The BMAA was hugely successful last year and, after recently announcing Okori Lewis-McCalla as this year’s winner, we’re keen to hear from businesses who would like to support the initiative in 2020.
16% of Bristol’s population is from a BAME background, but these groups are still vastly underrepresented within our creative sector. Diversity and inclusion is somewhere on the agenda for most businesses but it’s often difficult to know how to make a difference.
The BMAA was launched in 2018 in memory of Ben Martin, a local agency MD who passionately believed that success was achievable regardless of background or education. The Award supports young people from underrepresented backgrounds by offering them work experience and opportunities with local creative businesses (as well as a trip to SXSW for one lucky winner).
This year, Okori and 3 runners-up have been selected to participate in the programme. Okori is currently preparing for SXSW in March, after which he and the runners up will start their paid internship programme with sponsoring agencies, taking their first steps into professional life. During their work experience they will be coached and supported for employability, setting them up for their future career within their chosen area of interest.
Marissa Lewis-Peart won last year’s BMAA and completed over 5 months of internships with 16 different agencies, gaining valuable experience across a range of creative sectors.
“Nothing compares to gaining real industry experience and I’m so glad to have been given this opportunity. Winning the Ben Martin Apprentice Award provided me with connections to people within the industry and the rare opportunity to experience some of the biggest creative agencies in Bristol. The experience and support really helped me to feel more confident in getting ready to start my career.” Marissa said.
Alongside Bristol Media, the headline sponsor for the 2020 BMAA is ADLIB with continued support from Babbasa. ADLIB are very excited to join the initiative as this year’s key sponsor.
“We all want to make our industry more diverse and inclusive, but when you run a small business it’s not always easy to know how to make a practical difference. By coming together as the Bristol Media community to support the BMAA, every member business, regardless of size, can do their bit to help young people get that all important foot in the door.” ~ Chris Thurling, Chair, Bristol Media
“Diversity and Inclusion isn’t a tick box exercise; it requires an engaged commitment to drive change and live and breathe an all-inclusive environment. Building a diverse and inclusive team is proven to drive increased employee engagement, creativity, innovation and profitability (and that’s just for starters). We have founded the True Diversity initiative with the mission to help Technology, Data, Marketing and Creative businesses identify where they are at on their journey towards diversity, what they could improve and how to go about making those adjustments.” ~ Nick Dean, MD, ADLIB
This year, we’re looking for agencies and businesses to be involved as corporate sponsors, to provide additional funding and further reach for young people. The BMAA will offer corporate sponsors the chance to promote their workplace diversity and inclusive work environment, highlighting their company values and adding to their attractiveness as an employer. Sponsors will have access to an exclusive workshop and branding opportunities.
The package costs £350 and includes but is not limited to:
To be involved in supporting this fantastic initiative, please contact Alli Nicholas at Bristol Media at [email protected].
We’re immensely proud of the role we’ve played in leading this initiative and have seen first-hand the impact it has had on both the BMAA Winner and the agencies involved. Thank you to the growing list of agencies who have already joined this initiative – Armadillo CRM, Tallt Ventures, McCann Bristol, Mr B & Friends, Oakwood, Immediate Media, Epoch Design, Halo, Torchbox and Diva Agency – who have committed to making a difference.
Following on from the success of Vaughan + Company’s Park Street and Queen’s Road ad for Bristol City Centre BID, which launched December 2019 and achieved a combined reach of over a quarter of a million people through Facebook and Instagram, the creative studio has now been commissioned to produce a second film to celebrate Bristol’s Old City.
The aim of the film will be to highlight the rich, cultural history in the heart of the city and the variety of hidden experiences on offer; from its charming markets and quirky cafes, to undiscovered shops, bars, gig venues and more. As with the Park Street and Queen’s Road production, Vaughan + Company will focus on bringing a unique perspective to the stories seeped in this distinctive, lively, historic side of Bristol.
Keith Rundle, Operations Director for Bristol City Centre BID says:
“The Bristol City Centre BID are producing this short promotional video to help support our levy payers in the Old City, one of Bristol’s most iconic areas, and are delighted with the appointment of Vaughan + Company following the success of our previous work supporting local businesses in December 2019.”
In addition to this, Vaughan + Company will handle all social media management and reporting for the project, with ambitions for the Old City film production to achieve similar success to Park Street. The film will launch across social networks Facebook and Instagram, as well as local press, to an estimated quarter of a million Bristolians this spring.
