Andy Nairn, who has been named the UK’s number one brand strategist for the past three years, joined us for a fascinating and entertaining event to share insights from his new book, Go Luck Yourself: 40 ways to stack the odds in your brand’s favour.
In the book, Andy explains how the history of marketing and advertising is full of brands that stumbled across great ideas by accident or turned misfortunes into huge successes. During the event, the co-founder of advertising agency Lucky Generals highlighted some examples and outlined the lessons for creative companies. Dan Martin summarises his insights.
Opening his talk, Andy Nairn explained that we have a strange relationship with luck in the UK. “Other parts of the world find it completely natural to talk about luck and it’s a perfectly acceptable part of business conversation,” he said, “In the West, we’re a bit snooty about the whole thing. We think of it as a bit primitive and not to be trifled with.”
The negativity around luck was cemented in Victorian times, Andy said. The Industrial Revolution and the Protestant work ethic created the belief that if you were rich, you were successful because you had worked really hard for your money and God had smiled upon you, but if you were poor, it meant you hadn’t tried hard enough, you were work-shy and you should try harder.
That attitude around only hard work can generate good results still prevails, shown by the blurring of work and personal lives during the pandemic, Andy said.
“We can all think of situations where working an extra hour hasn’t given us a creative breakthrough and it can actually sometimes make it worse. Working hard means we’re stuck in the middle of it and what we really need is to get some fresh air and space around us.
“The book says yes, hard work is a good thing but you also need a bit of luck. The more you think about luck and the more you’re conscious of it, the more you can do to increase the chance of it coming your way. If you just deny that luck exists, it’s very hard for you to do that.”
There are 40 tips in Andy’s book that fit under the following four themes:
You might not realise it but you are highly likely to have assets in your business that you are not taking full advantage of. Andy used three non-business examples to illustrate his point:
Many businesses are guilty of not appreciating what they’ve got, Andy said. Brand history, heritage and provenance are often neglected by brands but talking about the history of your business, where it’s from and why it’s called what it is could be a valuable benefit to your marketing and other business activities.
Other examples include the data your business holds and the window display in your business’ offices.
And what about your logo? Could that be used in a different way?
Andy’s business, Lucky Generals, was asked to come up with an advertising campaign for Amazon that worked in multiple countries. The answer turned out to be a simple but very powerful one that was inspired by the company’s existing smile-shaped logo. As the Lucky Generals website says: “We hit upon the simple idea of heroing Amazon’s iconic packages and the epic journeys they make, to put a smile on the faces of people around the world.”
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To illustrate this point, Andy highlighted a 10-year study into the nature of luck by Professor Richard Wiseman. As part of it, he gave a group of people a newspaper and asked them to count the number of photographs. The unlucky people took around two minutes whereas the lucky people took just three seconds. The reason was that on the second page of the newspaper was the message: “Stop counting. There are 43 photographs in this newspaper.”
The study concluded that lucky people are good at constantly looking for opportunities beyond what they’re working on or the thing they’ve been told to do.
This can also be illustrated by the world of science, Andy said. Several important discoveries have been made accidentally and of the most famous is Alexander Fleming who discovered penicillin after spotting some mould that had accidentally developed on a plate.
Diversity of teams is important here too. It’s easy to recruit people who are the same as you but that can mean you’ll just come up with the same ideas. However, if you take on people from different cultures, backgrounds and experiences, “it gives you a much better chance of striking it lucky” and spotting opportunities you might never have discovered.
There are many examples of businesses converting a bad experience into a good one. One brilliant one is Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, an early character created by Walt Disney in 1927. It was popular but a contract dispute with his producer led to Disney quitting work on the cartoons. On the train home from a meeting, he came up with a new idea. It developed into Mickey Mouse, the most successful cartoon character of all time.
“We’ve all experienced our ideas being pulled, budgets being cut, timings being changed and clients changing their minds, but what we have to do is go again and come up with something that is even better, like Walt Disney did,” Andy said.
“The best companies don’t just deal with a bit of bad luck, it’s almost like they go running towards the bad luck. There’s a good energy that comes out of that.”
Steve Jobs was known for killing off his own products (the iMac killed the Macintosh and the iPhone killed the iPod) because, as Andy said, “his attitude was, if I don’t kill them off, someone else will.”
There are also some brands that take on taboos and talk about them directly. Bodyform and periods is an example.
Others take what could be seen as an annoying product flaw and turn it into a positive. Think of Guinness and “good things come to those who wait”.
When working with a big brand, Andy said he goes to the “darkest corners of social media” to find the negative conversation about that brand. “The jokes and nasty comments often have a truth and by acknowledging them, you can own the joke, turn it on its head and turn against those people.”
