Sir Peter Bazalgette is one of the most influential figures in the UK’s creative industries.
As the former chairman of Endemol UK and creative director of Endemol Group Worldwide, he was responsible for some of the most successful and recognisable television shows of the past 25 years, including Big Brother, Ready Steady Cook, Ground Force and Changing Rooms.
Sir Peter, who was also chairman of Arts Council England and non-executive chairman of ITV, was recently appointed as the new chancellor of the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol).
In an interview with Dan Martin, he discusses his career, the support needed from the new government to grow the UK’s creative industries, how to improve the sector’s diversity, and why he has taken on the role of UWE Bristol’s new chancellor.
For an extra insight, read to the end to discover Sir Peter’s favourite TV show of all time!
Sir Peter Bazalgette officially took up his role as chancellor of UWE Bristol at the university’s graduation ceremonies in July, which were held for the first time at Bristol Beacon following a new partnership between the two organisations.
“Until 1955, there was only the BBC, and until 1982, there was only the BBC and ITV. Then there was Channel Four, and then Channel Five came along in the 90s. So even by the 1990s, there were very few channels. Sky Television and Virgin weren’t there at that point, but subscription TV came along when they arrived.
“Fast forward to recently and when I was chairing ITV, we launched ITV X and to be listed we had to negotiate with more than 30 platforms.
“In terms of production, that has changed a lot too. We used to just have public service media putting money into television production, but now we’ve got Netflix alone spending more than a billion in the UK, not to mention Apple, Amazon, Disney and so on.
“It’s changed massively, and people are consuming their TV when they want and how they want.”
“As much as documentaries are wonderful things, try to have a repeat series, whether it’s factual or fictional, but one that can be repeated and can come back again because that gives you certainty and turnover.
“You should also have a range of clients among both the streamers and the public service media.”
“None of us ever know the night before a show goes out for the first time whether it’s going to be a complete flop or a big hit.
“Big Brother had already become a massive phenomenon in Germany, Spain and Holland before it came to the UK, but not every format works in every country. For example, Survivor has never really taken off in the UK, but it has been a hit in America since the 1990s.
“When Big Brother launched, it was like trying to ride a bucking bronco. It got bigger and bigger. It was on the front page of every newspaper every day, and we had the press on our doorsteps.
“In most of the early Big Brother houses in other countries, the key talking points were two housemates getting amorous with each other. But true to form in Britain, we instead had a class struggle, with working class Craig defeating middle class Nick, who became known as Nasty Nick. Lots of people couldn’t believe we hadn’t set the whole thing up, but we had no idea any of that was going to happen, none at all.”
“It was massively controversial wherever it was broadcast. People thought it was exploitative and invasive, but actually it was interesting in that it had a transsexual woman, a gay man, someone who suffered from Tourette syndrome, and all sorts of extraordinary people who at the time were demonised. But they won because people saw their lovely character shining through, and so it did have a positive element.
“It was also an example of early fusion technology because it was on TV as an edited programme, it was on the internet, people watched it live, and you could vote on the telephone. It represented a convergence of media, and it was part of the process of the generation, who today on their mobile phones shoot and edit videos, becoming media literate. They used to watch the live transmission, and then watch the edited programme, before complaining we hadn’t put certain bits in, or we’d been unfair to certain characters.
“They then realised that the programme was an edited piece that was entirely subjective and what the director thought the story was. There was a big element of the viewer developing media literacy which was groundbreaking.”
“The creative industries, as they say on The X Factor, have been on a journey. We were the first country in the world in 1997 to define an industrial sector called the creative industries, but we then had to catch up because we didn’t have any data about our GVA, our employment etc. In time we had the Creative Industries Council, and we then established an advocacy body that is now called Creative UK, but in many ways, Britain is still playing catch up with the creative industries. With the new government, I hope that the journey and process will continue.
“The creative industries are 6% of the UK’s GVA, but we get 1% of public investment. Clearly that is not aligned with the creative industries as a priority sector for growth which we have been told is the case by both the former Conservative government and the Labour Party.
