Author: DTW Agency

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Northern Spire opening hits the heights

Photo from a drone of traffic crossing the Northern Spire Bridge

Last week was quite a week for team DTW, and a career highlight for me, personally.

After three amazing years of working with Sunderland City Council and contractor Farrans Victor Buyck Joint Venture on the city’s new impressive cable stayed bridge, Northern Spire finally opened to traffic.

Our role throughout had been to use our knowledge and experience in working with large infrastructure projects to provide support around community engagement, media and public relations, education, social media and video production. It was an enormous task, but one we did with gusto – embedding ourselves with the on-site team, sometimes working extremely long hours, providing education sessions to more than 2,000 children, and even travelling overseas to capture key moments in the project.

Construction being what it is, since work began in May 2015, the whole project team has been striving towards reaching the end, and when the final opening came last week – first to pedestrians on Tuesday and then to vehicles on Wednesday – it was everything, and more, we had hoped for.

It is estimated that a staggering 20,000 people came out to take a stroll across the bridge deck during the pedestrian walk-over. We had children cartwheeling under the pylon, countless selfie-takers, a busker playing guitar and cycling and running clubs trying us out for the first time. We even had a naked cyclist. The weather was warm, the atmosphere holiday-like, and the whole experience quite magical. You could see hardened members of the engineering and construction team, who have worked all over the world, become visibly moved and humbled by the response from the community.

Throughout the two days, a large contingent of print and broadcast media were also based on site, with Northern Spire dominating every North East news broadcast on TV, radio and in newspapers. All in all, it was an incredible, rewarding and exciting week, albeit long and tiring, but something that the DTW team will cherish.

I can’t lie, from a PR and video perspective, Northern Spire has been a dream project to work on, with so many captivating, awe-inspiring, moments to capture along the way. Add in Sunderland City Council’s desire to engage, educate and excite the community, and we were given countless opportunities to showcase what we do best.

DTW feels incredibly proud and privileged to have been part of the Northern Spire team. We have worked with so many talented and experienced engineers from across the world, who, thankfully for us, recognised the importance of great communication and went out of their way to help. Whilst the DTW team have topped up our knowledge on bridge building and construction, both with Northern Spire and the Mersey Gateway Bridge, which opened in Cheshire last year, hopefully some seasoned engineers have also learned much about PR and communications, too.

Now, it’s onwards and upwards for team DTW. Here’s to our next big infrastructure challenge!

Karen Westcott,
Senior Strategist, PR, Engagement & Public Affairs

See how Sunderland’s new Northern Spire bridge came to life, from start to finish, with the Story So Far video:

Watch the great unveiling of Sunderland’s new Northern Spire bridge, first with a pedestrian walk-over day, followed by the opening to traffic:

Gallery
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What happened when Katie stood in for the Queen

An old vintage radio and a figurine of the Queen

Katie Mitchell is a Junior Creative at DTW specialising in film and digital engagement. Oh, and she does a nice sideline in standing in for members of the Royal Family. Here’s her story of the opening of the Mersey Gateway Bridge.

There was much excitement in the DTW office when we were first told Her Majesty the Queen and Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Sussex would be officially opening the Mersey Gateway Bridge.

From the PR and social media teams, to the animation and video crew – it was all hands on deck to get everything ready for the big day. I was even asked to stand in for the Queen during our preparation walkthrough, turns out she’s just as short as me!

On the day, we produced a short film to accompany a dance piece which took the audience on a journey through the history of how locals crossed the river over the years, right up to the construction of the Mersey Gateway Bridge. Her Majesty even commented on how much she enjoyed learning about the bridge’s history, which was also an experience I thoroughly enjoyed whilst working on the edit.

A right royal do

Our camera crews were granted permission to work alongside the royal rota on the day of the event, which was a big deal as it meant we were able to capture a close and personal insight of the events. From the moment Her Majesty arrived at Runcorn Train Station, to her appearance at the event in Widnes where she officially opened the Mersey Gateway Bridge, we were able to capture the exciting atmosphere. This certainly was a memorable day and from the smiles and laughs we captured, we are sure the Royals enjoyed it as much as us.

Despite the strong winds, and my disbelief at how perfect Meghan’s hair continued to look, the whole day went smoothly and we were able to produce a short video displaying the highlights of the day. This was then sent to the royal household for approval – a process which I was very excited about as I like to think Her Majesty sat and watched it herself.

