In 2012, The Wow Company began its agency benchmarking report – BenchPress. The aim was simple; to take an accurate snapshot of agency life in the UK and to share insight and analysis with ambitious agency owners.
BenchPress has grown to become the largest survey of independent agency owners in the UK and is a great way to benchmark yourself against your peers. BenchPress 2020 is now open and we’re encouraging South-West agencies of all shapes, sizes, and sectors to participate. You can take part here.
This year, Bristol Media has partnered with BenchPress to provide a bespoke report for agency owners in Bristol, Bath and the South-West to compare agency performance with the rest of the UK. We need 100 or more agency owners, founders or directors to participate, so please help spread the word. Everyone that takes part receives a copy of the full benchmark results. Here’s 2019’s report.
Last year revealed that confidence remained high amongst agency owners, with their drive and determination to grow in 2019 overriding any doubts about wider market conditions. This was off the back of a strong 2018, which saw agencies grow fee income by the largest amount since BenchPress started. BenchPress 2020 will reveal whether agencies are still on the up and provide an outlook for the year ahead.
This year’s survey will focus on how agency owners can build a profitable and sustainable business, one that can thrive in uncertain times. Alongside this, there will be questions about selling and buying agencies, which will reveal what makes an agency really valuable to any purchaser.
Join us and BIMA as the Head of Immersive Tech Council, Nicola Rosa, delivers a masterclass on Immersive Tech. Nicola will help attendees understand the possibilities of immersive technologies in this 2 hour masterclass.
This event is free for Bristol Media or BIMA members.
Nicola Rosa, Product Strategist, Accenture. Chair, BIMA Immersive Tech Council
Nicola is a Product strategist, experience designer, and digital transformation expert, Nicola is currently part of the Accenture Digital UKI where he is the Go-To Market Lead for XR (AR,VR, and MR). With more than 15 years of experience in the media and entertainment industry, Nicola worked for companies like Atari, Google, Spotify, Yahoo!, Virgin Radio and IBM iX designing B2E, B2B and B2C digital products and numerous App Store hits.
The mastercalss takes place on Wednesday 12th February, 3-5pm in the auditorium at Prophecy Unlimited, Glass Wharf, Bristol.
Tickets are free if you are a Bristol Media member or BIMA member, or £15 + VAT for non-members. To get your Member discount code email [email protected]
If you’re not a member, please BOOK HERE
If you’re thinking of joining, or simply need a reminder on how to make the most of your membership, we’ve created this guide to highlight the benefits of joining our community of creative sector individuals and businesses in Bristol and the South West. So, read on for 9 reasons to join, or stay put…
Won a top award? Published a brilliant thought leadership piece about creativity or innovation? Launched a new showreel and want to get the news out there? We want to hear about it! Members can self-publish content on the Newsfeed as much and as often as they like, and if it’s really good, we might even share it with our 31.8k twitter followers, or publish it in our newsletter.
Our jobs board is the go-to platform for creative industry jobs in the region. Last year, over 750 creative sector jobs were advertised by our members, who can take advantage of unlimited advertising for absolutely no cost. If you need proof that it works, our member JonesMillbank recruited ALL of their team through adverts on the Jobs board!
You may have been to a Vision keynote event before where we invite a world-class speaker to Bristol to share knowledge and insight around current hot topics. Members receive preferential rates, saving anywhere between 30-60% of a non-member ticket. Plus, we’ve recently introduced an offer where freelancers can take advantage of Vision keynote tickets for £10. We provide a networking lunch before each talk, so it’s a great opportunity to get to know fellow creative industry professionals or catch up with old contacts over a buffet lunch. Visit the Events page for more.
Are you looking to promote your business? Partner with a local agency? Want to bag your next freelance gig? Our online member directory allows you to create an individual member profile with contact details and the ability to showcase your latest work. Make sure you keep your profile updated as we regularly point businesses to the directory who are looking for agencies and freelance resource.
If you’re hosting a local event, head over to the Events page, submit the form and we’ll publish your event in the calendar. Just make sure it’s relative to a creative sector audience and is within the South West and you’re good to go.
We work with local businesses to ensure members get the best deals possible for everything from free legal advice to restaurant discounts, coffee subscriptions to team away-days. Our mobile membership cards allow you to claim these exclusive deals and discounts, plus they are available for your whole team! Lunch at The Florist then? Check out the full list of member perks.