“Private investment is currently not good enough. The British Business Bank, which encourages investment in small and medium sized enterprises, is not really attuned to the way the creative industries run, the way small creative businesses work, and the criteria by which they have to be judged and invested in. We need to make progress on public and private investment.
“We also need to make progress on research and development tax credit definitions. The UK has a narrow definition of R&D, which is different to the one in other countries in Europe which includes the creative industries so creative businesses can claim tax credits for the innovation that they carry out.
“We need a more flexible apprenticeship scheme because small companies find it difficult to use the apprenticeship levy.”
“The creative industries are naturally and organically arranged into clusters. When I made a proposal for public investment in clusters in 2017, which was enacted in 2018 in the creative industries sector deal, it was going with the flow of where clusters typically are. For example, there’s the fantastic screen cluster in Bristol, an advertising cluster in Manchester, fashion in Leeds and games in Dundee. All of those things were happening organically and I suggested that we got behind it.
“The investment was £56m in nine creative clusters and each of them had an anchor partner of a university which could feed the value of applied research into local SMEs. It was fantastically successful over five years. It was matched by about £260m from industry and other sources. It’s a very good example of how you use small amounts of public money to generate growth and investment. It connected applied research with more than 2,500 SMEs, and created lots of new jobs, products and services.
“We found it incredibly difficult to get clusters two funded, despite the extraordinary success story which underlines my point about public investment not being aligned with the national policy to grow the creative industries.
“In the end, we did get it funded, but it still depends on UK Research and Innovation honouring the commitment in the next Spending Review, which has to be agreed by the new government.
“That’s another example of how Britain has not caught up with the creative sector, and isn’t backing it in the way that we are organised.”
“We need to do a lot better in this area. If we claim that the creative industries is not just an economic powerhouse, but a social and cultural powerhouse, and that what we produce, our music, theatre, films, TV, books and so on, touches the pulse of the nation, then it has to represent the whole nation and all of the communities. It can only do that if all of them find easy career pathways.
“One of the key things to do is defining better career pathways, which was set out in the former government’s creative industries sector vision last year. When I work with Speakers for Schools, the charity set up by Robert Peston, and speak to first year sixth form students, I ask them ‘what’s your favourite music?’, ‘what’s your favourite fashion?, ‘what’s your favourite film?, ‘what’s your favourite TV show?, ‘what games do you play?’. It always leads to a big discussion about who has the best taste.
“I then ask them to tell me about the jobs that all of those products represent and there’s dead silence. As an industry, we have not defined the career pathways properly. If we do, we’ll have a much more diverse sector.
“We also need much better outreach. When I was deputy chair of the National Film and Television School, we greatly increased the money we put into finding people of talent from all communities, such as having bursary funds dedicated to Black and Asian people. These are the sorts of things you can do to make a difference, but we have a way to go.”
🤝 This morning at #UWEGraduation Sir Peter Bazalgette was presented as the new chancellor of UWE Bristol – succeeding Sir Ian Carruthers OBE who has performed the role with distinction for the past 13 years 👏
Welcome, Sir Peter! pic.twitter.com/K6DSUZ5D5u
— UWE Bristol (@UWEBristol) July 18, 2024
“The role higher and further education plays in training, inspiring and producing the next generation of talent in the creative sector is critical.
“The particular thing that interested me about UWE is that the creative industries is one of the key areas in which they specialise.
“Activities that impress me about UWE include The Foundry which encourages collaboration, new ideas and development of technical knowledge. I also like the fact that they have a student ventures centre which encourages graduates to set up businesses, I like the university enterprise zone, and I like that more than 50% of graduates tend to work in the surrounding area after they’ve graduated. This is a very good statistic, and shows the contribution that UWE is making to Bristol and its surroundings.
“Finally, as a TV producer and chair of the Arts Council, I visited the city many times and I love what Bristol has already and its potential for growth.”
“Antiques Roadshow. I can’t get enough of it!
“I love the combination of the personal histories and regional histories that are linked to an object. You learn so much about history, and individual stories of brilliant heroism. There’s also the arts and culture, the wonderful locations they visit and the element of greed when it’s revealed what the item is worth. It’s the perfect TV show. I wish I’d invented it myself.”
