I’m very pleased to announce that we have officially joined the ranks of B Corps (a B Corporation is purpose-driven and creates benefits for all stakeholders, not just shareholders).
Avid Torchbox watchers will have seen this coming. As far back as June 2022 when I was already confident that we’d gain accreditation having finished the Impact Assessment, I wrote about why it had taken us a while to get on board and how the assessment was improving us. The wait since June was partly due to the B Corp queue, partly to the verification process (when a B Lab representative works with you to evidence your claims), and partly because changing our Articles of Association to encode our intent ‘to have a material positive impact on society and the environment’ took longer than it should have.
The assessment process has been really useful and I’ve no doubt that it’ll continue to make us a better business over time. The framework isn’t perfect – there are things that surprised me, for example, while it assesses fair pay, it doesn’t assess the gender pay gap – but it is strongly rooted in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and certainly drives positive change in businesses, as it already has done in ours.
There has been some negative criticism of B Corp, notably the FT article from February this year which raised issues including a couple of big ones for me:
Nestlé has a dubious record on human rights (I started boycotting Nestlé products as a student due to the baby milk scandal) and as the Fair World Project says, Nespresso’s single-use coffee is hardly a ‘force for good’.
I did feel like the B Impact Assessment was more focused on how you do business rather than what you do. You can get points for having a positive impact through your business purpose, but I don’t think you lose points if you have a negative impact. And, if you can still get to the magic 80 by doing well in other pillars, that explains some surprising B Corps. That said, you do have to commit to being a force for good, which was the “changing our Articles of Association to encode our intent to have a material positive impact on society and the environment’ bit that I mentioned earlier.
Apparently, things are gonna get better, particularly the single pillar loophole. According to Includability:
B Corp is planning changes in standards from next year, which will force B Corps to be more transparent about where they are around 10 specific topics – including fair wages, diversity and inclusion, human rights, action on climate change and risk standards – to resolve the issue around companies being able to rapidly meet the minimum points requirements in a single area.
We’re fans of Doughnut Economics, and as an employee-owned business, we’re excited that Kate Raworth believes that employee ownership can be a ‘powerful starting point’ to help redesign business. In the FT article, Erinch Sahan of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab says of B Corp:
“What they do really well is creating a community of business people passionate about sustainability,” adds Sahan. “When you tell everyone you’re now a B Corp . . . people expect that you really do prioritise people and planet. But that’s not necessarily the case.”
However, as we graduate as a B Corp, I think it’s important to focus on the bit before Erinch’s ‘but’. From the process we’ve been through, the B Corps I’ve met and the events I’ve been to, it feels like we are joining a club of business with energy and ambition to be a force for good. I thank B Lab for that and encourage them to continue in their mission to ‘not stop until all business is a force for good’.
A score of 80 qualifies a company for B Corp Certification (Nespresso scored 84.3). The median score for ordinary businesses who have done the assessment is 50.9. Torchbox achieved a B Corp score of 114.5. The focus is now on improving our score next time, so I want to end with a hat tip to a couple of friends who are giving us something to aim at, Wholegrain Digital who scored 122.1 (they were early adopters and have been assessed three times already, they’ve also made Best for the World lists four times) and our recruitment friends at Adlib in Bristol who recently re-certified with an incredible 130.3, nice one!
Launched in 2018, Studio Floc is the brainchild of our founder Florence Cassell. Armed with a loyal iMac and a vision to design for good, she started the journey that we’re now on as a growing (and currently fully female) team – supporting great people doing great things in the world through effective and beautiful design.
We’ve taken the time out of our regular routine to learn from her experience and be encouraged by a real life, real time example of a female business owner.
What inspired you to set up your own agency?
