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.
With the support of ADLIB and Babbasa, we’re delighted to announce that Okori Lewis-McCalla has won the 2020 Ben Martin Apprentice Award. The calibre of entries was higher than ever this year and Okori was unanimously chosen by the judging panel for his passion and ambition to become a ‘creative technologist’.
As part of the competition, Okori will join Bristol Media and a team of agency professionals at the world’s largest interactive festival, SXSW in Austin, Texas for five days in March. On his return, he’ll complete a structured programme of paid internships.
“To even be shortlisted for the Ben Martin Apprentice Award was quite flattering but to win the award is an honour and something I’m very grateful for”, said Okori. “More than anything, it’s empowering and has reaffirmed to me that you can and should just be yourself.”
The BMAA internship programme was hugely successful in 2019 and saw last year’s winner, Marissa Lewis-Peart, undertake 16 internships with some of the biggest and best agencies in the region. As a result, her career is off to a flying start! 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. In 2020, we’re also committed to offering internships to the runners-up who will benefit from gaining practical work experience, setting them up for a future career in the industry.
“We all want to make sure our industry is 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
“ADLIB are delighted to support this year’s Ben Martin Apprentice Award. We’re a B Corp business committed to driving and championing diversity and inclusion within the technology, data, creative and marketing sectors. We are big supporters of Babassa and it has been a pleasure working with them and Bristol Media, we look forward to seeing the positive outcomes that are generated through the programme.” ~ Nick Dean, MD, ADLIB
“This competition embodies Babbasa’s mission to improve social mobility outcomes in Bristol and the SW and to support young people from diverse communities with their professional ambitions. We are very pleased and excited for what comes next for Okori and I am sure this will inspire many other young people to consider a career in the creative industry.” ~ Urfan Ali, Babbasa Advisory Board Member
If your business would like to get involved with the BMAA in 2020, contact alli@bristolmedia.co.uk for more details.
BBC Digital Cities will be returning to Bristol for 2020, with a week-long series of events for the creative industries.
Starting on Saturday 25th January 2020, there will be a full and varied schedule across the week, offering insights and free digital skills training.
See the full schedule on the Digital Cities Bristol homepage.
Partners include BBC Writersroom, BBC Academy and BBC Young Reporter plus digital arts and creative conference, Hello Culture Remix, will be making its debut in the city.
Boomsatsuma will once again be opening up its doors for the “Ask Me Anything” event and Bristol Media’s “How to Get Your Dream Job” will be taking place at the BBC on Whiteladies Road. We the Curious will be running a number of special showings on the Thursday and The Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio will be hosting a special lunchtime session on the Friday with the BBC’s Makerbox.
On Thursday 30th at The Watershed, there is a fantastic day of events packed full of opportunities for storytellers on all digital platforms – called Screen Futures; If you are looking for funding for your latest film venture, want to know more about writing for social media, animation or commissioning opportunities in audio, are a black film maker wanting to know about opportunities in the city or have a story to tell at TedX in Bristol, then this day is for you. Featuring amongst others Into Film, ScreenSkills, Cables & Camera’s, BBC Writersroom, BFINetwork, New Creatives, Bectu & TedX Bristol, there will be opportunities to find out about schemes, burseries, funding and commissioning opportunities, as well as recent arrivals to the city – Channel 4 who will be talking about their latest apprenticeships and trainee schemes.
Not to be missed out – tech and digital creators will be able to attend UWE’s Global Game Jam & Bristol City Council’s Hackathon over the two weekends, both returning again after successful events last year.
Follow #digicities and @BBCAcademy on Twitter for updates. This page and the Digital Cities homepage are updated regularly so keep checking back for the latest information.
For Information:
Booking open now.
Free Google analytics health check on your website/Make your website a happy one
New year, new you! Or at least your website. It’s time for that to get into shape this January and ensure you’re getting the traffic you deserve. In this case, the bigger the better. That’s why we’re launching a couple of free tools to help you understand how your website is performing, and make it work harder for you.
Our brand shiny new Google Analytics tool takes a deep dive into your website and gives you an overview of what is going well, and what needs some work. From setting goals to tracking e-commerce, our tool shows exactly what workout is needed for your analytics.
We’re also offering a free SEO health check to ensure your website is working hard and getting you the traffic you deserve. Find out what keywords are ranking, if pages are sluggish and what links are getting you the best traffic. There are over 3.5 billion searches per day through Google alone, so getting your SEO right is key to ensuring your audience can find you.
These two free tools can help you whip your website into tip-top shape. Sorting out these critical parts of your website can help improve your bottom line.
