“Uncovering, supporting and investing in creative talent is at the heart of what we do,” says Caroline Norbury, chief executive of Creative England. Her organisation, set up in 2011, has 40 staff across the country, searching for “unique regional voices” to support and fund.
“We often provide that ‘first-in’ money. These are businesses that can make a great impact but would probably struggle to get investment or appear on anyone’s radar. Many financiers have difficulty seeing the commercial returns from these types of companies,” adds Norbury.
But in less than a decade, proteges have garnered a number of gongs, including a dozen British independent film awards (Bifas) and Bafta nominations. Creative England is also supporting an eclectic mix of creative startups and entrepreneurs, helping them to get off the ground and, hopefully, scale up.
While the term “creative” might sound rather arty, many of Creative England’s alumni are at the cutting edge of new technology. Immersive technology, for instance, is an area Norbury believes has a strong future.
Gateshead-based Hammerhead VR, led by joint managing directors Simon Windsor and Steve Jelley, gained backing from Creative England for its VR horror game Syren, just the sort of project a traditional financier might reject, says Windsor.
However, the company also generates its own revenues as a high-end specialist production business, providing services to major entertainment firms that want to be at the forefront of virtual reality and 3D filming.
Hammerhead recently worked on a project with Madonna, in which her hologram was replicated multiple times while she performed at the Billboard music awards. “We spent two days with Madonna at our London studio, filming her from every angle with a 106 camera array,” explains Windsor.
Hammerhead’s 50 staff are drawn from universities in the north-east that specialise in new technologies such as VR. Windsor says staff retention is bolstered by the fact that the company offers a stake in the business to all employees. Although Hammerhead has gained investment from Creative England for its own productions, such as Syren, much of the company’s research and development investment comes from its own revenues.
“We are using new techniques to advance storytelling and push the boundaries of what’s possible. We invest a lot into R&D to try to create what we think our clients need,” he adds.
New technologies will transform the creative industries, generating entirely new ways for people to be entertained. Innovators at Landmrk have created a platform for marketers that allows them to reach their clients’ audiences while they are on the move, via their mobile phones. “It’s often called the Pokémon Go for brands,” says chief executive Seth Jackson.
For instance, when fans of the CIA spy show Homeland entered hotspots in New York or Washington, they could “hack into exclusive audio files, phone calls and conversations” via a mobile-web app powered by Landmrk. With this approach, combining AR and geo-location data, the Bristol-based company has gained a lot of traction since founding in 2016.
Jackson says Landmrk’s growth was boosted after a call out of the blue from Sony, which wanted to use its platform to launch the latest Shakira album. “Three months later, we had gone from operating in five countries to running campaigns in 99 countries. We had moved from thousands of concurrent users to hundreds of thousands; the platform won awards all around the world and we suddenly understood what real growth looked like.”
But Landmrk needed finance to get off the ground and, like many innovative and creative businesses, it required investors who could share its vision.
“We funded our first six months from the previous business we had – it was tough and very lean. We got our first proper, pre-seed funding break from Creative England and a handful of brave and forward-thinking business angels. Since then, we have raised a seed round from specialist industry investors, a space tech investor and a venture tech firm.”
London dominates British media and, despite the BBC moving in to Salford and Channel 4 taking space in Leeds, the gravity of the capital remains substantial for anyone working in television. The founders of film and TV production company Duck Soup Films – Bekki Wray-Rogers, Libby Durdy and Jessica Holyland – have come up against this issue.
“Being located in Leeds is brilliant in so many ways, both professionally and personally, but there is still a huge mountain to climb in terms of redirecting some of the drama focus away from London-based companies,” says Wray-Rogers. “We’ve been asked on more than one occasion if there is any talent in the north – the north being anywhere outside of the M25.”
Prior to setting up Duck Soup in 2015, the trio had worked together on the multi-Bafta-winning TV series This is England, as well as the Utopia TV series. Nonetheless, Wray-Rogers says the founders took a “giant leap of faith” to set up the company. “We all bring something different to the table and it works. Fundamentally, we have the same taste and passion to make good stuff that matters, but is also entertaining to watch – stuff we believe in,” she says.
Funding has been critical to enable members of Duck Soup to work on projects while supporting themselves. The company took a business development loan from Creative England and also struck a deal with TV content and production firm Fremantle, which took a 25% stake in the business and agreed a distribution deal. “This collaboration has proved invaluable to the company. It has not only opened up our connections internationally, but also given us access to a wealth of commercial expertise and enabled us to take on staff.”
Discover tomorrow’s creative leaders and check out the full CE50 list at creativeengland.co.uk/ce50
