We are thrilled to announce the appointment of Joe Johnston as our first ever Conversion Director.
With over 10 years helping brands get better results from their marketing, Joe will help Launch’s clients improve their website performance, understand how their audience engages with their website, and get better results from their paid media investment. Primarily, he’ll be involved in user research, analytics analysis, and experimentation, working closely with both Paid Media and Data departments.
Joe says: “I’m thrilled to join the Launch team at such an exciting time in their journey. For many brands, the cost-of-living crisis and rising inflation has meant marketing budgets are being squeezed. Every pound or dollar of ad spend is having to work a lot harder. So I’m looking forward to helping our brilliant roster of clients realise their websites’ potential.”
Jaye Cowle, Managing Director of Launch, says: “The key role of paid media is to drive traffic to key pages – but if those pages aren’t optimised, brands can waste valuable ad spend and still not see results. That’s why Joe is a brilliant addition to the team. His expertise is going to help us deliver in-depth insights and affect greater change for our clients.”
As digital marketing becomes more driven by machine learning and advertising becomes more competitive, our team’s ability to define strategies, create efficiencies and identify opportunities is what enables us to deliver brilliant results for our clients. Joe joining the team will bridge the gap between paid media and website performance, providing a more comprehensive service.
Joe joins Launch as the team grows to 25, following the recent appointments of Ian Lewis as Analytics Director and Simon Lockyer as Paid Social Manager.
An outstanding achievement and something we are very proud of.
Back in 2019, ADLIB Recruitment was one of the first recruitment businesses to certify as a B Corp with a score of 82.8. Our belief is that B Corp provides a structure and measurement to improve, certification is the start of the journey. We set out our intentions publicly through annual impact reports and set the bar high. This approach ensured we maintained the focus and accountability needed to make change happen.
Since our initial certification, we’ve held ourselves accountable to improve year on year. We’ve become a 100% employee-owned business, created a Trust Board, Employee Council and gifted each of our existing employees share options with a clear route to realisation.
We’ve donated many thousands of £ to charities and NFPs, including Feeding Bristol, Grassroots Activation Project, St Mungo’s, Julian Trust and Forest of Avon Trust to name a few brilliant organisations.
Internally, we have created MotherBoard, a business charter, community and event series that drives tangible change for mums working in the tech industry. We’ve also vastly improved our maternity leave policy and delivered D,E&I training, lived out through a healthily balanced team. The team have played lead roles in advancing GreenTech South West and Tech Ethics meet up groups. And that’s just for starters.
Today we celebrate the hard work that has gone into achieving our recertification. Focus will soon turn to our next recertification and setting the standards to a whole new level.
In unpredictable times it’s more important than ever to look after your team.
A change in economic climate will inevitably lead to some businesses downsizing to stabilise, some recruiting to take advantage of new opportunities, and others taking stock with their current team.
Wherever you fall, it’s really important to create an environment where your current team and future recruits can thrive.
But when the world is in a state of flux, when individuals are naturally distracted by external factors, how can you keep your team motivated and producing their best work?
Workplace benefits are a great way to keep engagement high but with new ways of working it’s harder to offer the usual perks like remote or flexible working and increased holidays.
Increased salaries and extra holidays are motivating factors, but only to a point as Dan Pink shows us, it’s companies who can keep their culture alive, despite a distant and physically separate workforce that will prosper.
Organisations that invest in ways to get their teams face-to-face safely, to foster a feeling of togetherness, and make employees feel united by a common cause will thrive, rather than just survive.
Finding innovative ways to connect your team to your vision and values will help to nurture a sense of connection and alignment behind your purpose.
Strategies like these can help:
Your team aren’t in the office, so why not send them tangible reminders of your organisation and vision? Send vision boxes to each team member and make it personal if you can – tools to help them complete their work, their favourite food or wine and little reminders of past projects and successes. Consider including gifts for family members, like LEGO for kids and vouchers for family days out too. This shows you care about their quality of life beyond the office. Vision boxes help your team stay connected to your brand and what you stand for in a meaningful way.
It might not be the right time to have everyone working in an office but don’t give up on in-person meetings altogether. Instead, when you can, have regular, small, and safe in-person gatherings so people can socialise, catch up, and bond as a team. We’re social creatures and while connecting via video conference is useful zoom-fatigue has definitely kicked in and it doesn’t give us the same boost a face-to-face gathering does. Consider hosting outdoor happy hours where people can move around and talk with plenty of room to be healthy and safe. These can include organised activities and structured team bonding or just provide a safe space for socialising and touching base
If online is the only option, don’t just gather everyone virtually for company meetings or to discuss upcoming projects. Think about creating a virtual space where people can spend time together in informal social or work gatherings.