We’re firm believers in training and professional development. How else will you develop the skills of your team or attract and retain top talent? We bring the knowledge to our members through a series of intimate workshops and skills sessions, so you can benefit from high-quality training at a competitive price. Check out the latest workshops here.
If you remember the Bristol Media barometer – a valuable tool providing insight into the local creative sector – then good news. We’re teaming up with a partner to create a bespoke report to benchmark business performance, and explore the trends, insights, opportunities and threats facing creative agencies in Bristol & Bath. More info coming soon, so watch this space!
Last, but certainly not least. Collaboration is at the heart of what we do at Bristol Media. We believe that Bristol is one of the most creative and innovative cities out there and it’s achieved this status by organisations and individuals working together. We champion our members in the creative sector and encourage collaborations as much as possible, so keep us posted on your blossoming partnerships.
Collectively, we’re greater than the sum of our parts
Our mission is to put our region on the map as a world-leading centre of creativity and innovation, so that we inspire talented people to work here, attract customers and drive growth. Being localised to Bristol means we can be the eyes and ears on the ground, but we can’t do it without our members. So, if you’ve yet to become part of our community and would like to take advantage of the above, and more, join Bristol Creative Industries today.
Our City is our annual competition for local filmmaking talent to create a short film or animation to showcase the city of Bristol. Filmmakers under 30 are asked to produce a 90 second film, animation or motion video that captures their view of what makes Bristol THE place to be – celebrating creativity, people, music, technology, action, collaboration or lifestyle.
This year, 3 films made it to the final stage and met with the judging panel and Mayor Marvin Rees to start planning the fine-cut stage, drawing on the TV skills of Aardman, Icon Films and Drummer TV, and the facilities at Doghouse and Films@59, and blending in the One City messaging, footage from Destination Bristol and locations from the Bristol Film Office.
Congratulations go to:
Leeza Awojobi, Daniel Moon, Jagneel Bhullar, Stephanie Burnham, and Emma Rigby for ‘Held in Pockets’ – a original approach supported by a beautifully-written poem to celebrate and embrace the youthfulness of the city.
Tobi Wozniak and Curtis Ball for ‘Bristol: A Hobbit Tale’ – a humorous, well-produced film which the judges liked for its pastiche style and great punchline.
James Giles-Lane and Elliot Barry for ‘Bristol in the Fast Lane’ – an upbeat and dynamic short film showcasing the diversity and creativity of Bristol.
For Mayor Marvin Rees, the competition unlocks the talent of young people and showcases what makes Bristol so special:
“Although the three films are very different, together they are great insights into a city which is energetic, varied and cares about the future of its young people – but doesn’t take itself too seriously.”
The winners will share the £1,000 prize fund donated by Aardman Animations, Films@59, Icon Films Doghouse Post Production and Drummer TV, and the final films will be screened in Millennium Square.
A new user research and user experience (UX) lab has opened at Bristol’s Harbourside arts centre, the Arnolfini. It has been purpose-built for conducting and observing qualitative research and usability testing by UX and service design specialists Mace & Menter.
The lab consists of an interview room and a large observation room linked with high-quality audio and video streaming. Omnidirectional Shure studio microphones and speakers as well as 4k cameras, 65” screens help make up the comfortable and relaxed, researcher-designed environment.
Using a lab to observe how people use a digital product or service means companies can base decisions around future strategy and development on evidence rather than guesswork so the product has a higher chance of succeeding.
The space is available for use to Bristol’s growing technology sector. Mace & Menter will also use the space to run its own research – carrying out face-to-face depth interviews and usability tests – exploring a problem or a design concept with the people they are designing for.
Mace & Menter are specialists in service design and user experience for complex services. The team work with organisations, including the Government Cabinet Office, DCMS, Policy Lab, Scope, and V&A, that want to significantly improve the way people experience their services.
Bristol was also named the most important and productive tech cluster in the UK in Technation’s 2018 report with 225 start-ups and 35,924 digital jobs in the city.
Sam Menter, Mace & Menter’s Co-founder and Managing Director, says: “Our work is all about the experience of the people we design for, but also of the people we are working with. Experience is about so much more than what we deliver, it’s also about the journey. When we were designing and building the lab, we thought carefully about both the participant and the observer experience.”
He adds: “User research is fundamental to the way we work. We involve the users of a service in discovery and throughout the design process. Running research in a space where a wider group can observe means you get much more out of the work.
