Global leaders in procurement and supply chain management, Efficio are the largest independent consultancy in the world. With this sole focus for more than 20 years, their specialist consultants are equipped with the expertise and technology to dig deeper, innovate faster, and deliver greater efficiencies for clients.
Talisman Sparro has played a critical role in Efficio Consulting’s repositioning and rebrand programme, delivering an impact that has helped the company stand out as the only remaining independent, specialist consultancy in the procurement and supply chain consultancy marketplace. With Efficio’s unique approach to delivering sustained client success at the core, Talisman Sparro has helped to shape a comprehensive strategy that has driven internal engagement and reflected Efficio’s ambitious growth plans.
The “Partners in Progress” brand platform developed has resonated with both clients and employees, driving engagement and building a strong internal culture. The rebranding programme delivered has overhauled Efficio’s branding, messaging, and positioning to be more contemporary, modern, and appealing to a broader audience.
Our support included:
Bristol-based branded podcast production company 18Sixty is pleased to announce that senior marketing business leader, agency founder and podcaster David Maher Roberts (pictured left) has been appointed as Board Advisor.
This announcement comes off the back of three years of solid growth for 18Sixty where they’ve established themselves as a renowned player in the branded podcast space, working with big name brands, talent and picking up major award wins and nominations for their premium quality podcasts.
Founder and CEO Gareth Evans (pictured right), who launched the business in early 2020 after a decade-long career in commercial radio (Virgin Radio, Absolute Radio) has his sights set on further growth over the next two years. Evans says, “I’ve been aware of David’s reputation in the marketing agency and digital content spaces for some time, having over 20 years experience in board-level roles within PE and VC-backed companies and, impressively taken digital marketing agency Dialect Inc. from a $4m to $30m business in 5 years.” He goes on to say, “having worked closely with David professionally over the last few months, I’m really excited by the prospect of having him on board to help take 18Sixty into the next stage of our growth. Our mission continues to be helping world-renowed brands reach new audiences with podcasts they love listening to whilst having a positive impact on people and planet, pushing the creative boundaries where brand meets audio and to further establish our place as one of the world’s most creative branded podcast producers.”
In addition to his marketing agency expertise, Maher Roberts also has a deep passion for the podcast space, having produced and co-hosted Podworld (a podcast that celebrates the craft of great podcast-making) with journalist and BBC podcaster Louise Blain. Maher Roberts says “I really believe in the unique power of podcasts to engage audiences and provoke thoughtful conversation. 18Sixty has already made a significant impact in the industry and I can’t wait to help further the exciting work Gareth and the team are doing.”
Driving Bristol’s growth as a leading audio hub in the UK and empowering the local economy
Bristol has emerged as a thriving audio hub, fostering numerous globally renowned podcast businesses and housing exceptional audio production talent. In this dynamic soundscape, 18Sixty stands firmly committed to amplifying the audio industry’s impact on the economy of Bristol and the wider South West region.
The surge in demand for exceptional branded podcasts continues unabated. Recent data from hosting platform Ausha revealed a remarkable 17% audience increase for this category in 2022. Notably, brands embracing podcasts as a medium experience significantly higher levels of engagement compared to other forms of media, such as video.
“By nurturing Bristol’s audio landscape, 18Sixty is committed to drive economic growth whilst capitalising on the rising appetite for quality branded podcasts,” said Gareth Evans, Founder and CEO at 18Sixty. “Our mission is to leverage the region’s exceptional audio production talent, supporting their creative endeavours and propelling Bristol as the go-to destination for groundbreaking audio content.”
We are super excited to be bringing MotherBoard events to Bristol!
When: Wednesday 19th July 2023.
What time: 6.30pm – 9pm
Location: Huboo, 41 Corn St, Bristol BS1 1HT
Drinks and pizza provided.
Speakers include:
Rav Bumbra, Founder of Cajigo
Rowena Innocent, SVP Engineering at Ultraleap
Chloe Allan, Technology Manager, Just Eat
David Maher Roberts, Managing Partner of Digital DNA & Founder of TechSpark
Join us for the first Bristol MotherBoard community event! This event will be a networking event, with a panel talk starting 7.30pm.