Consider hosting a Friday lunch each week, where everyone logs onto a video conferencing platform and enjoys lunch together while catching up on the past week. Or try setting up a weekly or bi-weekly study hall where people can hop in a video conference room and keep the video open for casual chat while they work.
There is no pressure or need to communicate but this can create the feeling of a communal workspace and a sense togetherness. Study halls can also boost productivity and get problems solved more quickly than using email or waiting for set meeting times.
Even when the office is remote, you can still offer ‘workplace’ perks. Consider keeping things in place like childcare support, health and wellness classes, or training and development opportunities. This shows an authentic commitment to the welfare of your team, that your values remain important regardless of outside factors, and that company culture goes beyond the office walls.
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In short, working on keeping your culture alive might not seem like top priority in tough times but it’s more important than ever. A strong and distinctive culture is key to helping your current team stay engaged and motivated and attracting the right people to join your team.
We are proud to share the first annual impact report from MotherBoard – the non-profiting initiative that is powered by ADLIB and sponsored by Not On The High Street. MotherBoard is a Business Charter, Event Series and Community that is creating real long-term change for mums working in the tech industry.
Over the past 12 months the MotherBoard Community and Charter have offered a platform for people to connect and discuss taboo subjects, whilst our growing signatories have committed to, and achieved change. Topics include:
• Mentorship • Promotion & leadership • Coding courses & funding • Infertility • Pregnancy • Sexism • Racism • Parental bias • Miscarriage • Menopause • Toxic cultures • Still birth • Redundancy in pregnancy • NDAs
Within the report you will see the positive impact MotherBoard have achieved since launching in 2021, we are excited to see what the next year holds!
We hope you enjoy having a read, if you would like to hear more about MotherBoard please email the team at [email protected]
MotherBoard is a Business Charter, Community, Event Series, and Podcast driving tangible change for mums working in the tech & data industry. We are on a mission to transform the industry to be more inclusive of mothers by tackling stigmas and supporting employers who want to create real change.
Bristol Academy of Voice Acting (BRAVA) launches a brand new Talent Database today to help local, national and international producers, casting directors and content creators find Talent for their projects: www.brava.uk.com/casting-database.
All featured Talent have been trained to BRAVA’s high standards and have cut professional voice reels, with high quality home studio capabilities to deliver work. Functionality includes the ability to download mp3 reels as well as view individual profile pages and submit full casting calls online.
Commenting on the launch of the new BRAVA Casting Database, founder & director, Melissa Thom, said:
‘Over the last year, we have been overwhelmed with calls from producers, casting directors and content producers and we have created the BRAVA Talent Database in direct response to this need. Our Talent have been trained to the highest possible standards across narration, commercial and characters and are voicing across a range of client projects, with enquiries increasing significantly. We are thrilled to showcase and support out Talent in this way.
BRAVA has already successfully cast a range of roles, including feature films, national commercials, online radio, audiobooks and more. We will continue to add further functionality and Talent this year as we grow. Our aim is to continue to connect our highly skilled voice actors with clients locally, nationally and beyond, in Europe and America’.
BRAVA works alongside some of the most prestigious global names in the industry to offer personalised online training in the art and business of voiceover. The Academy is specifically aimed at professionals from the fields of broadcast, digital, corporate and commercial, who are interested in adding voice acting to their skillset.
Core learning takes place online, meaning students can learn at their own pace, wherever they are. Training is offered as personalised 1-1s or group sessions and covers a wide range of topics, including Getting Started in VO, Corporate, Commercial and Narration, Characters, Audiobooks, Performance Techniques, Home Studio, Marketing, Vocal Health, VO & Shakespeare and Presentation Skills.
Find the database at www.brava.uk.com/casting-database or contact us at [email protected] to find out more.
To find out more about BRAVA go to www.brava.uk.com
Eight new recruits, including Business Development Director, Marketing Manager and Medical Writer join Create Health.
Bristol-based healthcare marketing agency Create Health is strengthening its team across the board with new appointments across departments, welcoming eight new team members in total.
Carys Richards brings a wealth of experience from the Pharma sector to the Create Health team as Business Development Director.
Meanwhile, Sean Quay joins the team as a Medical Writer. He comes from a clinical background, with time spent in pharmacy and primary care working on regional level pharmacy projects like driving medicine optimisation and public health campaigns.
Junior Graphic Designer Amelia Horner initially joined the agency as an intern, taking advantage of Create Health’s apprenticeship scheme to secure a full-time role.
In addition, the agency welcomes, Charlie Culverhouse as Senior Account Manager, Kate Wells as Junior Art Director, Jasmine Freeman as Marketing Manager, Joe Wilson as Motion Graphics Designer and Rhi Wheeler as Account Executive.