Katie

 

DTW has provided strategic communications, PR, video and design support to the Mersey Gateway team since 2006 and it was thoroughly fantastic to capture such an exciting piece of history for them.

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DTW picks up awards for infrastructure PR at PRCA DARE awards

Photo of Lorna and Hayley collecting the PRCA DARE Award

Our specialism in infrastructure PR and communications has been paying dividends.

We’re proud to say we have picked up two PRCA DARE awards – one for our work on the Northern Spire project with Sunderland City Council, which was awarded Best Public Sector Campaign, whilst work on projects like Mersey Gateway and others in the infrastructure sector was critical in helping us secure the Best Large Consultancy award.

We’re really chuffed with both of them – as it recognises our passionate and talented team delivering customer-focused solutions to achieve outstanding results for our clients.

The judges comments were great – they said “DTW felt fresh” and that the campaign work “demonstrated excellent planning, strong focus and clear objectives with a view to delivering great results”.

We know the value big infrastructure projects bring to UK plc – and we love PR and comms – so combining the two is great fun, really rewarding and full of hard work.

If you want to know more about our approach we’ve blogged about it enough times from the building blocks of good community engagement to case studies about Mersey Gateway and making best use of drones.

We also love a good chat – so just give us a call and we’ll be happy to see how we can help you.The PRCA DARE awards aim to recognise the best campaigns from across the north of England so for us to be winning against agencies from Leeds, Manchester and elsewhere was a real feather in the cap for us.

As well as strategic PR and marketing work we’ve also launched video and animation divisions in recent years and the team are working for clients from as far afield as Paris on infrastructure projects around the world.

David Abdy, Northern Spire Project Director for Sunderland City Council, said: “We’ve put communications at the heart of the Northern Spire work so it is great for the project to be recognised in this way. DTW have been a key part of the team here on site and we’re very pleased to pick up this award.”

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Insights

Twitter: When brands break up

Screenshot of Twitter post from @virginmedia

**Editors note: This blog was originally published on 24th July 2018, with all details correct at the time of publication. The dispute between UKTV and Virgin Media has now been resolved, with an announcement on 11th August 2018 stating the two had reached a ‘long term agreement’ reinstating all of UKTV’s channels and services to Virgin Media.

Breakups – we’ve all been through them. The boyfriend who refused to wash his socks, the girlfriend who lost your cat, or the friend you realised you actually have nothing in common with. Accusations thrown around, harsh words said in the moment. Sound familiar? I thought as much. So, let’s all agree we can relate as we grab our boxes of popcorn and watch the spat currently playing out between UKTV and Virgin Media in the very public arena of Twitter.

Now, I’m not here to comment on who’s right or wrong in what is clearly a complicated negotiation of contracts and something I know nothing about. Instead, I’m going to happily sit here in my comfort zone and analyse who’s doing the better job of managing their reputation and communicating with their audience. (TLDR*? It’s UKTV)

So, before we begin, I’ll catch you up on what the issue is here. Around four million Virgin Media households have lost access to 10 UKTV channels following a dispute over fees. Virgin Media have said that UKTV are “holding back channels” and asking for “inflated sums of money for its paid channels like Gold.” UKTV have said that Virgin Media want to “drastically cut” the fee they pay for their channels and UKTV just can’t afford to take the hit. Got it? Good– let’s go!

The news first broke on 19thJuly and since then UKTV have tweeted about it (including retweets, not including replies) 19 times, whilst Virgin Media are trailing behind with a slightly less impressive 3**. Now, whilst I’ll usually champion the whole “quality over quantity” approach, in this situation, with such a major change to the package they pay for, Virgin’s customers want to be kept updated with conversation about what’s going on. They want to know that this issue is at the forefront of Virgin Media’s minds. And, most importantly, they want to feel as though something is being done about it. 19 tweets say, we’re here and we’re concerned, three tweets in the space of 6 days doesn’t really cut the mustard.

Screenshot of Twitter post from @virginmedia
Screenshot of Twitter post from @UKTV

As with the tone of most arguments, it’s all a little “he said, she said.” But if we compare the tweets being put out by each account, UKTV have done a great job of putting Virgin’s customers first, whilst explaining their own point of view. Virgin Media on the other hand are taking an approach more concerned with directing the blame away from themselves and trying to instigate a manhunt for UKTV. Not very classy. It’s worth noting that at the time of writing, Virgin Media haven’t issued any tweets about why they’re asking for more money from UKTV.

