In 2012, The Wow Company began its agency benchmarking report – BenchPress. The aim was simple; to take an accurate snapshot of agency life in the UK and to share insight and analysis with ambitious agency owners.
BenchPress has grown to become the largest survey of independent agency owners in the UK and is a great way to benchmark yourself against your peers. BenchPress 2020 is now open and we’re encouraging South-West agencies of all shapes, sizes, and sectors to participate. You can take part here.
This year, Bristol Media has partnered with BenchPress to provide a bespoke report for agency owners in Bristol, Bath and the South-West to compare agency performance with the rest of the UK. We need 100 or more agency owners, founders or directors to participate, so please help spread the word. Everyone that takes part receives a copy of the full benchmark results. Here’s 2019’s report.
Last year revealed that confidence remained high amongst agency owners, with their drive and determination to grow in 2019 overriding any doubts about wider market conditions. This was off the back of a strong 2018, which saw agencies grow fee income by the largest amount since BenchPress started. BenchPress 2020 will reveal whether agencies are still on the up and provide an outlook for the year ahead.
This year’s survey will focus on how agency owners can build a profitable and sustainable business, one that can thrive in uncertain times. Alongside this, there will be questions about selling and buying agencies, which will reveal what makes an agency really valuable to any purchaser.
Join us and BIMA as the Head of Immersive Tech Council, Nicola Rosa, delivers a masterclass on Immersive Tech. Nicola will help attendees understand the possibilities of immersive technologies in this 2 hour masterclass.
This event is free for Bristol Media or BIMA members.
Nicola Rosa, Product Strategist, Accenture. Chair, BIMA Immersive Tech Council
Nicola is a Product strategist, experience designer, and digital transformation expert, Nicola is currently part of the Accenture Digital UKI where he is the Go-To Market Lead for XR (AR,VR, and MR). With more than 15 years of experience in the media and entertainment industry, Nicola worked for companies like Atari, Google, Spotify, Yahoo!, Virgin Radio and IBM iX designing B2E, B2B and B2C digital products and numerous App Store hits.
The mastercalss takes place on Wednesday 12th February, 3-5pm in the auditorium at Prophecy Unlimited, Glass Wharf, Bristol.
Tickets are free if you are a Bristol Media member or BIMA member, or £15 + VAT for non-members. To get your Member discount code email [email protected]
If you’re not a member, please BOOK HERE
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.
When it comes to employee benefits packages, offering just a salary and standard holiday allowance simply won’t cut it any more. Enhanced packages to tempt new recruits and retain existing staff are now becoming more and more commonplace, so we’d love to hear from you about how you rate the various types of employee benefits available, and what you value the most.
Our survey is now open and available to take part in here. All responses to the survey will remain anonymous, won’t require any personal details to be entered and will only be used for the purposes of internal research. For more information, you can find our privacy policy here.
Take the survey HERE
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.
Bristol-based integrated digital marketing agency, Loom, has welcomed Laurence Matone on board as SEO Executive. His appointment will bolster the company’s existing team of SEO experts, as it continues to manage increasing demand for digital services.
Matone brings two years of experience from across the marcomms, digital and SEO sectors; with this, Loom’s specialist SEO team now has combined expertise of nearly four decades. His previous clients include Siemens, Rangemaster and NEFF.
This appointment marks the first hire for Loom since its rebrand in October 2019. After a decade in the industry, the company rebrand reflected Loom’s extensive experience in the digital marketing sphere as it adapts its service offering in step with the evolution of the industry.
Karen Pearce, Director of Client Strategy, said: “Loom began over a decade ago as a search agency and SEO has been a crucial vertical all the way through our business journey. However, technology has come a long way since 2009 and the internet, search, in particular, has evolved at an immense pace. We always strive to stay one step ahead of changes; our current SEO service encompasses the four pillars: search strategy, technical SEO, backlinks and UX; each work in tandem with one another and an integrated approach is one way to keep ahead of the curve.”
She continued, ”Matone’s appointment chimes both with digital evolution as well as with the company’s ambitions for this year; namely internal expansion to support further business growth.”