With 50% of women leaving the industry by the time they are 35, we will be asking the important question “how we can retain more women in tech”.
We will offer practical takeaways including how businesses can support their female talent and drive retention, how businesses can offer an inclusive environment for mums and what we as individuals can do to support our peers and be advocates for all women working in tech.
If you have not been to one of our events before, MotherBoard is a community, event series and charter for everyone who believes we need more support for women working in the tech industry. We encourage everybody to join who is interested in understanding more about how to drive inclusion in the workplace.
Please RSVP to confirm your place.
techSPARK, the South West’s largest tech network, has published its inaugural Chair’s Report, outlining the state of play in the Bristol and Bath tech space.
The inaugural report celebrates the recent achievements of those within the cluster, which now features over 1200 businesses across the likes of fintech, greentech, digital, cyber and deeptech. But the report also delves into how the cluster could be improved, as both Bristol and Bath are beginning to feel the growing pains of ecosystem maturity.
It highlights policymaking and political leadership, the diversity and depth of investment and venture capital funding as well as the need to build upon the collaborative culture, cementing the cluster’s identity and bridging the gaps between competition and collaboration as some of the key areas to assess.
Regional identity is one of the major strengths of the two cities. But also, the source of its greatest potential weakness – as techSPARK Chair, Nick Sturge MBE, explains:
“Bristol and Bath are passionate cities, with purpose at their hearts. But the often-cited humility of those within the tech space, may in fact be hampering growth. The level of humbleness within the space seems to be at odds with global brand building and big acquisition routes. What do we want to be known for?”
When it comes to acquisition and investment, the report highlights that the two cities are seeing less venture funding being deployed in 2023, particularly at pre-seed and early-stage levels. Though Bristol and Bath are still seeing strong equity investment levels, with a total of £975,000,000 raised in 2022.
In the past, Bristol was cited as the strongest cluster in the UK outside London for the availability of growth capital. In 2021 Atomico reported Bristol was 3rd in Britain behind London, Birmingham and Manchester. The city went on to drop out of Atomico’s top 20 European rankings in 2022.
This picture is compounded by the recent success of other UK regions, in receiving government funding via innovation accelerators and investment zones. The funding itself has been distributed in line with the levelling-up agenda. But while this will de-risk and unlock additional private and public sector funding, it could see Bristol and Bath struggle to keep pace over the next five years if we choose to measure ourselves as such.
Positioning the cluster politically to ensure policy is well positioned to support the tech sector is also cited. The efforts of the region’s research institutes have led to a growth in the number of spin-outs, when compared nationally, with all four local universities offering great strengths and benefits to the sector.
However, political leadership and political interest was one of the most widely raised topics, during the consultation and creation of the report, as Nick continues:
“During the consultation for this report, the lack of political interest in the sector and poor leadership frequently emerged. The consensus is that political leaders don’t fully comprehend or champion the sector in a way that leaders in other clusters, like the Midlands and Manchester, do.
“It was noted, by those we consulted, how the West of England Combined Authority has grown in size in recent years making it appear harder to influence strategy and priorities. This leaves a sense that public and private sectors aren’t pulling in the same direction nor championing the sector on the national stage. techSPARK has been able to engage with officers at the Authority and so this report gives us an opportunity to push for ambitious and innovative new approaches”
The report highly praises the human capital within the cluster. A highly skilled workforce with strong mentorship and governance are key strengths of the sector. A positive and forward-thinking incubator mentality is also greatly contributing towards overall health.
However, concerns have been raised over the risk of entrepreneur drain, leading to a limited community of more experienced entrepreneurs and a reduced appetite for individuals taking on ‘higher risk’ jobs.
The cost-of-living concern also looms large, with Bristol now being named as the most expensive major city to live in outside of London, as the city becomes less affordable to live in, could limit the local talent pool, diversity and social mobility.
techSPARK’s State of Play report was prepared by Rocketmakers Special Projects Lead Briony Phillips and techSPARK Managing Director Ben Shorrock, alongside key partners WECA, Invest Bristol Bath, Cintra Global and Burgess Salmon. As well as Hargreaves Lansdown, MAINstream, Firehaus and Morton Property Consultants, it can be read in full here.
