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The Winning Minds Awards: September 2023

September 2023 was a big month for everyone. It was the warmest September ever on record, a river of wine coursed down the streets of Portugal, and Nelson Bostock launched their brand new Winning Minds Awards!

With the creation of our brand new division Unlimited B2B, which comprises both the team in Nelson Bostock and our friends over at TMW Business, a new set of awards were required so we could ensure that everyone was celebrated.

The new Winning Minds Awards are split into four sections that celebrate each facet of our incredible division, making it the biggest and best award ceremony yet! 

Our winners were nominated by their colleagues for the brilliant impact they’ve generated for the agency or their clients. Each of them have been living our values of Bold, Open, Real and Give a Damn.

Read below to see the new awards and our winners!

PR Minds – Ibby Bridges

“Ibby has been an absolute powerhouse in the weeks leading up to the event, from compiling an extensive analyst list for invites and drafting invites, to pitching post-show briefings and building briefings docs – the list goes on!”

“The client is ecstatic and it’s all down to Ibby’s hard work”. 

Marketing Minds – Stephen Hastings 

“The client is really happy with where things are at and it’s an account that looks like it’ll grow and grow – much of which is thanks to Stephen’s persistence and patience to get the job done.”

Creative, Content and Planning Minds – Bella Green 

“Flexible, fast without losing any attention to detail – and when under some tight deadlines too. Positive and prepared to go the extra mile to ensure all is ok.”

“A dream to work with and always smashes it out of the park.”

Greatest of All Time Award (GOAT) – Em Brine

“They’re absolutely living our new values (especially ‘Give a Damn’) with all the great work they’ve been doing on the DEI committee – but also in keeping our culture alive, supporting everyone with a friendly face, and making sure our divisional days are a joy to attend.”

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News

Nelson Bostock Celebrates: International Self Care Day

Self care is the practice of taking an active role in preserving and protecting one’s own personal wellbeing and happiness. 

Established in 2011, International Self Care Day was introduced to raise awareness of the benefits of self care, and to exhibit it as a cornerstone of a healthy lifestyle. Interestingly, the date, 24th July, was chosen specifically to remind people that self care can be practiced “24 hours a day, 7 days a week”. 

Our wellbeing team, Winning Minds Matter, have been speaking to people across the agency to ask what self care practices they engage with in order to ensure that their mental and physical wellbeing is cared for. Here’s a selection of their responses.

Hannah’s Tomato Time

“Self-care for me means looking after my tomatoes. Planted from wee little seeds and now 36 strong plants. I love the time away from screens to be with my plants and clear my head.”

Finn’s Cooking Up A (Calm) Storm

“Cooking is the main thing I do to unwind, especially after a long day at work. It’s a bit like meditating for me, I leave my phone in another room and put some tunes on. Plus you get something delicious at the end, which is another win!”

Fi’s Veggie Empire

“The veggie life is the best way I can take care of myself. Putting my time and energy into all of my veggies (potatoes, courgettes, apples, raspberries and more!) really looks after my mental energy.”

Em’s Escapist Reads 

“The best self care in the world for me is to get away to a quiet bit of nature, where almost no one is around, and lay in the sunshine with a book. Preferably a fantasy novel, so you can really double down on escapism. It’s just so peaceful to be alone with the birds tweeting and the grass beneath your fingers and just have some time to leave the world behind.” 

Ibby’s Sound Baths

“After yoga classes, I like to go to a sound bath, which is a bath that does not involve water! It’s a restorative practice, where various sounds, like singing bowls, wash over you and help calm your mind.” 

Exercising with Bella

“Honestly going swimming or for a run is my self care. I love it because it gives me time to be away from my phone or any screens really, and just focus on the activity. It’s great for mindfulness or sorting through your thoughts.”

Charlotte’s Cross Stitch

“It’s extremely easy to pick up, and since it requires so much concentration it’s actually very meditative. Plus you can find so many fun patterns online now – it’s a fun way to express yourself (And sometimes it’s just cathartic to stab something 1000 times).”

Media

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News

Meet Callan – our latest Winning Mind

Meet Callan, the latest to scoop the prestigious Winning Minds Award (alongside Ibby). Callan’s been a Bostocker for a year and a half now, during which time he’s demonstrated some incredible examples of news hijacking, and landed his clients in the nationals. He’s definitely a Winning Mind!

Why did you pick a career in PR and Communications?

I fell into PR by chance whilst studying Media and Communication at university. After completing several modules learning about the TV industry, I decided I wanted a change and to try something new. After weighing up my options I thought PR sounded interesting and decided to give it a go and the rest is history.

What’s the best advice anyone has ever given you?

Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.

Tell us a bit more about your interests – how would you spend an ideal Saturday afternoon? 

My ideal Saturday afternoon would most likely consist of getting out of the house, catching up with friends, exploring new places, trying new and exciting food, or taking my dog on a long walk around the countryside – stopping at a pub or two on the way.

And what are your hobbies?

I have quite a few, I’m really into music and love going to gigs and festivals whenever I get the chance. I also really enjoy painting, cooking and going to the pub – if that counts.

What’s one thing that people should know about you?

I’m a pretty good cook.

What’s one thing that would surprise people about you?

I actually used to row when I was at uni – although it has been a while since I’ve actually been in a boat.

What makes you a Winning Mind?