Claire Lagoutte, SEO Manager, said: “As we enter a new year, with a new name and new business goals, Laurence’s specialist expertise across SEO and digital will be invaluable to us. His additional communication, creative and strategic skills will add an extra dimension to our SEO offering, something that we are extremely excited about.”
Matone added: “I am incredibly pleased to be joining Loom. The pool of world-class talent within the team is second-to-none. I can’t wait to contribute my knowledge and deliver some game-changing results.”
He continues: “SEO is constantly in flux and the goalposts are always moving, whether this is an algorithmic update or a crowded competitor market. Being proactive, creative and innovative is a must and that’s where I can’t wait to make my mark.”
About Loom
Loom is an integrated digital marketing agency founded in 2009 and still independently co-owned and owner-managed. Based in Temple Studios in Bristol, the 13-strong team has south west-based clients including Cheltenham College, ForrestBrown, Permagard, Create Your Nest, Safe Options and Spoke & Stringer.
Instagram: @loomdigitalagency
Twitter: @loomdigital
Combining insights from experts and newly-employed young people with 1:1 advice, this Bristol Media session helps you plot you pathway into the booming creative industry.
The creative & tech (CreaTech) industries offer a great career in an expanding market, with Bristol as a key centre in the UK. But which opportunities are right for you? What experience, interests, ambitions and qualifications do you need to land your first role? And what’s it like in the first years?
This session brings together local industry experts – Nick Dean and his team from ADLIB, Lis Anderson from AMBITIOUS PR, Sue Soni from BBC Bristol, and Neil Sims from Oakwood Media Group, along with some of their new employees – to provide an insight into the growth areas, people skills and employment potential across the whole range of local industry, from graphic artists to CRM Campaign Managers.
We’ll de-mystify the roles advertised on Bristol Media’s South West Creative Jobs website (what is a “middleweight back-end developer?”), highlight the opportunities to aim for, and what your pathway might look like.
After each insight talk, there will be the opportunity for some 1:1 advice from the team at Adlib specific to your ambitions, whether they are in PR, creative production, or creative technology and on how to work as a freelancer from ScreenSkills.
So, whether you want to work in the industry, train or advise young people on careers, or have skills you want to transfer, this session is for you!
This session is free and open to all ages, although we particularly encourage people aged between 16-25 to sign up. Please register via eventbrite.
2020 marks the 20th anniversary of digital agency Strange, making it one of the longest established specialist agencies in the South of England.
Much has changed in the digital world since Strange began designing and building custom websites from its Bournemouth base in 2000. Now with a second office in Bristol, the agency has become one of the region’s leading providers of digital marketing services, with the main focus on giving businesses a competitive edge by delivering better digital performance.
“Clients appreciate that what we offer is better digital marketing” explained Paul Honey, Managing Director of Strange. “They know that ‘good’ just isn’t good enough, and understand that ‘the best’ is often unrealistic given budget constraints.”
Clients include companies and non-profits from a wide range of sectors, with Animal, Amnesty International, Brittany Ferries, Fujifilm, Merlin Entertainments among many others. Strange has also picked up some major awards along the way such as winning the Marketing Excellence in Travel and Tourism award for Merlin (Masterclassing) and Integrated Campaign of the Year for Brittany Ferries (Gold Winner, Chartered Institute of Marketing Travel Awards).
Today, the focus is on ‘best in class’ CMS and ecommerce websites along with a full range of digital marketing services. As a result, the agency has become a specialist in the open source systems Drupal, Magento and WordPress as well as platforms such as Shopify and Spryker. Digital marketing services include PPC, social media, display, affiliate, SEO, CRM and email marketing, as well as conversion rate optimisation, analytics and tracking.
Director and Founder Jonathan Boston said: “Things have certainly changed in the past 20 years with the rise of open source platforms, social media and digital marketing. But no matter how our environment has changed, our team has remained focused on giving clients real value and that will always stay the same.”
Read more about Strange
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.
Membership has remained strong with over 560 individuals and organisations from the South-West creative community. We’ve seen many of our members grow and flourish, plus several forming new partnerships and collaborations which we’re delighted to see. We’re excited to welcome new members in 2020 and to continue to grow membership.