Nine Tree Studios in Bristol celebrated their opening earlier this month with an event that saw over 150 attendees from across the creative sector.
The 10,000sq ft facility includes two soundstages for film and photography plus a podcast suite, office space, green rooms and a fully-equipped kitchen studio.
Backed by Bristol-based commercial production company JonesMillbank, the studios have been designed to support both small-scale and broadcast-level productions.
“This has been a long road, but it was amazing to see so many new and old faces, all coming together to support and celebrate our launch.” said Russell Jones, Co-Founder of Nine Tree Studios.
Located in Brislington (BS4), the studios are perched near the centre of Bristol allowing them to service productions mixing studio and on-location filming, aided by its 8,900sq ft secure yard for trucks and trailers.
The studios are now Bristol’s largest independent studio, joining a raft of creative spaces throughout the city including neighbouring virtual production stage Distortion Studios and the established Bottle Yard Studios.
“Like restaurants on a high street, the more there are, the better they are, the more their reputation builds. We’re proud of everything Bristol has to offer and stands for, and the more facilities, talent, crew and creative companies that are based here only goes to benefit the region as a whole” Russell continued.
Nine Tree Studios features:
For more information and bookings please visit www.ninetreestudios.co.uk, call 0117 3706 372, or email [email protected].
Mostly Media, the Bath-based media planning and buying specialists enjoyed recent success at the Independent Agency Awards scooping not one, but two awards.
Hosted by the Alliance of Independent Agencies at the leading worldwide marketing and digital festival ‘MAD//FEST’, this prestigious award ceremony celebrates the finest work across the independent agency sector.
Firstly, for the third time in four years, Mostly Media proudly received the Best Use of Media award, this time for their work on behalf of the UK charity, Crohn’s & Colitis UK.
Secondly, Mostly won the coveted Freedom Award for Client Service, a testament to their exceptional culture and dedication to clients.
Head of Digital Tom Marshall who led the team’s digital campaign commented: “It is a fantastic achievement for such a wonderful cause. To receive the recognition for both Best Use of Media & Client Service was really special, and so well deserved for all the amazing planning and strategic work from the CCUK (Crohn’s & Colitis UK) team, they were amazing to work with on this campaign, so a big thank-you to them for trusting us with this project. Special mention also to the Mostly Team for their brilliant strategy, planning, implementation, and optimisation work – 250,000+ symptom checker completions & delivery of the campaign message to potential sufferers of Crohn’s & Colitis is out of this world!”
Recap of Mostly Media’s Recent Award Wins:
– **2021**: Best Use of Media on behalf of thortful (DTC / Brand Response)
– **2023**: Best Use of Media on behalf of Cawston Press | B-Corp™ (FMCG / Brand)
– **2024**: Best Use of Media on behalf of Crohn’s & Colitis UK (Charity / Performance)
– **2024**: Freedom award for Client Service on behalf of Crohn’s & Colitis UK (Charity / Performance)
About Mostly Media
Based in Bath, Mostly Media is an award-winning top-20 independent media planning & buying agency that prides itself on scaling businesses at pace through media strategy.
Founded on the principles of creativity, agility, and client-focused service, Mostly Media has a proven track record of achieving exceptional results for a diverse range of clients.
What were you up to 20 years ago?
20 years ago to the day, and almost to the minute as I write, I was presenting my last show on Bristol University’s student radio station. ‘Burst FM’ was then still in its infancy, broadcasting from a converted water closet (yes, really) on the 5th floor of the students’ union building. Tight budgets and plumbing costs meant one of the toilet pans was still in-situ and, freshers being freshers, each new presenter thought they were the first and only one to try it out, live on-air. As it happened, the flush usually did still work, and I have many tapes to prove it…
Burst was a huge part of my university life and I have it to thank for all that’s followed. I’d been intent on a career in radio since developing an unlikely adolescent love of Radio 2. While at school, I began writing material for Terry Wogan‘s breakfast show and sending it in by letter or fax. This continued throughout my time at Bristol University, when my various characters and noms de plume had a daily spot on Wake Up to Wogan at 8.50am. Luckily for my cred, most of my fellow students were either still asleep or ensconced in lectures so they knew little of it.