Andy’s last point is about deliberately building luck into your processes. He illustrated it with examples from music.
What similar techniques can you build into your business processes so you constantly generate ideas?
Be lucky!
The next Bristol Creative Industries online keynote is with Anne Thistleton, marketing veteran and former strategy lead for The Coca-Cola Company in South Africa. She will share easy and practical lessons from mind science to make sure your audience really hears you. BCI members get £15 off tickets. Book your place here for the event on 21 October.
Workforces in the creative industries are at risk of becoming more unequal unless efforts are made to improve diversity and inclusion.
That’s the warning by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Creative Diversity following an 18-month research project with King’s College London and the University of Edinburgh.
The resulting report, Creative Majority, publishes a framework of five guiding principles which it says will lead to immediate and long-lasting change. It also makes a series of recommendations to the government and businesses.
The UK’s creative industries remain unrepresentative of the population as a whole, the report says.
Straight, able-bodied, white men living in London are only 3.5% of the UK population, it highlights, but “this small minority still dominates the creative sector, and in particular occupy a vast number of the most senior creative roles”.
Chi Onwurah MP, co-chair of the APPG for Creative Diversity, said the coronavirus pandemic has deepened this issue with fewer creative organisations and job opportunities for diverse talent.
Disabled people, younger workers, those not engaged in higher education and mothers are among the employees hardest hit by the pandemic. Individuals from a minoritised racial group have also been hit hard. Employment in the arts and entertainment sectors for women in those groups has fallen by 44%, more than any other group in any industry.
“Without action, we risk exacerbating inequalities further in the creative industries and an entire generation of talent – the future of the sector – could be lost,” Onwurah warned.
As part of the research, roundtables were conducted to gather evidence about diversity and inclusion in the creative industries. Among those participating were Sam Friedman, associate professor of sociology at London School of Economics and commissioner at the Social Mobility Commission, who said:
“In most of these industries there’s a kind of historical legacy of who’s done this kind of work in the past and how they’ve been able to embed, even institutionalise, their own ways of being that still, in the present, are able to shape taken-for-granted ideas about who is appropriate to promote and progress, and that’s basically the legacy of white, privileged men in this country in almost every elite industry.
“What’s being valued is a misrecognition of merit that tilts in favour of behavioural codes and forms of self-presentation that dominant groups and yes, people from privileged backgrounds but also this is hugely racialised and gendered, around acceptable ways of being in the workplace.”
Robert Adediran, EDI consultant and former executive director at London Music Masters, said:
“There’s a strong sense that everyone who is at the top is there because they are the best people for the role and that’s very damaging because it prevents us from looking for talent elsewhere.
“In music, particularly classical, there’s a sense that the art form has reached a pinnacle, that it could not possibly get any better than it already is. Again, that is very dangerous because it robs one of the key drivers for diversity and inclusion, which is to make the art form better. There isn’t the drive to bring new people in to change things and to push a more creative output or a better creative output.”
Miranda Wayland, BBC head of creative diversity, said:
“We can’t really be effective until we tackle the question of what ‘good’ really looks like. I can sit here and come up with different metrics about how diversity of thought and diversity of inclusion in our recruitment practices are really at the heart of it, but if those people who are making decisions aren’t really thinking about what good looks like, no initiative, no scheme, no target that we’ve all been imbedded in supporting over the last 10, 15, 30 years, is going to make a difference.
“We need to break the illusion that ‘good’ only comes in a certain package, from a certain background, with a certain title and a certain destination.”
The report said the creative industries have many lessons to learn from how society has adapted to big changes in the way people work.
Working from home, collaborating remotely and new safety measures show that “change, on a massive scale, is possible in a short time frame”, the report said. “The same momentum now needs to be applied to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI).”
The report publishes five principles as a framework for good and effective practice that it says should act as benchmarks for anyone wanting to see results in EDI.
The five principles are:
Read more detail about the framework in the full report.
The report also makes a series of recommendations to policymakers and creative organisations.
It says: “This report represents a challenge and represents a demand. It offers a chance for policymakers, along with organisations and businesses, to step up and to lead.
“We need bold and visionary leadership to support diversity in the creative economy. As our report shows, the challenges are great. Yet, bold and visionary leadership will reap the rewards of a diverse workforce and audience. It is a challenge to which we need policymakers to rise.”
The recommendations to government include:
The recommendations to creative industry businesses and organisations include:
This event is a practical series of five virtual sessions to set you on the right track with your diversity & inclusion (D&I) efforts. It will help you make sense of what D&I means for your business, why it matters, and how to turn the conversation into action. You’ll get insights, tools and techniques to help you overcome any fears and obstacles, before starting to develop a plan.
