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Author: Aspectus Group

You’ve got InMail: an update on LinkedIn’s changes to native sponsored messaging


By Kelley Wake, Senior Digital Account Manager, Aspectus Group

In case you missed it, at the beginning of the year, LinkedIn implemented an update that has changed how we adopt different ad formats for profiles based in the EU.  

Here’s what you need to know:  

  • The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has announced that native inbox advertising (sponsored messaging ads) now requires direct marketing consent under the ePrivacy Directive. As a result, LinkedIn will no longer support EU member-based targeting on sponsored messaging campaigns and conversation ads, however, this update will not affect InMails.  
  • LinkedIn advertising policies suggests that if users are seen targeting EU members with unsupported advertising formats (sponsored messaging or conversation ads) will be suspended instantly and confirmed that both sponsored messaging and conversation ads can now only be used to target users in North America, South America Asia, Africa, Australia/New Zealand and the United Kingdom.  
  • After some digging, we have found that LinkedIn is now allowing members to control which messages they receive by adjusting their communication preferences on the Privacy Settings page or using the unsubscribe options in the footer of messages. We believe this may form the new “sponsored messaging audience”, although, there is no telling when or if this will happen. 

This may come as a disappointment to some. Sponsored messaging has been a favourite of many for lead gen campaigns and allow brands to get right to their audience. However, all is not lost. The beauty of LinkedIn is that there are many different ad formats to suit different goals – including lead generation.  

The question is, with everyone turning to the same tactics, how do you stand out?  

It might sound simple but it’s all about going back to the core of your audience and what they need to hear. Revolve everything around them. Then think about how you can add considered creativity to cut through so when they scroll, they stop at your ad. This can be anything from compelling ad copy to carousel ads and then it’s the type of content – infographic, video or report. Then behind the scenes, it’s about optimising the campaign on a daily basis – is the right audience clicking? Is there a better ad copy option? What is the CTR (click through rate)? And, most importantly, what is the behaviour once the audience is through to the website? 

Bad news never comes at a good time, and the ECJ’s announcement is no exception. However, this news will now force a more creative approach to advertising. With such an important ad format removed from LinkedIn, here is not a better time to start thinking about diversifying your advertisement budgets by nurturing your audience more using different ad formats and making sure every element amplifies your message to your audience.  

To keep up-to-date with the latest digital marketing trends affecting our clients and sign-up to our Digital Digest and check out our work here.

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Changes at the pump: The EV mindset


By Catherine Hunter, Senior Account Manager, Aspectus Group

You will be hard pressed not to see an electric vehicle when out on the roads at the moment. Across Europe we’re seeing significant uptake of EVs. And with that comes a growth of charge points – or demand for them at the very least. For most early adopters of EVs, they’ve had the luxury of at-home charging. Which fundamentally changes the relationship between driver and refuelling when more often than not, the car is full when you begin your journey. But for those of us who are looking to adopt an EV without the space for charging at home, how will our refuelling relationship change?

The quicker the charge, the longer the wait?

This might sound counterproductive, but there is reason to believe, the faster the charge offered to us by the chargepoint, the more likely we are to wait for the car to refuel. I don’t mind sitting in my car for 5 minutes as it goes from zero to full at a motorway service station, but if that creeps up to 15 minutes, I might decide to use the service station facilities, so I don’t really feel like I’m using my time to wait for a full charge.

Naturally, any longer than 15 and I’m likely to be making the most of destination charging and allowing my car to refuel while I work out at the gym or complete my supermarket shop. And it’s here that the first major EV mindset shift takes place. We no longer see filling the car as an activity we need to complete, but something that happens while we do something else.

For many drivers, this will be something to adapt to quite easily and quickly. However, to bring people on the EV journey we need to communicate this as a benefit before they even think about booking a test drive.