Originally posted to: www.carnsight.com
Ethical, organic link building is central to topping the charts when it comes to Google’s search engine ranking factors. Quality backlinks are prized possession, and one of the ways that they can be earned is in the press/news media. However, while we as PRs will always strive to earn these SEO wins, we can’t always guarantee them. Before we explain how to approach backlinks in PR, let’s lay some groundwork for technical terms.
The world of SEO is full of technical terms and concepts that can be confusing at first, so let’s get the lingo down before we go any further. Here’s what you need to know:
As SEO has squarely cemented itself into digital environments, more and more media outlets are introducing specific policies regarding backlinks and the inclusion of external links their content. For instance, some publications strictly adhere to a no-follow policy, meaning that any included links do not contribute to SEO efforts. Some might offer to include a link but limit its visibility – the link is embedded and clickable, but not coloured or underlined to differentiate the text and indicate link presence.
Others – especially larger entities – have begun to monetise this service and may charge for including backlinks or only allow them within certain types of content, like guest articles or sponsored posts. Hence, these emerging structures/frameworks often mediate the relationship between PRs and journalists when it comes to including backlinks and must be respected to practice good media relations.
It can be controversial, but the general consensus is that you there is a certain etiquette around asking a journalist to provide backlinks. We typically recommend taking a proactive approach. Offer up the links in a more appropriate, subtle way by linking them in your press release or correspondence so that they are there if the journalist wants them. We’ll discuss more about how a journalist might make this decision further down.
Some journalists/outlets may also view PR attempts to secure backlinks as compromising the integrity of the news outlet and blurring the boundaries between advertising and independent journalism, while others consider it presumptuous and some even write off a PR as ‘asking too much’ when ‘free’ publicity/exposure of a story feature is already on the table.
While a good PR agency will have forged strong, mutually beneficial relationships with journalists and often work with them to pitch a story, it’s important to remember that Journalists are independent individuals. They operate with their own principles and purposes and aim to satisfy and engage an audience of their own. PRs will always try to be strategic and work with Journalists and audiences who align with the story well to maximise coverage, but journalists ultimately determine the final content and format in of a piece for publication. They make decisions based on the newsworthiness of a story, its relevance to their audience, and their editorial guidelines.
So, what this means, is that backlinks are often a grey area – the decision can be entirely discretionary and up to the journalist, or it may be mediated by editorial guidelines, outlet policies, or reader preferences. It’s important to remember that it is also increasingly difficult for journalists to keep smaller, niche publications going in an oversaturated news market. They often have to work hard to find new ways to fund their platform; hence, backlinks have become the latest resource for monetisation.
Of course, we will always do our best to nurture a reciprocal relationship with journalists and the press to engender positive attitudes and encourage ethical backlinking. However, like many elements of PR, this is an art and not a science. We can’t guarantee a backlink in coverage, but we will certainly do our best to secure them.
We’re all a little bit obsessed with acquisition; it’s drilled into us from birth and stays with us until the day we die. From Pokémon cards and soft toys to clothes, art and tech – we progress through a natural arc of ownership in our lifetime. The truth is, we usually look to upgrade our belongings before we’ve squeezed every bit of value from our existing ones.
And we’re guilty for doing the same in the marketing bubble: often, we prioritise growing eCRM databases before we engage the contacts that are already in reach. But when acquiring a new customer costs five times more than retaining an existing one, there’s a compelling case for making the most of what we already have in front of us (Invesp, 2018).
It’s easy to forget that existing customers are the ones positioned deeper in the sales funnel. These are the contacts who have already experienced your brand in some capacity; they know the role that you can play in their life. Which begs the question: why have my contacts lapsed? Often, customer apathy is the primary reason for inactivity.