Claire joined the team as the Content Strategy Director in 2017, bringing with her a wealth of international experience. She earned her stripes in marketing and communications roles with large financial services firms, most recently as Head of Communications for AMP Capital in Sydney. She enjoys nothing more than using words to simplify complex ideas and make them accessible for all audiences.
Claire has an instinct for great content which works hand in glove with the commercial skills she has honed in her corporate roles. She works with clients to design fully integrated communications strategies which support their goals – helping them to create high quality, engaging communications and content time and again.
In her new role, she’ll bring this experience, expertise and passion to a number of new projects, as well as leading Stratton Craig’s team of writers as they continue to expand the business.
Darren Clare, CEO says “Claire is instrumental in demonstrating our belief that the right words drive our clients’ business outcomes, this is an exciting step forward in the next phase of our business growth.”
Claire added “I’m excited about this opportunity to help our clients in new ways. We have a team of outstanding writers at Stratton Craig and I’m thrilled to be working more closely with them to keep delivering brilliant work for our clients.”
Hear more from Claire here
Stratton Craig is a specialist writing agency that’s been helping companies to communicate for over 30 years. Its team of experienced account managers and expert writers bring their love of language to help businesses develop and deliver content and communications strategies that build understanding, inspire trust and create growth.
**This event has sold out. If you didn’t manage to book your place, please add your name to the waitlist HERE and we’ll be in touch if a ticket becomes available**
This interactive workshop will help creative business professionals understand how businesses make money. We’ll consider the implications of your pricing approach and how the everyday decisions you make affect the bottom line and impact client relationships. Mette Davis, will share different pricing models, strategies and tactics, as well as practical advice on ways to communicate them effectively without compromising relationships.
By the end of the workshop you’ll have the tools and confidence to deliver a positive impact on your profitability.
Tuesday 28th April from 9am – 1pm at Amdaris, Finzel’s Reach, Bristol.
Tickets are £120 +VAT for Bristol Media members, £160 +VAT otherwise. This is a small, interactive workshop for up to 20 people so book early to avoid disappointment. Refreshments will be provided.
For most people in the corporate world, meetings are a necessary evil. Let’s admit it. Sometimes, they feel more “evil” than “necessary”.
If you’ve been working long enough, you’ve probably been in enough meetings that felt like they were going nowhere. Worse, these meetings might have very little participation at all, with just one or two people dominating the discussion.
You’re not alone if you feel meetings are a waste of time. The Harvard Business Review claims that executives spend 23 hours a week in meetings, and that’s just for scheduled ones. Around 65% of the senior managers the HBR interviewed said meetings kept them from doing actual work, while 39% say that they’ve dozed off at meetings..
Meetings don’t have to be long, dragging, and boring. There are ways to make meetings actually productive. Here are 5 tips your organisation can use to transform the way you do meetings.
A meeting is only as effective as the people who attend it. If you intend to come up with a decision, you should ensure that the key people, whether they’re executives or managers, are invited and have confirmed their attendance. Otherwise, you can’t make any decisions.
Limiting the number of attendees to 8 at most is also a smart way of ensuring that meetings are short and productive. Too many attendees means too many opinions going around. Only a few of those opinions will matter. Keep it to those who you think will have something concrete to contribute.
If you are the one attending the meeting, look at the attendee list. If you see any unfamiliar names, look them up in your employee directory and deduce what they could bring to the table. This will ensure that you will be able to answer any questions they might throw your way.
Too many meetings start with agenda-setting sessions that take too much time and patience. If you are the one setting the meeting, provide a list of topics to be covered in the invite. For better results, include a brief background on the agenda so everyone will already be on the same page by the time the meeting starts.
Even regularly scheduled meetings will benefit from an agenda. For example, if one of your team members is going on leave next month, tomorrow’s meeting is the best time to discuss back-up and task delegation.
If you are invited to a meeting without an agenda, insist on getting one. Otherwise, you risk being stuck in an unproductive meeting. If this meeting is part of a series, review the previous meeting’s minutes as well so you’d get an idea of where you left off.
Sometimes, you call a meeting to cascade important management decisions. For example, a project might be cancelled or someone is to get promoted. Big decisions like these require one-on-one discussions with the people involved before the meeting itself.
This method is time-consuming, but it helps you avoid unpredictable reactions. It also helps you get buy-in from team members and helps you extract useful suggestions from them that you could integrate into the agenda.