Drop us a line to chat through the results and see what the best next steps are for your site. Make 2020 your best year yet!
Challenging injustice is just a day in the life here at OggaDoon. Today we’re supporting the launch of the Women’s Resource Centre’s #PayBackTheTamponTax campaign!
In 2015, the Conservative Government pledged to pay the tampon tax back into women’s charities and organisations, however only 1 out of 10 charities who received the funding was a dedicated women’s charity.
The campaign is already receiving some amazing support and attention. It has been picked up in an exclusive feature in the Independent this morning, which you can read about here.
Demand for women’s services has increased by 85% since 2018, whilst funding has fallen by 50% in the same period. Domestic violence killings are at a 5-year high – you never know how close to home these statistics can become.
With Brexit on the horizon, the future of women’s rights is uncertain, however the amazing women at the Women’s Resource Centre are working hard to protect us.
Help us hold the Government to account for not delivering their promise of paying the estimated £700 million of women’s money back into the women’s sector. Find out more and donate here.
Alternatively, show your support by sharing materials from our partner pack, which can be found here.
Communication is the key to a successful crowdfund. If you’re looking for support with an upcoming crowd fund – speak to us today!
Award-winning Bristol based creative agency Workbrands has been appointed by the IETA (International Emissions Trading Association) to create the brand, alongside the landing page design and social media assets for its new initiative Markets for Natural Climate Solutions.
Markets for Natural Climate Solutions is a new initiative launched by the IETA with the aim to maximise the business investment in natural climate solutions to ensure they play the fullest role possible in delivering the goals of the Paris Agreement.
If that all sounds pretty serious it’s because it is…the Paris Agreement is a landmark environmental accord that was adopted by nearly every nation in 2015 to address climate change and its negative impacts. Natural climate solutions can hopefully provide more than one third of the emission reductions needed to deliver the Paris Agreement. They offer ecological restoration and deliver wide ecological and social benefits.
Given the urgency and importance of the climate crisis, the Workbrands team were excited to get stuck in and help such a fantastic project.
The slick new brand and website Workbrands designed was launched on Thursday 5th December at the UN Climate Change Conference COP 25. You can see the site in action and find out more about Markets for Natural Climate Solutions here.
*This event is now SOLD OUT. Please add your name to the waitlist and we’ll confirm if a ticket becomes available*
Humans are innately illogical, and make unconscious decisions based largely on our emotions. Yet when confronted with a business or personal challenge, we have become obsessed with absolute logic, rationality, algorithms and data, and it’s threatening to stunt us: politically, socially and economically. What if there were an alternative to logic and rationality –a ‘psycho-logic’–that was far more pervasive and powerful than we realise, and when employed correctly, creates the kind of magic (or alchemy) most businesses or economists can only dream of?
Join us for a keynote with Rory Sutherland, the legendary Ogilvy Vice Chairman, the ‘Don Draper of the UK’, and one of our most acclaimed behavioural economists, who will share insights into his book ‘Alchemy – The Surprising Power of Ideas that don’t make Sense.’
Sutherland will use real case studies from his work and research with the world’s biggest brands and influencers, to reveal how we must learn to identify and understand the basics of ‘psycho-logic’, to get ahead in the modern world.
This keynote takes place between 12.30 – 14.00 on Tuesday 28th January at Foot Anstey, 2 Glass Wharf, Bristol BS2 0FR.
Tickets are 45+VAT for Bristol Media members (£60+VAT for non-members), a limited number are available to Bristol Media Freelance Members for £25+VAT.
Tickets include a buffet lunch and a copy of Rory’s book ‘Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas that don’t make Sense’ to take away.
Rory is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, an attractively vague job title which has allowed him to co-found a behavioural science practice within the agency.
He works with a consulting practice of psychology graduates who look for ‘unseen opportunities’ in consumer behaviour – these are the very small contextual changes which can have enormous effects on the decisions people make. It is a hugely valuable activity – but, alas, not particularly lucrative. This is because clients generally do not have budgets for solving problems they have not noticed.
Before founding Ogilvy Change, Rory was a copywriter and creative director at Ogilvy for over 20 years, having joined as a graduate trainee in 1988. He has variously been President of the IPA, Chair of the Judges for the Direct Jury at Cannes, and has spoken at TED Global. He writes regular columns for the Spectator, Market Leader and Impact, and also occasional pieces for Wired. He is the author of two books: The Wiki Man, available on Amazon at prices between £1.96 and £2,345.54, depending on whether the algorithm is having a bad day, and Alchemy, The Surprising Power of Ideas that don’t make Sense, published in the UK and US in March 2019.
Check out more Bristol Media events on the What’s On pages
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