The steer
Enjoy an insight into our work, culture, opinions and everything in between.
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Ride Shotgun Shining Bright in the IPA Beacon List
Fresh off our “meteoric rise” to 7th place in Prolific North’s Top 50 Integrated Agencies 2025, we’re super excited to announce that Ride Shotgun has joined a select band of agencies that have made the inaugural IPA Beacon list.
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Trust in the Age of Finfluencers: How Financial Brands Must Adapt
From TikTok tips to boardroom decisions, trust is being rebuilt in real time. Explore how finfluencers are reshaping financial marketing, why community matters more than campaigns — and how smart brands are turning trust into growth.
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Beyond Google: The New AI Search Ecosystem
Brand traffic is dropping — fast. Learn how AI search is reshaping discovery, and what you must do to stay visible.
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Diageo on Omnichannel Marketing
From cocktails to content, commerce and beyond, discover how Diageo builds connected brand experiences across every channel. Our latest podcast unpacks digital trends, platform strategy and marketing that delivers real results.
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Finance Marketing Trends 2025/6: What Smart Brands Are Doing Next
Discover the 3 biggest shifts redefining financial marketing in 2026 — with real-world examples to fuel your next move.
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Ride Shotgun soars to #7 in Prolific North’s Top 50 Integrated Agencies 2025
We're thrilled to announce that Ride Shotgun has landed at number 7 in the Prolific North Top 50 Agencies list for 2025.
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International Women’s Day: Smashing Imposter Syndrome & Speaking Up
Actionable advice from inspirational women in advertising. This International Women’s Day, we’re tackling career growth, imposter syndrome, and confidence. Watch now and join the conversation. 🎧 #acceleratingaction
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Trend Watch: Home & Interior Trends 2025/6
From décor tips to colours, materials and trends, it’s never been so easy to stay ahead of the interiors curve. Our 2025 Interior Trend Report brings you the latest looks, industry insights, and growth strategies for 2025 and beyond.
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Four Things That Work for Scaling a Brand
Listen to our Director of Strategy and Digital Marketing, Stephen Kenwright as he reveals his top marketing strategies for growth.
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How AI is Being Used in Comms: Trends and Real Life Examples
Join Senior PR Strategist Tom Hemingway as he unpacks groundbreaking AI content and reveals how marketers can elevate storytelling and thrive in an evolving media landscape.
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Marketing in the New Age of Virtual Beauty
Explore how AI, AR, and the metaverse are reshaping the beauty industry, creating immersive experiences that blend virtual and real-world beauty like never before.
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Is Influencer Marketing Right for your Brand?
You asked, we delivered. 🎯 After our recent Challenges of a CMO webcast, one thing was clear - influencer marketing is top of mind for many of you. We’ve created a blog to answer all your questions and help you decide if partnering with influencers is the right move for you.
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Rockin’ around the Aprés-ski
Quelle Aprés! It’s another Ride Shotgun Christmas party. We ditched our laptops for the mountain tops in a ski lodge themed knees up.
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Ride Shotgun Launches Integrated PR And Social Media Offering Two New Hires At Ride Shotgun
Exciting times at Ride Shotgun! We've launched a new integrated PR and social media offering with the appointment of two key hires: Tom Hemingway, as Senior PR Strategist and Megan Clarke, as Social Strategist.
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The Rise of Conscious Cosmetics: Health and Beauty Marketing
Find out how to prioritise both sustainability and simplicity in health and beauty marketing. The rising demand for pared-back products and increasing scrutiny on sustainability.
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Ride Shotgun makes its second US-based acquisition of 2024
Exciting news! Ride Shotgun has expanded its capabilities with the acquisition of PIX-US, a leading CGI company based in North Carolina. This strategic move follows our earlier acquisition of Silicon Valley’s Volume Group in March, establishing our strong presence on both the East and West coasts of the US.
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Keeping Pace with The Changing Face of Health & Beauty
Beauty standards are shifting—are you keeping up? Discover the trends reshaping the health & beauty landscape and learn how to stay ahead in this new age of authenticity.
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What’s Driving Home & Interior Trends 2024/5?
These five consumer behaviours have the power to give your marketing meaning in 2024/5 and beyond. Giving you a reason to play a bigger part in consumers’ lives so they remember you and positively impact ROI.
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Challenges of a CMO (Part 3): AI in Marketing
AI in Marketing: How AI is disrupting the marketing world - and what you need to know to stay ahead.
