Studio Snapshot
Vision Day
January marked a milestone for Fanatic as we held our first Vision Day at the Snug in the Tobacco Factory, following some changes at Fanatic, required to support our continued growth. The day buzzed with open discussions, reflections, and ambitious goal-setting for 2024.
It started with an introduction from our directors: Ian, Milly, and Will, who explained the day’s structure and how the discussion points would be turned into an action plan. They also covered the core pillars, fundamental to the way Fanatic operates.
In between the lively discussions, we headed out to PizzaRova for some lovely sourdough pizzas. As the day ended, Ian reflected on our progress so far and shared his vision for the future.
Emergency First Aid Training
Ian and Stathis are officially our emergency first aiders in our studio after receiving a one-day training from the St John Ambulance team.
Stathis said he found the training very interesting as it was the first time he had the opportunity to attend in-person training with various props and tools to simulate real-life scenarios. It also made the learning experience a lot more fun and engaging.
The course covered first aid protocols for adult casualties and covered areas like CPR, burns, choking, seizures, and defibrillators. Hopefully, there won’t be incidents in the office but if there were, we know which names to shout for first!
It’s always a good idea to know where the nearest defibrillator is in your workplace – if you’re curious to see where your nearest defib is, click here.
Winning a New Client Celebration
Winning a new client is always an exciting time for us so we decided it was a good reason to throw a small celebration. The team enjoyed a delicious breakfast from Mark’s Bread, a local artisan bakery, accompanied by a glass of sparkly. Here’s to us toasting a new victory and celebrating the hard work and expertise of a great team.
What's new in the Design team?
City of Bristol College Design Brief
We have continued to work with City of Bristol College, setting a design brief for the students focused on restaurant branding and website design – a sector we know inside out.
At the end of the project, the students visited us at the Tobacco Factory to present their work. They each had about 15 minutes to showcase their ideas and outcomes, to which our Design team provided feedback on design, UX, and general marketing/industry insights.
All of the students did an incredible job both designing and presenting their work. We love collaborating and supporting the City of Bristol students and are really looking forward to attending their final show at the end of the year to see the end results of their hard work.
3D Photo Scanning
Recently, we have been utilising photo scanning to bring objects from the real world into 3D applications. This technology allows us to quickly and effectively add realistic people/objects into 3D scenes, giving us endless possibilities to set up scenes and visuals for various brand communications.
Check out Harley, now forever immortalised in 3D!
See what the Development team have been up to
Code Reviews
Code reviews are a critical aspect of the web development process, particularly when building new or modifying existing websites. When a developer completes changes or introduces new features for a website or web application, they submit a Pull Request (PR) for thorough code review.
Code reviews involve peers or team members carefully examining the proposed changes. This collaborative process helps identify potential bugs and security vulnerabilities and ensures adherence to coding standards. Code reviews directly benefit end users or customers seeking website development. By offering a second set of eyes on the code, these reviews contribute to enhanced code quality, minimising the risk of bugs and errors that could affect the website’s functionality. Additionally, they play a crucial role in ensuring consistency in coding standards, thereby improving code readability and maintainability – ensuring that additional features and functionality can be added more efficiently in the future.
In essence, code reviews play a crucial role in delivering a high-quality website or web application to the end user. They help catch and address issues early in the development process, contributing to a more stable and secure website. Additionally, the collaborative nature of code reviews fosters knowledge sharing and continuous improvement within the development team, ultimately leading to a better overall user experience for the customer.
The latest news from the Digital Marketing team
Google Consent Mode v2
Google Consent Mode v2 is the latest version of the original Consent Mode introduced by Google. It’s a tool for businesses to tailor Google tags based on user consent for ads and analytics cookies. It ensures advertising tracking only happens with explicit consent and it aligns with strict privacy rules, especially in the UK and European Economic Area (EEA).
Unlike the previous version, Consent Mode v2 demands clear user consent for cookies and data usage, especially for personalised ads and analytics. It’s now crucial for all websites using Google services to adopt this update by March 2024 to track conversions accurately. Failure to do so means that no data about new EEA users will be collected by Google services such as Google Ads and GA4, which will have a significant impact on marketing strategies.
Thankfully, Stathis took the time to implement the new Consent Mode v2 for all of our clients.
Welcome Back Sam B, our new Digital Director
This is a slightly different Q&A to our usual as we are welcoming back Sam B, who headed up our original Digital Team, 6 years ago. It’s always nice to welcome new faces, but even nicer to welcome back old faces!
How have you found life at Fanatic so far?
It doesn’t matter how many times you start a new job, there’s always a learning curve, and with so many unique clients, each with their own propositions, business and marketing goals, there is a lot to get up to speed with! There are some really exciting projects in the pipeline and it’s great to be surrounded by many people who are not only good at their jobs but are genuinely invested in the work they do.
What were you doing before Fanatic, and what made you get into Digital Marketing?
I was previously Marketing Director at Heat Recruitment, before, Head Of Marketing at i-escape, a boutique travel agency and before that, Global Digital Marketing Manager at the Affordable Art Fair. My marketing journey started with running my own music business and discovering quite organically the different ways that marketing could be used to promote the events and artists I worked with.
What made you choose Fanatic?
I’ve known Milly, Ian and Rob for years, and with Will joining the business (who I had also previously worked with), it felt like I was coming home rather than joining a new team. With such a variety of clients across different verticals, Fanatic offered a really exciting new challenge to get my teeth into.
What have you enjoyed most so far?
My third day in the business was a whole business vision day, which really helped clarify and set out the priorities for the year ahead and gave a great window into the way the business works and the attitudes and culture of the team.
What are you looking forward to learning more about?
One of the benefits of working agency-side is exposure to such a broad range of different markets, products and services. Everything from champagne bars to tech start-ups! Another important factor is that with such a broad range of audiences to reach, you need to really push your understanding of which marketing tools and channels are applied to each different project. Every client is different, and that really supports the growth of your marketing knowledge.
What’s an interesting fact about you?
I’ve been to 20 countries across 4 continents, with plenty more on the list.
We've been watching…
We've been watching…Last month, there were two mid-week FA Cup games at Ashton Gate, just down the road from the Fanatic office.
The first game saw Bristol City beat a 10-man West Ham 1-0 and advance to the fourth round. Thomas was in attendance for his first Bristol City game, wrapped up warm to protect against the freezing temperatures.
The second game was a 0-0 draw against Nottingham Forest in the fourth round. Both Ian and Thomas were in attendance (although in separate parts of the stands), and while the weather was warmer, the game was much less exciting!
Both teams will be competing for a home tie against Manchester United if they win the replay. It’s safe to say that getting tickets for that game will be a bit more tricky!
Bristol City's FA Cup Run!