At AUK we not only make a meaningful difference through our work, but we have a strong focus on creating positive impacts on the health and wellbeing of our team. Our strong values surrounding health and wellbeing mean we get the best out of our day, both mentally and physically. Creating a working environment that supports good nutrition is key to AUK’s approach as it’s the backbone to how we function, especially as a creative agency. We need to get those creative juices flowing!
In 2021 we joined forces with Registered Dietitian & Nutrition Consultant Laura Clark to become our own AUK nutrition and diet advisor, guiding us on our learning and development. Laura has already helped the team take a look at the connection between mental health and nutrition, and this year we have a strong focus on maintaining our energy levels.
“How we choose to fuel our working day has the potential to have a profound impact on our productivity, energy levels and mental resilience. However, we seem to be fond of creating a structure in which we expect our brains to do it all simultaneously. Food should be tasted, savoured and enjoyed, if only for a few brief moments away from the keyboard. We tend to succeed more with all tasks that we decide to devote our attention to. Appetite regulation and energy management are no different.” Laura Clark, Registered Dietitian & Nutrition Consultant
Being an agency for all means we love to give back, so we wanted to share our ways of working to our AUK friends to give them a deeper understanding of our values surrounding nutrition and our approach to the work we create. Check out their thoughts:
“We spend a lot of our lives at work, so ensuring that we are fuelling ourselves with the best possible things to optimise energy feels really important to me, now more than ever after attending Laura’s talk. It also made me realise that it’s not just all about me. It’s about the impact I have on others too. If I’m running low on energy or having a slump, others will feel that impact too.” Kate Gray, Cookpad
“Good nutrition fuels our minds and bodies – our two biggest tools when it comes to doing impactful creative work. Feed your body, nourish your brain. It was great to see Laura take a realistic look at nutrition and wellness. She explained how to balance a diet that is realistic and sustainable for working professionals.” Alyssa Jaffer, Deliveroo
“Creating a flexible culture where breaks to eat at a time that is right for individuals, away from the desk and in a mindful way, is encouraged will foster empowerment to personalise wellbeing through food, which ultimately will benefit all.” Amanda Butterworth, Trust My Care
“Managing energy levels is key to productivity across a team, and nutrition plays such a huge role in this and affects everyone regardless of their exercise habits or sporting interests.” Simon Rollings, The Canned Wine Co.
“We all deserve the opportunity to fuel our brilliance. With small tweaks and an ethos that supports the foundational aspects of employee wellbeing, we can really set ourselves up for success,” says Laura Clark, Registered Dietitian & Nutrition Consultant.
Launched to mark the programme’s 10-year anniversary and reinforce the agency’s commitment to Bristol as its UK home, the Noble Deeds initiative will see one local charity secure £12,000 worth of digital performance marketing support.
Noble Performs is inviting Bristol-based charities to attend the launch event on the 6th July, when entries will open, with the winner announced in August and work beginning in September.
Started originally by Noble Performs Nevada Headquarters, the Noble Deeds programme has upskilled dozens of charities & not for profits during the past decade, and scaled as Noble’s US business has grown, now donating in excess of $200,000 a year of services to worthy causes.
Noble’s UK managing director, Kate Sikora, explains;
“Ever since we first established our Bristol base in 2018 we’ve wanted to bring our Noble Deeds programme to the city. With charities and not-for-profits struggling more than ever to secure vital donations due to the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis it felt like the right time to be trying to help charities look at how their digital marketing efforts can help crucial fundraising efforts
“One of the reasons we chose the city as our UK home is it really resonates with our ‘Be Better Every day’ philosophy. Bristol is such a melting pot of businesses and not-for-profits of all shapes and sizes but there’s a real sense of genuine community and shared responsibility around making the city a better place to live and work for everyone.”
Helping clients such as Adobe, Rolls Royce, Air Asia and Yosemite with their international digital presence, Noble’s ambition is to replicate the scale of its Nevada Noble Deeds programme in Bristol as its UK footprint grows.
To enter registered charities or not-for-profits must be Bristol-based and complete a simple application form, which will be available on the Noble Performs website on July 6th, 2022.
The Bristol-based charity that wins a place on the programme will secure a package of digital marketing support and skills training tailored to suit its specific needs, however this could include; SEO, PPC, Analytics and Paid Social.