The first session has already taken place but book the remaining four sessions by 9.30am on 6 October and you’ll be sent a recording of the first session along with the presentation slides.
Sign up here. Bristol Creative Industries members get £75 off the ticket price.
In his book on creativity, Dave Birrs (ex Poke, McCann, etc.) explores what creativity is and isn’t. He presents an approach to help individuals and organisations develop better ideas.
In the first half of “How To Get To Great Ideas” Dave debunks a few of the myths surrounding creativity. These include “creativity = art”, “creativity = originality,” and “you can’t develop creativity”. He concludes that creativity is more of a path to get to ideas. The book continues on to explore the relationship of creativity to human development from our neolithic selves to the present day. Along the way, we learn that the human brain is shrinking, curiosity is the foundation of creative thought, and that it may be almost entirely impossible for a single person to discover something new in the modern day.
The second half of the book focuses on the process. Dave introduces us to his R.I.G.H.T. thinking framework. While it would be great to have a little more meat on the bone in the form of activities and examples, overall, he delivers enough practical advice here to work into your own creative processes. The framework starts with Research. So often, we are put off of researching by its dry nature. However, it is a powerful tool. When data is given context by adding information and knowledge, we can get to wisdom. It is from this wisdom that good ideas take shape. Dave is keen to encourage us to create divergence from habits and routines, use play within our team sessions, develop our individual creativity, learn how to judge good ideas, and then hone them into great ideas.
I like the book because it provides a balance of insight and practical tips. These help you develop your creative thinking prowess and build out a culture of curiosity and creativity in your team. I found that I picked up quite a few points that I missed on the first reading. So, I recommend keeping it around to refer to while you tweak your ideas generating machine.
Head over to Amazon to get your copy.
If you would like to find out more about our creative process, check out Chris’s article on creative workshops.
Develop your narrative skills and write rich, engaging games.
A strong story is key to engaging and retaining players in video games. Held over 7 weeks, this online course teaches the story-structure essentials that will help you craft richer and more compelling games.
This is a professional development course for anyone who works – or aspires to work – in the gaming industry as well as writers and designers seeking to develop their interactive storytelling skills.
The course has been created by the UK’s foremost expert on narrative structure John Yorke and Caroline Marchal, founder of British studio INTERIOR/NIGHT and Lead Designer for Heavy Rain.
In this training course, you’ll investigate the relationship between player and protagonist, discover how to merge story and gameplay, and find ways to use those skills in a real-world development team. Working in a small group, you’ll receive weekly one-to-one feedback from the tutor team.
By the end of the course you’ll have written an industry-standard story treatment for an original game.
On successful completion of the course, you will receive a certificate of completion evidencing your learning and study hours. You will need to set aside 4-5 hours per week to complete the assignments.
Read a review of the course on Polygon.
Exclusive 25% discount on the £1,200 published course price. Just £900 to Bristol Creative Industries members for 35 hours of intensive learning.
MORE INFORMATION HERE or email [email protected]
Atomic Smash is pleased to announce the sponsorship of a desk space at Spike Island Workspace – the same co-working space where Piers Tincknell and David Darke, co-founders of Atomic Smash, first set up shop as WordPress and WooCommerce specialists over a decade ago.
Atomic Smash will cover the full desk space costs for 12 months so that the recipients can concentrate on developing their business, with the option – but no obligation – to continue as users in Spike Island Workspace after the sponsorship ends.
Spike Island Workspace is the perfect location for emerging or micro-businesses who are ready to develop and establish themselves further. Working from the space expands your connections and opportunities for growth, as you join a dynamic and diverse community of artists and creative businesses.
This sponsorship is aimed at:
The sponsorship is open to all creatives who would benefit from the opportunity and we welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds.
Through your application, you will be able to tell us how this opportunity could make a significant difference to your future. Please also describe any access requirements you may have within your application.
Recently refurbished, Spike Island Workspace is located close to Bristol harbourside and in a busy building offering art exhibitions, artists’ studios, offices, production facilities and a café. Find out more about the space.
Monday 18th October 2021: Application closing date
Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th October 2021: Interview dates
Friday 29th October 2021: Spike Island Workspace visit
Monday 8th November 2021: Sponsorship start date
Friday 4th November 2022: Sponsorship end date
Would you benefit from this opportunity? Apply here!
Creativity and Community: a Love Story
Calling the laptop cafe junkie, the kitchen table connoisseur and the battle-weary spare room crew. There’s a new way. A way with the flexibility, community and creativity you need at its centre. And the coffee is (probably) way better.
Shared office spaces have been popping up since San Fran paved the way and a generation of freelancers and startups are flourishing. Offices split across cities and a new approach to flexible working from modern start-ups mean that co-working is here to stay.