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Challenges of a CMO (PART 2): Creative Expectation vs. Reality
Creative Expectation vs Reality: Managing the gap between vision and outcome when working with agencies.
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Challenges of a CMO (PART 1): Budget vs. Brilliance
Budget vs Brilliance: Striking the perfect balance between tight budgets and standout content - what’s the secret?
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“The Challenges of a CMO” Webcast
CMOs are facing more challenges than ever, from content production to budget optimisation and navigating AI's impact. Join our team and expert guests as they share insights and perspectives.
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“Challenges of a CMO” #2: In-house vs Agency
Finding the right combo of agency partners that tick all your boxes can really put the pain in campaign. So, how do you find the right balance for your brand? We’ve put together this infographic to give you the pros and cons of each kind of agency model and help you find what works for you.
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Insights from the Agency Hackers Conference
Robots have entered the chat (and they’re here to help): Insights from the Agency Hackers Conference
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“Challenges of a CMO” #1: Juggling Agency Partners
From reducing spend to keeping brand consistency, how can you achieve more with less agency partners?
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Crush the Content Game with Smart Production
Feel like you’re always playing catch-up with content creation? There’s a smart way to get ahead of the game.
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Rapid Growth Agencies in the North
Rapid growth agencies in the north? Andy Weir and Stephen Kenwright have both been there. In fact they’ve been there, done that, got the agency merch t-shirt. We got Andy and Stephen in a room to chat about what’s been important in their journey, from culture to content and everything in between.
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Meet Ride Shotgun’s New Group Finance Director
Introducing Steve Armstrong, the new Finance Director at Ride Shotgun. An MBA graduate from Manchester Business School, Steve brings 15 years of experience across various sectors, including hospitality, travel, and technology.
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Rise at Seven Founder Joins Ride Shotgun
Ride Shotgun welcomes Stephen Kenwright to lead its strategy and digital divisions. Kenwright founded creative agency Rise at Seven with Carrie Rose in 2019, serving as Chief Commercial Officer and taking the agency to more than £7m revenue before exiting in 2022.
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Shaking up ROI in the Drinks Sector
Discover how Smart Production can revolutionise your drinks brand's ROI with insights and real-world examples from PepsiCo, Nestle, and Diageo.
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What’s a Joined Up Brand Journey Anyway?
What's the real cost of not having a joined-up brand journey? The answer might surprise you. Find out why a joined-up brand journey matters more now than ever. In our latest "Brand Bites" podcast, Lee Morton, Head of Brand and Proposition Development at Arco, reveals all.
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Our Regime for Stunning Health and Beauty Content
Discover how we make your health and beauty brand content stand out in a crowded market with our foolproof regime.
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Festive Packaging Trend Report 2024/5
It’s Chriiiiiiiistmas! Only kidding. But with the gift packaging market soaring to a reported £21.9 billion in 2023, it pays to stay ahead in the design game. That's why we're releasing our free 2024 Festive Packaging Trend Report, full of insights from industry experts and our very own packaging team.
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HSBC Bank on Ride Shotgun for World-Class Creative
When HSBC asked us to launch their first ever Global Investment Summit in Hong Kong we were more than up for the challenge. Best of all, we were invited along to see it all in action.
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Moving up the ranks: Celebrating Our Spot in Prolific North’s Top 50!
We're excited to announce that we've been named in the Prolific North Top 50 Integrated Agencies list, ranking 24th - two places higher than last year!
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Ride Shotgun acquires Volume Group, boosting Extended Reality and People Performance capabilities
Ride Shotgun has completed the acquisition of Volume Group, an award winning agency group made up of global B2B Marketing Agency Volume, and leading People Performance and Learning and Development specialist, Shine.
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Interior Trends Report 2024/5
Our 2024 Interior Trend Report unveils the latest looks for 2024 and 2025, curated with industry insights and our stylists' expertise. Buckle up for a visual feast full of inspiration.
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Finance Marketing Trends 2024
In our latest report, we’ve outlined 3 Financial Marketing Trends You Can’t Afford to Miss in 2024. Giving you food for thought and a look at some examples in the industry to help you get inspired and kickstart 2024/5 plans right!
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A Fortnight with the Future Riders
Find out what our two latest placement students made of Ride Shotgun.
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We’re the Reel Deal
Check out our latest showreel, showcasing the most impactful pieces from every area of the Ride Shotgun agency.
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Bringing the Next Generation along for the Ride
Why Ride Shotgun is uniquely set up for agency work experience.