Combining insights from experts and newly-employed young people with 1:1 advice, this Bristol Media session helps you plot you pathway into the booming creative industry.
The creative & tech (CreaTech) industries offer a great career in an expanding market, with Bristol as a key centre in the UK. But which opportunities are right for you? What experience, interests, ambitions and qualifications do you need to land your first role? And what’s it like in the first years?
This session brings together local industry experts – Nick Dean and his team from ADLIB, Lis Anderson from AMBITIOUS PR, Sue Soni from BBC Bristol, and Neil Sims from Oakwood Media Group, along with some of their new employees – to provide an insight into the growth areas, people skills and employment potential across the whole range of local industry, from graphic artists to CRM Campaign Managers.
We’ll de-mystify the roles advertised on Bristol Media’s South West Creative Jobs website (what is a “middleweight back-end developer?”), highlight the opportunities to aim for, and what your pathway might look like.
After each insight talk, there will be the opportunity for some 1:1 advice from the team at Adlib specific to your ambitions, whether they are in PR, creative production, or creative technology and on how to work as a freelancer from ScreenSkills.
So, whether you want to work in the industry, train or advise young people on careers, or have skills you want to transfer, this session is for you!
This session is free and open to all ages, although we particularly encourage people aged between 16-25 to sign up. Please register via eventbrite.
BBC Digital Cities will be returning to Bristol for 2020, with a week-long series of events for the creative industries.
Starting on Saturday 25th January 2020, there will be a full and varied schedule across the week, offering insights and free digital skills training.
See the full schedule on the Digital Cities Bristol homepage.
Partners include BBC Writersroom, BBC Academy and BBC Young Reporter plus digital arts and creative conference, Hello Culture Remix, will be making its debut in the city.
Boomsatsuma will once again be opening up its doors for the “Ask Me Anything” event and Bristol Media’s “How to Get Your Dream Job” will be taking place at the BBC on Whiteladies Road. We the Curious will be running a number of special showings on the Thursday and The Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio will be hosting a special lunchtime session on the Friday with the BBC’s Makerbox.
On Thursday 30th at The Watershed, there is a fantastic day of events packed full of opportunities for storytellers on all digital platforms – called Screen Futures; If you are looking for funding for your latest film venture, want to know more about writing for social media, animation or commissioning opportunities in audio, are a black film maker wanting to know about opportunities in the city or have a story to tell at TedX in Bristol, then this day is for you. Featuring amongst others Into Film, ScreenSkills, Cables & Camera’s, BBC Writersroom, BFINetwork, New Creatives, Bectu & TedX Bristol, there will be opportunities to find out about schemes, burseries, funding and commissioning opportunities, as well as recent arrivals to the city – Channel 4 who will be talking about their latest apprenticeships and trainee schemes.
Not to be missed out – tech and digital creators will be able to attend UWE’s Global Game Jam & Bristol City Council’s Hackathon over the two weekends, both returning again after successful events last year.
Follow #digicities and @BBCAcademy on Twitter for updates. This page and the Digital Cities homepage are updated regularly so keep checking back for the latest information.
For Information:
Booking open now.
Membership has remained strong with over 560 individuals and organisations from the South-West creative community. We’ve seen many of our members grow and flourish, plus several forming new partnerships and collaborations which we’re delighted to see. We’re excited to welcome new members in 2020 and to continue to grow membership.
Our events are an opportunity for members of the creative community to come together to meet their peers, network and learn from some of the most influential figures in industry.
We’ve hosted a number of world class speakers as part of our Vision Keynote series: We’ve dreamed the impossibility of indifference with Pentagram’s Harry Pearce, got under the skin of why leadership is so difficult with the legendary leadership guru Margaret Heffernan, and discovered how to be joyful at work with Twitter’s EMEA Vice President Bruce Daisley (in partnership with our friends at BIMA).
In November we brought back our famous Portfolio Review Night, this time connecting 15 freelance animators, copywriters, designers, photographers, filmmakers and even a voice over artist, with 15 creative directors from member agencies. It was an exhilarating (and exhausting!) evening at Origin Workspace, with lots of business cards exchanged and a couple of potential contracts, too.
The members lunch remains a firm favourite in the calendar. This year we’ve hosted 9 member lunches where we’ve had the pleasure of meeting over 250 people from member organisations. New for 2019 was the introduction of 3-minute elevator pitches and it’s been brilliant to hear what our members are up to. The pitches have been as entertaining as they have been informative and watching those lightbulb moments when members realise they can collaborate with each other is incredibly rewarding!