The benefits of joining a co-working space are as long as your to-do list;
Increased productivity
Spaces designed for your working day and with focus and efficiency in mind. A relaxing, comfortable space to break for a coffee is as important as a heads-down quiet space for deep thinking.
Peers
The inspiration of like-minded souls around you and a friend always on hand to give feedback.
Connections
Co-working spaces can’t promise lifelong friendships, but they do have chats over coffee and someone to share lunchtime with.
A work-life balance to be proud of
You get to go home! A different place to where you work! Such a novelty!
Networking
A whole load of independent, creative businesses looking to work with independent, creative businesses (just like you).
Cost Efficiency
Pay only for the space you need, with the flexibility you need as your business grows into a huge, massive, gigantic billionaire corporation.
Bristol’s favourite co-working space Gather Round know all about the benefits of co-working, and they know exactly what makes the perfect space. The team there couldn’t find what they were looking for so they decided to create their own; a space designed by creatives, for creatives.
After meeting Fiasco Design and Pixelfish at Gather Round and seeing the incredible work they were capable of, working with them on our launch was a natural choice. They helped the vision for Twelve, our sustainability strategy and communications consultancy, become a reality. – Jess Ferrow, Founder of Twelve
Gather Round; Community, Creativity, Collaboration
Bristol is a city long-known for its celebration of creativity. Tastemaking musicians, culture aplenty and a love of art found from the pavements of Clifton to the patched grass of Turbo Island (if you know, you know).
The decision to build a creative business here was a simple one for founders Ben and Jason. After a successful start, their design studio Fiasco Design grew quickly and they found themselves moving studios as they expanded. After struggling to find a workspace that wasn’t a corporate office with extortionate rates and a long term contract, the idea of Gather Round was born.
The Southville residence at the old Cigar Factory proudly hosts creative thinkers and doers that call it home. Morning coffee chats, lunchtime collabs and a deep understanding and respect of one another is something that has happened naturally. They’ve created a space that allows that all to thrive. They’re soon to be heading north of the river to Brunswick Square to hold court for another incredible bunch of creatives.
Why Gather Round?
I met Amelie of Duo Hue when she joined Gather Round. She was looking for some imagery to further her brand, it felt like the perfect collaboration. Sharing a space made the planning and creative process easy and the work we produced featured in national press. – Nic Kane, Photographer/Director
Body
The Gather Round team have a few simple rules; no indoor caravans, tardis-style meeting rooms or beanbags; just beautiful spaces and good design. They’ve got all shapes and sizes covered with roomy co-working areas, permanent desk spaces for freelancers and separate offices for micro-businesses. There are spaces for collaboration, whether you’re musing over an idea, chatting out a project or need a full-blown meeting room to launch your world-takeover plan.
Mind
With Flexi desks, Resi memberships and dedicated studios for small businesses, there are flexible memberships for business needs.
For solo entrepreneurs, micro-businesses or small startups the support of peers is invaluable. Within the community at Gather Round, you’ll find support from like-minded people. Our campfire talks, morning workouts and members breakfasts, fuel the mind and body of all that attend. A day that starts with a croissant amongst friends and ends with a creative discussion on businesses in the climate emergency – is a day well spent.
Soul
Here at Gather Round, they take design seriously. Their buildings are chosen because of their character and soul. You won’t find grey walls, no-spill carpets and budget-friendly lighting. Beauty breeds beauty, and Gather Round have created a space that feels like home. If your home has deep velvet sofas, bespoke shelving and enough plants to start a greenery obsession.
The latest offering in the beautiful Brunswick Square is almost at the ribbon-cutting stage. An almost perfect location with Bristol greats such as Circomedia, Farro Bakery and Yoga on The Square, all just a stone’s throw away. Temple Meads station can be reached in 15 minutes and you can (almost, but not quite) hear the thrum of the city centre close by. They’ve created a slice of creativity in a building steeped in it and it awaits Bristol’s brightest and best.
In the digital age the focus is shifting from longer prose in the form of articles and handwritten letters, to short, snappy sentences on social media. That’s if there’s any copy used at all with attention turning increasingly towards images and videos online. While the faster means of communicating via social media has its benefits and is an excellent way to reach more people, more quickly than ever before, it is taking something important away too.
The written word is a wholly powerful thing. Here’s an example to demonstrate its importance. Think about how it feels to receive a text from a friend. As much as you care about the person texting, it probably isn’t much of an event anymore. It’s probably short for starters, and it’s more likely to be about something practical or light-hearted than it is to be about something deep and emotional. Of course, that’s fine for day-to-day interactions, but now think about how you would feel if you received a handwritten letter through the post. Perhaps from a friend or family member telling you how important you are to them, or how grateful they are for something you have done, or how proud they are of what you have achieved. Because we know a letter has taken more time, effort and thought, it means more. It is also something you can hold on to forever.