An overworked cliché, but a true one nonetheless, is that your database is a flowerbed, and you’re holding the garden hose. So, for dramatic purposes, let’s imagine we’re in the second week of drought. Your flowers are wilted, and the soil? Bone dry. In your absence, your contacts have become idle and unenthused. Any avid gardener knows that chucking buckets of water on a flowerbed in this state will cause the soil to repel it, instead you should sprinkle the surface lightly to encourage gradual absorption. The same applies for your marketing, if you relentlessly continue to push hard sales-led messaging upon your lapsed eCRM contacts, they will only reject it.
Take a more considered approach. Whether it’s a virtual gift card, an email to a live event, or a simple message to say we haven’t heard from you in a while, a softer approach is the most likely to warm inactive customers to your brand, ahead of overt promotion.
If you’re in a position where you have a chunky list of email addresses, and not a lot else, then it’s time to start building. Whether it’s a poll or survey with a gift or promo code for their next order, this is a great opportunity for you to understand how users are interacting with your brand. But first, you need to be sure of your objectives. Do you want to understand how satisfied customers are with your product? Are you trying to establish the customer pain points to optimise your service offering? Knowing the purpose of your research is fundamental and will help you to structure your questions and analytics accordingly.
Once you have constructed and sent your re-engagement email, the next step is analysing the results. Pay attention to any clear patterns and use them to tag specific customers with common themes. In case you’re not convinced, MailChimp research shows that segmented email campaigns have an open rate that is 14.31% higher than unsegmented campaigns.
Using historic data, it becomes possible for brands to track browsing behaviour, purchase history, and previous engagement to tailor communications from specific customer actions. And doing so holds impact. Over 59% of customers claim that personalised content impacts purchase decisions. In the long run, this can help brands to grow stronger relationships with their customers, increase loyalty, and ultimately drive revenue growth. By identifying and segmenting different groups within your database, it becomes possible for brands to fine tune the content within email sends to resonate more clearly with the audience at hand.
Take Nike, for example, a global conglomerate operating in more than 30 major markets: from sports to lifestyle. A track runner from Osaka and a fashion enthusiast from New Mexico will engage with the same brand in two very different ways. While the runner will be most invested in the performance-related benefits of the garments, the influencer will likely be drawn in by aesthetics, limited edition colourways, and exclusive brand collaborations. This can be reflected in granular segment-specific sends, with tweaked products, ranges, visuals, and tone.
This isn’t to say that marketers should forget about scaling mailing lists. Growing your current book of eCRM contacts and delivering content to your existing audience should happen in tandem, in fact, it’s beneficial. When you are making efforts to re-engage existing contacts, and growing a database simultaneously, you can be safe in the knowledge that you’re doing everything in your power to increase acquisition and retention.
When it comes to customer acquisition, engagement, and retention, we’re experts in the field. Drop us a line today to see how we can leverage email to maximise the value from your contacts, no strings attached.
Discover more industry insights and opinions at saintnicks.uk.com/insights
We’re delighted to share that Unfold have taken on organising the Smart Cookies meetup group, started by the wonderful Nic & Nat Alpi, previously of Cookies HQ.
Smart Cookies is a quarterly meetup group of over 1,000 entrepreneurs, involved in the Bristol creative and digital industries, passionate about design, development and marketing.
We want to continue the events in the same spirit and ethos as our predecessors, promoting collaboration between disciplines so we can devise better solutions for all aspects of the creative process.
Each meetup will feature either individual speakers or an expert panel, where discussion will centre around a set theme related to building and growing digital ventures.
Whether you’re a tech professional, an entrepreneur, freelancer or student, there will be something for you. It’s a great opportunity to meet new people, make connections and join a community of smart cookies.
Come along and be inspired or – if you’d like to share your own experiences – why not contact us about becoming a speaker?
Nine Tree Studios, a brand new 10,000sq ft film, television and commercial production studio, has opened in Bristol.
The studios are now Bristol’s largest independent film and television facility, with the venture being backed by JonesMillbank, Bristol-based video production company.
The studios will support Bristol’s creative industries as well as attracting talent and productions from further afield, fuelling Bristol’s existing draw for film, television and commercial productions.
The facility is being launched in phases. Phase one encompasses a versatile production space with attached offices, suitable for a range of dry hire and set build requirements, as well as events and photography, with significant parking for cars, vans and trailers.