Managing Partner Ed Hudson said “The Create Health team growing at such a rate signals the exciting times ahead not just for the agency but for the healthcare communications industry. We’re thrilled to have brought on board a roster of talented individuals who will help us to push the boundaries of creativity and make a positive difference to healthcare professionals and patients alike.”
Medical Writer Sean Quay, added “Healthcare communications is booming and being part of Create Health feels like I’m aboard a rocket about to launch.”
Recruitment is underway for a number of new roles within Avon and Somerset Police’s multi-award-winning Corporate Communications team. Opportunities will be available across the news, strategic communications, internal communications, multimedia and design teams. Roles currently open to applications are:
Successful candidates will join a friendly, supportive, and highly motivated team dedicated to helping keep people safe, combatting crime and building the trust and confidence of both the public and our 6000+ workforce.
The roles benefit from blended working across home and the office (primarily Police HQ in Portishead) and enjoy a fast-paced, forward-thinking environment in an organisation which values its people and giving them the autonomy to be creative and try something new.
Avon and Somerset Police serves a population of around 1.73 million people across more than 1,847 square miles, with a mission to serve, protect and respect the diverse communities it serves.
Its stated ambition is to deliver outstanding policing for everyone and as it works towards this goal, the Corporate Communications team is pivotal. In an average year, they handle 4,600 media enquiries; issue 1,400 press releases, manage strategy and content across 4 corporate social media accounts; coordinate 150 officer-led social media users; and deliver around 15 proactive internal and external campaigns.
Head of Corporate Communications Zoe Hebden said: “In policing communications, no two days are ever the same and we have the privilege of being able to make a real difference to the lives of the public and our officers, staff and volunteers. Our team is constantly rising to new challenges using engaging, and innovative communications and evidence-based creative campaigns to reach our many and varied audiences in the most appropriate ways.
“We’re looking for specialists in communications, design and multimedia who share Avon and Somerset Police’s core values – caring, courageous, inclusive and learning – to join our dynamic in-house corporate communications team. We’ll be releasing a number of new roles over the next couple of months so I’d encourage you to keep a close eye on our recruitment pages.”
Vacancies will be posted on Police staff | Avon and Somerset Police
In 2021, Avon and Somerset Police’s corporate communications team won an impressive six industry leading awards, including the CIPR Excellence Awards “In-house PR Team of the Year”, the PRCA Dare Awards “Integrated Campaign of the Year” and IOIC Awards “Best Public Sector Team”.
South West performance marketing agency, Launch, has been named the best paid media agency in the UK at the national Agency Awards.
Launch was recognised as the Best PPC Agency and won Best Campaign for its work to drive global revenue for an ISO provider based in the UK.
The UK Agency Awards took place in London at the end of September. The awards celebrate large and small agencies working across all verticals, from creativity and design to digital and technology, from marketing and advertising to public relations and media.
In the last year, Launch has grown dramatically, with thirteen new recruits to the team and over fifteen industry awards achieved for its work driving online revenue for its clients. Its own revenue this year has grown by over 50%, a new office in Exeter has been opened and the Bristol office expanded to accommodate its burgeoning team.
The judges praised Launch for its focus on their people. “Launch is clearly a happy agency with great team morale. It is an agency that cares about the human element first and has big ambitions which they are delivering on in return on investment for their clients.”
Jaye Cowle, Founder of Launch was delighted with the awards; “Our mission is to be the happiest performance agency. I believe that happy people do great work, and by empowering our team to do their best, we can get great results for our clients. So, I am absolutely thrilled that as we enter the final quarter of the year the whole team is recognised for their hard work.”
ENDS
6 Oct 2022
Pictures:
L-R, Host Tori Campbell, Jaye and sales director, Steph Iles, accept the Best PPC Agency in the UK Award.
The Launch team.
About Launch
Launch is the paid media agency for ambitious businesses. We provide online advertising, data insight and conversion optimisation services to clients, helping them take their digital marketing to the next level with fresh thinking and a transparent, strategic approach.
We’re a Google Partner and Verified Amazon Advertising partner, and have been recognised as a Top 10 UK Digital Agency for 2022 by The Drum.
Visit us at https://www.launchonline.co.uk/
Five new recruits, including Business Director and Media Director, join UM, McCann Bristol’s media operation
UM Bristol, part of McCann Bristol is strengthening its media operation with the appointment of five new team members, including a Business Director and Media Director, following a successful first half of the year for the agency.
The media team form part of the overall integrated creative services offer at McCann Bristol and provide media buying consultancy and delivery across all channels.
Georgia Vine-Thomas joins the team as Business Director, bringing with her a wealth of experience working in planning and managing media buying for a number of leading global network agencies across clients in entertainment, automotive, banking, tech, retail and travel. Her experience includes working with blue-chip brands such as P&O Cruises, Netflix, HSBC and Paramount.
