At Adapt, Covid-19 has provided us with plenty of positive insights. One key change we are focusing on is how we view our engagement with our offices and physical spaces.
As we come out of lockdown, we are fully embracing what we have learned these past 12 months across our 2,000+ global Welocalize workforce and we refuse to revert to how it was before.
We know we can do a whole lot more, and by that, we mean we will be more forward-thinking, more innovative, more flexible and more people-focused.
We will stick to our word and provide a better environment for our team. We want to focus on providing people with a sustainable work/life balance, as well as a more enjoyable future work environment.
We have one underlying principle: to encourage people to take ownership of their own time and how they choose to engage with our physical spaces when our teams are safe to return. In short, we want to ensure people are given the trust and therefore flexibility to work in a way they feel most productive.
Our working habits have changed. This pandemic has accelerated some principles for work that may have arrived in the future, but we are very lucky to be able to embrace these in 2021 – far earlier than we would have been able to over the next decade without Covid-19.
We have very clear, tangible data across our global workforce that shows we simply do not need to gather everyone that works for a business in the same four walls every day to deliver for our clients, be productive and work well together. And our results prove quite the opposite – some of these trends have improved in the last year.
Over the last 12+ months, our teams in the UK and globally at Welocalize have proven that we can deliver amazing results and work for clients regardless of location.
We have plans to grow our footprint internationally and already have major international hubs in Barcelona, Beijing, London, NYC and Portland.
On top of that, we have shared spaces all over the world for our teams to gather, meet clients and build face-to-face connections.
Embracing a more dynamic way of working, less focused on specific locations and more focused on how we best serve our teams and clients will make us a far stronger business in the future and better able to serve our clients.
We have learned to embrace this far better than we could before the pandemic. And it is now time to take those findings into the future and shape our culture.
First and foremost, we want to facilitate our teams spending time together should they choose to, and we will do this by providing inspiring collaborative spaces around the world at Welocalize for people to gather on their own terms, with colleagues and clients.
Where we have clusters of employees and clients, we will invest in collaborative spaces for people to use to their own benefit and to fuel their own productivity.
As a result, we are opening a new collaborative space in Bristol city centre.
This new space, ready to use when it is safe to do so, will give us a great opportunity to stay true to our new direction… to better support our team and clients where we have a strong presence.
We could not be more excited to have a Bristol base to socialize and build stronger rapports and support the networking and growth of our team relationships.
Do you like our new approach to working? Do you want to work for a business that trusts you and gives you this kind of flexibility and has an international outlook?
We have many current roles open across our business! Click here for Adapt and Welocalize careers.
This was a really exciting web development project for a record label with a whole lot of history.
Blue Raincoat Music have been representing musicians and releasing music for decades and their back catalogue is a variety of genres and disciplines.
That mix of artists was part of the enjoyment of this project as I ended up listening to a huge range of music – from Laura Marling to Phoebe Bridgers …via Chesney Hawkes.
The build of this website involved a custom WordPress theme built to display all of their artists from decades past, to the present day.
I used Advanced Custom Fields in order to make the site completely customisable by the client.
The site gives each artist their own page where their videos, music and contact details are all displayed. This required integration with the YouTube and Spotify APIs to deliver the video and audio content.
Animation is subtle throughout the site and includes small transitions on content to make the site feel alive. I also added some animations on the page load so that each page transition feels smooth.
This site also has a particular emphasis on accessibility. Google have increased the importance of accessibility in their algorithm, and rightly so, and this site scores in the mid-to-high nineties on Lighthouse in regards to accessibility.
This means that it is user-friendly and easy to use for site users with any kind of impairment.
In particular, for users with visual impairment, the site is easily navigable using a screen reader. I stuck to some of the base principles of accessible web design, some of which are laid out by the The Accessibility Project, including:
– Titles for navigation and <a> tags
– Image alt tags
– Labelling of Primary and Mobile navigation
– Using appropriate page headers
Do you have a small business that you are trying to grow? There are a lot of balls to keep in the air when you’re just starting out, or when you are in the first couple of years of running a business. You need to market yourself, get the leads coming in, keep existing customers happy, have an eye on the finances, and of course try to enjoy yourself! After all, that’s probably the reason you set up a small business in the first place! But as the business grows, it can become more and more difficult to keep all those balls in the air.