Phase two will see the build and fit-out of a state-of-the-art production facility encompassing a 2,600sq ft primary soundstage, two smaller 300sq ft studios, grading suites, wardrobe, sound facilities, and expanded office and meeting space, all housed in a Class-A soundproofed facility.
Located in Brislington (BS4), the studios are perched near the centre of Bristol, servicing productions mixing studio and on-location filming in the region.
The facility will also become home to JonesMillbank, allowing productions to be supported by crew and creatives, whilst bolstering their own in-house production capabilities and resources.
“This is an incredibly exciting chapter in our history. We’ve been based in Bristol for 12 years, steadily growing our team, portfolio and clients, but this represents a huge leap forward and an incredibly exciting development for the region too” said Russell Jones, Co-Founder of Nine Tree Studios and JonesMillbank.
“We’ve already secured funding to develop and expand the space, helping to support not only our own productions but the wider creative community too”.
Adam Millbank, Co-Founder of Nine Tree Studios and JonesMillbank, added that “the continued growth in productions across our region is wonderful. I’ve been blown away by the diverse talent here. It feels fantastic to know we’ll be part of such a dynamic industry, celebrating all the region has to offer.”
The expansion will allow for the creation of numerous jobs, including technicians, crew, studio managers and marketeers, whilst allowing for the provision of work experience and placements.
Phase one has launched, with phase two aiming for 2023 Q3, pending existing bookings.
For booking and press enquiries please visit www.ninetreestudios.co.uk, call 0117 3706 372, or email [email protected].
From Midjourney to ChatGPT, AI tools are flooding the internet with exciting possibilities, imaginative new imagery and many a meme – from the inspiring and amusing to the downright gruesome.
Possibly the most accessible and widely tested AI tool yet, ChatGPT has got many marketers thinking about the power of this emerging technology. But AI advancement doesn’t come without its critics and controversies – often generating more questions than answers.
So how can marketers make the most of this powerful technology? And should we approach with caution? UX and UI designer Dan Marek explores.
View image in blog here.
Developed by OpenAI, ChatGPT feels like absolute wizardry to use.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has taken the world by storm recently, with one of the leading players being the natural language processing (NLP) model known as ChatGPT. In just two months, it set a new record for the fastest-growing user base ever to reach 100 million users.
Tools like ChatGPT have already begun transforming our lives. You can’t go more than five minutes without seeing a news article about it, or stumbling upon AI-generated imagery (albeit mostly more disturbing and amusing than beautiful). But make no mistake, this is the very beginning of a fast-moving revolution. So how can businesses make the most of this opportunity?
This article examines how businesses may leverage AI to solve problems more efficiently and gain a profitable advantage. We’ll also look at some of the limitations of AI tools like ChatGPT, so you can avoid making costly mistakes and stay ahead of the competition.
The AI opportunity for businesses
Imagine generating top-notch product descriptions, social media posts, and even entire search-optimised articles in a matter of minutes. How about 3000% returns on ad spend, automatic meeting notes and summaries, or asking AI to generate spreadsheet formulas? It may not all be possible yet – and it certainly won’t replace your copywriting and UX experts in the near future. But there’s certainly a big opportunity here.
“…It may not all be possible yet – and it certainly won’t replace your copywriting and UX experts in the near future. But there’s certainly a big opportunity here…”
With ChatGPT, businesses can streamline their processes, freeing up time and resources to focus on other areas of operations. It might sound cliché, but the opportunities for companies to leverage AI tools like ChatGPT in 2023 are endless.
Top 10 business use cases for AI tools in 2023
The limitations ofAI
Hold on a minute – does this mean we’re ready to replace humans with AI? Not yet. AI-powered tools like ChatGPT are not a quid pro quo for genuine creativity and expertise. For now, it’s far more likely that you’ll be replaced by a human using AI rather than the tools themselves.
Think of ChatGPT as the Iron Man suit to your marketing team’s Tony Stark. Iron Man enhances Tony’s abilities, and ChatGPT can enhance your team’s capabilities. But just as Tony still relies on his human expertise and creativity to save the world, your marketing team should continue to rely on their own skills to resonate with the right audiences and create truly effective campaigns.