It’s important to us to facilitate growth and opportunities in the community, to inspire talented people to work here and encourage business growth. Our member organisations have posted over 670 job roles via South West Creative Jobs, from planners to developers, camera operators to designers, interns to directors, the jobs board remains the go-to site if you’re looking to advertise or secure a creative industry role.
Our workshops have proved to be another effective method to support and upskill local professionals. In January we kicked off with Blair Enns and his critically acclaimed workshop: ‘Mastering the Value Conversation’. An inspiring and practical session where we saw Blair share his expert pricing knowledge with 26 individuals from local businesses.
Throughout the rest of the year we’ve worked with some lovely businesses to hold training and workshops on a variety of subjects, including Copyright in Productions, CV & LinkedIn for Freelancers, how to Supercharge your Instagram, plus How to get the Big Idea with Patrick Collister. Watch out for more of these next year!
We took our second young person to Austin for SXSW as part of the Ben Martin Apprentice Award (BMAA). On returning, our BMAA winner Marissa Lewis-Peart, had the incredible opportunity of 15 paid work placements in local agencies, gaining a wealth of experience in various disciplines within the industry.
The competition to find our SXSW 2020 winner is underway with the successful candidate due to be announced very soon. In the summer of 2020, we plan to repeat the paid placements not only for the winner but also four of the runners up. If your firm would like to get involved, please contact [email protected]
We also bid farewell to our very own Content Apprentice, Izzy Bryant. Izzy has been a fantastic addition to the team, spearheading the Featured Member series where we’ve met some incredible businesses and individuals to find out more about what they do. One of our favourite moments from this series was a quote in response to the question ‘Describe Bristol in 3 words’, to which came the reply “Doing Things Differently”. We felt this perfectly summarised the local ecosystem and the uniquely collaborative nature we’re so proud of in Bristol.
Our City – our annual film competition in collaboration with the Mayor and local partners – has seen a record number of entries this year. As well as the cash prize of £1000, the young finalists have their film screened on Millennium Square, are offered industry work experience and a marketing workshop with Destination Bristol. The judges have been so impressed with the quality and creativity of the entries once again and are now finalising this year’s winner.
We have continued to fly the flag for Bristol within both the Creative Industries Council cluster group and the Creative Industries Federation (CIF) UK Advisory Council. CIF and Creative England (CE) have announced a merger in Spring 2020, and have published a joint Creative Industries Manifesto, which our board director, Paul Appleby, was involved in drafting. This will combine the London-based lobbying power of CIF with the national coverage of England of CE.
Next year, we’re seeing in our 15th year and we’ve got lots in store for the creative community in Bristol, Bath and the region.
It’s been quite a year but there is so much to look forward to in 2020, including a very exciting announcement! Thank you so much to all our loyal members and partners who continue to support us to deliver the great work.
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year, from all of us at Bristol Media.
You can stay up to date with news and announcements by signing up to our newsletter here.
*This event is now SOLD OUT. Please add your name to the waitlist and we’ll confirm if a ticket becomes available*
Humans are innately illogical, and make unconscious decisions based largely on our emotions. Yet when confronted with a business or personal challenge, we have become obsessed with absolute logic, rationality, algorithms and data, and it’s threatening to stunt us: politically, socially and economically. What if there were an alternative to logic and rationality –a ‘psycho-logic’–that was far more pervasive and powerful than we realise, and when employed correctly, creates the kind of magic (or alchemy) most businesses or economists can only dream of?
Join us for a keynote with Rory Sutherland, the legendary Ogilvy Vice Chairman, the ‘Don Draper of the UK’, and one of our most acclaimed behavioural economists, who will share insights into his book ‘Alchemy – The Surprising Power of Ideas that don’t make Sense.’
Sutherland will use real case studies from his work and research with the world’s biggest brands and influencers, to reveal how we must learn to identify and understand the basics of ‘psycho-logic’, to get ahead in the modern world.
This keynote takes place between 12.30 – 14.00 on Tuesday 28th January at Foot Anstey, 2 Glass Wharf, Bristol BS2 0FR.
Tickets are 45+VAT for Bristol Media members (£60+VAT for non-members), a limited number are available to Bristol Media Freelance Members for £25+VAT.
Tickets include a buffet lunch and a copy of Rory’s book ‘Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas that don’t make Sense’ to take away.
Rory is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, an attractively vague job title which has allowed him to co-found a behavioural science practice within the agency.