Prioritise a personal touch
The same thing applies in the business world too. Social media is a fantastic way to promote your wares as a business and reach more people. But used alone, it isn’t very personal. It can’t be when you’re using so few words to talk to so many people. And with the rise of shorter, faster, more convenient ways to communicate, has come an increasing lack of attention to detail. It’s as though speed and quantity are more important than quality. Unfortunately, it probably is in terms of social media or SEO algorithms, but what does it say about you or your business when your written word is full of typos, grammatical errors, and spelling mistakes? Don’t get me wrong, we’re all human, we all make mistakes. A few errors here and there can be forgiven, but a consistently problematic read is jarring and affects our perception of the author, whether we realise it or not.
The power of persuasion
When done well, the written word can harness the powers of persuasion in a way short text and images cannot do. People believe what they read in magazines, newspapers and trusted online sources, so when they read about best practice or advice on particular product options at length, they are likely to believe the content. Many of these pieces are ghost written by a copywriter or PR agency and serve to position businesses in the way they want to be seen, whether market leading, ethical, customer focused, or all of the above!
Future generation of writers
I have been lucky/unlucky enough to be in the mass of home schooling parents during the Covid-19 lockdown periods. This allowed me to see very closely the process of my reception child learning to write his first words, sentences, even stories. The pleasure to see him gradually grasp the different sounds and put them together on the page is immense and we will keep a lot of his writing to show him when he’s older. He may even decide to keep it and show his children one day. But what is the future of this creative outlet for him? Will there still be a requirement for any longer prose when he’s an adult, or will he gradually unlearn these skills and techniques and freedom to express himself, in exchange for quicker, easier ways to communicate?
I hope this isn’t the case because the impact of the written word on someone else whether in your personal life or in the business world, is something special and powerful and future generations should have the opportunity to give and receive this gift. The power of the written word should not be left behind in the digital age.
Pay your audience the attention they deserve
Whether you are talking to prospective customers or new or well-established customers, pay them the attention they deserve by spending more time on your communications. Quick and consistent social media messaging is great, but giving more thought to longer advice blog posts, a thank you note for their custom, or feature length articles in their industry magazines, offer a different level of connection between you and them. Aside from anything else it offers far more potential in terms of word count, to get your message across to them.
If the idea of this sounds appealing to you, but you simply don’t have the time, don’t forget you can delegate (read more about when and how you should delegate here https://blogwrite.co.uk/to-delegate-or-not-to-delegate/) to ensure you don’t miss out.
Cytel, the world’s largest provider of statistical software and advanced analytics for clinical trial design, has appointed AgencyUK to lead the strategy and roll-out of Solara, the next generation in statistical and predictive trial design and selection software. This trial strategy platform combines massive cloud computing with Cytel algorithms to dramatically expand available design options for confident selection of the optimal design. Unifying statistical design and clinical strategy to improve clinical development productivity, Solara helps teams control uncertainty by simulating millions of design options in minutes; minimizes costs by ensuring teams find opportunities to shorten trial duration; accelerates speed to market (10-20% faster) and benefits the patients sooner.
The technology is such an advancement for the sector, that the Cytel board are investing heavily in its rollout, which includes a significant marketing effort led by Rebecca Grimm (Vice President, Marketing), Cytel and the team at AgencyUK.
“Solara is a real first for our industry, and we’re already active with live customers and their case studies which are starting to emerge. We appointed AgencyUK based on their sector experience, proven test and learn methodology as well as their passionately creative team. In partnership with AgencyUK, we’re looking forward to seeing the rollout expand globally over the coming months” says Rebecca Grimm, VP Marketing, Cytel.
“Our team has been working with pharma, biotech and clinical research organisations since 2008, and it’s always exciting to be at the forefront of new technology that can change how an industry operates forever. We’ve been developing the Solara brand and proposition alongside the go-to-market strategy. Digital media plays a vital role in its successful adoption by big pharma teams and biotech leaders alike, and we’re looking forward to its global roll-out over the coming months” says Sammy Mansourpour, Managing Director, AgencyUK.
Heather Wright is an executive producer and creative industries consultant with 30 years of experience. She spent 22 of those years at iconic animation studio and Bristol Creative Industries member Aardman Animations.
In 2020 Heather left the company that has given us legendary characters like Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep to launch Springboard Creative. She also joined the Bristol Creative Industries board.
Dan Martin speaks to Heather about her career, the storytelling and employee culture lessons other businesses can learn from Aardman, what she is up to now and why is supporting the work of BCI.
