It’s nearly Chriiiistmas, and that means it’s time for the SBW recap of 2023! It was certainly a year to remember – we do hope you’re enjoying some lovely mince pies and mulled wine (or anything Christmassy) while reading it...
As a creative marketing and advertising agency, we take pride in developing and delivering campaigns that make a real impact – and this year has been packed full of ‘for the good stuff’!
We helped parents access childcare and expert support and advice with our Childcare Offer for Wales, Parenting. Give it time, Ending Physical Punishment and Talk with Me campaigns as well as ensuring £3M worth of Welsh Government support went to those in need with our Here to help with the cost of living campaign.
We launched our Climate Action Wales national public awareness and behaviour change campaign, encouraging everyone in Wales to adopt green behaviours, whilst also running the Ban of Single Use Plastics in Wales and Workplace Recycling. Let’s get it sorted. campaigns aiming to raise awareness of changes to the way businesses, public sector and charities recycle, which will be coming into force from April 2024.
The creative team had a lot of fun with a stop motion style animation for the Forestry Commission to raise awareness of tackling invasive species, such as the Oak Processionary Moth and Spruce Bark Beetle (Ips typographus), to try to keep our trees and forests safe in the UK.
We continued (and evolved) our Hate Hurts Wales campaign, now in its second year, encouraging people in Wales to help tackle hate crime by urging them to ‘Stand up to hate crime, together’.
We started working with the Business Wales team, launching their new campaign with a super cool TVC, as well as Public Health Wales and their national campaign Healthy Weight, Healthy You, empowering people in Wales to start their journey to a healthy weight, while continuing to support people in need across the UK through our work with the Royal Voluntary Service.
And finally, we had another great year of all our employer brand and candidate attraction work. We’ve helped the NHS recruit hundreds of doctors, nurses and practitioners across England and Wales; St Monica Trust find more brilliant healthcare workers, and our Cymorth Cymru/Welsh Government national campaign was all about raising the profile of homelessness and supporting careers in Wales, getting more people interested in working in this vital sector.
Check out a quick round up of our work from 2023 below!
This summer we held our first ever Team Away Day at Cadbury House in Bristol! All SBW’ers took part in a fun (and very competitive) ‘Squad’ Games, a team building set of challenges. In between all the fun we also learned quite a bit about ourselves and how our personality profiles can help us communicate better as a team, while also sharing ideas on how we can improve as an agency. A real highlight of 2023.
We have had the great pleasure of supporting our clients with many pieces of TV, radio and video social content this year. Whilst a production day can be quite tiring (sharp focus is required and you are on your feet all day) it can also be great fun. We met some truly inspiring people along the way and celebrities including Jason Mohammad (twice), Amy Dowden, Matt Prichard, Nigel Owens, Gareth Anscombe and more. A huge thank you to all of our production partners and clients for making some spectacular content that help drive great results for our clients.
We’re so happy to have welcomed lots of lovely new faces to the SBW team in 2023 including (image left to right) Amber – Junior Account Executive, Gwen – Account Executive, Jordan – Social Media Content Manager, Lauren – Senior Graphic Designer, Shauna – Account Executive, Tom – Senior Account Manager and Nei – Welsh Copywriter. Croeso!
In October Richard, Head of Client Services and Emily, Senior Account Director took on the mammoth challenge of running 50 miles and walking 100 miles to support those fighting cancer. They absolutely smashed it raising over £1650 between them, which will be partly matched by the SBW employee charity fundraising scheme.
They aren’t the only ones getting active for charity, with three of our Bristol team taking the dive and swimming a whopping 40,000m to raise money for children in Gaza. They are over halfway through the challenge but there is still a lot of lengths still to be swam. If you would like to donate please visit the campaign page!
As part of our commitment to continuous professional development and best practice, we are thrilled to be official members of the IPA!
Wellbeing has been a top priority for us this year – we introduced initiatives such as BUPA Mental Health Support service that our team can access, anonymously, any time. Our Bike to Work and Repair scheme is also proving popular. Our uncapped training budget was well spent on CIM training courses, digital upskilling, external events and we are continuing to run our bi-monthly lunch and learns.
In June we launched our ‘monthly social fund’, with each team being given £100 per month towards a night out – which has been a huge success so far. We also had a lovely Summer BBQ and our amazing #SBWChristmasParty!
A BIG thank you to all our clients, partners and suppliers – we wouldn’t have all the success we had this year if it wasn’t for you.
We wish you the merriest of Christmases and all the best for the new year! Bring it on 2024!
