Join Weston College in the heart of Bristol to learn more about supporting the next generation of creatives! Are you looking at offering work placements? Internships?
Looking to grow your team?
Give back to a new generation through guest lecture and project work?
Want to find out more about Weston College? We may surprise you….
The Faculty of Creative Arts Employer Forum is designed to work alongside industry to deliver industry aligned curriculum, work experiences, progression and employment routes and pipeline talent. Courses covered at Weston College and University Centre Weston include:
Game & Animation
Creative and Digital Media
Broadcast, Journalism and Podcasts
Performing Arts and Theatre
Art and Design – including fashion, textiles and business
Photography
https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/creative-arts-and-design-courses-16-18-year-olds
Tuesday 7th November
6-8pm
Bristol Training Institute, 12 Colston Avenue, BS1 4ST
RSVP [email protected]
If you have individuals in your workforce that have responsibilities to manage projects or people; why not offer them the opportunity to gain formal training alongside their day to day duties? If cost is an issue, we can help access funding for you to develop your team at no extra charge and no change to the quality of delivery.
We have learned that nearly 26% of senior managers and leaders and half (52%) of managers also claimed they have had no formal management or leadership training. The rise of the ‘accidental manager’ has become part of many company – regardless of size and sector.
A separate CIPD study discovered growing evidence of the importance of line management. According to the survey, the quality of line management has an impact on employees’ health and wellbeing.
We can help
On the 22nd November at 11am, we will be holding an information webinar via Teams, where we will take you through the Management Apprenticeships or Non Apprenticeship training route.
The trainings will take place in Weston-super-Mare and Central Bristol – starting in January 2024.
This investment in your people will help your business to:
This training could be part of fully funded depending on the training undertaken. We can also underpin the training with Insights Discovery or help continue training into project management, HR and more.
There will be an opportunity to ask questions at the webinar with Business Partnership Manager, Lynsey McKinstry and arrange a follow up with our Employer Apprenticeship Advisor, Becky Vincent, and our Specialist Area Manager, Louise Perkins. You will learn all about the Institute of Leadership and Management development for middle managers and routes for Senior Managers.
To find out more information, and to book your place, click here!
We look forward to seeing you there.
Watch the recording of this webinar now
As part of Bristol Technology Festival 2023, our founder Harry explores the ins and outs of UX design, and why a user-centric approach is absolutely crucial.
In this webinar he explains why UX design is so much more than just wireframing, and how it should be seen as a process rather than a solution. Harry also uncovers how a clear UX-led strategy can lead to a long term competitive advantage.
Bristol-based Professional Apprenticeships celebrates an Ofsted Outstanding grade across all the grading criteria at its first full inspection. This accomplishment is such a rarity with only a handful of apprenticeship providers achieving this result.
In 2021 Professional Apprenticeships gained the highest grade in an Ofsted provider monitoring visit and then went on to win the award for Apprenticeship Provider of the Year.
Established in 2016 by Carina Bush and Adam Rooke, Professional Apprenticeships is now a leading provider of digital, technology, marketing, and business apprenticeships. The Outstanding grading reflects the success of its apprentices with an impressive 100% first time pass rate in End Point Assessments and 81% achieving a distinction.
Both Carina and Adam are former apprentices themselves and attribute their success to having the lived experience of starting their careers by taking the apprenticeship route.
In its report Ofsted states of the Professional Apprenticeships’ team: “Apprentices receive continually improving, high-quality teaching that develops their knowledge, skills, and behaviours. Consequently, nine-tenths of apprentices achieve a merit or distinction in their final assessments”.
Commenting Carina said: “We’ve worked so hard to deliver the best recruitment, training, and support to our apprentices and employers, and the whole team is immensely proud of this achievement. We have lived and breathed apprenticeships for so long and we are excited to support more apprentices and employers throughout England.”
High-quality training providers like Professional Apprenticeships have never been more vital. They not only address the pressing recruitment challenges faced by employers but also offer individuals an entry point into new and rewarding careers.
The relationship between this remarkable training provider and the Bristol’s booming digital and technology sector exemplifies the potential of apprenticeships to drive progress, both for individuals and the wider industry.