Our events are an opportunity for members of the creative community to come together to meet their peers, network and learn from some of the most influential figures in industry.
We’ve hosted a number of world class speakers as part of our Vision Keynote series: We’ve dreamed the impossibility of indifference with Pentagram’s Harry Pearce, got under the skin of why leadership is so difficult with the legendary leadership guru Margaret Heffernan, and discovered how to be joyful at work with Twitter’s EMEA Vice President Bruce Daisley (in partnership with our friends at BIMA).
In November we brought back our famous Portfolio Review Night, this time connecting 15 freelance animators, copywriters, designers, photographers, filmmakers and even a voice over artist, with 15 creative directors from member agencies. It was an exhilarating (and exhausting!) evening at Origin Workspace, with lots of business cards exchanged and a couple of potential contracts, too.
The members lunch remains a firm favourite in the calendar. This year we’ve hosted 9 member lunches where we’ve had the pleasure of meeting over 250 people from member organisations. New for 2019 was the introduction of 3-minute elevator pitches and it’s been brilliant to hear what our members are up to. The pitches have been as entertaining as they have been informative and watching those lightbulb moments when members realise they can collaborate with each other is incredibly rewarding!
It’s important to us to facilitate growth and opportunities in the community, to inspire talented people to work here and encourage business growth. Our member organisations have posted over 670 job roles via South West Creative Jobs, from planners to developers, camera operators to designers, interns to directors, the jobs board remains the go-to site if you’re looking to advertise or secure a creative industry role.
Our workshops have proved to be another effective method to support and upskill local professionals. In January we kicked off with Blair Enns and his critically acclaimed workshop: ‘Mastering the Value Conversation’. An inspiring and practical session where we saw Blair share his expert pricing knowledge with 26 individuals from local businesses.
Throughout the rest of the year we’ve worked with some lovely businesses to hold training and workshops on a variety of subjects, including Copyright in Productions, CV & LinkedIn for Freelancers, how to Supercharge your Instagram, plus How to get the Big Idea with Patrick Collister. Watch out for more of these next year!
We took our second young person to Austin for SXSW as part of the Ben Martin Apprentice Award (BMAA). On returning, our BMAA winner Marissa Lewis-Peart, had the incredible opportunity of 15 paid work placements in local agencies, gaining a wealth of experience in various disciplines within the industry.
The competition to find our SXSW 2020 winner is underway with the successful candidate due to be announced very soon. In the summer of 2020, we plan to repeat the paid placements not only for the winner but also four of the runners up. If your firm would like to get involved, please contact [email protected]
We also bid farewell to our very own Content Apprentice, Izzy Bryant. Izzy has been a fantastic addition to the team, spearheading the Featured Member series where we’ve met some incredible businesses and individuals to find out more about what they do. One of our favourite moments from this series was a quote in response to the question ‘Describe Bristol in 3 words’, to which came the reply “Doing Things Differently”. We felt this perfectly summarised the local ecosystem and the uniquely collaborative nature we’re so proud of in Bristol.
Our City – our annual film competition in collaboration with the Mayor and local partners – has seen a record number of entries this year. As well as the cash prize of £1000, the young finalists have their film screened on Millennium Square, are offered industry work experience and a marketing workshop with Destination Bristol. The judges have been so impressed with the quality and creativity of the entries once again and are now finalising this year’s winner.
We have continued to fly the flag for Bristol within both the Creative Industries Council cluster group and the Creative Industries Federation (CIF) UK Advisory Council. CIF and Creative England (CE) have announced a merger in Spring 2020, and have published a joint Creative Industries Manifesto, which our board director, Paul Appleby, was involved in drafting. This will combine the London-based lobbying power of CIF with the national coverage of England of CE.
Next year, we’re seeing in our 15th year and we’ve got lots in store for the creative community in Bristol, Bath and the region.
It’s been quite a year but there is so much to look forward to in 2020, including a very exciting announcement! Thank you so much to all our loyal members and partners who continue to support us to deliver the great work.
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year, from all of us at Bristol Media.
You can stay up to date with news and announcements by signing up to our newsletter here.