Where to charge your EV

One change that might not be quite so straightforward is journey planning. This is particularly important on longer journeys or to a destination where charging is not currently installed. The average car is parked for the bulk of its life, however, when we want to go we really don’t want to be worrying about when or if we’ll be able to charge.

Solutions to help with charging and journey planning do exist, but the problem here is one of perception. If there are even one or two long journeys per year where customers might panic about range, that could be enough to deter them from making the EV switch. Every headline that talks about the charge point to EV ratio getting worse adds to this driver fear. That’s not to say we shouldn’t be talking about the infrastructure challenges, but to support the transition to more sustainable transport we also need to celebrate infrastructure success.

Confidence is one of the most important traits when making a purchase. You only have to cast your mind back to the fuel crisis in the UK last September which caused Google searches of EVs to rise by 1600%. And we all know bad news will travel far quicker than any EV – whether it is able to charge or not.

There’s a lot to be excited about on the EV charging front, from Shell converting its fuel stations to electric, to dedicated charging hubs coming online. But this excitement will soon be tempered if we can’t change the consumer mindset on charging. The days of filling your car at the pump may be numbered, but if we can’t convince consumers their EV can be relied on to get them from A to B the strong start for EV sales may soon stall.

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Why you don’t need a degree to have a career in comms


Hattie Curl, Account Director, Technology

A career in PR and marketing is fast-paced, dynamic, creative and – at times – challenging. It stretches you outside of your comfort zone, allowing you to achieve things you never thought possible.

You’re responsible for setting the scene for an entire company, telling its story and promoting its brand through the media, its content and social channels.

It’s an incredibly exciting industry and there’s a lot of plate spinning. You need to be interested in the news and current affairs, hungry for knowledge and able to juggle different tasks and clients. You should have a thirst for problem-solving and be effective at managing time.

But what’s key is the qualifications you need to begin your career in communications: none.

Thriving without a degree

I didn’t get a degree. It just wasn’t the right fit for me. For some career paths, it’s an absolute must. You wouldn’t go to a doctor that hadn’t done the full training but working in PR and marketing is different.

You can flourish in this industry without understanding literary theory or quantum physics. I am thriving at Aspectus and worked my way up to an Account Director where I am now setting the comms strategy for some of the most innovative tech companies out there. Put simply, you do not need to have been to uni to have a successful career in communications. That’s why we created The Aspectus Academy, a hands-on apprenticeship that gives you on the job experience and kick-starts your future.

The day to day

In PR and marketing, every day is different, and the skills you need to tackle each day aren’t necessarily only taught via a degree.

Your days consist of coming up with interesting ideas, explaining to businesses why these will make a positive impact and then executing on your plans – be that via social media, blogs, selling stories into the press or so much more.

One minute you’re ringing up the BBC to pitch them interesting research that was, in fact, based on an idea you had. The next you’re head down drafting a comment in reaction to a breaking news story. Then, you’re researching the perfect job titles for a paid LinkedIn campaign and working with the design team to create snazzy visuals which tie everything together. Afterwards, you’re collating the end of month report to showcase all the fantastic work and how it is making a direct difference to businesses.

Forging your own path

It can be daunting not knowing what you want to do next, where you want your career to go or even how you should go about it.

If you do want to go to uni, that’s great! You can still have a career in PR and marketing. But if you don’t think a degree is for you, you can definitely thrive without it. Here at Aspectus, a bunch of us are in the same boat, all without a degree. All you need is ambition, creativity and passion, and then you’re all set.

Sound like something you want to be a part of? Apply for our apprenticeship, The Aspectus Academy, and begin your comms career here.

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Top-down regulation will undermine public support for green energy


By Paul Noonan, Lead Copywriter, Aspectus Group

Developing a renewable energy system that balances the fickle energy of the elements with fluctuating demand will require that companies and customers join forces in a collective endeavour to balance the grid. We have long known that since we cannot control the supply of wind or sun, we must instead manage demand. This entails a sea-change in consumer behaviour to continuously synchronise personal work and leisure practices with systemic requirements.   