Hello everyone – Florence here! Great question – two key things come to mind. Firstly, my experience of starting out as a designer was a tough one. Most of the agencies I worked in created harsh and very isolating environments. I’m grateful because I did learn a lot in those early days but I believed it was possible to have an encouraging and honouring studio culture whilst still achieving excellence. This inspired me to start Studio Floc. My aim is to create a place where my team and I work hard and efficiently whilst also encouraging and supporting one another.
And then secondly, I’m passionate about playing my part in making the world a better place and love to use design as a tool to do that. Last year we had the privilege of rebranding Love Your Neighbour, an incredible charity who are committed to helping people overcome pressing social challenges by tackling the root causes of poverty through crisis support, debt advice, employment training and community care. We’ve been able to give them a visual language to communicate their message effectively in order to impact more lives. So good. I appreciate that we’re only one agency empowering a select handful of clients but imagine the world we’d live in if everyone played their part.
What has been your biggest challenge as a female founder?
When I was about to start Studio Floc back in 2018, only 16% of founders in the UK were female. I was surrounded by and learned from men. Don’t get me wrong, I learned a lot from those guys and many of which I still turn to for advice and are supportive in all I do. The presence of men has never been the issue, it has been the lack of women to encourage, trail-blaze and to be inspired by that has made the journey more difficult.
What has been your biggest learning point as a female founder?
I continue to lead the business that I feel called to run even though historically (and sometimes discouragingly) the odds aren’t stacked in my favour. Oh and the other thing is that Imposter Syndrome is a bitch. It has taken me a while but I’m still improving my ability to differentiate the helpful, guiding voice in my head from the unhelpful, self-doubting one. If you’ve got the tools there in front of you but need that extra push of confidence, just be bold and go for it.
I would highly recommend checking out Craig Groeschel’s book ‘Winning the war in your mind’ if this is something you struggle with.
Do you have any advice for women starting out in business?
Three key things – firstly, surround yourself with a support network of friends/mentors who will encourage you on the journey. Secondly, never stop learning. And thirdly, in my experience, more often than not, people respond to expertise delivered with confidence, not gender.
Driven by purpose, we use creativity to enable the makers, equip the innovators and empower the world-changers. We specialise in branding, print and digital design.
Have questions for our founder? Looking for help with branding, print or digital design work? Let’s chat! Get in touch at [email protected]
We’re lucky to have such a thriving creative economy in Bristol that’s jam packed with fresh perspectives and innovation. From creative entrepreneurs and startups, to long-standing cultural institutions. But against the backdrop of this buzzing creative ecosystem, lots of businesses in the region are struggling to attract the brilliant, and skilled people they need for their business to thrive. There’s no doubt that these people are out there! But grabbing their attention isn’t always easy. So, here are some practical steps you can take to get your business in front of the finest talent out there.
Offering competitive compensation goes without saying, but to attract the cream-of-the-crop you need to offer additional perks. In the local market, it’s pretty standard to offer flexible working, snacks and drinks at the office, and social benefits, but you’ll need to go above and beyond this to really stand out. Lots of businesses in the South West offer perks like free gym memberships, access to mindfulness apps, or unlimited holiday, so it’s important to make sure your benefits are competitive. Don’t be tempted to simply offer the same benefits as your competitors though – it’s important to understand what your employees are really looking for and to pick perks that will matter to them.
To find out whether your benefits are on-point, you need to:
Offering attractive benefits will keep your existing staff happy too and will help you to retain your best talent – so it’s win-win.
Meaningful messaging is super important when it comes to creating an attractive job ad. It can help you to convey your company’s culture, values, and mission, and ultimately capture the attention of the most passionate and talented people out there. To craft your core messaging, start by identifying the unique selling points of your company. What makes your business an inviting place to work? Is it your culture, your mission, your values, or your benefits? Once you’ve nailed this down, you need to create messaging that highlights these points in a compelling way.