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Glancing Back to look Forward
It’s our birthday! It’s now two years since we launched Ride Shotgun and we’re celebrating by revving up our plans for the next year of the biz.
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Festive Shotgun Shenanigans
Last week we ditched our strategic and creative super powers for the much anticipated Christmas Party.
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CGI Marketing: The Ultimate Guide
CGI is everywhere, folks! From kitchens to bedrooms, bathrooms to mind-blowing deep fake models, it’s taking the product marketing world by storm. If you’re fashionably late to the party, don’t fret. We’ve got you covered...
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Why Virtual Shopping Experiences are the Real Deal
Nothing beats browsing around a retail showroom in person… or does it? Find out why virtual shopping experiences are the real deal.
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Insights and Highlights from DEVELOP3D LIVE
DEVELOP3D LIVE offers an annual peek into the groundbreaking advancements in product development and technology. Dive into the event through the eyes of our intrepid Technology Director, Danny Austin, as he takes you through the highlights, featuring talks from industry leaders, and share his insights on the latest tech trends.
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CGI to Metaverse Ready in 6 Simple Steps
Ever wondered how the Metaverse could transform your marketing game? The Metaverse might sound like sci-fi, but it's real, and we're here to show you the ropes. Keep reading as we walk you through 6 simple steps to effortlessly transition from CGI to 'Metaverse Ready'. Let’s roll!
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BRAND BITES: Where Marketing Meets Creativity
We're thrilled to introduce our new podcast series BRAND BITES to the Ride Shotgun audience. Prepare for a deep dive into the minds of creative industry experts, serve up engaging interviews packed with insights, invaluable lessons, and perspectives.
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10 Steps to Create Stand Out Packaging Design
Packaging design isn't just about aesthetics; it's a strategic powerhouse that can set your product apart. Learn how to outshine the competition with these top tips!
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Ride in 5: Making the Search for Your ‘Why’ easier
Defining, articulating and implementing your ‘why’ plays a key role operationally and culturally across your business. It’s your North Star, a shared goal, the DNA that runs through every action and decision the business makes.
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Even More Creative Content? Works for us!
Take a look at our shiny new showreel showcasing some of our best work from the world of home interest and interiors, FMCG and drinks.
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Ride Shotgun acquires CGI powerhouse, Creative Content Works
Exciting news: Creative Content Works (CCW) is now part of the Ride Shotgun family!
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Outdoor CGI: Insider Secrets to Outdoor CGI
Unlock the secrets to breathtaking outdoor CGI with this in-depth guide. Discover our top "5 Tell Tale Signs it’s Cheap CGI" along with our Creative's Secrets to pixel perfect production, that's indistinguishable from the real thing.
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Ride in 5: 5 reasons why content is still king for B2B & B2C marketing
In the ever-evolving landscape of B2B and B2C marketing, one constant remains unshaken: the reigning power of content.
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Ride in 5: Why brand basics are your tactical advantage
Discover why resilient brands thrive in challenging times. Explore effective strategies to boost click rates, supercharge lead generation, and revitalise sales conversions before resorting to extra PPC spending.
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3 Game-Changing Strategies to Overcome the HFSS Ban (WITHOUT CREATING A NEW PRODUCT RANGE)
Discover why marketers are wary of the new HFSS regulations and explore 3 strategies to navigate the ban without altering or creating a new product range.
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The 5 Best Creative Chocolate Ads of All Time
With World Chocolate Day fast approaching, feast your eyes on our favourite chocolate TV ads, creative branding, and iconic commercials of all time.
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Sealy Wins “Bed product of the Year”
We've had some more awesome awards news, this time for Sealy UK & Ireland who won the coveted "Bed Product of the Year" at the National Bed Federation award ceremony.
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Magnet: Kitchen of the year – Ideal Home awards 2022
As Magnet clinches "Kitchen of the Year 2022" from Ideal Home Magazine, we can't help but celebrating too! We’re proud to play a part in bringing their design concept to life using the latest in CGI content production.
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Can You Really Save Time, Money and the Planet with CGI?
There’s certainly a lot for marketers to be excited about with CGI. Transform your marketing, future-proof your business and engage prospects and existing customers in ways you never could before.
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Making a Splash
Riders from our Leeds and Sheffield offices flocked to Rother Valley Park last week for the hotly anticipated summer party, ready to take on a fun-packed, adrenaline-fuelled day of activities.