Whilst we’re here, I’d like to do a quick shout out here to UKTV’s use of video throughout all of this. Great use of video is so important in social media and has been for a long time. Platforms like Twitter want to show it, audiences want to engage with it and it’s way more personal than a press release.

Whilst Virgin Media have posted a video, it’s a recording of a BBC News clip showing their Chief Digital Entertainment Officer giving his statement, retweeted from the Virgin Media Corporate Twitter account which isn’t even remotely consumer facing. Come on guys, let’s try a little harder…like our friends over at UKTV. They’ve issued two of their own pieces of video, presented by their General Manager for Comedy and Entertainment channels, straight to camera so he’s directly addressing the audience, making them feel acknowledged and heard. And the content hits the mark too, clearly explaining UKTV’s point of view, recognising Virgin Media customers’ frustrations and apologising. Whilst this is turning into a bit of a love letter to UKTV, I will give credit to both brands here – their choice of spokesperson is spot on.

Choosing someone who is clearly in charge and is directly involved in the situation is important as it gives them authority and credibility.

UKTV Tweet:

Virgin media Tweet:

When it comes to engaging with their audience, in this situation it’s incredibly important. Not only to provide them with good service, but to manage your reputation and influence how customers perceive your brand. To their credit, Virgin Media have done a great job of responding to frustrated customers and haven’t just ignored their complaints. On the other hand, as we can see in the examples below, a lot of their replies are obviously coming from a batch of stock responses.

Screenshot of Twitter responses
Screenshot of Twitter responses
Screenshot of Twitter responses
Screenshot of Twitter responses
Screenshot of Twitter responses
Screenshot of Twitter responses

Now, don’t get me wrong – stock responses can be very useful, but they start to become problematic when responses are required in such high volume. Although very handy for your workload, they do come across as robotic and lacking in personal touch.

And it doesn’t go unnoticed:

Screenshot of Twitter responses
Screenshot of Twitter responses

So, this blog is getting a little long, so I’ll wrap things up. What can we all learn from this? It’s not that Virgin Media have done anything outstandingly bad here, they haven’t.

But UKTV have done a much better job at engaging with their audience and promoting themselves as a brand who put their viewers first.

My main takeaways are:

  1. Keep those stakeholders primarily affected, such as customers, at the forefront of your communications
  2. Engage your audience with meaningful conversation
  3. Use engaging and informative video to convey your messages

Hannah

*Psst! In case you’re not into internet abbreviations, TLDR = Too long, didn’t read, although that’s probably not relevant given the length of this one!

**Accurate at the time of publishing.

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It’s great up north – now get your tickets booked

Graphic promoting CIPR conference

Learning. People. A Great Place.

Just three reasons why here at DTW towers we’re looking forward to next months CIPR Northern Conference.

Learning

Anyone who works in the PR and comms industry who has a spare day (haha, but you know what I mean) on Friday 13th July should get themselves booked in now.

With a streamline of PR: The Art and Science of Engagement – it’s a stellar line-up and the learning opportunities will be awesome.

Want to know how to ‘prepare for’ and deal with nerve agent attacks a la Salisbury (Laurie Bell – Wiltshire Council), learn about the coming wave of AI and its impact on PR (courtesy of Wadds), how to engage with hard to reach audiences (Paul Irwin – Trylife) and hear from the Godfather of PR Mr. Bob Leaf?

Then get yourself booked. I guarantee you’ll take away some nuggets that will help transform the way you do something in the future.

That’s just the official bit though – in my experience you learn so much by taking the time out to reflect and listen to and chat with fellow comms professionals doing great work around the country.

People

And then there’s the people. CIPR conferences are incredible for networking and making lifelong contacts and friends as well – I remember my first one in Belfast – meeting  Anne Gregory (at conference), Andrew Flintoff (in the pub) and other great comms pros like Ashley Wilcox, Cormac Smith and David Hamilton – and they’ve all gone and done pretty well.

You might meet future employers, employees, clients or partners – maybe all four – but almost definitely you will meet like-minded comms professionals who will share your passion for and occasional frustration with all things comms!

A Great Place

Last week I was lucky enough to have row 3 standing on Newcastle Quayside as Maximo Park, some amazing dance performers and fireworks and fountains kicked off the Great Festival of the North – a summer long festival of all things Northern. Kids loved it, it was great. The real star of the show though is NewcastleGateshead.