Very few students knew about Burst, which was mostly an online-only stream at a time when that was a huge limitation to consumption! It’s hard to believe now, but live streaming was of little use to anybody in 2004; smartphones and tablets were still emerging and listening online required effort. Burst’s listening figures were often in single digits at any one time, doubling or trebling at the flick of a switch downstairs in the Union’s Cafe Zuma, where they selectively pumped out Burst to their customers. We occasionally received calls on-air, usually wrong numbers rather than from listeners, but most of the interaction came via that much missed old friend of the millennial… MSN.
The real value of Burst was for those who got involved. A tiny audience was actually a gift while we were all making our mistakes and misjudgements on-air. I had a go at absolutely everything, even running the station for a year. By the time of my final Burst show, I was already working full-time in radio. I’d had two offers from the BBC and accepted one that meant, sadly, I had to leave Bristol the moment my studies were complete. Nobody knew at the time (at either end) but some of my later shows for Burst actually came down the line from a BBC studio far away!
But, 20 years ago today, I returned to that converted blue and orange bog once more for my very last show on Burst. Following “Bye Bye Baby” from The Bay City Rollers (horrendously predictable) and a few choked words, I played out with an old weepy called “Me And The Elephant”, a song about memories we’ll never forget. Very graciously indeed, the song’s singer had also agreed to appear in person on my show. His name?
Terry Wogan.
Today, Burst is a thriving student station which is never far from winning its next award. 2024’s students are lucky enough to learn their craft in a smart studio, albeit no longer with en-suite comedy… and, of course, everybody listens online. Whether it’s the start of a long career, or a brief flirtation with something a little bit different, I bet they’ll look back with a big smile. 20 years on and some 4,500 radio shows down the line, I certainly do.
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When it comes to marketing copywriting for a business, the most obvious starting point is talking about the features and benefits of the company’s product or service. If you’re lucky, the business will have a lot of benefits so you can find a lot to say, but when you’ve ticked off every single one, what do you do? Start from the beginning again? While repetition is a good thing, there are ways to repeat yourself that work well, and other ways that are quite frankly, boring. Finding new angles to talk about your features and benefits is a great way to keep the copywriting pipeline full and interesting!
What is an angle in marketing copy?
If you’re not sure what I mean when I talk about finding new angles, I mean finding new ways to introduce the same message. Probably the easiest way to explain this is to give you an example.
Let’s say your company sells furniture. You have talked about all the different types of furniture you sell, why the items are of such good quality and value for money, but then what? One new angle you might consider is to quote the latest home interior trends to hit the market. Or you could talk about the latest report or newest statistics on how people’s posture is affected by the furniture they use and highlight relevant products in your range that might offer a solution. Or perhaps, if you have a sustainable range, you could talk about the latest government targets, or the most up to date statistics on recycling furniture – and use that to introduce your solution.
How many angles can there be?
You’d be forgiven for thinking that you will run out of angles as quickly as you will run out of features and benefits. But the beauty of angles is that they change all the time. There are new reports and statistics being released regularly. There are national and industry news reports about different sectors every day, and the socio-economic context we’re all operating in is changing all the time.
Finding the best angle for your copy
So how do you come up with angles and keep them fresh and interesting for your audience? Here are a few prompts to give you some ideas.
Still struggling to find new copywriting angles consistently?
Hopefully this quick guide will give you some inspiration when it comes to finding new ways to talk about the good things that you do. However, if you’re still struggling to find the time and effort needed to consistently research and create new angles, it might be worth talking to a freelance copywriter. I have written for some of my customers for years and still consistently come up with new angles and new ways of getting their messages across, so they don’t have to.
If you would like some support with your business blogs, feature articles, press releases, or content for your company LinkedIn page, feel free to drop me an e-mail at [email protected] to book in an exploratory call, or receive my price list.
As a devoted son of radio, first lured to podcasting by the similarities, I’ve come to love spotting the differences.
The Podcast Show, last week, was a rare chance to do that on an industry-wide scale and I was among many from Bristol and the South West who flocked. This was the UK’s biggest coming together of what can sometimes feel like quite a fragmented fraternity, at least for the independent creator. The hours spent in my home studio writing, recording and editing are among the happiest of my freelance endeavours, but they are also quite isolating.