Charities who wish to register their interest in the Noble Deeds Programme and attend the launch event at the Bristol Observatory on Wednesday 6th July (6-8 p.m.) should email kate.sikora@nobleperforms.co.uk to receive an invitation and secure their place.
To find out more about Noble Performs go to https://nobleperforms.co.uk/
First up ADLIB. Our very own Steve Kay has been promoted to MD of ADLIB 
12 months ago, we set out to achieve a lot in preparation for this move. The result of which has seen us deliver our best ever financial year, the development of the ADLIB x enable group proposition, organically growing a group headcount of 55 talented and lovely people, all which comes without any need to scale and sell and best of all we’ve built an infinite business model that opens career opportunities without ceilings and a stakeholder profit model for all to enjoy.
Steve’s been with ADLIB for 9 years and instrumental to our growth and success from the day he joined. Alongside Steve is an incredible management team that have stepped up to support him in realising our future ambitions.
Next up is enable. It’s taken time to pull together the perfect leadership team that balances energy, opportunity and structure, but we now have it, and it’s been well worth the wait.
Tim Macmillan, enable’s Founder, brings his unstoppable energy and the ability to create opportunity, Oliver Howson has been promoted to be our new MD. Ollie flips seamlessly between the vision and driving the team’s success, whilst Shannon Matthews rejoins the business to bring the structure that underpins everything. enable is bursting with energy and opportunity, the team is growing fast, B Corp is underway, we’re excited for how the next 12 months will unfold.
As for Nick, he’s here to help our new MDs and leaders, to be the best the business has ever had (his words).
Viva ADLIB & enable.
Bristol Creative Industries board member Heather Wright joined a fascinating event discussing the future of south west business. Dan Martin summarises the conversation.
Heather Wright spent 22 years at Bristol Creative Industries member Aardman Animations and now runs Springboard Creative. She joined the Bristol Creative Industries board in January 2021.
Heather was part of a panel of founders and experts at ‘The future shape of south west business’, an event run by Insider Media. You can replay a live stream of the full event here.
Also on the panel was:
Event host Christian Annesley started by asking the panellists what most excites them about the south west economy. Dominic Mills, who has just raised almost £1m via crowdfunding for the Yuup experiences marketplace said:
“The thing that excites me most about Bristol and the south west is the sheer amount of activity that’s going on. We’ve just completed a fundraise and getting into that ecosystem again felt more vibrant. When you look at the stats around how much has been raised in the south west, it’s hugely exciting and, for me, very indicative of all of the cool things that are happening in the region, but also the appetite to support them.”
Recent figures back up his comment about the appetite for supporting businesses. Data from the British Business Bank showed that the south west saw the UK’s biggest increase in equity investment among SMEs last year. Finance deals in the region rose 49% in 2021, more than in any other part of the UK. The value of investments increased by more than 350%, reaching £821m.
Speaking on behalf of the creative industries, Heather Wright said the sector “is absolutely thriving right now”. She added:
“The big national figures are that the creative industries contribute like £115bn to the national economy and in the south west, it contributes around £2bn to the region economy.
“There’s a huge army of largely small and micro businesses driving it. 72% of Bristol Creative Industries members are businesses with 0 to 4 employees and only 6% have 250 workers.
“Nationally we’re recognising the role of the creative industries beyond traditional art, marketing and advertising to now being multidisciplinarity. VR is being used in the medical industry, 3d modelling and digital twinning is being used for city planning and engineering and the connections between creativity, technology, and other sectors are becoming completely embedded.
“The creative industries are also the tool by which we can influence behaviour change in society. If you want to convince people about health, net zero or sustainability and communicate why it’s important, it’s the creative industries that are going to help you do it. The importance of the creative industries to society and the economy are becoming even more pronounced.”
All the panellists agreed the battle for talent is a big issue for south west businesses.
Dominic Mills has spent 20 years working in tech. He said while there has been lots of changes during that time, the one consistent that has never gone away is the demand for tech talent. He added:
“Over the last five or so years, we’ve seen the exodus of talent from London to the West Country. In my agency days, we went from being a agency with only a Bristol office to also having a London base. That facilitated people being able to leave London and relocate to Bristol because they were at the point in their lives where that made sense in terms of lifestyle but they didn’t need to leave the company to do it.