The tipping point
There is often a tipping point that is reached and sometimes breached, before we accept we need help. Sometimes because we want to keep every aspect of the business under our own control, or sometimes because we don’t realise how much we’re struggling, until it gets so bad our body or mind give us away.
Perhaps you’ve realised you need help, but you can’t really afford to take someone else on a sustained full-time salary just yet. Perhaps it just feels like too big a task to let anything go. If this sounds like you, this is where outsourcing to freelancers can allow you to have your cake and eat it!
Changing priorities
Marketing is a common outsourced discipline. Some larger companies use big agencies to take care of all their marketing needs, but a lot of smaller businesses retain control of managing the overall strategy, while outsourcing some of the ‘doing’ to a freelance writer, social media expert or marketeer.
Company blogs are a good example of how things can start to slip as business gets busier. A new start-up sets up a blog to gain new business. They grow awareness, position themselves, and achieve their search engine ranking and then as the leads start coming in, the blog diminishes. It’s not a criticism, it’s a time-consuming aspect of any marketing campaign that can be incredibly hard to stay on top of once the business is doing well. And your priority must be focussing on the customers that need something from you day to day. However, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. If you have a business blog that was bringing you inbound leads and improving your SEO, you don’t have to let it go.
The business blog you want, without the work
The aim of the Blog Write Blog is to be a source of tips and advice for small to medium businesses who want to build and maintain a blog. However, I completely acknowledge that once your blog is up and running and doing what you wanted it to do, it can be difficult to stay on top of it for the long term. Particularly as your venture grows. Small businesses or start-up companies that want to grow an online presence, but don’t have the time to do it themselves may be able to find an affordable helping hand from a local freelance copywriter.
Find the best fit
Different copywriters will work with you in different ways, so take the time up front to find the best fit for your business. For example, you may be ready to hand everything over from the beginning, in which case you’ll need someone who once briefed, can come up with topics and write the blog for you to sign off. Or, if you would like to keep a little more control, plenty of freelancers will happily take a list of topics you would like to cover and a brief for each one and work their way through the list.
A good copywriter won’t be precious about their writing either, so just because they’ve submitted a blog post to you doesn’t mean you’re obligated to post it immediately with no changes. Particularly in the beginning you should expect to make a few changes while your new copywriter learns your voice. But, if you are prepared to build a working relationship with one person, they will soon be producing content that you would have been proud to write yourself.
If you have a small business that’s gathering pace to the point you don’t know which way to turn, drop me an e-mail today at [email protected] for more information about my blog copywriting services.
It’s that time of year again! The South West Design and Digital Student (SWDDS) Awards are upon us once more, and the clock is ticking for students to enter the competition, with only 10 days left until submissions close on Friday May 14th.
The competition, hosted by us here at Proctor and Stevenson (P+S), offers final-year students studying in the South West of England and South Wales a chance to win amazing prizes for their creative work.
Up for grabs this year, is £4,000 in cash, opportunities for networking, industry exposure, a portfolio review, and a paid work placement with P+S. Not bad eh?
The awards are a chance for students to prove that they’re the best in the South West, and the next up-and-coming stars of the creative industry.
The brief, you ask? There isn’t one.
Students can enter any project – including previous university projects – as long as it falls into one of the below categories and it’s their own work. We’re looking for projects that demonstrate commercial value, meet a market, cultural, and/or social demand, and that showcase how they will be rolled out as a campaign across multiple channels.
Our three categories for this year are:
Our panel of expert judges will carefully select 10 finalists, who will be invited for 25-minute virtual interviews, where they’ll have the opportunity to present their entries, explain their thinking behind the projects and why they’re deserving of the prize, and also receive a portfolio review of their wider body of work. Last year’s projects were exceptional; you can check out the 2020 finalists’ projects here.
Out of our 10 finalists, 3 lucky winners will be selected, announced at our digital awards ceremony on June 10th.
All 3 winners will be awarded £1,000, with one crowned as our 2021 Ultimate Creative Champion, and granted an extra £3,000! Any of our 10 finalists could also be selected for a paid 3-month work placement with us here at P+S.
We pick the crème de la crème of the industry to judge our awards. Ready to meet this year’s line up?
Powered by P+S, and sponsored by Bristol-based printers Taylor Brothers, the awards were launched by our very own MD Roger Proctor, as part of his ongoing campaign to tackle how institutions approach design education.