“The 1980s and 90s was an extraordinary time to be working at advertising agencies. They made you feel like anything was possible. I worked at Saatchi and Saatchi which had the slogan “nothing is impossible”. Although that was sometimes frustrating to try and deliver to, it did mean you were always looking for a creative solution to make something happen. It wasn’t just acceptable to say “this can’t be done”. I also worked for Chiat Day and their slogan was “good enough is not enough”.
“It made me realise that if you have the confidence to know that there could be a way around a problem, you just need to find the right questions, understand the motivation or think about the other person’s point of view and what makes them tick. I learned a lot about creativity, both artistically and in business, during that time.”
“They advertised for someone to run their commercials team. I thought “animation, that sounds good because I know nothing about it so if they want someone to stay after six o’clock and do some animation problem solving, they won’t ask me. But I do know a lot about what Aardman should be doing in the advertising world!
“I applied for the job and got it. I grew as the company grew. My whole experience was growing from that starting point to becoming an executive producer and working on a breadth of different activities. I was instrumental in setting up their computer animation team, I ran their immersive team for AR and VR games and I worked on a big Wallace and Gromit concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
“From not knowing about animation, I soon learned lots and I very quickly became an absolute devotee of the art form. I was lucky to be surrounded by other people who also absolutely loved it and because it is a world leader in animation, the calibre of people who came to work there was always high. You were constantly surrounded by great creative thinkers, problem solvers and technicians. Everybody grew together; that idea of a rising tide lifts all boats.
“Aardman is very good at making sure everyone feels involved in all the parts of the company. If there’s a new show being worked on, it is shared with the whole company. There were issues around secrecy but in the end, we decided we just needed to trust people because it is in all employees’ best interests for the ideas to be kept confidential.
“During a big project, we were aware that employees’ families weren’t seeing them for months on end, so getting friends and relatives involved was crucial to maintaining the wellbeing of all the staff in the studio. When a big movie was finished, there would be a friends and family tour day, and after the production was released, we would take over all the screens at Vue Cribbs Causeway.
“The business also encourages everyone to come up with creative ideas, not just the creative departments. I know of a couple of ideas thought up by somebody in the finance team.”
“Employee ownership was a vehicle that allowed Peter Lord and David Sproxton [the founders of Aaardman] to step out of the day-to-day running of the business and to ensure its independence. It could very easily have been bought by a big channel or network and have just become part of somebody’s balance sheet. Independence has always been a strong tenet of what the company is about; the ability to make their own shows, make their own decisions and to run it as they want to. When Pete and Dave decided to take a step back, employee ownership worked well because the company had always been about everybody contributing.
“It’s not a super easy ride becoming an employee owned trust, but I encourage any company that’s thinking about it to consider it very seriously. Everyone becomes a partner and there is a change in the culture because it makes people feel like they really do have ownership and they really do have a say. We set up a staff council for employees to be involved with strategic decisions and to have input on how things were done. It was much more than somewhere for people to go if they had a complaint.
“Companies that have that kind of approach with values that everybody should share in the success are proven to be more successful businesses.”
“Nobody wants a yes man on board and everybody wants an intelligent conversation. All you can do is be your authentic self, know that your product is good, believe that your product is good and be able to explain why it is good.
“Work with the client as a team and be open to their ideas as much as you expect them to be open to yours. Build a very strong collaborative working relationship with a shared vision. I always made sure that the vision of the people inside Aardman and the vision of the client were going in the same direction. The path to get there may be rocky and can take different turns at different times from either side, but that’s ok as long as everyone is heading in the same direction and knows where they want to get to.
“Create cohesion, build true working relationships and be fun to work with.
“The other tip I would advise is if a big brand wants to work with you but you don’t think you can properly answer the brief because of time or money, say so and don’t take it on. If you do, you’ll end up doing a bad or half hearted job and not delivering something you’re proud of. The client will be disappointed in you and never come back to work with you.”
“They believe in quality of craft, excellence and humour. They believe in themselves and the stories are told from a very British point of view because that’s who they are. They don’t pretend to be American; it’s always about authentic storytelling,
“They also focus strongly on independence and collaboration. Those are the kind of things that attract people. It’s always about the quality of the craft, the quality of the thinking and the quality of the ideas.”
“It took me about two years to make the decision. The company was going through a change and I was starting to have ideas. I thought to myself “have I got anything else in me other than working for Aardman for the rest of my life?” I had an idea and I just needed to find out if it would work.
“I’m still friends with them all at Aardman and I’m proud to be associated with the company.”
“The main thing I am working on is an animation app called Magic Fox. It enables children to make animated personalised, real time movies of their own. It’s about developing creativity in five to seven-year-olds. I’m working with two partners and we’re currently seeking seed funding.