Generally speaking, employees are looking for:
Messaging matters, but it’s always important to paint an honest picture. Not all jobs are sunshine and flowers every day so you need to be honest about the positives and potential negatives of the role from the outset. Being transparent about any challenges of the role can help you to attract the people who are most motivated to overcome these obstacles. For instance, lots of jobs in the creative industry are fast-paced and the workload can sometimes be intense. This is the perfect environment for lots of people, but let’s be honest, it doesn’t suit everyone. By being upfront about these things, you’ve got a much better chance of finding the best person for the job in the long run.
If someone has a positive experience during your recruitment process, they’re more likely to snap up the job if you offer it. And they’ll probably tell their network about their great experience too. In fact, the majority of candidates will actively share how they feel about your company – whether it’s positive or negative – so it’s in your best interest to make sure they’re saying good things. Word gets out quickly in our community and news about positive experiences will soon spread. But news about poor candidate experience will spread even quicker, which could damage your reputation as an employer.
So, to keep your candidates happy, make sure that your recruitment process is slick, transparent, and most importantly – respectful. You need to communicate regularly, provide feedback after interviews, and keep applicants updated on the status of their application. Candidate experience is quite a juicy topic (in our opinion…) so for more detail, head over to the Digital Tonic blog on how to improve candidate experience.
This topic deserves an article all to itself so we’ll cover it in more depth in another post. But in short, a strong employer brand can differentiate your business from competitors and make you stand out in the job market. To develop a compelling employer brand you need to start by defining your company’s unique value proposition. What is it that sets your business apart from others? Then you can highlight these differentiators in your job ads, website, and social media. Your existing employees can be your best brand ambassadors, so encouraging them to share their positive experiences can work wonders.
We know that finding the best fit for your team can be a challenge but there are some seriously talented, and incredible people out there! Don’t overlook external recruitment if you need help and remember that persistence pays off, so don’t give up. If you tackle the above challenges, you’ll massively increase your chances of attracting the most capable people – good luck!
Mentor Digital has announced the appointment of Dan Watt as its new Digital Marketing Director.
Dan brings a wealth of experience to the Mentor Digital team, having previously worked as a Senior Strategist at Google and Managing Partner at McCann. In these roles, he was responsible for developing and implementing digital marketing strategies for some of the world’s largest brands.
At Mentor Digital, Dan will be responsible for leading digital marketing services and driving growth for new and existing clients. He will also play a key role in developing and executing the overall business strategy for Mentor moving forwards.
Under Dan’s leadership, the digital marketing services at Mentor Digital will increase in scope to become a holistic offering, encompassing all elements of paid digital media, SEO and analytics.
Dan’s team is equipped to provide consultancy across the entire spectrum of digital media: from initial auditing, planning and forecasting through to campaign delivery across paid search, social and display platforms, alongside technical SEO, content strategy and production. As well as paid media and SEO, the team also offers end-to-end analytics services, from auditing and scoping tracking requirements through to tag implementation, data visualisation and reporting.
Dan is a highly skilled and experienced digital marketing professional, and the team at Mentor is thrilled to have him on board. His expertise and leadership will be invaluable as they continue to expand and grow their business over the coming years.
If you would like to get in touch regarding any digital marketing projects, you can fill out a contact form here or call into their Bristol-based office on 0117 305 8900.
You can visit Mentor’s website here: https://www.mentordigital.co.uk/
Nine Tree Studios, a brand new 10,000sq ft film, television and commercial production studio, has opened in Bristol.
The studios are now Bristol’s largest independent film and television facility, with the venture being backed by JonesMillbank, Bristol-based video production company.
The studios will support Bristol’s creative industries as well as attracting talent and productions from further afield, fuelling Bristol’s existing draw for film, television and commercial productions.
The facility is being launched in phases. Phase one encompasses a versatile production space with attached offices, suitable for a range of dry hire and set build requirements, as well as events and photography, with significant parking for cars, vans and trailers.
