In August The Loop sought inspiration from Banksy, through a company trip to his surprise exhibition at the Bristol museum.  Banksy is arguably the world’s most controversial living artist and certainly Bristol’s finest. Whatever people may think of the rights or wrongs of graffiti art, or indeed the quality of Banksy’s work, it is no doubt that the show was inspiring for many very positive reasons, not least his generosity in staging the show for free. It was his gift to his home city and raised thousands of pounds for the museum through donations, local charity shops (who anonymously received boxes of merchandise) and businesses.

At least 300,000 people saw the show, many queuing for over five hours – a testament to the power of his art to enthuse and intrigue people of all ages and from all walks of life.

And what of the show itself? It was an entertaining mix of throw-away visual ‘gags’ combined with a hefty wedge of political comment.  Alongside the signature stencils were mock ‘classical’ artworks or real artworks that had been ‘Banksyfied’. The main event was the room full of clever and disturbing animaltronics, such as the moving ‘chicks’ that on closer examination resembled chicken nuggets, but the most fun was had playing ‘spot the Banksy’ as his work was scattered adhoc amongst the museum’s usual exhibits.

If there’s a element of his work that should influence our own it’s the way he combines his strong messages with a playfulness that draws you in.  Visitors obviously enjoyed seeing something unexpected –  a twist on their everyday reality –  and one that is imbued with a healthy amount of humour, but also makes them pause for thought.

Face to face seems to be the favoured mode of communication this August with The Loop being asked to help four very different companies spread the word through workshops and events that allow employees to be heard and to talk to their senior leaders directly – a powerful tool and particularly good for offering reassurance and morale boosts in a difficult economic environment.

The Loop is providing tried and tested tools and techniques for engaging employees as well as helping to work out the messages and the best way to convey them. At many of the events employees will be given the chance to vote on business critical issues using either sophisticated electronic voting systems or more traditional methods depending on the scope.

We’re helping an engineering firm to explore different ways to approach sales after a restructure and an oil company rollout its strategy to both a business unit and to a separate function with different audiences, different messages and different approaches, but the same purpose. And finally we’re helping an insurance company look to the future having ‘weathered the worst of the storm’ – cue lots of fun with weather maps at a series of events around the country.