“I didn’t enjoy butchering this magnificent creature, but you apparently need a wake-up call that even you should be able to understand.”
Grant Hadwin
Domicide is the act of destroying one’s own home. It can also be a tendency, carried out through the repetition of thousands of hidden actions, mostly out of sight and out of mind.
I’ve been wanting to write a post on this subject for a while, but have been holding back, waiting for a triggering moment. And last Wednesday that moment arrived when the Sycamore Gap came crashing into the cosy living room of our collective imagination.
The loss of a beautiful lone tree fuelled a predictable outcry. The media fuelled the outrage, baying for the punishment of some ‘degenerate youth’, before pivoting to turn with less outrage on a ‘crazy old man’, perhaps a ‘former lumberjack’.
What is it about one tree that causes us such outspoken agonies while the destruction of the wider world continues unabated with passive acceptance? Could this have something to do with the power of the totem, working as symbolic pressure valve to channel and dissipate our collective sense of grief and loss at the destruction of our home, releasing our outrage so we can return to business as usual?
When I heard the news, my first thought was not for the tree but for the person who had chopped it down. What could have been their motivation? For this must have been a carefully planned act, and so can’t be easily dismissed as some moment of ‘madness’. No, to me, this felt like a howl of pain, a wake-up call that I recognised immediately.
In 2007 I started a 7-year filmed investigation into the motivations of another ‘environmental terrorist’, who orchestrated another attack on an ancient tree in an apparently mindless ‘crime against nature’. But it was not that simple.
On the islands of Haida Gwaii, a remote archipelago off Canada’s Pacific coast, stood a giant and genetically unique Sitka Spruce, known to the indigenous Haida people as ‘K’iid K’iyass’. Owing to the unusual yellow pigmentation of its needles, outsiders called it ‘The Golden Spruce’.
There it stood on the banks of the Yakoun River for 250 years, protected from the enveloping tide of industrial logging in its own protected reserve, complete with tourist trail and signage. Until one night in January 1997, when a lone former logger and timber engineer called Grant Hadwin arrived under the cover of darkness to cut it down.
For the Haida, ‘The Golden Spruce’ was much more than an object of scientific curiosity, a beautiful ‘freak’ of nature. For them this was a mythical being, a boy transformed into a tree, a sacred elder that stood as a wonderous manifestation of the connectedness of all things- a kin-centric belief system.
And Grant Hadwin, himself an instrument of the system of industrial extraction, had come to destroy it in a self-proclaimed act of protest. What kind of madness was this?
This is an extract from the letter that Grant wrote to the authorities justifying his actions:
“Dear Sir or Madam,
I don’t care much for ‘freaks’ whether they teach in University classrooms, sit in corporate board rooms, perform in the circus or are put on display as examples of old growth forest.
I mean this action to be an expression of my rage and hatred towards university trained professionals and their supporters whose ideas, ethics, denials, part truths and attitudes appear to be responsible for most of the abominations done towards life on this planet made in the name of ‘progress’.
I didn’t enjoy butchering this magnificent creature, but you apparently need a wake-up call that even you should be able to understand.
It was challenging to leave this majestic plant in a temporary vertical position.
The next storm will cause this one thousand year old plant to fall into or near The Yakoun River. Please find enclosed some of the last known photographs of ‘The Golden Spruce’.
Yours truly,
Grant Hadwin.”
And this was my film interpretation of the aftermath of what had happened.
What insight might this story give us into the mind of the individual who took down our cherished Sycamore?
And what does this particular choice of totem, the lone tree left standing in a sea of devastation, tell us about the timeless forces of corruption at work on humanity, and about our separation from the land, our natural home?
The Golden Spruce came with its own ancient mythology, with a story that began with the murderous arrival of the Europeans in 1774. The British came bearing ‘gifts’ of blankets laced with smallpox, hoping to wipe the indigenous people from the face of their land. 70% of the Haida population died in the enveloping plague, with lone survivors retreating into the sanctuary of the forest. Among them were a village elder and his grandson. As they fled the village, the boy ignored his grandfather’s advice not to look back, and found himself rooted to the ground, a boy transforming into a tree.