Over the years, Rog had noticed something about design graduates leaving university: often they had exceptional talent, but no commercial experience. A big problem, when creating a commercially-viable concept that clients and customers will buy into is half the job!
Frustrated by the lack of culture and creativity funding anywhere west of London, he also wanted to do something to celebrate local talent. The South West and South Wales are bursting with creative flair, with their vibrant cities, bustling creative networks, and brimming art venues.
Plus, the awards are specifically designed to be as accessible as possible. We know a lot of students have limited free time –especially those who need to work alongside their degree – so they can choose to enter an already existing project from their course.
To make sure you don’t miss any of our updates, like our Facebook page and register your interest here. Our FAQs page is also a handy resource – and if you haven’t already, check out last year’s winners for some hints and tips.
Drop us a line at [email protected]if you have any questions, or to find out more.
It goes without saying, 2020 was just a small departure from the norm for most of us. But there were a few silver linings peppered throughout the year.
Here at Proctors, for example, our video department experienced the highest growth we’ve ever seen. We’ve been moving into new markets, offering entirely new products and generally adding more polish.
So better late than never – yes, we know it’s a quarter of the way into 2021 – here’s a look at some of 2020’s more notable projects.
Cast your mind’s eye back to the heady days of January 2020. After months of planning and strategic plotting, we’d just begun to organise a full contact rugby-inspired shoot for Panasonic TOUGHBOOK. What could possibly go wrong?…
We’ll let you fill in that particular blank.
Not to be defeated, we turned to industry union BECTU’s superb COVID webinars and guides to get ourselves up to speed on how to plan and run a COVID-safe shoot.
Shooting under COVID restrictions comes with its challenge, but that doesn’t have to mean bloating up a lean budget. So, we set a small, tight-knit group to work. Clear communication is key, and after a quick socially-distanced scrum we formed a new plan: turn the shoot into a training day, and put ex-British and Irish Lions Captain and all-round rugby legend, Sam Warbuton, through his paces, alongside our leading Panasonic TOUGHBOOK tablet.
One risk assessment, a few tracing forms and a quick change into PPE later, we were ready to go. Shot across two days, we produced a huge amount of video content –enough for a full, multi-channel campaign showing how TOUGHBOOK and Sam ‘Lead from the Front’.
Fourth-best performing Panasonic landing page ever
Outperformed main TOUGHBOOK website
After getting to grips with COVID shooting, we met our next challenge: to produce a TV ad which would promote Daikin’s range of eco-friendly heat pumps.
This time, we had a number of parameters upfront: A list of features we needed to advertise, a total run length to the frame, the need to push content through Adstream and Clearcast to ensure it was TV-ready, a Mosaic profile of consumers to target, plus the need to make the ad look like it was shot in the winter months, whilst filming it on one of the hottest days of the year.
Oh, and did we mention we had just four weeks to turn it all around?
A solid team effort pieced the ad together in record speed: it was written, prepped, casted, shot, edited, titled and graded, ready for delivery in just under four weeks. The result is testament to our team’s perseverance and the great relationships which allow them to accomplish huge amounts, together.
Second most-viewed Daikin YouTube video ever
630,000 page views from 216,000 visitors
How do you make a film about software that’s akin to a Mary Poppins’ magic bag of employee training – without losing your viewers’ attention by explaining every last detail?
Bud’s training management platform is built to solve the pain points that training providers are up against. But with online attention spans sitting between the 2 to 3-minute mark, our challenge was to wrap up the platform’s benefits into a succinct, engaging video and encourage people to book a demo for more info.
Luckily, we had the Bud team’s great branding to work with as a jumping-off point. Their bold, clean appearance meant we could use some technicolour flair to design an equally bright and brilliant visual style. We extended Bud’s multi-coloured logo form into a visual suite of colourful geometric shapes and key lines which would simply and elegantly represent the simplicity of the platform. We then brought these shapes to life with various motion techniques and sound editing, interspersed with shots of the platform in action.
The resulting video echoes the vibrancy, enthusiasm and enjoyment Bud’s users rediscover in their work with the help of this all-in-one platform. It’s not just any old, animated infographic. It’s a masterclass in engaging video.
Bud have only just launched their film, so right now we can only wax lyrical about how chuffed they were with our work. But watch this space for soon-to-come results…
2020 was the year of video calls and streaming. The working day became a flurry of Zoom calls, Teams meetings, Skype sessions, webinars and virtual conferences – not to mention the evenings spent helping your nan figure out FaceTime.