I have to declare an interest – it’s my patch and my home town – but the architecture is incredible, the setting is great, the people are lovely and the festival just tops it off. So come the night before – head to the CIPR AGM (where we throw in Alan Milburn for a bonus) and enjoy a night by the bridges and the big river in the toon (see you there) before joining the conference.

And finally a big hand

And while I’m talking all things Northern conference – a big thanks to all the volunteers in the CIPR North East committee who have organised such a great looking event.

When I was Chair of the CIPR in the north east I organised one of these and it was easily one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever done. Nerves of steel, a great ‘keep calm and carry on’ face and a large glass of something cold and wet (preferably afterwards) absolutely required.

Well done all! Looking forward to a great conference

See you there

Chris

 

 

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DTW listed on national framework as specialist communications, marketing and PR supplier

ESPO logo

DTW has been awarded a place on ESPO’s National Consultancy 664 Framework for Marketing, Communications and PR (Lot 9b).

The framework is available for use by any UK-based public sector organisations and provides buyers with an efficient and compliant route to a broad range of professional disciplines and expertise which can be purchased directly or using mini-competition.

We know that procurement can be a big challenge for public sector bodies when it comes to getting high-quality suppliers they need in place quickly. We’ve found that frameworks like ESPO’s Consultancy Services framework can be a big help in helping public sector bodies take a compliant but relatively swift route through the process whilst ensuring they get a high quality and value for money service.

Public bodies using ESPO can either appoint a single supplier or do a mini-competition amongst the approved suppliers.

You can download a quick start guide or head to our ESPO page to find out more.

The framework is available for use nationally by any public sector body in the UK including, but not limited to…

  • Schools & Academies
  • Local Authority Establishments
  • Police & Emergency Services
  • NHS & HSC Bodies
  • Central Government Departments & their agencies · Registered Charities
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DTW ranked by PR Week as number one public sector agency outside London and Glasgow

PR Week Top 150 banner

We’re rather pleased this week.

DTW has been ranked as the number one public sector specialist PR and communications agency outside London and Glasgow by leading industry trade magazine PR Week.

We were also listed as #8 in the list of specialist public sector agencies across the UK.

The ranking is based on fee income (i.e. it excludes spend on advertising space) from public sector projects. This makes it is a good indicator of who is delivering major public sector projects within the public sector space.

We said a year ago we wanted to be in the top ten – so we’ve achieved that.

The focus now is very much on providing a high-quality service (with a good no-nonsense northern perspective on life and PR) to our clients across the UK in an ever-changing and constantly challenging communications world.

Thanks for reading

Chris

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Ears, eyes, mouth – the building blocks of good community engagement

Photograph of group of school children overlooking bridge construction

In this fast-moving age of multi-faceted digital channels, the most important thing organisations can do to build and maintain their reputations is get out into local communities and talk and listen to the public and stakeholders on the ground.

Twitter. Facebook. SnapChat. Instagram. YouTube. Yammer.

They all have their place in 21stcentury communications, but here’s three better options for you when you are planning your engagement strategy.

Ears. Eyes. Mouth.

Starting by asking questions and listening is really important. I’ve not yet met anybody who likes being involved in a conversation where the other person just doesn’t listen to them.

Infrastructure projects usually get plenty of scrutiny from the public and the media. And quite right, too. In some ways, it’s easy to get people’s attention when you mention ‘£400m project’, ‘nuclear waste disposal’, ‘three years of traffic delays’ or ‘disturbing asbestos’, but it’s how you treat people that matters and, crucially, how you made people feel when you engaged with them.

The digital age gives us huge opportunity to talk (and just as importantly listen) to our stakeholders, but it’s no substitute for pro-active ‘on the ground’ engagement with real people about real issues.

Put simply, if you don’t invest the time and effort in pro-active community engagement, you’ll get the reputation that that approach deserves, and you won’t like it.

Here’s a tip. Flip it round, and genuinely engage with real people who have an interest in your project, and the benefits can be significant.

There are good examples all around.

The Queensferry Crossing open weekend and ballot generated huge excitement amongst communities right across the UK and beyond, and Mersey Gateway’s TimeBank scheme, where firms involved in delivering the project gave back thousands of hours of support on community initiatives, paved the way for new playgrounds, learning environments and opportunities for local people.

HS2’s Community and Environment Fund is creating visitor hubs and play areas already, and Crossrail’s wonderful Learning Legacy website has a whole suite of best practice materials you can ‘pinch with pride’.