Demand-side management with the participation of consumers will require major technological innovations, communications programmes and market mechanisms that encourage renewable energy users to think and act collaboratively rather than as individual consumers. The seemingly faster, easier route is to stabilise green grids through supply-side control of consumption and production. Yet this also risks undermining public support by feeding the narrative of a grid dictated by producer rather than public. 

Enforcing energy efficiency without consent

Smart meters epitomise this. Originally promoted as improving energy efficiency by engaging consumers in managing usage, they are instead being used by some suppliers to remotely control consumption. In the US some consumers have complained of their home heating being remotely adjusted without consent to save energy. Some suppliers have even used smart meters to remotely ration power and reduce grid loads in emergency scenarios. And research shows so-called ‘controlled blackouts’ disproportionately affect ethnic minority areas, regardless of income status. It is not hard to see how this creates a negative public perception of smart grids and undermines public support for renewable energy.  

And production is increasingly as rigidly regulated as consumption. New laws could force UK boiler firms to make heat pumps and penalise them for low sales, which the Chief Executive of the Energy and Utilities Alliance called “Soviet-style production planning”. Pushing unpopular products on consumers by taking away the alternatives will drive widespread disenchantment with renewable energy.  Far from decentralising grids, this creates a perception of intrusive, interventionist energy systems that disempower consumers. 

An alternative participatory energy system

There is another way of enlisting consumers to help decarbonise and stabilise grids while maintaining consumer choice and keeping the public on side. Balancing supply and demand without onerous control requires the democratisation of energy systems to engage communities in participatory energy management. 

Technologies such as vehicle-to-grid, hydrogen or solar self-generation and smart storage systems could be combined with peer-to-peer energy markets to incentivise a consumer-driven sharing economy of energy, creating flexible grids. We could create off-the-grid businesses, universities or local authorities generating and circulating power horizontally across communities. These technologies could also deliver major benefits to users, with some solar self-generation systems delivering 30% fixed energy savings.  

Disruptive technologies such as hydrogen home heating systems could provide popular alternatives to conventional technologies, driving decarbonisation through innovation rather than regulation. Data-driven flexible  charging based on live price, market and weather forecasts could simultaneously stabilise the grid and reduce consumer energy costs in real-time. Mobile apps linked to smart meters can simultaneously enable customers to remotely monitor and control energy costs in real-time, incentivising energy-efficiency and reducing household bills. More consumer participation would help producers too; it is estimated the National Grid could have saved £133 million during lockdown by harnessing the latent storage potential in millions of consumer car batteries. Far from creating a top-down grid that regulates supply and demand, we should create a two-way flow of electricity as well as data between public and producer that creates a bottom-up energy system. 

Decentralising grids should be allied with a communications strategy that repositions renewables not as a cost and an imposition but as a means of empowering consumers to control their own energy and living costs. Decentralised energy should be promoted not in terms of balancing the grid but freeing people from global market instability and price volatility by giving consumers control of their power and thus cost of living. Instead of supply-side regulation, we should use market innovation and persuasion to drive grids that balance supply and demand with public participation. 

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Aspectus hires PAM Insight editor to expand wealth management communications service

Eyes on expanding the agency’s wealth and asset management portfolio

Aspectus has appointed Alexandra Newlove as Senior Account Manager within its London financial services team, with the aim of expanding the agency’s existing portfolio of clients within the wealth and asset management space.Alexandra joins Aspectus from PAM Insight, where she was editor of thewealthnet, a specialist trade publication focused on the wealth management sector. Here, she acquired an in-depth understanding of the UK’s wealth and asset management sector, having previously worked as a journalist across trade and broad sheet publications in the UK and New Zealand.

Alexandra said: “It’s an exciting and challenging time within the wealth management sector, as firms contend with downward fee pressure, rising regulatory costs and the struggle to differentiate – against the backdrop of bumpy markets and a discerning ‘next gen’ of ESG-focused wealth holders. An accurate, strategic wealth management communications approach is key for firms looking to ensure sustained organic growth. For those looking to grow via acquisition, reputation is equally important.