The people of podcasting have much in common with radio types, not least as so many straddle both worlds, yet the vibe en-masse is strangely different. The great Terry Wogan once described radio as “the home of the introverted egomaniac” and I relate to that entirely from my time in the industry. We’re the people you’ll always find in the kitchen at parties, quietly watching, tweeting and probably adding you on LinkedIn without making eye contact. Yet The Podcast Show was deafeningly loud at all times, people with much to say to each other. The atmosphere was strikingly friendly, welcoming and explosively sociable, perhaps in defiance of all the time we spend alone. For relative newbies like me at least, there was a sense of shared demystification, of everyone helping each other to make best sense of this wonderful craft that has landed from outer audio space…
Actually, as Bristol’s podcasters will know, so much is already understood. The podcast world is a canny fusion of marketing, PR and audio. Consequently, the industry is relentlessly driven by intelligent market research and targeted strategy, strikingly more so than the public service broadcast world I’ve inhabited for 20 years. This manifests itself as an absolute obsession with audiences, and rightly so: “Who we can serve, why and how…”, rather than “What we’d like to do…”. If you and I have ever worked together, or if we’ve had a coaching workshop together in recent months, you’ll understand why this makes me sing.
I lapped up the session ‘From Grey to Gold’ with Andy Goldsmith (from Adelicious) and Kat Farmer (from #gotthepodcast), which explained why canny podcasters should consider the over 55s. It has baffled me and angered many besides to see this growing audience abandoned by public service broadcasters, who really should be ramping up their commitment to an ageing population. We heard in the session that, not only is the older market growing in size, the over 55s hold 70% of the UK’s wealth; so it is perhaps even more perplexing that so few have seen the commercial potential of engaging them through audio. Known in the marketing world as “the blind spot”, this audience is targeted by only 3% of advertising briefs, typically health-related products, care homes and funeral plans. How crass! Among the marketing orgs represented by the speakers, 90% of briefs are targeted at 18-44 year olds, a decade adrift from those who will be spending 63p in every pound over the next ten years.
The reason cited for the vacuum (and I believe this to be true in radio, too) is that older people are not seen by the industry as a sexy audience to serve. Kat Farmer described an “echo chamber of young people in marketing talking to themselves…” and “…everyone imagining that anyone over 55 is like their nan”. We urgently need to get beyond that. I recently launched The Bus Inspectors podcast which is already thriving with older audiences. It takes a really niche subject to the mainstream – a grading scheme for the UK’s transport museums – and hopefully brings it to life with human interest stories that will light up those with curiosity. And, as I know from my work in BBC radio over the years, the over 55s are endlessly curious.
Having chosen to make The Bus Inspectors as a narrative podcast – that is, a crafted documentary rather than ‘chat show’ style – it was with some trepidation that I attended Miranda Sawyer’s session ‘Is Narrative Podcasting Dead?’. I have such respect for Miranda that, had the answer been ‘Yes, it’s dead’, I probably would think long and hard about my future. Fortunately, it was a complex but conclusive ‘No, it’s thriving… but it’s an art form… and narratives are more expensive to make… so you have to work much harder to pitch them’. This totally chimes. For many brands simply wanting ‘a podcast’, a freestyle chat is much quicker and cheaper to produce, so it’s no wonder narrative podcasts remain the exception. It’s also no wonder they really stand out and have a lasting value beyond most.
Other stand out messages came from Harry Morton, the Somerset-based CEO and founder of Lower Street Media, who talked about the importance of understanding, as a starting point, how your podcast fits into a wider landscape and ecosystem; and Fiona Fraser ‘The Podcast Expert’ whose simple message will actually be a profound revelation to many: “Your podcast is not for everyone”.
This is an industry which truly respects its audiences and is ever thoughtful about who will listen and how to reach them. No wonder it’s thriving.
RAJAR have released the latest listening figures and all stats are pointing to a record-breaking time for Radio.
The latest RAJAR sweep has shown that more people are listening to radio than ever before. 88.6% of adults in the UK are tuning in, that’s a massive 49.9m.