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CGI Foodography: The Secret Ingredient to your Marketing Mix?
CGI ‘foodography’ is transforming the way brands showcase their products. Find out about the benefits and how we create delectable CGI food imagery.
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All the Gear and all the Ideas for Studio
Top-notch content without all the hassle for Studio
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AI – The Intelligent Choice in Marketing?
AI (Artificial Intelligence) has become increasingly popular in marketing as technology advances. While it can improve efficiency, accuracy, and the overall effectiveness of marketing campaigns, understanding exactly how marketing agencies currently use AI might be less clear.
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Life Behind the Lense
We sat down with our very own Senior Producer Jamie Franklin to get the lowdown on our recent shoot for home emergency repairs and improvements company Homeserve.
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Where Content Always Shines
Behind the scenes at Ride Shotgun’s sunny Portugal outdoor production hub
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From Retro to Futuristic: The Evolving Trends in Graphic Design
Stay ahead of the curve with our insights into the latest graphic design trends and techniques.
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How to Define Your B2B Brand’s Tone of Voice
10 tips to avoid ending up in middle of the road
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Why a Tier Two Agency is Having Your Cake and Eating It
Finding the right balance between strategy, creativity, and your content production budget can be a real challenge.
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Death Sentence or New Chapter?
Should human copywriters worry about AI content writing tools?
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A Guide to Using CGI to Create New Brand Experiences
As competition heats up in the online world, it’s vital for brands to use every tool in the box to help them to stand out.
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How to Create the Perfect Food and Drink Shoot
Behind every great food or drink shoot there’s a team of specialists, working hard to make your products look their very best in front of camera, and produce knockout, droolworthy content.
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A Guide to How to Have Ideas
‘Where do you get your ideas from?’. It’s the first question you get asked if a ‘muggle’ from outside the industry finds out that you work in a creative department.
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Extending the Value of your Content
Keeping up with the increasing desire for content is challenging for many marketing teams.
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Amster-DAMN! We Learned About Some Amazing New Stuff at BlenderCon
We’re always on the lookout for new ways to bring better, faster, more creative capabilities to the work we do for our clients. And it’s no exaggeration to say our recent trip to BlenderCon in Amsterdam delivered all that and more.
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Stand Out From The Packaging
When it comes to food and drink packaging design, we know there’s a lot of competition.
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How to Write a Video Script for Advertising
Call us biased but, while you can of course create amazing ads without one, a well-written script can really bring a video to life. Whether it’s an emotive brand film or a simple sales pitch, the words you choose can add the colour, character and emotion that leads to engagement.
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A Guide to CGI in E-commerce
Create eye-catching immersive content, engage your audience and generate revenue with CGI with our latest “Guide to CGI” report.
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Making your Brand Values more Meaningful
If your visual and verbal identity is how your brand looks and talks, your values are how your brand behaves. Externally, they let customers and prospective employees know what you’re like to do business with, internally they guide everything from decision-making to culture.
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Ride Shotgun Expands with CGI Acquisition
CGI studio Set Visions has joined Ride Shotgun. The acquisition further bolsters our in-house expertise, adding 18 highly skilled CGI specialists and a Tech Development team for bespoke technology solutions...
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Creating Content That Cuts Through And Connects
Increased filtering of content can make it more tricky for brands to reach their audience, but it does mean there is a chance to really connect – if they get it right...
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Thriving in the Changing Health and Beauty Landscape
The face of the beauty industry is changing rapidly. Like many sectors, beauty is facing an eco-reckoning to commit to more sustainable practices; calls from campaigners for greater inclusivity and better representation are being amplified loud and clear; and the rise of more advanced technology is inspiring new innovations.
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5 Ways Content Marketing Fuels Brand Growth
Conquering quality content marketing is the ultimate skeleton key for unlocking brand growth. Read how to get it right across multiple channels.
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Health And Beauty Industry Trend Report 2022
What's changing the face of the beauty industry? Our 2022 Health and Beauty report delves into the statistics, trends, and strategies to guide the way forward.
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Usage rights: Are they Past Their Sell-by Date?
The content industry is changing and budgets are shrinking. It’s time to do things a little differently.
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How to use Interactive Tools for Lead-gen
Interactive content is twice as effective at converting visitors than static content. But what type of tool will generate the best leads and data for your brand and how can you make it stand out?
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5 Awesome Employer Brands (and what we love about them)
A good employer brand can help businesses compete in their industry, establish credibility and recruit, retain and engage the right people. But a great employer brand can have candidates queuing at your door.