“My career to-date has meant dealing with a lot of communications agencies. From interacting with Aspectus over the years, I know that they are principled, straight-talking, have excellent sector expertise, and work incredibly hard on behalf of their clients. Additionally, they go above and beyond to empower employees to forge their own path. ‘Good culture’ has become something of a cliché and can be hard to define – but it’s easy to recognise it when you come across it.”

Aspectus serves clients across financial services; capital markets; energy and industrials; and technology, with offices in New York, Singapore, Aberdeen, and Luzern, in addition to its London
headquarters, where Alexandra will be based.  

Across its sectors and regions, Aspectus has supported many clients with wealth and asset management remits including Wealthify, Overstone, JHC, Compeer, Cavendish Asset Management, and IQEQ. 

Emilie Rowe, Head of Financial Services at Aspectus, said: “Alexandra’s appointment is part of our ambitious growth strategy for the financial services team. Alexandra’s knowledge of wealth and asset management and her journalist’s nose for a story, are great additions to the team.”

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The balancing mechanism: What is it and why is it so expensive?


By Catherine Hunter, Senior Account Manager, Aspectus Group

New research has suggested that the costs of balancing the UK power grid this November are three times the cost of balancing costs from the same time last year. In the midst of the gas crunch, this adds yet another strain to suppliers – and therefore our bills. But what are we paying for?

What is the balancing mechanism?

In its simplest form, the balancing mechanism is a tool used by National Grid ESO to keep supply and demand balanced at all times. In order to keep the lights on, National Grid has to ensure the needs of the grid are met with the exact same level of generation – every second of every day.

If the grid fails to do so, rolling blackouts become a serious concern. By utilising weather forecasts and suggested demand data, National Grid ESO can accurately predict where supply and demand mismatches may occur, and will encourage different actions ahead of time. However, no model is perfect and last-minute adjustments will be required. It is in these last-minute instances that the balancing mechanism comes into its own. National Grid ESO can instruct generators to increase or reduce their output to help keep the grid balanced. On the flip side, we can see demand side response. Simple actions, like slightly increasing a supermarket’s freezer’s temperature instantly reduces grid demand but doesn’t impact performance.

These last-minute fixes are key for the resilience of the grid.

But why is it so expensive?

I know us Brits love to moan about the weather, but it really does have a part to play. Despite Storm Arwen hitting towards the end of last month, November was a relatively low wind month. As a power source that is fast becoming the backbone of our grid, periods of low wind are going to require extra investment from the grid to pull in additional power capacity – especially as those cold, dark evenings see demand tick up. Without wind and with coal plants coming offline, the grid currently has fewer resources to call on. When there’s less to pick from, those sources that remain can command a higher price.

Remember that gas crunch? Well, that hasn’t escaped the balancing mechanism either. If you take a look at historical data, we can see that gas has a large proportion of the previous cash flow within the balancing mechanism. Those generation assets are still going to be essential for their quick response for the grid, but with operating costs increasing they will be passing those on by making higher offers to the balancing mechanism. When the grid is tight, these are essential reactions to keep the lights on, but is ultimately a cost that is adding to consumer bills.

What does the future hold?

National Grid ESO and Ofgem have been looking at the costs of the balancing mechanism for a while, as charges have been steadily rising since 2015, with 2020 and now 2021 proving to be big jumps. For that reason, they have proposed a review into balancing costs so we can hope expenditure will become more stable, and potentially reduced. However, before we get there, we will see more expensive actions. A growth in assets able to provide balancing services will also help to support a reduction in costs.

The growth of renewables has made the balancing mechanism more important. While there can be a large degree of predictability thanks to accurate weather forecasts, no model is perfect and renewables are inherently intermittent. This makes being able to quickly change the generation or demand side of the grid essential to keep us online.