But there was something missing: a way to professionally and consistently brand your self-generated videos, ready for recording, live-streaming and sharing. So we put together a video toolkit for our clients.
These toolkits pull some of the most commonly required and useful assets into one package; from lower thirds, to intro and outro sequences, title screens and transitions, along with a few extra, bespoke assets depending on what our clients need. We provide them in an editable format, so they work with pretty much any software you use, meaning you’re always on-brand.
They’ve proven truly cost-effective – both to produce, and for our clients to deploy. Meaning less room for errors (like accidentally becoming the world’s first Lawyer Cat).
A comprehensive Video Toolkit for Panasonic, Sanlam and P+S
Fully-branded virtual conferences for Panasonic and UKHO
2020 was a struggle for any business. But some services were hit harder than others.
Rather than produce our typical Christmas video of jolly japes, we donated our time and resources to local charity, Caring in Bristol. Their amazing work includes providing hot meals, shelter, medical care and support to people experiencing homelessness within Bristol. But donations often suffer during times of national hardship, so we needed to rally the local troops and call them to donate to this well-deserving cause.
So we created a film. But don’t expect your typical ‘pulling on the heartstrings’ donation message. We wanted to celebrate Bristol culture: the edgy, vivacious spirit of our city, calling our Bristolian family to action, and secured their much-needed donations in the run up to Christmas. But with COVID restrictions meaning we weren’t able to film the city and its people in action, we had to get creative.
We went full force with a script and art direction that entertained, with plenty of nods to local celebrities, inventions and fabulous quirks, while delivering the cold hard stats about people experiencing homelessness. Using graphics and animation to make the message as uplifting and entertaining as possible, we were able to create a powerful film which called for an end to homelessness in our city – for good.
Over £20,000 funds raised in under two weeks
60% of all social engagement in December
At Proctors, our team of videographers, animators, motion designers and script-writers have been making award-winning, show-stopping video for decades. And we believe each of our clients has something to say.
From the tech behemoths and the multi-international market leaders, right down to local, grassroots charities changing the world one view at a time. Whatever story you have to tell, we’ll help you share it with the world. Talk to Proctors, today.
Bristol’s world-renowned product development agency Kinneir Dufort (KD), has launched a new initiative, XXEquals – the UK’s first majority female team designing products for women across the consumer, industrial and medical markets.
Fuelled by the growing need to design more female-centred products, and to improve the gender balance in the design industry, XXEquals is already working on projects including smart femcare solutions, sustainable period products, voice recognition software, and futures research.
KD has previously developed pioneering women-centred products including a revolutionary breast scanning bed.
Comprising a multi-disciplinary collective of KD experts – 75% of whom are women – XXEquals is pushing for better gender balance across product development, in a move which is set to potentially benefit millions of female consumers worldwide and KD’s global blue chip clients.
The initiative breaks new ground in the product design industry, and is helping to pave the way for young women interested in careers in product and industrial design.
KD’s CEO, Merle Hall, says: “We are incredibly proud to be the first UK consultancy in the product design industry with an arm which pro-actively focuses on products and experiences for women. It feels like there is truly a need to bring more women to the forefront of innovation and product design.
“XXEquals offers female-focused insight and an empathic design approach, resulting in innately intuitive products. We need to develop a deeper consideration of the physiological or psychological differences for female users.
“As an agency with a strong purpose – to design a better world – we feel it is our responsibility to instigate change. We are proof that a better gender balance is possible in the product design industry and we would love to support other businesses driving equality where possible.
“We’re not where we want to be yet, representative of the world around us, but we’re focused on our goals. It’s important to us to remember that men always need to be part of the solution too, so we draw on the brilliant expertise of our male strategists, researchers, designers, engineers and makers, who are well versed in allyship and also very engaged in the initiative.”
Around half of the world’s population is female and women buy 85% of household products, yet data shows only 5% of the product and industrial design industry is female.
With the femtech market predicted to reach $50 billion by 2025 and 93% of women currently buying over-the-counter healthcare products, the business case for gender balance in this industry is powerful.
Merle Hall continues: “Without expert female representation throughout the innovation and development process now, more opportunities will be missed to leverage real life experience and create brands and products which close the gap between assumption and reality.
“XXEquals launches as we are seeing women being adversely affected by Covid, and shortly after the issuing of a Government call-out for views to inform the new Women’s Health Strategy for England, which aims to change the male-by-default approach to health and care system.”