He works with a consulting practice of psychology graduates who look for ‘unseen opportunities’ in consumer behaviour – these are the very small contextual changes which can have enormous effects on the decisions people make. It is a hugely valuable activity – but, alas, not particularly lucrative. This is because clients generally do not have budgets for solving problems they have not noticed.
Before founding Ogilvy Change, Rory was a copywriter and creative director at Ogilvy for over 20 years, having joined as a graduate trainee in 1988. He has variously been President of the IPA, Chair of the Judges for the Direct Jury at Cannes, and has spoken at TED Global. He writes regular columns for the Spectator, Market Leader and Impact, and also occasional pieces for Wired. He is the author of two books: The Wiki Man, available on Amazon at prices between £1.96 and £2,345.54, depending on whether the algorithm is having a bad day, and Alchemy, The Surprising Power of Ideas that don’t make Sense, published in the UK and US in March 2019.
Check out more Bristol Media events on the What’s On pages
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More InformationWhat’s your favourite place in Bristol/this area?
There’s a little curved edge on the corner near the Arnolfini, and if you look across the water towards the giant giraffe cranes at the right time, the sun comes around the M-shed and it is quite stunning. Whether you’re a student hanging out there, dangling your legs over the edge with a cider, or you’re taking the baby for a stroll, that little spot is particularly special.
There are so many wonderful things about Bristol, things that just don’t exist anywhere else. It’s so unique.
What are you most proud of as a business?
There was a real sense of pride when we moved into our new premises. Every single time we’ve done something big, whether it was moving or buying a bit of kit, it’s always been such a morale booster, and we get re-energised. But moving into Temple Studios at the beginning of the year was so different because it was suddenly our space, we had this ownership that we hadn’t had before.
Overall, we’re proud of the fact that every step we’ve taken has led to the creation of something that’s been a benefit for someone, as well as being beautiful and enjoyable to watch. So, any little production whether it’s a small 30 second piece or a TV campaign, we’re massively proud of what we can actually create as a team.
What’s your favourite office gadget?
Everyone else’s favourite is probably the coffee machine or PlayStation, but mine is our old 1930s film projector. It was a prop for a TV ad we created. We were so happy because it actually works! We’ve got Tom and Jerry reels and these amazing documentaries from Africa; it’s absolutely incredible. It weighs a tonne… But I love that thing.
What exciting plans have you got coming up this year?
Historically, we’ve organically grown by one or two people a year, but with the amount of work that’s coming in that’ll be accelerating very soon. We’ve already taken on another animator and we’re currently advertising for a camera operator. By next year we might be a team of 10!
The investments we’ve made in kit this year will mean that we can really throw ourselves at some huge projects. We’ve also been working on our passion projects, one in particular that we’ve been creating looks into masculinity and it’s gone really deep. We’re hoping to push that towards a broadcast commission next year. And this is all under the assumption that we’ll survive the Christmas party in Athens!
Whose work do you admire and why?
Aardman’s work is beyond amazing. I went along to Nick Park’s ‘Cracking Conversations’ event recently, and I just have a huge admiration for someone who can imagine what he can and just create it. I think they are really leading the way in Bristol.
But there are so many incredible companies in the area that are doing new things, like the Ultrahaptics team.
If you had one piece of advice for someone just starting out, what would it be?
The best piece of advice I can give anyone is just keep swimming. You have no idea where any little decision might take you. If I could go back in time and speak to my younger self, I would definitely say chill out, everything will work out the way it’s meant to. There are certain things you have no control over, so why worry about it? Make mistakes and learn from them.
In terms of actually getting work, we get a lot of emails from people wanting work experience with us and that’s absolutely a great thing to do; but on the flip side, there’s no problem in just making your own stuff. You can build a great portfolio of work when you’re not making it for anybody but yourself. It’s good to show off your own individual offering.
What’s the biggest challenge your industry/organisation is facing at the moment?
The constant changing landscape in the world of content is a challenge, people are being told they should be doing certain things, producing content like video and suddenly they’re thinking they should be doing that. Rather than thinking ‘what’s the problem I’m addressing?’ As a production company, we’re navigating through all the noise. And there’s a lot of noise out there that isn’t contextually relevant to anything or anyone. The big challenge for us is cutting through that noise with original, authentic content that tells a story and will make a brand sing.
To check out the full member profile for Jones Millbank or get in touch with the team, click here.
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