Phase two will see the build and fit-out of a state-of-the-art production facility encompassing a 2,600sq ft primary soundstage, two smaller 300sq ft studios, grading suites, wardrobe, sound facilities, and expanded office and meeting space, all housed in a Class-A soundproofed facility.
Located in Brislington (BS4), the studios are perched near the centre of Bristol, servicing productions mixing studio and on-location filming in the region.
The facility will also become home to JonesMillbank, allowing productions to be supported by crew and creatives, whilst bolstering their own in-house production capabilities and resources.
“This is an incredibly exciting chapter in our history. We’ve been based in Bristol for 12 years, steadily growing our team, portfolio and clients, but this represents a huge leap forward and an incredibly exciting development for the region too” said Russell Jones, Co-Founder of Nine Tree Studios and JonesMillbank.
“We’ve already secured funding to develop and expand the space, helping to support not only our own productions but the wider creative community too”.
Adam Millbank, Co-Founder of Nine Tree Studios and JonesMillbank, added that “the continued growth in productions across our region is wonderful. I’ve been blown away by the diverse talent here. It feels fantastic to know we’ll be part of such a dynamic industry, celebrating all the region has to offer.”
The expansion will allow for the creation of numerous jobs, including technicians, crew, studio managers and marketeers, whilst allowing for the provision of work experience and placements.
Phase one has launched, with phase two aiming for 2023 Q3, pending existing bookings.
For booking and press enquiries please visit www.ninetreestudios.co.uk, call 0117 3706 372, or email [email protected].
The SEIS is a UK government scheme designed to incentivise investment in early-stage businesses/start-ups. The scheme offers tax incentives to investors who buy shares in companies that qualify. The aim of the scheme is to make it easier for start-ups to raise seed capital. As a reminder, or in case you were unaware, the SEIS offers investors 50% tax relief on the value of any qualifying investment made.
At the moment (pre-April 2023) an investor can invest up to £100,000 in SEIS shares in a tax year, enabling them to obtain £50,000 in tax relief.
As part of the September 2022 mini-budget, the government announced a series of changes that will come into effect from April 6th 2023. These changes will affect investors and companies alike, so if you’re a small business owner, it’s important to understand how these changes could affect you moving forward.
As of April 6th 2023, the permitted investor limit will double from £100,000 to £200,000 per tax year. This will allow an investor to obtain up to £100,000 in tax relief on qualifying investments within a tax year.
The rules surrounding what identifies a qualifying company will also change.
At the moment, there haven’t been any changes made to the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS).
If you want your business to succeed, you must consider the relationships you have with your consumers.
Creating and nurturing customer relationships has changed in recent times along with client expectations.
Having a physical site was necessary for consumers to shop there. Now almost everything can be bought at the click of a button. So, how do you keep a customer coming back to your website?
Audience members can feel entirely cut off from a company, even in today’s hyperconnected environment. Because of this, more companies are investing in ‘community management’.
Community management definition
Creating a community among brands and customers through online interactions is community management. Brands can recapture the human element of consumer brand loyalty, that technology advancements have deprived them of.
It connects to other marketing and PR aspects, such as social media, content, and search engine optimisation (SEO). It must complement your overarching marketing, public relations, and communications strategy.
Why do businesses benefit from an online community?
For organisations, community management is not only useful but essential. Adopting a community management strategy can improve consumer satisfaction by boosting brand recognition and loyalty. A community management plan that is effective can:
One excellent option for brands to build authentic relationships and get customer feedback is through a community that facilitates actual discussions. Even effective word-of-mouth marketing campaigns may benefit from it. 83% of customers believe that word-of-mouth advertising directly affects their purchasing behaviour.
What distinguishes community management from social media management?
Although there are many similarities between social media marketing and community management, their agendas are significantly different. The focus of social media marketing is on sharing social posts on social media channels. This is done to expand the brand’s client base and increase traffic and interaction.