KD has longstanding partnerships to help solve the design industry’s gender balance issue. One is with Kerning the Gap, a campaign to encourage more women into leadership roles in the industry.
Founder, Nat Maher: “I think XXEquals will be highlighting an issue that has been long understood and long accepted, and it should be accepted no more. But also, what I think KD will do as pioneers is work with their peers to work out how they get better at it. KD wants change for the industry, and not just for itself. That is why XXEquals has my full and unbridled support.”
KD’s CDO, Craig Wightman adds: “As a man working in design, I have, for too long, felt uncomfortable about the number of situations I’ve observed or been directly involved with, where products used by women are conceptualised, designed and developed by men. That is not to say that male designers cannot design well for women, but why would you not want to have your audience and users better reflected in your design and decision-making team? It just makes sense.
“I have always felt that it’s important to have respect for the people we are designing for. It is about empathy and putting yourself in the shoes of the product user. Having a more gender-balanced team is an important part of achieving that goal.”
The below XXEquals podcast episode is now available:
Twitter: twitter.com/xxequals
Instagram: www.instagram.com/xxequals
For more information visit: www.XXEquals.com and www.kinneirdufort.com.
Proctor + Stevenson, one of the UK’s longest-established marketing, design and technology agencies, today announced the formation of Proctor + Stevenson Limited Group and with it, the creation of three new companies within its family.
The three new businesses – Proctor + Stevenson Strategy, Proctor + Stevenson Creative and Proctor + Stevenson Technology – reflect the key areas of specialism within the Group, and provide a roadmap for expansion, outlining an ever-growing range of services to clients around the world.
The move represents a division of the business into three ‘pillars’, with each company having its own Board of Directors, budgets and targets, while still benefiting from the shared resources and services provided by the Group.
“Despite the challenges of the past 12 months, Proctor + Stevenson has enjoyed a year of success,” explains Roger Proctor, Managing Director of Proctor + Stevenson Limited Group. “This is a time of great change and opportunity for us, and we’ve always believed that staying still is actually going backwards. Our new structure will not only mean greater transparency and accountability for our clients, it will also allow the businesses within the Group to be more flexible, more independent and provide more value in the areas it’s most needed.
“The restructuring is the next chapter in the Proctor + Stevenson story, demonstrating once again our desire to lead, rather than follow, and to enhance our position as a world-class agency with a world-class (and expanding) roster of clients. And while our ambitions are global, the new companies will remain as committed as ever to the local community in which we live and work. As a business, we’re Bristol born and bred, and we’re proud contributors to the ongoing success of the South West and the UK.”
For more information on the Proctor + Stevenson group of companies, or to discuss our services in more detail, please email [email protected].
The West of England Combined Authority (WECA) is launching a new business support programme for businesses and individuals working in the creative industries, as part of its Regional Recovery Plan.
The programme is aimed at small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) working in the creative industries, including creative freelancers, that require support as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The sector specific business support programme is designed to build resilience and support change in response to Covid-19. It will offer support for individuals and management teams to reformulate operating and financial models and business plans through mentoring, peer networks and training and workshops.
There will also be grants for creative projects that support recovery and resilience. A grant fund for creative freelancers will give self-employed people the opportunity to become more resilient by developing their own creative product, practice or service, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. A grant fund for creative businesses will fund creative projects that support recovery and resilience, employ freelance creatives, engage local communities and advance diversity and inclusion.
Grants will range from £1,000 to £3,000 for freelancers and £5,000 to £10,000 for businesses.
Regional Mayor Tim Bowles said: “Our cultural and creative industries really are the soul of the West of England and are an important contributor to our wider economy. As we secure our recovery from the impact of Covid-19, this much-needed support will help ensure that our creative businesses can continue to provide exciting and engaging jobs, attract new commercial opportunities and help ensure the West of England remains an exciting and vibrant place to live and work.”
The business support programme has been designed in consultation with members of the creative and cultural sector, with a focus on recovery from the pandemic and the priorities of inclusivity, diversity and community engagement.
The programme also fits with WECA’s ambitions to establish a West of England Cultural Compact, an initiative jointly funded with Arts Council England. This will involve the creation of a new strategic cultural partnership which will lead on the development of a Cultural Strategy and new activities to help increase investment across the creative and cultural sectors in region.