Meanwhile, Aled Schell joins as Media Director, bringing over ten years’ experience working at independent media agencies and media owners.
In addition, the agency also welcomes Grace Perrett as Senior Media Manager, Beth Cooper as Media Executive and Shabrina Hidayat as Digital Media Executive.
Managing Director at McCann Bristol, Andy Reid, said: “The Bristol media operation has achieved great things so far this year and these new appointments are a reflection of the success and growth we are seeing in the business right now. It’s great to welcome five new members who will strengthen the Bristol team and drive even more success in the future.”
Georgia Vine-Thomas added: “I’m really excited to have joined Bristol’s media operation. It’s a brilliant opportunity to be a part of a growing media team which is producing excellent work for its clients, whilst evolving with a number of new joiners. Together, there is huge enthusiasm for what’s ahead!”
Having a strong organisational structure in place is key to growing your digital agency.
Whether your agency is brand new or has 100 employees, the structure of the team is going to have a direct impact on your overall efficiency, culture, client satisfaction, and scalability. Without a considered organisational structure in place, many agencies suffer from poor communication and frustrated team members and clients.
So, what are your options when it comes to structuring or restructuring your agency? How do you know which structure is going to guarantee both employee and customer satisfaction and give you the permission to scale your marketing agency?
Get more brilliant advice from Janusz at the 12-month Mastermind group for agency leaders. Gain momentum, resolve and focus to achieve your goals, with the support, accountability and insight of GYDA experts and like-minded peers. Find out more.
1-Flat
A flat team structure is common in smaller agencies and start-ups. Flat structures have only a couple levels, if any at all, between management and employees. These organisations tend to require employees to ‘wear many hats’ and as such, often produce a lot of generalists but no specialists.
2-Functional
Then we have functional structures — in which teams are organised by services. For example, a digital agency with a functional structure could have a Social Team, an Email Team and a PPC Team, and so on.
A functional structure concentrates the expertise and knowledge within those services or groups. As such, this structure often falls down when the client requires more than one service from the agency, forcing disjointed communication between the executives in each team.
As the agency grows, communication and coordination between these teams is only more and more convoluted and scaling becomes very clunky and difficult.
3-Matrix
A matrix structure is similar to a functional one, with added levels of management and communication weaved into the mix, hence matrix.
This structure involves side-ways communication between team members, like account managers who coordinate other functions. Like the functional structure, the matrix is limited to a team of a certain size, as this web of communication is difficult to scale.
4-Holacracy
Holacracy organisational structure is where there are no clearly assigned roles. Employees are given the flexibility to take on any duty or role and move between teams freely. A holacracy can work well within some industries, but broadly speaking, this structure is a poor fit for all digital agencies as having expertise and specialism within your personnel is essential.
5-Pods
A pod organisational structure is where an agency arranges their teams by client type or sector, rather than the agency function or service.
This creates specialist teams, which function similarly to sports teams. For example, each ‘Pod’ would have a PPC expert, an SEO specialist, and a Social Media manager and this pod would service a particular category or type of clients, such as Automotive Clients or the Legal Sector.
Watch: A detailed look at Functional Structures Vs Pods (4min)
Utilisng a pod structure allows you to lean into your niche and achieve a deeper level of industry or sector specialism from each pod.
Pod structures also have no dependencies on other teams within the agency, thus there is no web of complex internal communication. This creates friction-free workflows within your teams and an enriched experience for your clients at the other end.
Finally, a pod structure creates accountability and responsibility among your team members. As employees are being regularly challenged by exciting projects within their specialism, they are likely to have increased job satisfaction levels.
At Digital Agency Coach, we advocate running weekly or bi-weekly workshops for all specialist executives, hosted by a technical lead. Keep the agency focused on strategy, process improvement and professional development and create a conversation the other experts from each pod.
Regularly hosting these casual, friendly and engaging workshops with employees of the same skill set promotes an easy and productive conversation with relevant learning and take-homes for each employee.
There’s no denying restructuring your digital agency can be a disruptive process in the early days and it probably won’t happen overnight. But once the hard groundwork is done, growing and scaling your agency can simply be a matter of copy and pasting a new pod.
This team structure eliminates the complex web of communication just as effectively as if you have a team of 30 or a team of 300 people.
If you are a full-service agency and your clients are purchasing multiple products or services from you, perhaps it’s time to reconsider your organisational structure.
Watch Our Quick Functional Structures vs Pods Explainer Video (4min)
If you feel you’d like any help or guidance with restructuring your agency, get in touch with Digital Agency Coach to arrange a consultation, we’d be delighted to help.
Get more brilliant advice from Janusz at the 12-month Mastermind group for agency leaders. Gain momentum, resolve and focus to achieve your goals, with the support, accountability and insight of GYDA experts and like-minded peers. Find out more.