A community manager will interact with your community across all online channels. The activity incorporates aspects of social listening, customer service, and community rules for participating in online forums. Intimate connections are developed through careful management. They also create communities both inside and outside of social media.
Community management techniques
Customer service is only one aspect of community management. There are, in reality, six main categories of community management efforts. The acronym SPACE makes it simple to recall the methods of community management:
Internal engagement is another method of community building and management that is frequently utilised to create an online community. Your team members, partners, and vendors make up your internal audience. Your consumers, fans, supporters, brand advocates, ambassadors, and followers make up your external audience.
Developing a community management strategy
Building effective networks that foster sincere, lasting relationships requires a solid plan. A successful community manager will organise all of your happy consumers in one space and look after them by encouraging good interactions.
These are step-by-step instructions for creating an online community management strategy:
When it comes to deciding how community managers measure success, there is no right or wrong way. The metrics depend on what’s important to you. Maybe you want to gain more followers on social media, or perhaps you’d like to enhance sales and conversions. Possibly you require greater brand recognition or more website visitors.
Clearly identify your aims and the tactics you need to measure your success by setting goals.
Before developing your plan, you must identify your primary audience. For instance, knowing the demographics of your target audience will enable you to focus your efforts on engaging that group.
Construct customer personas to understand your customers’ interests, preferences, etc. Find out where your audience is and then create content for them; they tend to be more active on one or two social media platforms, sites or forums.
Keep in mind that community management provides opportunities for small and close interactions. With a better understanding of your community’s members, ensure your content will interest them.
A great place to start creating your brand’s reputation and online community is on social media. Your community will know what to expect from you if you consistently release new content on social channels.
Social media platforms are fantastic resources for learning about your target audiences’ demographics and finding out what interests them. Encourage the sharing of user-generated content, a great way to share the love with your audiences and show that you value their interactions with your company.
It may even inspire creativity and generate suggestions for improving goods or services. In fact, 90% of online communities regularly share ideas about how to make changes to products.
Keep track of your progress while you work; test and learn to understand what works and what doesn’t. It will constantly change as your brand grows and your community expands. Adapt your goals and the KPIs monitoring your success to ensure they reflect your community’s continued growth.
There are plenty of analytical tools available to help you monitor and encourage growth of your social media channels. choose the ones that will work for you.
What does a community manager do?
They are experts with the knowledge and qualifications to put effective community management strategies into practice. Four different strategies are used by community managers to manage interaction across numerous platforms, including social media:
As social media becomes more and more important to a company’s success, ensure that you have an active community manager who can help build and grow your audiences.
Independent brand consultancy, Mr B & Friends, have welcomed a trio of new creative hires, adding depth to the growing team. Helen Garley has joined as Design Director, Dave Warfield as Middleweight Copywriter and Megan Fry as Junior Designer. Their creative firepower will bolster the team as the agency heads into a busy period, with exciting briefs from InterContinental Hotels Group, The LEGO Group and Persimmon Plc all in progress.
Design Director, Helen, is well known to Mr B & Friends having previously impressed the team over the years on a freelance basis. Helen started her career in London, where she initially worked for large retail and in-store agencies before focusing on brand. Adept at working with organisations of all sizes, Helen enjoys seeing how brand can help a company to grow and transform. Having worked independently for a number of years, Helen is excited to be part of an agency team again and says her previous experience of the culture at Mr B & Friends confirmed it would be a good fit.
Middleweight Copywriter, Dave Warfield, joins the creative team with plenty of agency know-how across brands big and small. Having worked at two established outfits in the South West, Dave has crafted copy for brands spanning from global heavyweights like Coca-Cola, Unilever and P&G to challenger outfits such as Gipsy Hill and Garden Gourmet. As an ideas-first creative, Dave is looking forward to being involved in projects from the outset with the design team. Aside from the variety of clients and projects on offer, Dave was impressed by The Friends Pact and the hybrid set up that allows him to work more from home in Wales alongside his dog Amigo.