“During the pandemic we saw that people could work from anywhere and many began to question how they wanted to live their lives. I think a lot of the rules around where you need to be to do things have changed and therefore from a talent acquisition point of view, it presents a big opportunity for businesses in the south west.”
Responding to a question about whether the reputation of the south west being a nice place to live is a “game changing opportunity” for the region when it comes to attracting talent, Tim Atkins said we still face challenges from the likes of Manchester for encouraging young tech talent.
“The south west has got work to do because we are competing against places which from a diversity point of view are stronger. We’ve got to step up our game to work together to promote ourselves to young people.
“If we really want to attract the brightest minds in the next generation, we’ve got to think about what the south west looks like. For example, Cheltenham has a brilliant offer in digital, tech and cyber but for a 22-year-old, is moving to Cheltenham going to be their first move? We are great at attracting people with young families but I think there’s a gap for attracting others.”
Heather Wright said attracting more diverse employees into the creative industries is a recognised problem.
“We’ve been very white and middle class for a long time. There are organisations like Bristol Creative Industries member Babbasa that’s doing amazing work getting apprenticeships up and running for people from diverse backgrounds and BeOnBoard that’s encouraging younger people as board members.
“It’s about looking at what those younger employees are looking for. They have a different value set to us who are older. They are looking for personal development and flexibility. They’re looking for hybrid working and their whole life isn’t about work. It’s about balance and fulfiling their purpose in life.”
In Cornwall, Mike Atkins said the region is a great place to live but one of the key factors impacting the ability to attract and retain talent is the availability of somewhere to live. “We’ve got a very distorted housing market because holiday lets are having a huge impact on the availability of housing,” he said.
Dominic Mills agreed on the housing point but added that it’s “so important that we celebrate everything we have in the south west.”
“I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few months in other regions as part of preparing for our platform expansion and I’ve found that a lot of civic and leaders in other regions look to Bristol and the south west as a pathfinder. They aspire to be like us.
“We absolutely should do more and strike to be better and to achieve more as a region, but I also think we should celebrate everything that we have.
“One of my biggest learnings from the last 18 months is the importance of engaging with all communities in Bristol because the talent that is already here in our city is phenomenal. I think we often overlook local communities. We need to find different ways of accessing it. Babbasa is a brilliant example of an organisation that can help us access talent that very often gets overlooked right here on our doorstep.”
Read top tips for how to attract Generation Z talent to your business.
Universities also have a role to play in attracting new talent to the south west. Dr Joanna Jenkinson from the GW4 Alliance, which brings together the universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter, said:
“The role and position of universities has fundamentally shifted in that they all take their civic mission really seriously. They are very much embedded in their communities and work with local authorities.
“We have apprenticeship programmes that are jointly run with small businesses. Apprenticeship programmes are really important for the technical community within our universities. We support the technicians in our universities to raise their profile. They are the lifeblood of a lot of the work that happens in universities.
“Another opportunity for universities to do things a differently is entrepreneurship programmes. If you look at Bristol University’s programme, 45% of the start-up founders are women and 24% are from a black, Asian or ethnic minority background. If you put a supportive environment around people, then you can do things differently.”
Heather Wright said colleges in Bristol are playing a key role in future creative industries talent.
“One of the reasons why Bristol is successful in the creative industries is because we have a good system of colleges and universities doing film courses etc. There are fantastic courses at both the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England. There’s also education providers like Boomsatsuma.
“I think there is still an issue with people coming out of college being work ready. As employers we can do more to build links and partnerships with colleges and universities. When I worked at Aardman Animations, if we had a big feature film or TV series we needed to crew up for and the crew didn’t exist, we would set up a special training course so people could apply for it. I think that organisations and industries that have the ability to give that finessing from when people leave university to being fully professional and fully employable in an income earning role is something that we should all take responsibility for.”
Read our in-depth guide to creative industries-related further and higher education in Bristol and Bath.
Facebook rebrand? Say what?
Facebook, one of the most used products in history has announced its rebrand to Meta and there is a huge splash on social media with online users sharing the news and having conflicting opinions. Perhaps there is a slight confusion of what is actually happening.