In Sunderland, on the Northern Spire project, we’ve brought over 2,400 school kids on to site in the past year to help inspire them about future careers in engineering and construction, and to generate excitement about the project and educate about the benefits it will bring to the city.

For waste projects or others, where fear of the unknown is a big part of community concern, invest in taking community representatives to see another project you’ve delivered and talk to your stakeholders there.

So where do you start? Here’s seven simple principles to planning your approach to community engagement and public relations that any infrastructure project director should follow.

  1. Invest in communications planning just like you invest in design planning– nobody dreams of starting construction work without a plan in mind, but far too many people still leave communications as an ad hoc task. Start with research and insight to find out what people think about your project, and what you actually want your communications to achieve.
  2. Pretend you live around the corner– step outside the box and stop thinking like a construction team. What would you care about if you lived or worked close by? Inevitably, it’s the stuff that’s difficult to deal with – noise, disruption and delays, but often it’s also success, outcomes and local pride – tap into that by engaging with people, but don’t try and pretend the difficult questions don’t exist.
  3. Be prepared to ask questions, listen to the answers, and act accordingly – unless your actions back up your thoughtful words then you have no credibility. All the examples given here need time and resource, but this is investing in your reputation. It’s not an optional extra.
  4. Be open and pro-active– explain and advocate what you are doing, when and why. Sometimes that means walking into the unknown, but you are far better doing it on the front foot with a positive agenda. Go for public exhibitions and focus groups, rather than public meetings – public meetings very rarely do anything to inform the public and it is even less rare that they inform infrastructure developments. For most members of the audience they can be intimidating, rather than informative, and people rarely learn anything new. Drop-in sessions and exhibitions, on the other hand, give everyone (not just those with the loudest voices) a chance to ask their questions and understand the answer.
  5. Expect the unexpected –in the past twelve months we’ve had infrastructure projects with short notice visits (not all at once) from the Royal family, Jeremy Clarkson, Pete Waterman, coverage in Vanity Fair and even tip-offs of protests planned later that day by Fathers for Justice. The speed of communications gets faster every year, and reputation often depends on quick action – no project exists in a vacuum and you need to be nimble and agile.
  6. Measure your success– decide what is important to you and measure it. HS2’s community engagement strategy lists ten commitments that are the basis for measuring success. Simple feedback surveys are really important and let you track issues and report back to colleagues.
  7. Listen to your communications team– a plea on behalf of in-house communications people everywhere. They are employed as experts in their field – this is their profession – so let them guide you.

No-one likes surprises – so make sure you have a ‘no surprise strategy’ for your important stakeholders. If you’ve got good or bad news to share, think about when, how and where you share it, and who your key community influencers are that need a heads up before the information goes public.

It’s about building authentic relationships with real people – and with your key media – so you have a genuine trust and dialogue that will get you and your project credit in the bank. Let’s face it, at some point, somewhere, something is going to go wrong, and you’ll need to deal with that. Far better to do it from a position of strength with an informed audience that knows your name and face than it is with a group of strangers who have no affinity with you.

A snappy Twitter feed and a dynamic Facebook presence might help you along the way (or not!), but to win hearts and mind you need boots on the ground and a team who can engage with the public.

Chris Taylor is a Chartered PR Practitioner and a member of the national Council of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR). He has provided community engagement and PR support to transport projects like Mersey Gateway, Northern Spire and numerous energy-from-waste and other treatment facilities. He will be part of the DTW team at the Infrastructure Show in Birmingham on 17 April.

This article first appeared on the UK Construction online website.

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Marketing Expo 2018: 2 days well spent!

Graphic promoting The Marketing Expo 2018

I have a busy job. A very busy job. As one of the owners of DTW I split my time between working in the business and on the business – which can mean doing regular night shifts for the latter.

I also have two young boys who I try to pick up from school now and again – and I do mean now and again! Plus their swimming lessons, gymnastics classes, friends’ parties… you know how it is – just a regular working mum really.

“So how can you afford to take two days out for a marketing conference?” you might ask. The answer – how can I afford not to?

Having spent the last two days at the B2C Marketing and Advertising Expo, B2B Marketing and Advertising Expo and the Marketing Technology Expo 2018 at ExCeL London, I’ve come away believing more than ever that the talent in our industry is immense. The digital world we live in creates opportunities beyond belief and the young people of today are growing up already creating the next big thing.