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How To Create An Authentic Employer Brand E-book
Retain and win the best talent with our latest downloadable e-book.
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The HFSS Ad Ban: 6 Ways Brands Can Thrive
The HFSS delay has given brands more time to prepare. Find out what new brand-building opportunities are on the table for food and drinks brands.
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How to Source Vintage Interiors for Sustainable Set Design
Sourcing vintage interiors for film sets and shoots doesn’t have to be costly. Learn how to find hidden gems and bag a bargain with insight from our styling team.
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HFSS Legislation Changes | A New Recipe for Marketing?
What fresh ingredients will brands need ahead of junk food ad changes? Read our tips for success.
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Content? Tailor it. Scale it. FUSE it.
FUSE is our modular content, asset automation tool. It creates thousands of unique branded assets in a time-efficient, cost-effective and easy to use way.
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Interior Design Trend Report 2022: What’s Hot Right Now?
We’ve put together our 2022 Interior Trend Report asking the big questions in the wake of Covid and the dawn of new ways of living and working.
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Introducing Our New Starters
This month has been a busy one for Ride Shotgun, we’ve had a raft of new starters and we thought it was about time that we introduced them!
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Ideal Home Show 2022: Interior and garden trends
Intrigued by suede-effect walls and conker pods? Read what interior and garden trends our styling team discovered at Ideal Home Show 2022.
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Celebrating International Women’s Day 2022
To celebrate International Women’s Day 2022 we asked some of our team what empowers them and what can be done to break the bias in the drive towards an equal future. Here are their inspirational stories.
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Meet our Chief Growth Officer
Richard has recently joined us as Chief Growth Officer and will head up the growth team, check out what he'll be getting up to in our latest update
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Bolstering our Strategic Offering – Welcome Sally Rushton
We recently welcomed Sally Rushton to the team. She joins as our new Strategy Director heading up the strategy team and all things Ride Shotgun proposition-related.
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Making Black Bottle whisky an experience
Black Bottle whisky’s new Alchemy Series was more special than your average spirit and the brand wanted to make sure everyone knew it. They asked us to create a four month interactive social content plan to do just that. Launching the range to target consumers ‘The Experience Seekers’.
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Making people gaga for Gaia Baby
Hera Furniture had a new range of Gaia Baby nursery furnishings. They needed impactful digital content to shout about the new colourways in the heirloom collection. So, they brought in the experts to create a bespoke, adaptable lifestyle environment made for mass content creation.
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Pizza Hut: Feeding a content-hungry audience
As temperatures rise, Pizza Hut’s sales dip. It was time to feed their content-hungry audience with a range of lifestyle shots, GIFs and videos of core pizza and Unilever ice cream ranges. Then fire them across social, email and press office to build brand awareness.
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Making waves with Amanda Holden x Charles Worthington
25 years of Charles Worthington is a big deal. One they wanted to celebrate by partnering with much-loved celeb Amanda Holden. A tight turnaround and a trusted brand left us raring to make waves for such an iconic pairing.
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Agency merger creates strategic content powerhouse
Leeds based Cry Havoc and Sheffield based Born + Raised have merged to create an exciting agency proposition. The move will firmly establish them as one of the UK's leading strategic content creation agencies.
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How a Content Hub Can Revolutionise Your Digital Marketing (if you do it right)
We dig deep into what a content hub is, why this structure helps your content succeed and the results a well-executed hub could help you achieve.
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Filling Your Funnel: The Importance of Content at Every Stage of the Buyer’s Journey
Find out why paying attention to your content marketing funnel is more important than ever, and how to make content count in your buyers’ journey.
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Review your agency roster – are you doing enough?
There are lots of uncertainties hanging over us all at the moment, but as a marketer I’m willing to bet one of your biggest worries is an internal question you keep coming back to – Am I doing enough?
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It’s Officially Great Here… Again! One of Campaign’s Best Places to work
Born + Raised have featured in Campaign magazine's Best Places to Work list for the third year in a row! Operations Manager and Mental Health First Aider Tamaris takes us through how we managed to maintain a great workplace during the pandemic.
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4 tips to kickstart your reactive marketing
Megan explains the difference between reactive and proactive marketing as well as giving 4 simple tips for you to make the most out of your reactive marketing.
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Why “Making do” is not a campaign strategy
Andy sets out 10 key questions to ask yourself to make sure you're not compromising when it comes to your marketing campaigns.
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