Facebook, the social media platform isn’t getting a rebrand as such, however, the company that owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, is.
Meaning Meta will be the Parent Brand for the social media apps, including Facebook, and any new products and services that may be completely irrelevant to social media.
The misconception
Facebook is indeed an iconic media brand however they claim that they want to be and do more than that. Drifting away from the misconception of Facebook being the social media platform only.
Having one of the social media apps being called the same name as the parent company creates confusion and lessens flexibility, meaning not being able to move forward and grow. It doesn’t encompass everything they do today and especially their future plans.
I think that there was just a lot of confusion and awkwardness about having the company brand be also the brand of one of the social media apps,” he said. “I think it’s helpful for people to have a relationship with a company that is different from the relationship with any specific one of the products, that can kind of supersede all of that. Mark Zuckerger
https://www.theverge.com/22749919/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-meta-company-rebrand
Meta solves the issue
Moving forward Meta wants the business to focus on two different segments. One for the social apps and one for future platforms. A new company brand to encompass everything they do and build.
Mark Zuckerberg states that the mission remains the same: bringing people together, still the company that designs technology around people. ‘Connection is evolving and so are we’.
Meta, derived from the Greek word beyond, symbolising that there is more to build.
A new brand system is applied
Creating a brand system that is able to hold under the different segments. The social media products such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, as well as any new products and future platforms.
Each product has a unique purpose and appeals to different audiences, based on culture, age, region, lifestyle, profession, et al. Therefore it is important that they are differentiated between them.
The image below illustrates some of the brands Meta currently holds and how they will probably be divided.
Brand architecture
Brand architecture is the way a company structures and presents its products to the target audience. It’s the relationship between brands within an organization and how they interact with one another.
Companies grow and target various audiences through different acquisitions and product lines, brand architecture is articulating a key structural system, helping each type of product to connect with the right audience and form perception.
It creates clarity by having a structure that achieves a robust system achieving flexibility and a system that can align and support any future plans; new lines of products, services.
There are a few strategies and methods applied to create brand architecture, each one serves a different purpose. See below.
Branded house (monolithic):
A single master brand, using one visual system. Sub-brands are differentiated by descriptors, not logos. Usually, they are easier to manage and consumers choose based on loyalty. However, it is harder to target a specific audience and their needs.
House of brands (pluralistic):
The house of brands is basically the opposite of the branded house. It detaches the master brand from any of its products. The parent company is irrelevant and ‘invisible’ to the individual products that it distributes, enabling them to even compete with each other. If one of the brands is under a crisis, the others would not be affected. With this method is easier to target desired audiences, yet it can be the most costly one.
Hybrid (endorsed):
This category allows products to be associated or disassociated (to any level) with the parent company. Usually to benefit from the visibility of the company’s parent. It can also be used in the reversed way; when a product should not be linked with another one or the company parent at all. It is the most flexible approach yet hard to comprehend and manage.
Would you and your team benefit from learning about and committing to experimenting with new ways of working? If so, join my online course in July – BCI members receive a 10% discount 
In a nutshell, we’ll focus on the common challenges and tensions felt by teams (the perfect inspiration for your experiments); what Harvard, MIT and Google research tells us about great teams; healthy meeting structures; helpful mindsets; power; encouraging a culture of feedback; and techniques for better decision-making.
I love delivering this course. The first seven have been full houses, the feedback has been fantastic, and I can’t wait to go again!
100% of participants “feel more comfortable experimenting with new ways of working” & “would recommend the course to colleagues”
The course objectives are for you to enjoy your job more and to be an even better member of your team. You’ll learn collaboration and leadership skills, how to facilitate meetings that don’t feel like a chore, and how to make better decisions by quickly seeking and integrating the wisdom of the group. You’ll learn how to give ‘brain-friendly’ feedback, recognise what’s getting in the way of being a great team (tensions), and understand the mindset and power dynamics that help or hinder change.
To do this we’ll borrow from the best sources. These include agile, self-management, organisational psychology, and the most progressive companies on the planet. There’s more detail below in the ‘Course overview’ section of the course page, including who’s been attending, eligibility, and course feedback scores.