Conferences like these make me proud to be a marketer. Proud to work with clients whose work genuinely makes a difference and proud to work on campaigns that mean I get up each morning with a smile on my face, ready to face the next big challenge.

“So, what have you learnt from Marketing Expo 2018?” you might ask. I’ll tell you what I’ve learnt. I’ve learnt that we’re doing it right. When we meet talented people, companies whose work genuinely excites us, we see that as an opportunity and not a threat.

We collaborate with them to create amazing campaigns that continue to make us proud, continue to excite us and continue to provide great results for the people who really matter – our clients.

So, next time you have the opportunity to meet some of the best in your industry; to learn from people smarter than you; don’t say you can’t afford the time – you can’t afford not to!

DTW already works with great partners including Digital Allies, Interel, Public Knowledge, Gooey Creative and Arcus. They’re clever people who share our values and bring a fresh perspective to what we do.

Thanks for reading

Hayley

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Insights

The power of animation

Animation is an important and increasingly affordable option for communicators and influencers. At its heart, good PR and communications is about engaging people with simple narratives or, if you prefer, telling great stories and keeping it simple. Plus, what’s not to like about cartoons.

Good animations can engage with your target audience, drive behaviour change, challenge preconceptions and educate and inform. In our always switched-on and highly visual world, animation can be thumb-stopping, attention-grabbing and shareable. It also offers several advantages over traditional video.

It can give context to difficult, abstract concepts

It allows you to explain difficult or abstract concepts in a way that no video or press release can, no matter how complex or sensitive the subject matter. Animation can show anything ­– from the atomic structure of hydrogen to the scale of the universe – in an engaging and memorable way.

It can be more flexible and creative than video

There are many situations that are too difficult, expensive, dangerous, or just downright impossible to capture with video. That’s where animation can be invaluable, allowing you to stretch time-scales or show large projects with ease. You can make it snow in the middle of summer, don’t have to worry about actors’ schedules, and don’t have to cram everything into the tiny allowance of daylight we get in winter.

The characters are totally under your control

What happens if that person in the background of your lovely new video didn’t sign a release form or the star interviewee is later found to have embezzled the company’s profits and run off to Guatemala? Unlike human ‘stars’, animated characters can be moulded to suit the message/audience, don’t demand a fee for any re-shoots and can be called back at any time for updates and amends. They also rarely embezzle or bring the company into disrepute at a later date…

So, if that sounds good but you’re worried because you’ve never commissioned an animation before? Don’t be. Here’s six starter tips to set you on your way.

1. Get your ‘why’ right
The fundamentals of good animation are the same as with any piece of comms work – focus on your objectives, understand your audience and get your head round your key messages.
As usual, you can save a lot of time, money and heartache further down the line by getting the brief right at the start and making sure the creative team understand your why.

2. Make sure you share your message in a style and tone tailored to your audience
From clean, flat graphics to sketchy, hand-drawn styles, there’s an animation style to suit every audience and budget. Don’t worry about knowing the technical terms – choose something that works for you and, if you’re not sure how to describe your preferred style, use a mood board or examples so your animator knows what you want. Describing visual animation effects linguistically is a challenge – you’ll probably end up using terms like ‘whoosh’ and waving your arms around a lot. This is perfectly normal and only embarrassing if you knock your animator’s coffee over.

3. Re-use your assets to develop your brand identity
The assets (characters, slogans, concepts and style) you create for your animation can be used across different media, allowing you to get more bang for your buck whilst maintaining a consistent and coherent visual identity.

4. Think about future-proofing
Animated content can be updated and amended comparatively easily (especially compared to video), but if you can save yourself some hassle at the start, then build this in. In an ever-changing world, content needs to be kept up-to-date. It’s worth bearing in mind that if you have a voice-over, changes to this will need to be factored in and this may have a knock-on effect with timing in your animation. If a voice-over is a must, make sure your script is final or record several variants at the same time.

5. Understand the process
You don’t just ‘create an animation’. You need buy-in and approvals for a visual style, a storyboard, and a script before you start bringing it to life. Changes are much easier (and cheaper) to do at the early, story-boarding stage before the actual animating is done.

6. Testing testing 1,2,3
If you’re engaging with a sensitive audience group or about a difficult topic, get feedback and input from audience representatives before you go public. A minor change in how something or someone is represented can make a big difference.

This little sample might give you an idea for some styles and approaches that work for you – have fun!

Sarah Bibby
Senior Creative

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