“I also still get involved in exec producing and I’m working on a couple of really big projects that I can’t tell you about right now! The other string to my bow is working with Innovate UK Edge, who support small creative businesses to get started with their strategy.
“I love helping people to fulfil their potential and that’s what all of my endeavours are about.”
“The government has realised that the creative industries is a huge earner for UK PLC. The trouble is they haven’t really known how to invest in it because unlike most other industries where you end up with huge companies, most of the creative industries are small or micro businesses. The idea of how you actually support innovation in the creative industries is something that they are continuing to grapple with.
“Innovate UK Edge recently ran the new Creative Industries Fund which provided a small amount of start-up money. It’s very unusual to have such a broad funding competition that appeals to lots of people.
“That particular scheme is now closed but knowing Innovate UK Edge and the way they work, if lots of people applied and they got some good projects out of it, they will run it again. They will also run a scale up programme of some sort because they want to progress people from start-ups to scaling up to a growth phase and being investable. That proves that the innovation works.
“If you can kind of get into the system, they will support you through all phases of growth. Their ears are open right now and want to know how best they can do it. They are absolutely looking to have conversations with small and micro businesses in Bristol and the south west about what innovation means to them. It’s a unique time to get involved.”
Find out more about Innovate UK Edge here. You can also follow Innovate UK Edge South West on Twitter.
“The pandemic has been a disaster for performing arts venues in particular but I think the government has realised that there is huge value in culture due to the impact of having lots of places closed.
“People gain emotional intelligence and learn about how to be in the world through storytelling. The creative industries bring meaning to the world, whereas science and technology bring facts. The question is how do you quantify what that meaning and understanding is? Is it through storytelling, different types of apps, watching something on your phone etc? They are sometimes intangible ideas that are hard to grasp hold of, but that’s what people in the creative industries do; they make the intangible tangible.”
“The creative industries rely on freelancers and small businesses. Anything we can do to encourage people to start their own business will lead to success for the whole of the creative industries and the UK. I’m absolutely in favour of those kinds of measures.”
Read more about the report here.
“I’ve always been really interested in the Bristol creative scene. At Aardman although we believed in supporting Bristol, most of our customers weren’t Bristol based but I was always interested in what was going on it the city and went to events like First Friday at the Watershed.
“I could see cities like Manchester and Leeds getting ahead but Bristol has a huge amount to offer. I’m really keen to support Bristol to become a stronger creative industries hub than it already is. It needs to punch above its weight and I want to be part of making that happen. Bristol Creative Industries is a vehicle to galvanise us as a city and make sure that we have a strong ecosystem that supports each other to reach out beyond our city.”
“It absolutely needs to happen. You get a better quality of idea when you have lots of different windows on the world in front of you. Everybody comes with a different window and a different viewpoint. The more ideas you have in the room from different places the better. That’s the problem with the Westminster bubble; they talk to people like themselves all the time. The only way to break out of the bubble is to go further and have a greater diversity of ideas. That comes from a greater diversity of people including ethnic diversity as well as age, people who are less able bodied etc. It’s all about having people with something different to bring which is not the usual employing people in your image which is often the worst thing you can do.
“It will take time. Nobody wants to get a job just because of their ethnicity or age; they want to get a job because they are the best person to do it. It requires grassroots support from the industry. The creative industries wants to do it, but they sometimes struggle to know how to do it. That’s another area where Bristol Creative Industries can help by endorsing programmes that are working and advising on how you go about creating a more diverse workforce.
“We’ve got such a diversity of people in Bristol and the wider region. We have the opportunity to test some of the ideas and prove that they work.”
“Start with a character. Think about how they would do a particular thing, what type of issues that kind of person would have, who are their friends and where do they live. You will come up with a much stronger story that way than saying, for example, “wouldn’t it be great if our mobile phones could all talk to each other on the table.” That’s an idea but it isn’t that interesting. But what about a tiny little character that has a big nose who’s really good at sniffing out unusual smells or situations. Maybe he’s frightened so he hides a lot. Or maybe he just gets really huge so how does he deal with what happens to him. Starting from the point of view of a character is much better than starting from a plot or a set of circumstances.
“Tell stories that you know, understand and are authentic to you. There are universal truths such as love, hate, anger and jealousy that everybody in the world, no matter where they live, understand. Apply those to your own set of circumstances and those values will still come across. It will make the story interesting for everyone because they will recognise the love, hate, jealousy and anger, but they will see it set in the context that makes sense for the storyteller. If you start to tell stories from a place that you don’t really understand, that’s always going to be much harder.”
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Despite billions in losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, the UK’s creative industries can lead the post-COVID recovery if the right investment is unlocked.