And there K’iid K’iyass stood for 250 years, one tree preserved by the logging company as a living cultural artefact, while the rest of the ancient forest was cut down and hauled to the mill, first as masts for ships of war, and then to build the frames of aircraft that brought death from the skies.
And the Sycamore Gap bears the same legacy. A lone tree, left in a sea of devastation, the land wiped clean by the civilising forces of Rome as far as the wall of Hadrian, built to keep out the savages who still lived from the land and who resisted agriculture, taxation and wage slavery. The wall was there to keep the money economy of Rome safe and sound until the empire burned under Nero, incinerated by the flames of its own self-serving corruption and arrogance.
#Storytelling #Filmmaking #Authenticity #Purpose #Meaning #FilmsToBelieveIn #DocumentaryFilmmaking #FilmProductionBristol #BristolFilmmakers #DocumentaryFilmmakerBristol
Clare Leczycki shares an update on the Bristol Creative Industries Internship Programme.
We are just over halfway through the pilot year of the Bristol Create Industries Internship Programme, a scheme set up and funded by Bristol Creative Industries and and a group of members. It gives young people from under-represented backgrounds a chance to explore the different roles in the creative industries.
The programme, delivered in partnership with Babbasa as part of the #OurCity2030 initiative, provides interns with placements at two different agencies over a six-month period.
It aims to:
Our interns switched placements this month and are now working in their second agency.
During this process, several opportunities came up and we off-boarded three of the interns early.
Seren Spooner was offered a job at Armadillo as a junior designer and decided to take the opportunity to move into full- time work.
“As a graphic designer, I was initially unsure about going into client service, but quickly found that I really enjoyed it. Agency structure has been a highlight for me and being openminded about all the different roles and opportunities available within an agency has been really interesting. It has allowed me to see where my experience and skills can fit with an organisation like Armadillo.
“I really wouldn’t be anywhere without this programme; it has made the transition out of university so incredibly easy. To have a variety of roles put in front of you is amazing, and even though I won’t be changing my agency and role in the second part of the programme, as I was offered a full-time position, to have the opportunity to switch and learn new skills at a new company makes such an impact.
“The support that you get from your peers throughout the programme is also so impactful, we have all been there for each other throughout this process which has been amazing.”
Mohd Wani decided to go back into education to do a masters in UX at one of the most prestigious universities in the UK:
“This programme has given me a new career path in an industry I never thought would be for me. By moving into UX design from graphic design, I can now see myself excelling more in this role than I ever could’ve imagined in graphic design.
“In four months on this programme working in UX, I can see more improvement in myself than in three years of training in graphic design.
“The work I have completed at Atomic Smash has helped me to secure a place at the Royal College of Art, which I will be starting later this year. But I have also been offered a full time by Atomic Smash when I finish my course, so I know my future is secure.
“The programme has taught me great networking skills, and different ways of talking to people. The skills sessions we do each week has also given me so many additional skills outside of my day-to-day job which are so valuable, and that is all thanks to this programme.
“The work I have done because of the programme and the skills that I now have, has helped me get rid of my past feelings of ‘I don’t belong here’, and now I know that I do.
“I would tell anyone thinking of joining the programme to just do it. It will give you so many different opportunities to find out what you are good at, what you are in to, and what your career path can be.”
Laurel Beckford is now working with Babbasa’s communications team:
”The BCI internship programme is one of the best out there for any individual looking to get their foot into the creative sector. The amount of support I have received is incredible and gives you so many opportunities to build up your skills.
“I was made aware of the programme through Babbasa and worked with them to help me with the process of getting in touch with BCI.
“Before I came on this programme, I didn’t know one thing about building a website, and now I can and have learnt so many skills.
“I have travelled to London with my agency, met clients face to face, and been involved in a photoshoot, which has been a real highlight.
“The BCI Internship programme can help anyone make their way into the creative sector and will give you the chance to do that.”
Whilst we are sad to be saying goodbye to some of the interns, we are incredibly excited to see opportunities created by the network and it’s brilliant to see the young people thrive and move onto the next stage of their career. We look forward to hearing more about how they are getting on in the coming months.