Another strategy you can use is to allot an amount of time for the meeting. You can use a clock timer app to ensure that you don’t go over the time limit. This is an effective strategy for keeping the meeting focused.
So you’re at the meeting now and ideas are being thrown around. However, you notice that the meeting is veering away from the topic at hand. How do you ensure that the discussion doesn’t get derailed?
The most effective meeting moderators use what is called a parking lot. When something comes up and you feel it isn’t entirely related to your agenda, you could call it out and say, “this is a good question, but let’s put it in the parking lot so we could focus on our topic”. This creates some sort of separation between topics that are meant to be discussed and those that are not.
Remember that the parking lot is not a way to dismiss ideas outright. If you have time left in the meeting, you can revisit questions or suggestions you’ve parked. If you have no more time, either create action items out of them or schedule separate meetings for them. Using the parking lot wisely adds to your credibility as a facilitator.
Your job as a meeting facilitator isn’t done even after the attendees have left the room. Sending the meeting minutes is not just a bureaucratic process. It’s also the best way to remind everyone of what took place and what is expected of them.
If there are items that require special attention, make a phone call or send an email to the persons involved preferably on the same day as the meeting. It’s also best practice to put these action items on your calendar so you could follow up until you see results.
As much as you’d like to avoid them altogether, meetings are part of professional life.
However, they don’t have to be long, boring, and unproductive. Using the tips that we listed above, you can now turn meetings into events where things actually get done.
Exodus Travels has launched a new range of trips targeting travel enthusiasts in the prime of their careers, with a strategy and brand identity created by independent brand consultancy Mr B & Friends.
With nearly 50 years’ experience in the adventure travel market, Exodus Travels is well versed in how to create enticing breaks for those looking to explore the world. Its key audience has traditionally been the over 50s, who are more likely to have the luxury of time to invest in travel. However, in response to a rising number of requests from a younger demographic looking for small group adventures without career trade-off, Exodus saw an opportunity to create a new arm to their portfolio. Aimed at engaging professionals in their 30s and 40s, the adventure-grabbing itineraries bypass hours of holiday research while offering up bucket-list achievements that won’t absorb too much precious annual leave.
Mr B & Friends came up with a strategy that positions the new range as the shortcut to adventure. The approach demonstrates that while life is short and the world is wide, little by little you can travel far. The new compact, curated adventures are designed to enable exciting yet efficient travel, and with this in mind the venture has been named ‘Exodus Edits’. Among the initial 22 trip options available are ‘Secrets and Civilisations in Mexico’ and ‘Landscapes and Limoncello in Amalfi’.
Built around the proposition, “Life is short. See the world, one edit at a time”, the brand identity complements the strategy with a vivid journalistic aesthetic and an emotive storytelling approach to communication. Although the edits are based on shorter itineraries, the brand needed to also demonstrate that the one-of-a-kind experiences Exodus Travels has built its reputation on would still be foremost. While shorter than their mainstream adventures, there is no compromise on quality here. Ultimately Exodus Edits offers an additional stream to the company’s established portfolio, keeping them at the front of the pack.
Gareth Atkinson, Strategy Lead at Mr B & Friends, said, “We wanted to create a brand that inspired people to really make the most of their annual leave by enabling enriching experiences. We worked collaboratively with the team at Exodus Travels to develop a concept that embraces breaking down bucket-list holidays into a series of bite-sized adventures and then translated this into brand communications.”
The project was completed over eight weeks as part of the agency’s new accelerated brand programme. The fast-track approach is designed to accelerate the strategic and creative process through smarter working which aligned with the ambitious objectives Exodus Travels had set to get their new offering to market.
Hayley Georgiou, Head of Marketing at Exodus Travels said; “We are delighted with the work that Mr B & Friends have done to personify our new range of trips aimed at a younger, more time-poor audience. Exodus Edits is a fresh and contemporary brand that sits beautifully alongside the core brand of Exodus Travels, which has always been deep-rooted in the spirit of exploration.”
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.
As the war for talent rages, it’s safe to say that employee experience is the battle-ground for employees’ hearts and minds. More and more organisations are bringing together their internal communication teams, HR departments and employee engagement experts to create cross-functional employee experience teams, working at the leading edge of business engagement. But this new area has been underserved by in-depth, evidence-based research – until now.
This January, employee experience specialists Home launch Roundel 2020, a free guide to the trends and priorities in employee experience. Free to download, the report was created after gaining insight from a global set of employee experience professionals. It also includes case studies and commentary from brands at the leading-edge of employee experience, as well as insight from the Home team based on their 38 years’ of experience.