That’s the big headline in a major new study by the Creative Industries Federation and Creative England, which together comprise the non-profit Creative UK Group.
The organisations’ report, The UK Creative Industries: Unleashing the power and potential of creativity, found that the pandemic has hit our sector hard. Creative industries are estimated to have lost almost £12bn in GVA, with job losses predicted to reach over 110,000 by the end of the year.
Freelancers have suffered five times as much as those on payroll, with 95,000 freelancers losing jobs compared to 18,000 employees. Creative organisations reliant on footfall, such as museums and performing arts, has been the hardest hit sub-sector, whilst the creative industries in the North East and Wales are expected to be slowest to return to pre-pandemic levels.
But despite such a devastating impact, the impact could have been much worse. The report said UK, devolved and local government support, such as the £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund, have been “enormously instrumental” in preventing the 400,000 job losses that the Creative Industries Federation warned of in June 2020.
As Britain looks to recover from the pandemic, Creative UK Group said the creative industries need to be at the heart of the government’s plans.
Included in the report is new data from Oxford Economics which showed that before the pandemic, the creative businesses directly supported more than one in 10 UK jobs. As well as the 2.1m pre-pandemic jobs in the sector itself, another 1.4m roles were directly supported through its supply chains.
Oxford Economics also estimates that for every £1 the creative industries before the COVID-19 outbreak, an extra 50p was generated in the wider economy via supplying businesses. That amounts to a combined economic contribution of £178bn.
The report said that with the right investment, the sector could recover faster than the UK economy as a whole, growing by over 26% by 2025 and contributing £132.1bn to the economy in GVA. That’s £28bn more than in 2020, and more than the financial services, insurance and pension industries combined.
By 2025 the Creative Industries could create 300,000 new jobs which is enough new roles to employ the working-age population of Hartlepool and Middlesbrough twice over.
Caroline Norbury MBE, CEO at Creative UK Group, said:
“The past decade has seen the creative industries achieve remarkable growth and success with the sector’s vast power to grow wealth and employment extending throughout local communities across the whole of the UK.
“With ambitious investment, the creative sector can rebuild faster than the UK economy and make a major contribution to the country’s post-pandemic recovery. We are money makers, job creators, innovators and problem solvers. We can reshape this country’s future for the better, but to realise our ambitions for tomorrow, we must invest in creativity today.
“We are not asking for handouts. We are asking for meaningful, targeted investment in creative ideas, creative industries and creative skills, that can unlock the incredible potential of the creative sector to kickstart our country’s recovery, and that will be repaid many times over.
“It is critical that we seize this opportunity to unlock the UK’s incredible creative potential, and avoid leaving key parts of our sector – and our country – behind.”
Tim Marlow OBE, chief executive and director at Design Museum, added:
“The creative industries have been hit incredibly hard by the pandemic. They are also central to our recovery. The creative industries – and design in particular – have the capacity to change behaviour, bring people together, empower communities and transform individual experience.
“The UK is world renowned for its creative industries, which in turn make it an attractive place to live, work and invest. Human creativity, unlike so many of our natural resources, is limitless – so it makes sense to invest in its potential to transform lives, level up and build sustainable and inspiring futures for many.”
The report contains several ideas for how the creative industries can be supported. They include:
The report outlines in statistics the make-up of the creative industries which show just how important it is.
Although the UK is world-renowned for big creative names such as Tate, Burberry and Working
Title Films, the creative sector is predominantly comprised of small businesses, micro-businesses and freelancers. As the report says: “Together we punch above our weight in terms of impact.”
There are thousands of examples of businesses pivoting and adapting to deal with the impact of the pandemic. We are delighted to see a Bristol initiative featured in the report:
“The immersive cinema group Compass Presents, whose planned productions were cancelled during the pandemic, brought the skills and knowledge they’d gained through immersive practice to disadvantaged communities in partnership with Knowle West Media Centre. Supported by BFI Film Hub, the organisation delivered 12 weeks of training in immersive screening to a group of young people in South Bristol, culminating in them organising their own immersive event for their local community.”
Ahead of the government’s Spending Review, Creative UK Group is calling on creative business owners and employees to highlight the importance of the sector to their MP.
To do that, it has launched the #WeAreCreative campaign.
You can download a draft email to send to your local MP and ask them to sign up to the pledge to support the creative industries.
You are also encouraged to shout about the sector on social media. We’d love to see Bristol Creative Industries members getting involved. Use the #WeAreCreative hashtag and tag us and your MP. We’re on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.
You can use the tools here to create your design. You are encouraged to start your post with ‘We Are…’ to “build a recognisable campaign that simply cannot be ignored”.
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