Last but not least, Megan Fry, has joined as Junior Designer. Meg was championed by a friend of the agency and seemed a natural fit for the role. Since graduating from Falmouth University during the pandemic Meg has learned the ropes at a couple of boutique agencies before joining the Mr B & Friends team. With a super positive attitude, she’s already joined in with the Play Team, DE&I Team and the Friends of the Community groups, supporting connections both in the agency and in the local area.
Creative Director, Kate Gorringe, says, “The past 12 months have seen the busiest time in our agency history, so we’ve been heavily focused on boosting the talent in the creative team. I’m delighted to welcome three new people who all bring something new – Meg joins us a junior designer who’s work shows exceptional promise in the brand space. Dave, our new creative copywriter, is an ad man straight out of central casting – we’re really looking forward to him pushing us beyond our comfort zones. And finally Helen – a creative with 20 years ‘experience and a long track record of freelancing with us has finally been convinced to take a full-time role as Design Director to show us all what great creative leadership looks like.”
A couple of years ago I was asked for profiling tool recommendations by a client wanting to invest their team. I’d had several profiles done throughout my career and my experience of them had been mixed. Whilst the reports always resonated with me, the emphasis was on personality rather than behaviour, and I found that after the initial session where everyone compared themselves to each other and shared their thoughts, the reports were often so complicated that very little, if anything was put into practice.
I then came across Colour-me profiling. C-me focuses on behaviours rather than personalities, using a common language which is non-judgemental and recognises that everyone is a unique blend, vs. trying to put them into a box. This felt like a much more inclusive approach to me, so I investigated further and ultimately became accredited so I could use it with my clients.
What benefits have I experienced working with C-me?
And the biggest benefit for me is that you can put it into practice immediately. It has helped me learn to flex my own behaviour and communication style, and work more effectively with others.
In a world where we’re facing ongoing challenges as an industry, my belief is that we need to celebrate our differences and find ways to learn from each other so that we can build exceptional relationships and continue to do brilliant work.
So can behavioural profiling help us build better relationships, higher performance and more inclusive cultures? My answer is a resounding yes, as long as you put it into practice and continue to, whether it’s for communication, running meetings, problem-solving, hiring new team members or creating your next 3 year vision.
If you want to find out more about C-me and what my report and workshop offering, or are simply intrigued, give me a shout.
Catherine Frankpitt has a 20+ year career working in PR and communications. In 2020, she decided to launch her own business. Strike Communications works with organisations that are doing something positive in the world, such as delivering education, creating cultural opportunities and supporting disadvantaged communities.
Catherine launched her business just a few weeks before the start of the first coronavirus pandemic lockdown. A year into her entrepreneurial venture, she joined Bristol Creative Industries.
She tells Dan Martin about starting a business during the pandemic, how it has grown and the benefits of being part of the BCI community.
“I started out at the Mail on Sunday’s You Magazine as a 21-year-old. They had regular features called ‘My Last Good Read’ and ‘My Last Good Buy’. I phoned up celebrities to interview them. I spoke to Lloyd Grossman, Carol Smillie, Ulrika Jonnson and others
“I had a media degree and didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do although I knew it was on the editorial side of things. At the magazine most of the stories were coming from press releases and the copy was just rewritten. I decided that I wanted to go into PR because they were the ones actually having the fun writing the stories and coming up with the ideas.”
“While working at a big agency, the clients that I was really interested in were the likes of charities who had lean in house teams and were not able to maximise the opportunity to do bigger and better things, reach more people and get more funding etc because they hadn’t got the capacity and resources to do it. They need the support, but can’t afford the bigger agency fees.
“I’m motivated by working on communications that I think people need to know about. I work on a lot of causes, charities and culture where the comms plays more of a role than just selling. It’s not just a transactional thing. It’s reaching people that benefit from knowing about it.