– By far one of the most useful, practical, engaging, interesting courses I’ve been on. Hats off to you, super well thought out, from a practical, mental and emotional perspective.
– The experimenting methodology gives me the opportunity to not only “take a course” but actually practising in the “real world”.
– The benefits to the business have been tangible and resulted in me thinking about work in a very different way.
– I loved having another colleague on the course and would totally recommend others try to do the same… I loved the organisation of the course, it all felt incredibly “slick.” … I loved Marks humble approach, he listened to us all intently and was patient with us when we needed more time on certain things.
– The experiments each week really helped me grow my comfort towards experimenting further. They gave me the perspective of how much needs to be a done, and an eye for what might be ‘bite-size’.
– I loved Marks generosity, he clearly spends a lot of time preparing and introduced me to very cool tools that we are now using in the organisation.
– The depth of experience and further research Mark has done to curate bite sized resource for us to cover weekly, in a number of mediums, was incredibly satisfying to absorb and kept me engaged over the 5 weeks.
– As a facilitator, you do add quite a bit of magic sauce to holding the space, and your curation of materials is unbeatable.
Your New Ways of Working journey will be more impactful if you have colleagues along for the ride, so you are advised (and incentivised) to bring one or two along.
To secure your place please double-check the eligibility criteria on the course page then send a note to confirm (mark.eddleston@gmail.com) and that’s it, you’re enrolled!
Now that people are venturing out in person to Industry events Like to let all BCI memebers know I will be attending footageMarketplace on behalf of Science Photo Library (SPL) on the 21 June, and it would be great to meet some of you while I’m there.
I’m sure allot of you would have dealt with SPL before , but if you haven’t Science Photo Library (SPL) is the world’s leading source of science and medicine images and video.
Register now and meet me there: footagemarketplace.com
As Generation Z (aka Gen Z) talent becomes an increasingly important part of future-proofing your business, so does the conversation around how and where to find them.
At a recent BCI keynote event, Mae Yip and Sam Hornsby, co-founders of career guidance platform ERIC, shared strategies for attracting and recruiting Gen Z employees. Dan Martin summarises their brilliant advice.
Gen Z is the generation of people who were born between 1997 and 2012.
Having grown up with digital technologies, they are the internet and smartphone generation. They will make up 27% of the workforce by 2025.
The first step to attracting Gen Z talent is doing your research on who they are.
Sam shared some stats:
“You will never be able to attract young people if you have no idea what they’re thinking,” Sam said. “You need to deep dive into understanding this generation because your Gen Z strategy will be dictated by how well you know them.”
To help with your research, ERIC has a resources hub with stats and studies about Gen Z.
If you ask a 16-year-old what would be their dream employer, they are likely to name companies such as Netflix, Apple, Google and TikTok. “They are aware these brands exist from a very young age through advertising,” Sam said. “They end up becoming superfans who would give their right arm to work for them. That is the kind of employee spirit we’re all looking for.”
You may not be a massive consumer brand that directly appeals to young people but you can still attract their interest by harnessing similar creative messaging.
“Employer branding is showing young people that working for your company is an aspiration and a desirable thing to do,” Sam advised. “You need to communicate that your jobs aren’t just jobs, they are lifestyle choices.”
One brand that does this very well is Heineken. It has created a careers website with humorous videos of employees that communicate the personality of the business. Here’s an example:
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Among your greatest assets for recruiting young people are your existing Gen Z employees. “Get your Gen Z staff to create recruitment content and share it on social media for engagement from other Gen Z people,” Sam said.
There’s more advice on employer branding on the ERIC website.
Sam argued that businesses shouldn’t just focus their recruitment on university graduates.
“Gen Z are active learners regardless of whether or not they went to university,” she said.
“Their natural instinct is to self-teach through Google, YouTube and TikTok which means that university no longer separates the wheat from the chaff. They’ve been trained by technology to consume large amounts of information at hyperspeed whenever they want.
“Unless a job really requires a degree, think about the skills that you actually want a candidate to show. Do you want them to demonstrate a thirst to learn? They can demonstrate that through learning on YouTube.
“Do you want them to have to ability to apply themselves? Self-teaching three different coding languages in a summer break could be seen as more of a demonstration of an ability to apply oneself than learning throughout a three year degree.”