Other interns have also been offered jobs but have chosen to complete the internship programme, while some are exploring further training to hone their skills.
You can see the agencies currently involved in the progamme here.
The pilot programme will finish at the end of November. We will then review and reflect on the learnings from the interns and participating agencies to see how the scheme can be further developed and expanded. We are particularly excited to be working more closely with the team at Babbasa to develop our onboarding and training processes for the next round.
Conversations for the 2024 Bristol Creative Industries Internship Programme has begun. If you run a creative business in Bristol and are interested in hearing more about how to get involved, contact BCI membership manager Alli Nicholas on [email protected]
> Download the full ebook here for free.
INTRODUCTION
Tackling noise and cynicism in a post-truth world
No 21st century business would disagree with the assertion that the technological advances of the last couple of decades have fundamentally changed the marketing industry.
From build-it-yourself-website platforms to single-print self-publishing services to ChatGPT-generated content, the barriers to entering the competition for people’s attention has never been lower. Winning that competition, however, has never been more challenging.
But the challenge is not simply that it’s difficult to be heard above the noise. The ease with which literally anyone can publish content has made people cynical. As a result, they’re no longer asking, “What can you tell me?” Instead, they’re demanding, “Who are you to tell me?”
In this context, not only is it not enough to create content. It’s not even enough to create articulate content, or content that hooks people’s attention on social media, or tick’s the right boxes for Google’s ever-changing algorithms.
Instead, businesses need to dig deep into the knowledge, skills and experience within their people and create content that is brimming with something AI-driven content mills can’t reproduce: expertise.
Expertise is, firstly, a positioning strategy
There are many ways to position a brand in a marketplace. You can compete on price or personality, values, location or, if you’re lucky, the uniqueness of your product or service offering. Or you can choose an expertise-based positioning strategy.
Expertise builds trust. It encourages loyalty. It allows you to charge a premium because it shows you’re wiser and sharper than the next brand – and you can prove it. If members of your team have mastered certain disciplines and subjects, why would you try to compete on price?
This strategy is also a strong choice because it’s difficult to emulate. You can’t fake expertise, or not for long anyway. Only a few brands have what it takes to even qualify – and fewer know how to translate the expertise within their business into marketing strategy.
But, if it is to have an impact, expertise-based positioning can’t simply be a strategic choice. It needs to be executed well. In other words, you can’t just say you’re an expert, you have to prove it.
Why choose an expertise-based positioning strategy?
> Download the full ebook here for free.
New term, new partnership between The Olympus Academy Trust and boomsatsuma, new opportunities for students across the region; September 2023.
The collaboration adds over 100 students to boomsatsuma, benefitting the experience of The Olympus Trust’s provision to 6,500 students across 10 Bristol schools. boomsatsuma introduces a new College education centre, which has welcomed 70 students this September, at Portland Square, St Pauls, extending the links with and opportunities for young people.
Plans to establish a Post 16 creative technologies pathway for Olympus students have also been announced, with support from boomsatsuma, building on the model of the engineering pathway developed at Abbeywood Community School. The highly successful boomsatsuma suite of Post 16 courses will continue to run at their existing sites in central Bristol, with additional courses on offer in Olympus Post 16 settings from 2024, including at Patchway Community School, when it moves into its new building and state of the art facilities. This will widen opportunity for students in North Bristol and South Gloucestershire, giving access to courses not currently available locally.
Details of these fresh opportunities for Post 16 learners will be shared at Olympus Post 16 Open Events taking place at the end of October and beginning of November, with boomsatsuma present to share details of their courses too.
Dave Baker, Olympus CEO said:
“Boomsatsuma’s track record is impressive, both in terms of courses offered and outcomes achieved by students. I am delighted that we are able to work in partnership to bring their offer to Olympus students from 2024.”
The Olympus Trust partnership currently covers 16-19 year olds at Leadworks studying Games Design, along with the established Level 3 Sports Media cohort at Ashton Gate Stadium.