Professor Sue Rigby, Vice-Chancellor of Bath Spa University, West of England LEP board member and interim chair of the Cultural Compact, said: “Culture is part of our DNA in the West of England, and so many of us value it and earn our livings from it. The pandemic has highlighted our need for culture as a key part of our recovery, and the Cultural Compact will help us to bring this about as a region.
WECA will also be running the fourth cohort of its successful Creative Scale Up programme, which is already providing almost 60 creative businesses with online peer and mentoring support to help them respond to the impact of Covid-19.
Since joining the programme in January 2020, Bristol-based independent development studio and games consultancy Auroch Digital has secured a new publishing deal and taken on 15 new members of staff.
Dr Tomas Rawlings (pictured), Chief Executive of Auroch Digital, said: “The Creative Scale Up programme, particularly the mentoring process, was great – we were able to pick mentors targeting specific needs we have. We got direct support with business questions as they arose and that helped us deal with them and move forward.
“As a result, we’ve been able to advance some key areas of the company. We’ve landed one big publishing deal for a new IP game and are circling a second big project, and that mentoring advice has been part of the mix of positives getting us there. Information provided by the Creative Scale Up team also led us to a UWE Digital Innovation Fund grant.”
Creative businesses wanting to find out more about the new business support programme, grant funds and the Creative Scale Up scheme should visit WECA’s Growth Hub page.
The Culture and Creative Industry Business Support Programme and grant funds are a key part of the West of England Recovery Taskforce’s regional action plan to protect and secure jobs, creating opportunities for all residents to share in the recovery. As part of this, WECA’s Together West of England campaign is connecting businesses with the support and guidance they need to adapt, build resilience and prepare for the future, as well as helping residents to access new skills, training and employment opportunities.
Through the West of England Growth Hub businesses of any size in the West of England can access free information and guidance on a variety of issues including workforce planning, HR advice and guidance, employability support, training and skills development and coaching.
We’ve re-launched!
“Creativity is the Cure ™”
Ted Talker Anne Thistleton headlines virtual event around the power of creativity in decision-making
We’re extremely excited to announce that at Create Health we have re-launched under the banner “Creativity is the Cure ™”. Committed to injecting a dose of creativity into healthcare communications, we kicked off the re-launch with a virtual event headlined by renowned TedX talker, ex-global marketer and Mind Science practitioner, Anne Thistleton.
This re-launch comes 12 months after our management buy-out led by Ed Hudson, managing director, and Phil Blackmore, creative director. It’s been an exciting year as we also secured an investment of £500,000 from Creative Growth Finance from Creative England in October 2020.
“We firmly believe that Creativity is the Cure™ for the future of healthcare communications – it’s behind everything we do at Create Health, and we’re really excited to share this more widely. Brilliant ideas aren’t just good for business, they make a positive difference to healthcare professionals and their patients. We need to appeal to the subconscious mind, not the rational one, if we truly want to change behaviour, and our creative campaigns have shown this time and again,” comments our creative director, Phil Blackmore.
Underlining the proposition, ex-The Coca-Cola Company marketer and Mind Science expert, Anne Thistleton, took the role of Keynote Speaker at our virtual re-launch event, sharing her wealth of insights around Mind Science and how to unlock behaviour change by appealing to the subconscious mind. A massive thank you to those who attended the event as well as those who took part in the panel discussion around the challenges of reaching the audience and the power of creativity: Anne Thistleton, Karen Hand, global marketing director of ConvaTec; Craig Wightman, chief design officer of Kinneir Dufort, and Andy Milsom, CEO, Kanjo App.
Now 14-strong, we welcomed a raft of new hires last year including Polly Buckland, strategy director, and its first in-house animator, Matt Sugrim. Carrie Fick joined us as marketing manager last month too. We’re thrilled to unveil our new branding and a refreshed website as part of the re-launch.
Ed Hudson, our managing director, added: “Marketing theory is based on the assumption that minds – especially scientific ones – think rationally and make decisions along rational lines. But that’s not true – as is underscored by Mind Science experts like Anne. We’ve seen countless times that it’s the truly creative campaigns rather than the rational ones that have the biggest impacts on brand and buying behaviour in healthcare. Decision-making is led by the sub-conscious mind, and that’s why our most creative brands, grounded in insights, are the most powerful ones.”
Bristol educator boomsatsuma is expanding, teaming up with George Ferguson to drive for change, with new studios in the Tobacco Factory, to host four creative BA (Hons) degrees.