In the past 10 years, we’ve seen the launch of Snapchat, Uber, Twitch, Amazon Alexa, 4G, TikTok and many more. These are the tools and platforms that Gen Z use because they have grown up with them.
The platforms that you might be using to try and recruit Gen Z, such as LinkedIn, are more than double the age of the platforms that Gen Z are using.
As mentioned above, only 4% of Gen Z use LinkedIn which means, Sam said, “you are not using your recruitment budget effectively.”
You need your recruiters to reflect the talent you are looking for so to reach Gen Z talent, use Gen Z platforms. As well as ERIC, examples include Otta and BYP Network.
Research has shown Gen Z to be the most curious generation, they prefer learning from YouTube rather than books and they value personal development over pay.
“Young people are telling us not just how we can attract them but how we can make them happy and keep them”, Sam said. “Be the employer that nurtures curiosity and prioritises personal development.
“You could provide online therapy services, an investment fund for them to play around with, confidence workshops or side hustle lessons.”
46% of Gen Z have applied for an internship or job via a mobile device so you need to make sure your application process is ready for that.
Test your job application experience and make sure it’s mobile friendly.
The career journey doesn’t start when young people first apply for jobs, it starts in schools when they are choosing their GCSEs aged 13.
“Young people want more companies to tell them that about their business as a career option,” Sam said.
“Don’t underestimate how little they know about the world of work. It is up to you to put your industry and your company on the map with young people as early as possible.
“The companies that appear earlier have the best chance of getting the best talent. If you are only appearing at the last hurdle, you’re not just competing against your direct competitors, but every company in every industry.
“To get young people’s attention and interest, you have to give them a reason to connect with you. You have to invest in being part of their career education.”
To sign up for future Bristol Creative Industries events, visit our events diary.
Congratulations to our CFO, Andy Brown, and chairman, Chris Thurling, who have both qualified with the Institute of Directors as Chartered Directors. With fewer than 2,000 Chartered Directors worldwide, the qualification demonstrates their commitment to investing in continual development, as well as the business’s dedication to corporate and social governance.
Chris Thurling comments: “We understand that strengthening our skills as chartered directors should mean we are able to better serve Armadillo, supporting sustainable, long-term growth. A company director is a profession (as much as an accountant for example) therefore why shouldn’t we be qualified for the role?”
Andy Brown adds: “I’m really pleased that Chris and I have been able to complete this training and qualification together. As well as learning more about strong leadership, governance and strategy, we’ve had the advantage of the shared experience of completing this together and bringing ideas back to enhance Armadillo’s Board effectiveness.”
Chris and Andy will also be joining the South West chartered directors network. With members representing agriculture, aerospace, tourism and manufacturing, IoD South West reflects the vibrant and innovative sectors in the region. The Institute of Directors (IoD) is a British professional organisation for company directors, senior business leaders and entrepreneurs. It is the UK’s longest running organisation for professional leaders and is an extremely prestigious qualification to hold. Armadillo are really moving forward and prioritising career development, so for our directors to represent this is great for our employees to see. There’s always an opportunity to develop your career, no matter what position you’re in. We are very proud of Andy and Chris’ dedication to improve their role as part of Armadillo’s board of directors.
Employee engagement is an efficient business strategy. Happy, engaged, and resilient staff is the ultimate goal, but it’s easier said than done.
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to employee engagement. It’s a mix of rewards, recognition, wellbeing, and community-building. Yuup provides a bespoke solution to each of these concerns surrounding employee engagement:
Employees are the heart of your business and the reason you exist. They’re also a significant investment, so it makes sense to invest in them as well.
Yuup offers a solution for employee engagement that goes beyond traditional perks such as free lunches or flexible working hours.
Based on research into what employees want from their employers, Yuup provides businesses with an innovative way to engage their teams by giving them recognition and rewarding them with things to do that are enriching and personal whilst stimulating the local economy and supporting small businesses.
Yuup is an online marketplace that offers a range of experiences that are perfect for businesses both big and small.
From team-building days to performance rewards and from staff wellbeing experiences to ways to celebrate big wins. It’s a way for businesses to engage their staff in ways they may not have been able to before.
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