After a challenging few months for comms professionals in the health & wellbeing sector, Smoking Gun’s MD Rick Guttridge talks to the MPA about why opportunity might be on the horizon. Since the late-March lockdown, many brands have been grappling with what they can do to support consumers through the Coronavirus crisis - and none more so than those in the health and wellbeing space. The shifts in consumer behaviour forced by the pandemic are unlike any most of us have seen in our lifetime, and at Smoking Gun we’ve been doing some analysis that’s revealed a lasting change in [...]

by Sian English, MPA's vice chair and head of marketing at leading proptech provider, Street Group Back in February this year, the MPA held a Big Debate on a vision for the future of the media, digital, and creative sector in Manchester. Fast forward 5 months to July 2020 and being in a room full of people, socialising, laughing and hugging seems like a hazy dream. Nevertheless, as we’re over halfway through the year, I’ve found myself thinking back to some of the issues raised that evening and wondering how they fit with the here and now. Technology takes away [...]

by Chris Buckley, founder of Pixel Kicks As we near the end of lockdown, many businesses are already deep in plans about how they make their return. If the last three months have proven anything, it’s that digital has never been more important. The companies that have struggled during these pressing times are those with more traditional bricks & mortar services, whilst internet retailers have generally seen a huge upturn. A number of reports have recently mentioned that the spring and summer of 2020 could spell the start of the next “digital gold rush”. The natural first step for most [...]

By Jonathan Ashworth, founder of Mighty Giant: The Moving Image Company There are many moving parts (pardon the pun) when it comes to the production of an animated short film. A project at Mighty Giant ranges from simple animation, to 3D modelling, through to filmed production. Sometimes a job means we need to get all the tools out the box; this short film we made before Christmas was one such example. We were approached late last year by Fox Agency in Leeds to help them with a Christmas film for a global manufacturing company. The creative had been written, with [...]

by Dan McNicholas, 4and20million co-founder You may have come across the Gartner Hype Cycle before now.  With one simple curve, it eloquently describes the phases of hype that accompany every new trend, gadget, big idea and lifestyle choice we experience.  From a spark of inspiration or trigger of change, our expectations quickly rise to inflated levels as we put all our faith in this new concept to be lifechanging (hello, lockdown sourdough bakers!).   But what goes up must come down, and from the lofty heights of the Peak of Inflated Expectations, we inevitably descend into the Trough of Disillusionment, [...]

Manchester-based integrated communications agency, One Brand Magic, and Mustard Research teamed up to host a virtual roundtable with senior KBB leaders to discuss how lockdown has affected their businesses and how brands and retailers should react to the crisis. The roundtable was held via Zoom on Wednesday 3rd June and aimed to uncover opinions and predictions for the future among senior executives from some of the industry’s biggest home interest brands, including Blum, Franke, Moduleo and Ideal Standard. Informed by research gathered from various sources, the discussion centred around the impact of Covid-19 and how the nationwide lockdown is likely [...]

by Dunstan Carter, business development manager, The Sharp Project Except for key workers, the majority of people across the UK have found themselves either furloughed or working from home over the last three months. The odd eerily accurate science fiction film aside, no-one could’ve predicted anything like this happening a year ago and it's turned most sectors upside down and given them a big, unwelcome shake. Before the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent lockdown, the creative sector in Manchester was booming and co-working hubs were popping up all over the city and thriving. The spirit of collaboration seemed buoyed by all [...]