“That’s why I decided to set up Strike Communications, to provide a full service agency offering but keep the costs leaner than a bigger agency.”
“I was director of communications at UWE. There are some brilliant people doing great things at the university, but while managing a big team, I missed being hands-on. I like to get stuck in and ask ‘what’s the problem?’, ‘what are the objectives?’, ‘let’s get creative’.
“I wanted to do my own thing so I went from running a department with 85 staff to running a business on my own during lockdown in my spare room!
“I’ve been a single parent with a single income for a while and I’ve always been careful with money. I took out a loan in advance of starting the business just in case something went wrong. That was the best decision I could have made. I very quickly needed it because I launched the business with two anchor clients but within a few weeks of lockdown, everybody went insular.
“It was scary to start with because I didn’t qualify for any of the support that the government introduced. All of my network was in Bristol and that’s where I had planned the work to come from but I had to rethink the plan and widen my reach.
“Eight weeks or so into the first lockdown people started realising that they needed to communicate more than ever. A previous boss once said to me that in a crisis, the first thing to go is the comms and marketing and the first thing to come back is the comms and marketing. She was absolutely right.
“Suddenly people were knocking on the door and saying they needed extra support. I worked with two London universities because their comms teams were so busy doing internal activities and keeping the students informed.
“My networks changed almost overnight and I teamed up with people in the same situation. My experience during lockdown shaped the business in a way that I didn’t expect. We were working with organisations in Devon, Basingstoke and London which we probably wouldn’t have done without the pandemic and everyone being online.”
“There are now three of us full time and two associates who work with us regularly plus a few others we bring in as required.
“In March, we celebrated our third birthday and appointed Scott Fletcher as our new creative director.
“I got some advice from a business coach who said in year one, you do anything for anybody. Year two, you start working out the things that you don’t want to do. Year three, you work out who you are. That’s absolutely what I’ve found.
“In terms of reasons for success, I’ve got a really good network because I’ve worked with a lot of organisations and that has been really helpful.
“Also, I very much operate on gut instinct and my idea for the sorts of organisations that I wanted to work with that I thought needed the help at a certain price point has proven to be true. Whether it’s dealing with COVID-19 or the cost of living crisis, there is always a need for support at a certain level and a certain price. While there are plenty of creative people in Bristol we have created our own niche.
“I find it very hard to do anything other than be honest and transparent. I have strong values and the people that work with us, whether it’s staff or clients, buy into those values. People look at how we talk about ourselves and see that we’re authentic. There’s an appeal to that. There are certain organisations that we just wouldn’t work with because it wouldn’t be right for us. There are others that we really care about and want to help.”
“It’s important to be part of an organisation that is championing your sector, listening and supporting you. It’s also very useful for learning, networking and meeting people.
“I love the Friday morning Wake Up Call webinars with bite-sized advice. The members’ lunches have also been very helpful and I’ve made interesting connections. You can’t underestimate the importance of peer-to-peer support and solidarity, particularly for the founders of smaller businesses like mine. By talking to others, it makes it feel less overwhelming and less of a lonely place.
“The Bristol Creative Industries jobs board has been really useful when recruiting.”
Watching Wake Up Call webinars, attending free member lunches and unlimited job postings are some of the benefits of Bristol Creative Industries membership. Find out more.
“You need to know what it is that you’re trying to achieve, who it is that’s going to help you get there, what they are going to be interested in hearing to help you get there and where you will find them. Your comms should frame around that.
“People get really bogged down by saying things like ‘we need to be on TikTok’ and ‘we need to be on Twitter’ but they are being led by the activity. You should take a strategic approach and know what you are trying to achieve and how the comms can support you to get there. It’s about working out who your audiences, stakeholders or customers are and where they are, whether that’s online, the media they read or where you can physically find them.”
Fancy joining Catherine Frankpitt as a Bristol Creative Industries member? Benefit from industry expertise, training, leads, curated news, kudos and more. Sign up here.