Mark Curtis, boomsatsuma Creative Director says:
“This is an exciting expansion adding to our capacity, going from five to six College facilities (alongside our two additional Degree centres) to create opportunities for young people who crave an alternative education offering. Putting the boom into the Olympus Trust engine feels very comfortable, as they clearly share our values and endorse our philosophy to put the students at the centre of our educational practices. Bringing their engineering and our creative technology curriculums closer will be an exciting development for the future of Bristol.”
Luke Fazackerley, boomsatsuma College Lead says:
“We will be sticking to our ethos of student focused education linked to the creative sector, with small class sizes and industry guided experiences for our new cohort. Aligning ourselves with The Olympus Trust builds on our successful partnership with Cabot Learning Federation, who will continue to support our delivery of our Film & TV course at The Bottle Yard Studios, among others. We are building on the excellent results of 2022/23*, when boomsatsuma again significantly exceeded local FE Colleges performance on all measures.”
When boomsatsuma collected its’ second Bristol Life Award for Education in March 2023, the Judges commented on the links across the city creating opportunities and progression for students, more than half of which are drawn from the most deprived wards in the Greater Bristol area.
There is a strong focus on inclusivity for all, with boomsatsuma selecting potential students based around attitude and educating for progression. Last years’ student intake covered a diverse academic profile with GCSE grades ranging from 1 to 9, 20% have identified additional learning needs, 13% identify as gender fluid or trans and 15% identify as non-white British.
Beth Griffiths, boomsatsuma’s Head of Outreach states:
“It’s important that young people across the region are aware that the best option for them may be a route into a career in the expanding TV, Film, photography or Games sectors. We run an extensive outreach program across 80 schools. Our focus has always been across Bristol, but now spans South Gloucester to Somerset and we have students joining us from Bridgewater this year.
“I’d encourage anyone who wants to follow a creative/digital pathway to get in touch via our website, boomsatsuma.com .”
Ends
Pictured: Dave Baker and Mark Curtis with Olympus Trust and boomsatsuma staff at
Winterbourne Academy
*
2021 – 2023 boomsatsuma Cohort Results for 108 Learners.
92% retention.
MERIT and above – 100%
DISTINCTION and above – 65%
DISTINCTION * and above – 49%
Ever heard of the dark funnel? You’d be forgiven for thinking it sounds like a Jim Henson film or a Stranger Things rip-off. But it’s not as scary or mysterious as it sounds.
It’s no secret that marketers love data. We pore over numbers, analytics, and reports to build the most accurate picture of performance and inform our all-important marketing strategy.
This data is gathered from an array of sources, whether it’s a company’s website, paid advertisements, third-party businesses like HubSpot, or countless other avenues. In fact, businesses put huge amounts of money into collecting as much data as possible about their audiences.
By having an informed plan, underpinned by data, you’re able to craft a marketing strategy tailored to your audience and optimised to target specific demographics. But what about the touchpoints in a buyer’s journey or the sales funnel that can’t be tracked?
This is what’s known as the dark funnel.
Originally coined by 6Sense, the phrase refers to interactions over the course of the sales funnel that you can’t follow or gather data from. To my fellow data-loving marketers, this might seem like a nightmare. But fear not – you can actually harness the power of the dark funnel to further nurture your leads and open the door to new business opportunities.
View image in original blog here.
But before I get ahead of myself, let’s take a look at some examples of dark funnel data:
The above data points are either incredibly difficult to track, or untraceable altogether. But I think we can all agree any marketing that shares your brand with more people is important. You should also note that the dark funnel doesn’t just consist of these data points – it also includes all of the research a potential buyer may have undertaken during the consideration stage (before converting).
A valid question, indeed – why should this concept matter to you and how does it affect your business?
According to CXL:
“over 80% of a customer journey is spent navigating dark channels”
This staggering figure illustrates the huge potential that can be found in dark funnel marketing. This facet of marketing is largely focused on nurturing your leads.
By nurturing your leads, you can increase brand loyalty with your audience before they’re ready to buy. And as 95% of B2B buyers are not currently in the market to buy, it goes without saying that you still want these buyers primed and ready for when they’re prepping a shortlist.