Commenting on the launch, Home said, ‘It’s been such an incredible experience pulling this report together, speaking and hearing from so many passionate people from all over the globe that care about what they do and how they do it has been overwhelmingly inspiring! We believe Roundel 2020 gives great insight into the trends, challenges and priorities businesses face going into 2020, it’s a must for anyone that cares about their business and the employee experience. Roundel 2020 is written by people who care, for people who care… We’ve been delighted by the initial feedback to date, clearly there was a huge appetite for it. We’re so proud to have produced the Roundel, excited to share the results and can’t wait to start the next one.’
One of the contributors, Martin Fitzpatrick, Senior Internal Communications Business Partner said:
“Creating truly better places to work will require us to work collaboratively across our businesses. People from a variety of functions and disciplines participated in the research and 75% felt that their CEO would agree with their priorities. So, it seems that finally we’re all waking up to the fact that providing people with a meaningful connection to work has far more impact than shiny newsletters, free gyms or new e-learning platforms.
Perhaps then, 2020 is the year of purpose? Of all the trends highlighted in this research, perhaps the most exciting is the fact that embedding a purpose-driven culture was chosen as the number one priority by most respondents. It’s a lofty ambition.”
Aimed squarely at employee experience specialists, HR and internal communications teams, employee engagement professionals and anyone whose role means they have to make things work for employees, Roundel 2020 is an invaluable resource for teams planning their 2020 priorities as well as anyone interested in an overview of this vibrant industry, which touches the lives of so many people.
Roundel 2020 is available for download from Home’s website at https://www.thisishome.co.uk/resources/roundel-2020/roundel-2020-download/
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.
Any website owner understands that SEO is important. However, SEO is a nebulous term. What you want is a clear roadmap with actionable tips you can implement to improve your search visibility and rank high on Google.
The good news is, SEO is there are things you can do that can instantly improve your search engine rankings, and other hacks that would incrementally bring more traffic to your site. In this article, I will share with you three tips to help you dominate Google for your chosen keywords.
One of the easiest things you can do to boost the amount of traffic to your site is to improve your meta title and meta descriptions for your content. This is, after all, what people see when they find your site in Google search results.
First, check your Google Search Console. Review the keywords that your content is ranking for. You then want to create a title that includes your keywords in the most natural way possible. So if you were running a ventilation and cooling service, you could choose something like, “HVAC services in Bristol | NAME OF COMPANY.”
You may try and create a more enticing title. For example, here are some examples of titles below:
The meta description should include the target keyword or keywords, and generate enough interest to make a person want to click on the link. Here’s an example of a good meta description for our example:
HVAC service company Bristol. Get 24/7 services from our friendly technicians. Our team of experts will help you fix your problem. Get in touch with us today!
By updating your meta title and meta description, and monitoring your results, you can get more traffic to your site.
The next thing you can do is to optimise each page of your site. There are different elements of the content you can optimise:
A large portion of on-page SEO optimisation involves making sure you are using the right keywords in the correct place. SEO experts call the TF*IDF. This term relates to how Google parses and then analyses your keywords to determine what topics it should rank.
As Google reviews your content, it will consider things like the structure of your article, what points are covered, and the keyword density. A shortcut for discovering what works is reviewing the ranking content for your keyword.
Create something as good as, or better than the existing content. By covering the same points as the competitors and including the same keywords, you improve the chance of your content ranking. This will help you get more traffic to your site.
Years ago, Google used a system called PageRank to figure out what content should rank. To oversimplify things, the way PageRank worked was that a link from a relevant authority website to your content was worth a certain amount of points. The more points you get, the better the ranking.
Quality backlinks remain an important ranking factor. To get your content to rank, you need to identify relevant backlinks and find a way to get them. This involves writing guest posts for authority websites. This article touches on guest posting and content marketing in general.
It’s important to cite your website correctly. Use relevant anchor text and make sure your anchor text distribution isn’t unnatural. Here’s a good article on how to cite a website.
In this article, I shared three SEO tips to help you dominate Google in 2020. I discussed how to improve your metadata and the importance of reviewing and improving your on-page content. Finally, I explained why getting backlinks to your content is so important for SEO.
By following the tips outlined in this post, you can increase the number of visitors who come to your site. The rest is up to you. Although you can’t expect changes overnight, with a little bit of consistency on your part and time, there’s no reason you improve your search rankings.