts both ways.
In the early days a big risk is that your new worker will ghost you.
This is rude and annoying but sometimes people find it easier to just vanish (and lose their job) than to ask difficult questions or admit that they don’t know how to do something.
You can mitigate this risk by being super-approachable yourself and by fostering a culture where people are open and safe to expose their vulnerabilities.
This takes bravery and hard work – emotional work.
It will pay off in lasting relationships and decent behaviour all round.

✅ PAY (and I can’t stress this enough) ON TIME. EVERY SINGLE TIME.

In all relationships, but especially in trans-continental, electronic ones, you’re only as good as your word. So if you lost that, that you’ve lost everything.
Don’t make excuses.
Pay on time.
There have been times when the rest of my life has been collapsing around my ears and I’ve had to sell investments at the bottom of the market in order to keep to my word, but I did it and so must you.
This is about self-interest sure, but it’s also about not being an asshole.
As someone’s boss your scope for making someone’s life undyingly miserable is pretty much as high as it’s ever been (kind of like being a parent).
Don’t forget that and don’t abuse your power.

✅ Practicalities

Decide in advance – so you can answer questions – how you’ll handle practical issues such as
👉 Hours. Do you care, or will it be results oriented?
👉 Public holidays. Obviously they’re different in different countries.
But to avoid misunderstandings your employment contract (did I mention that? you’ll need one, even if you don’t “need” one, then you need one) should stipulate exactly which days are to be worked and which not.
👉 Sick leave. It’s a thing.
👉 Annual leave.
👉 Payment frequency (I suggest weekly for the trial period to build mutual trust then monthly or twice a month to keep transaction costs down)
👉 Payment method. I’ve used worldremit.com (not affiliated). This works great but once on a work trip to Hong Kong I found out (on pay day) that it didn’t work from there. I had to trek across rush hour HK at the last minute to find a remittance centre which would take my money. This was the closest I’ve come to missing pay day & not a nice moment.

✅ Systematise everything (but not too soon)

A good motto (for lots of things) is “Don’t a dick to your future self”. Document everything you learn. You don’t know when you’ll need it.
But don’t make the mistake of over-systematising or systematising too early. Figure out the best way to onboard new hires manually, and simply make notes. When the time comes that your hires are making hires, these notes will come in very handy.

In conclusion – don’t be an asshole. But you knew that.

That’s it from me. Thanks for reading!

If you need to get some development work done and would like to skip the time, expense and risk of building your own team, use ours! Ugli is a multi-disciplined web and software dev team with all the skills you need to get your projects out the door, on time and at very competitive rates. Get in touch any time on [email protected]

Digital Gaggle, the best inbound conference for marketers in the South West, returns on Thursday 13th October to the Watershed in Bristol with tickets now on sale.

Get inspired 💡

Turn your digital marketing strategy into a roaring success with inspiration from a bumper line-up of industry experts speaking on topics like SEO, social media, CRO, Analytics, UX, Strategy, Creative and more:

Visual Search – Tools and Tactics | Crystal Carter, Head of SEO Communications at Wix

The Mad Science of Data-Driven Creativity | Richard Cook, Social Media Manager at Monzo

Get Paid To Do Nothing with Marketing Automation | Andy Thornton, Senior HubSpot Executive at Noisy Little Monkey

Google Analytics 4 | Jill Quicks, Analytics Consultant and Trainer at The Colouring In Department

How Not To Be A Git. Data Ethics In Digital Marketing | Rowenna Fielding, Professional Data Protection Nerd at Miss IG Geekd

Get your tickets.

Meet people 💜

If you’re an in-house marketer looking to meet new people in the industry, snag best practice advice, and get the creative juices flowing ahead of your next marketing campaign, Digital Gaggle is the event for you. 

Proof is in the… testimonials 💬

Here’s what previous Gaggle attendees had to say about the day.

“Great energy. Lovely welcoming crowd of like minded souls. Interesting speakers”

“Different kind of vibe, expert speakers, talks not too long, great randomised networking”

“Genuinely interesting and interactive talks full of the latest trends and ideas to take home”

Don’t miss out ❗️

A limited number of tickets are on sale with 30% off until Friday 30th September.

🔜 Bag your place before tickets sell out.