It was a surprise to win to be honest. But I try to show proactivity on my accounts, looking for other opportunities to achieve coverage for my clients.

Any advice for future Winning Minds contenders?

It’s so easy to get lost in your day-to-day work but taking a step back to keep up to date with the news and the world around you, might just open you up to more opportunities to deliver excellent results for your clients.

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News

Introducing Unlimited B2B – Our new integrated partnership

We’ve got some big news to share with you all.

Today, we’ve launched Unlimited B2B – a new integrated agency partnership, designed to deliver a complete buyer experience across PR, comms and marketing.

In the new world of communication, the need for all organisations to portray themselves in a consistent manner has never been more important. That means integrating skillsets across strategy, creative, marketing, PR and social media. And when you’re working with multiple separate agencies that don’t talk to each other, that’s extremely hard to do.

Which is why we’ve teamed up with TMW Business – the leading B2B marketers within UNLIMITED, to create Unlimited B2B. We provide our passion for communication and storytelling; they bring marketing creativity and strategy. The result? The complete package for you; Human Understanding, Storytelling and Content Experience, all with the aim of helping B2B buyers to buy.

It’s important to know that this isn’t a rebrand for Nelson Bostock. Our Winning Minds will continue to be here, in their current form. Instead, Unlimited B2B is an overarching agency. We’ve always been brilliant at building brand and belief for our clients – now we can go even further in building business too.

And as always, everything we do will be underpinned by the Human Understanding Lab’s insights, so you can be sure there’s evidence-based science at the heart of your campaigns.

We’re excited to get started with our new colleagues and we hope you are too!

Learn more about Unlimited B2B here.

Visit TMW Business here.

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Case studies

Twilio: the relationship economy

What does modern customer engagement really look like? 

Twilio needed an integrated campaign that positioned them as a leader in customer engagement who truly understands customer behaviour. 

Approach:   

We set out to humanise the topic of customer engagement – explain the issues in terms that people could actually understand, and tie it to current headlines.  

How? We commissioned pan-European research to understand the reality and challenges of customer engagement today. We then identified and worked with a preeminent influencer – Professor Andrew Stephen (University of Oxford) – to interpret the insights and shape a customer engagement report).  

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Case studies

Sophos: Cybersecurity as a service

Keeping cybersecurity news hot on the heels of ransomware attacks. 

Sophos had a strong reputation with tech and security press, but to generate awareness of the importance of cybersecurity as a service, they needed to find a way of engaging with national and business press. 

Approach 

The press office monitored the news agenda to identify relevant new stories as soon as they broke – such as ransomware attacks, cybersecurity regulation, and cyber warfare – and pitched insights and interviews from Sophos experts. 

Our team directly reached out to Sophos researchers, experts, and communications professionals to develop commentary at speed, using a follow-the-sun approach to connect experts with the press at any point of the day. 

And, by using a bank of existing, approved insights the team could respond rapidly to news or create bespoke commentary as needed. 

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Case studies

GoCardless: getting British SMEs talking about money

How can we make money-mute SMEs talk payment terms?  

GoCardless wanted to reach new SME audiences and position themselves as a leading voice about the vitally important – but well-trodden – issue of late payments.

Approach: 

We commissioned YouGov to discover the scale of money muteness amongst SMEs. We found that 25% feel uncomfortable talking to customers about money, rising to 32% for women.  

We partnered with Emma Gannon, a Sunday Times bestselling author and host of the podcast Ctrl Alt Delete, who often discusses the issue of late payments amongst fellow SME owners.

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Case studies

Toshiba: launching quantum

Preparing for a quantum future… 

Our objective was to build Toshiba a new EU website that showcased their Quantum Technology Division. The site had to be dynamic, with all-new messaging, product information, and the ability to publish more content, more often. 

Approach: 

We created an entirely new website that highlighted the Toshiba quantum proposition. From developing a completely customised site in WordPress, with an updated design and multiple dynamic elements, to writing every single webpage. 

We developed brand proposition messaging – from scratch! – and integrated SEO to ensure a highly-competitive output that would rank highly on search engines, while having the flexibility to update with new content as and when updates and developments happened. 

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Case studies

Canon: Powershot PX

Giving families the power to make high-definition memories.

Canon wanted to drive media awareness of their smart camera to target tech-savvy families that could benefit from the camera’s intelligent functionality.

Approach:

Many families want to capture all-important candid memories, but often struggle to both get everyone in the shot and stay in the moment. We proposed the idea of a hands-on baking event for lifestyle press that would allow us to generate highly visual earned coverage, and demonstrate the use-case of the camera. We created a toolkit that allowed markets across EMEA to roll out the activity and delivered the execution within the UK. The initiative generated coverage across all of Canon’s target markets.

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Case studies

ThousandEyes: making complex tech easily understood

The making of an expert. 

In 2017, we started to work with the (now) Cisco ThousandEyes – a network intelligence solution and the “X-Ray machine of the Internet” – who needed to create a strong UK profile. 

Approach: 

We developed a varied thought leadership campaign, including corporate profiling and creative storytelling, to raise awareness of ThousandEyes’ expertise.  

We secured regular national and business briefings and coverage with The Times, Daily Telegraph, CNBC Europe, Mail Online, Evening Standard, The Independent, and many more – as well as opinion pieces in a broad spectrum of top-tier trade and vertical media.