Another reason to consider dark funnel marketing within your strategy comes from the fact that Google is set to phase out third-party cookies. With this huge shift in data privacy incoming, it’s important that your business doesn’t rely too heavily on tracking them. When these get phased out, you likely won’t have enough data to understand your buyers and measure performance, and you risk losing leads.
“…harness the power of the dark funnel to further nurture your leads and open the door to new business opportunities…”
If the dark funnel was a total mystery when you started reading this blog, that’s exactly why you should embrace it. Many companies aren’t doing this yet, which creates a great opportunity for businesses to set themselves apart from the competition and give their marketing a significant boost.
As previously mentioned, dark funnel marketing is all about nurturing leads without analytics, so that they’ll remember your brand and consider your business when they’re ready to make a buying decision. So how exactly can you get people thinking about, talking about, and considering your business over others?
Consistent organic posting
Putting paid promotion behind your social media posts will undoubtedly help your marketing efforts, but it’s crucial that you don’t underestimate the power of organic posting. This free method of marketing solidifies your brand’s online presence on platforms with millions of users. And it’s not just social media. Posting blogs on your company’s website, for example, is a great way to attract potential leads and build your reputation in the market.
High-quality work
This might seem obvious, but by always striving to meet and exceed client/customer expectations, you give people the best reason to talk about you and take control of your reputation. The quality of your work is a direct representation of your business and its values. By producing top-shelf products or delivering first-class service, you allow your work to speak for itself – and people are far more likely to help you spread the word.
Attending events
This is another great way of boosting your brand awareness and holding space in people’s minds, even without trackable data. By attending events, speaking on panels and growing your personal profile (and encouraging your colleagues to do the same) you start to make those all-important face-to-face connections. These interactions tend to stick in people’s minds far more, giving you a chance to leave a lasting impression.
Using the right channels
There are so many online channels where perfect prospects are talking and interacting (with each other, not your content). If you can enter these spaces without selling, whether it’s getting involved in LinkedIn groups, Facebook pages, or something else entirely, you can take part in your prospect’s conversations. But don’t be tempted to lead with your business or credentials. You can get your brand in front of all the right people, and engage with them to form positive relationships, simply by being your helpful, knowledgeable self.
“…Google is set to phase out third-party cookies. With this huge shift in data privacy incoming, it’s important that your business doesn’t rely too heavily on tracking them…”
Just ask
A highly effective yet often-overlooked way to make the most of dark funnel marketing is to ask your leads how they found out about your business. Plain and simple. You can do this by adding a section on your website’s contact form or a step in your checkout process. Alternatively, you can try reaching out via email. This will give you a really strong sense of which of your dark funnel channels are gaining a response from your audience, and which might need a bit more attention.
Hopefully you’re no longer in the dark about dark funnel marketing or its potential to influence your marketing strategy. Now all that is left is turn ideas into action.
While data can get you so far, there are plenty of ways to get front of mind and build your reputation without a cookie, or a dime.
We’re currently offering free marketing consultations, so if you’d like to find out how your business could discover untapped potential, get in touch at [email protected].
Loom Digital will be hosting weekly digital marketing surgeries throughout September, providing free advice to businesses in Bristol.
“We know it’s not an easy environment for businesses at the moment, and we’d like to do our bit to give back to the Bristol business community.” Karen Pearce, Director
Every Friday morning in September, Loom will be opening their doors at Temple Studios to marketing managers and business owners in Bristol and surrounding areas who would like advice on anything related to digital marketing strategy, PPC, SEO and content. The surgeries are delivered on a 1-2-1 basis and will last one hour. All information shared in the surgery will be kept confidential and participants will leave with tangible takeaways to supercharge their digital marketing.
The surgeries are ideal for marketing managers or business owners looking for forward-thinking digital marketing advice. Each surgery will be tailored to your business, below are a few examples of topics businesses might like to discuss::
There are a limited number of slots and appointments are first come first served. To find out more and to request a slot please visit https://www.loomdigital.co.uk/bristol-digital-surgery/
This year Loom Digital celebrated 14 years as a Bristol digital marketing agency. Starting off as a niche search agency, over the years Loom has grown their remit to cover SEO, content marketing, Google Ads, Meta advertising, LinkedIn advertising, digital strategy, data and analytics.
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