Commercial Radio is at an all time high of 39.7m listeners with Global’s Heart Network remaining the largest network reaching 12.3m adults every week and with Bauer’s Greatest Hits Network showing good growth with a record of 7.7m listeners each week. The latter is buoyed by the stellar performance of radio legends Ken Bruce & Simon Mayo.
Impressively, 75% of commercial radio stations have seen increased reach compared to the previous quarter and that clearly has been stolen from the BBC where 53% of stations have seen reach decreases.
The conclusion is that Radio is in rude health and the British public are in love with it, more than ever before.
As a media agency, it’s heartening to know that some of the more traditional channels we have in our armoury are more than alive and kicking and it means that we can cost-effectively communicate with our client’s potential customers knowing full well the likely results we’ll achieve.
Talk to Mostly Media today if you want to discuss all things audio.
Specialist CRM agency Flourish was celebrating Thursday 18th April following the announcement at the Campaign Media Awards that their work for Pai Skincare had won ‘The CRM and Media Award’ category.
Award judges described the campaign, which utilised first party data to inform a media strategy which ultimately increased conversion and reduced CPA as, “…clever, rock solid.”
The achievement was even greater as Flourish was one of only six agencies up for an award that didn’t come from the Campaign Top 20 (Campaign School Report Billing 2023). Flourish’s Managing Director Ian Reeves commented: “I’m so proud of the team, but I’m not surprised by the win. With stricter privacy regulations in the UK and EU, and the death of cookies, first party data is becoming increasingly important. It provides marketers with ways of reaching customers with more relevant and engaging comms – something CRM specialists like Flourish have been championing for decades!”
Pai is a ‘clean’ skincare brand selling products direct to consumers via their website. Offers are a vital tool in securing a sale, but Pai wanted to reduce their CPA which had crept up over time.
The award winning work utilised Ometria’s Predictive Attributes to identify customer behaviours and classify them as active, at risk or lapsed. The ‘pot’ customers were put in determined the content of the email journeys they would then receive – with offers as a last resort.
In addition, instead of offer / discount messaging, web visitors were retargeted with product ads focusing on quality, to build brand value. Demographic data gained from CRM meant that only visitors who were most likely to buy were retargeted.
Flourish’s Managing Partner and Head of Media Steve Davis said: “This work shows how powerful media strategies driven by CRM insights can be. This campaign was absolutely transformative in terms of reducing CPA and increasing conversion for Pai and demonstrates the ROI agencies like Flourish can deliver for our clients.”
Notes for editors
Flourish is an independently owned, specialist CRM agency based in Bristol. Platform agnostic, the agency works with the tech clients have in place to deliver data-driven customer journeys to OPTIMISE, ELEVATE and ultimately TRANSFORM their clients CRM.
For more information contact Ian Reeves, Managing Director [email protected].
JonesMillbank, Bristol-based video production company, has won a competitive pitch to work with I heart Wines on their 2024 TV ad campaign.
The wine with a big heart has chosen the production company that connects brands to people to reach and resonate with their loyal customers and new converts alike.
The campaign will align with a brand refresh that comes 13 years after launch.
“The win is a fantastic opportunity to work with an exciting brand that’s bubbling with personality, sass, confidence and authenticity.”
“When we were invited to pitch we knew we had to go for it. We’re incredibly proud that the pitch was led by our 26-year-old in-house creative and director Abbie Howes. She completely embodied the brief and their audience.”
“Our concepts hit all the right notes and we’re delighted to have been chosen to work directly with Freixenet Copestick”.
Emma Fogerty, Senior Brand Manager at Freixenet Copestick said “we are absolutely thrilled to announce that we have chosen JonesMilbank to be our creative partner in producing our new TV ad. We’re excited to embark on this journey together to bring our ideas to life and see the creative vision take shape.”
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JonesMillbank are a full-service video production company.
They work in-house with a talented team of multi-disciplined creatives, telling authentic stories for a range of clients such as Delivery Hero, IDLES, SOHO Coffee Co and University of Bristol.
jonesmillbank.com | 01173706372 | [email protected]