Work is underway installing the purpose-built education facility, which will welcome students in September 2021. It will comprise two new film studios, a screening lecture space, computer suite, games lab, darkroom and specially designed creative space, where students can develop and discuss ideas in an inspiring environment.
Mark Curtis, boomsatsuma director, states:
“We’re very excited to be located at the Tobacco Factory, what a great place to live, learn and tap into the opportunities afforded by the Bristol Creative industries. Tobacco Factory’s success perfectly illustrates what can be achieved by and for the people of our city. This is a significant investment for the future, bringing higher education into this part of the city, which we expect will enrich opportunity in the area to fuel the next creative generation, for film production with a progressive cross-over into virtual production and the games industry. If you want to see change do something different.”
The new degrees have all been accredited by Bath Spa University, whose Head of School of Creative Industries, Dr Susan McMillan, who is also a board member of Bristol Creative Industries, is excited at the potential positive, saying:
“I am a huge supporter of boomsatsuma: they are reaching parts that Universities and other colleges cannot reach, as well as developing future creative talent in new and exciting ways.
“The creative industries deliver significant economic, social and reputational value to Bristol, the region, and the UK’s economy. The pandemic has had a negative effect on education and severely compromised the future for young people. boomsatsuma and their move to the Tobacco Factory creates a real opportunity to lead on rebuilding our creative sector by nurturing and developing the socially diverse, creative young talent, creative employers will need, post-pandemic.”
Freya Billington, newly appointed course director of boomsatsuma’s two new BA (Hons) Filmmaking degrees – production and post-production – enthuses about the new facility:
“In keeping with boomsatsuma’s ethos, this degree has been designed alongside our industry partners to specifically address where the skill shortages are and help develop graduates that are completely prepared and ready for employment. The two pathways, Production and Post-Production, allow for students to engage with and develop an understanding of the whole filmmaking process but also specialise up to a professional level in their chosen field. Whilst the studios will be equipped with current Industry-standard equipment and software, capping the intake also enables a focus on each student’s individual career and personal development.”
Alongside the Film degree, the Tobacco Factory will house boomsatsuma’s Games Art VFX BA (Hons) and Documentary Photography BA (Hons) degrees, in addition to the Bristol School of Acting’s new partnership, located in Tobacco Factory Theatres, with its Acting for Screen BA (Hons) and accelerated Acting for Stage & Screen BA (Hons). Freya continues:
“We will be limiting spaces to 20 spaces per pathway to ensure personalised teaching, attracting students nationally, but are also making sure there are opportunities for local communities.
“We are going to proactively collaborate between the degree courses. The mutual benefits for filmmakers, actors, games VR & VFX developers and photographers to work together under one roof is a fabulous plus for these students. I’m sure the fact that there’s a ground floor café and bar will also be appreciated!”
Building on 13 years of successfully delivering post-16 level 3 diplomas in digital and creative qualifications, the new location strengthens boomsatsuma’s partnerships, adding to course locations with Bristol creative companies at The Royal Photographic Society, The Bottle Yard Studios, Films @ 59, Ashton Gate Stadium and the Engine Shed.
The South Bristol location is an important link for education opportunities for the diverse, often overlooked communities of Bristol, into creative industries within the region. This is an ethos close to the heart of George Ferguson CBE, the city’s first independent Mayor, architect, sustainability campaigner, community champion and creator of the Tobacco Factory mixed use project. He states:
“I am thrilled at the prospect of boomsatsuma adding to the great creative community that has grown up around the Tobacco Factory project. I have watched their growth with interest and they are a perfect fit with our mission to benefit South Bristol culturally and economically.
“Education and the creative arts are such strong drivers for positive change and the social and environmental benefits that follow, which is more important than ever as we fight our way out of the dire time that we have all been through.
“Tobacco Factory has always looked to encourage and host enterprises that bring opportunity to this part of the city, and give a platform for the untapped, diverse talent that is all around us. Education will fuel Bristol’s creative community with relevant, local skills, bringing us new messages and viewpoints on life.
“We are delighted to be part of what we see as a sustainable recovery from this culturally and economically bruising pandemic. We could not have a better start than giving our young people the chance to grow and meet their full potential.”
Applications are open for courses at https://www.boomsatsuma.education
Pictured Left to Right: Mark Curtis. Freya Billington.George Ferguson.
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