Garbage in = garbage out
The capabilities of these tools are quite difficult to comprehend as they are only really limited by our potential to ask the right questions.
“…the emergence of “prompt engineers” indicates the importance of creating the right prompts to unlock the full potential of AI tools…”
Just like calculators, they can only provide the correct answer with the right input, called prompts. The emergence of “prompt engineers” indicates the importance of creating the right prompts to unlock the full potential of AI tools.
Bias
AI tools present real risks of biases, such as generating discriminatory content and spreading misinformation. As responsible users of these tools, we must be aware of this and be sure to evaluate any responses provided. The CEO of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, recently acknowledged inherent bias in the tool and assured users that they’re working to improve the default settings to be more neutral.
Plagiarism, relevancy, and factual inaccuracy
AI tools pose a risk of plagiarism and factual inaccuracy. An astronomer recently called out Google’s AI chatbot Bard for making a factual error in its demo. But everyday users may not realise that the output generated by the tool is not original, leading to unintentional plagiarism. You can take measures to avoid this, for example, by including a request for sources of any facts and figures as part of your prompt.
“…everyday users may not realise that the output generated by the tool is not original, leading to unintentional plagiarism…”
The relevancy of information can also be brought into question. While writing this, ChatGPT has only been trained on data from September 2021.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) impact
Google’s guidelines favour genuine, relevant, and reliable content. AI-generated content may struggle to meet these guidelines. This means that sole reliance on AI-generated content might negatively impact your website’s ranking on Google.
Ethical considerations
Using AI tools raises ethical concerns around data privacy, bias, and deception. These tools collect vast data through web scraping – sometimes without explicit consent. So regulations and policies must be implemented to ensure AI tools are used ethically and responsibly.
The future of AI tools
It’s worth remembering that AI tools are an emerging technology, so there are plenty of limitations to consider. But by using them as a starting point to generate ideas and assist workflows, businesses can largely mitigate these drawbacks.
AI is not the enemy. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime. As AI technology continues to advance, it’s becoming increasingly clear that tools like ChatGPT will play a crucial role in the future of business, with those early movers able to leverage an unfair advantage over their competitors.
Oh, and if you’re curious whether I used ChatGPT to help me write this…
View image in blog here.
Pre-seed and seed investment are both early stages of venture capital funding for startups. However, there are some key differences between the two that are important for entrepreneurs to understand.
Pre-seed investment
Pre-seed funding is typically the very first round of funding for a startup. It is used to cover the costs of developing a prototype, conducting market research, and building a team. This type of funding is often provided by friends and family, angel investors, or accelerator programmes (such as SETsquared Bristol). The amount of money raised in a pre-seed round can range from a few thousand pounds to a few hundred thousand pounds.
Seed investment
Seed funding, on the other hand, is the next step after pre-seed funding. It is used to further develop the product or service, conduct more extensive market research, and scale the business. Seed funding is often provided by angel investors, seed funds, or venture capital firms. The amount of money raised in a seed round can range from a few hundred thousand pounds to a few million pounds.
So, what’s the difference?
One key difference between pre-seed and seed funding is the level of risk involved. Pre-seed funding is considered to be higher risk because the startup is still in the very early stages of development and may not have a proven track record. Seed funding, on the other hand, is considered to be lower risk because the startup has a working prototype, a team in place, and some traction in the market.
Another difference is the level of control and ownership that the investors have in the company. In pre-seed funding, the investors typically have less control and ownership in the company because the startup is still in the very early stages of development. In seed funding, the investors typically have more control and ownership in the company because the startup has a proven track record and is further along in its development.
In summary
Ultimately, pre-seed and seed funding are both early stages of venture capital funding for startups. It’s crucial that you know what stage you’re at and therefore what to ask for and what the implications are. Even if you get pre-seed investment it’s useful to also consider how seed investment will be different, if and when you go for it.
At Gravitywell, we love working with enthusiastic startups and can help with prototypes, pitch decks, MVPs, conceptual work and investment advice. If you’d like to discuss how we can take your idea to the next level, get in touch.