The inherent value of the balancing mechanism can’t be understated but its current cash value is an area that will need to be addressed to ensure bills remain affordable for consumers. In the meantime, there is a rich opportunity for businesses to communicate the invaluable role they are playing to support the grid as we transition to net zero electricity grid by 2035.

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Comms without strategy: an expensive stroll to nowhere


Did you ever hear that old line about all publicity being good publicity?

Granted, some mitigating context might have been lost in the sands of time, but taken at face value, whoever said that either possessed all the strategic acumen of a potato or cared more about pith than prowess.

You can probably already think of some examples of bad publicity, but there’s an even bigger problem of neutral, tepid, lukewarm, and quite frankly beige publicity. And unless you have truly unlimited time and budget, that’s a problem, because it squanders resources that could be spent more profitably. It’s a slow road to nowhere in particular.

Anyone with a fat enough wallet can gain attention. Pay someone to tattoo your brand name on their back and streak outside Buckingham Palace if that’s all you care about. Attention for its own sake is the credo of the toddler.

Strategy is about doing it smarter, and sweating every pound, dollar and euro for every drop of value it can offer.

Strategy is about matching the right message to the right audience so that they can be influenced in line with your business goals, before going onto establish the right formats and channels to reach them by.

Strategy is the foundation on which all communications materials and campaigns should be built. It keeps everything on the right path, minimising or eliminating false-steps or wasted energies (and budgets).

It may sound obvious in theory, but it is easy to overlook in practice. There are so many ways it can happen:

Too many cooks

Multiple stakeholders with slightly different viewpoints and agendas feed in, and without a strong guiding hand the end-result pulls ineffectively in several directions rather than effectively in one.

Lazy assumptions

For most businesses, there isn’t time to get to know every potential customer personally, so some degree of grouping is unavoidable. But it’s about balance. Not all money managers play golf; not all pensioners settle down with a tea and biscuit to listen to the Archers. Dig a little deeper.

Half-baked messaging

Are you the category leader at the bleeding edge of innovation in your sector? Yeah well, you and everyone else. To cut through and gain any manner of leadership, this is a process that needs a little more rigour.

A gap between business goals and communications goals

A typical business goal might be to increase sales, a typical communications goal might be to grow the Twitter follower account. Okay – but why? How do the two fit together? Sure, you could retrofit a general explanation for how greater followers means greater brand awareness, which means a greater addressable audience to sell to – but if you were to start from the business goal and work outwards to communications goals, would that be the one you arrived at? Maybe, but make sure the gap is bridged – and with more than rickety post-hoc rationalisations.

That’s where we come in. As communications experts embedded in your industry, we’re in the unique position of being able to both stand in your shoes and give an outside perspective. We can help you strengthen the foundations of your communications with sound strategy, refining your messaging, finessing your audience personas and fine-tuning your choice of tactics. Any less and you risk spending your budget on treading water.

Good communications that deliver a return to your business require the right message to go to the right audience in the right way. And Aspectus just might be the right partner to make that happen.

By Chris Bowman

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Helping clients compete with considered creativity


Competition is getting fiercer. It’s now almost never enough to offer a better product at a better price and expect attention. People are busy – and there are simply too many stalls in the market for customers to stop and compare each one and decide where the value lies.

Instead, people prioritise those who grab their attention – narrowing down their options and picking the best of a select bunch. The question for most brands is simple: how do you capture, keep and capitalise on your audience’s attention in order to make a lasting impression?

You don’t need a dinosaur but creativity is critical. Without it, you’re guaranteed to get lost in the crowd – making the same claims as your competitors. And struggling to stand out.

But what does creativity actually mean in this context?

Too many brands make the mistake of thinking creativity means something colourful, off-the-wall and wacky for the sake of it. They think creative campaigns begin and end with sending a chicken nugget up into space or floating something massive down the Thames to get attention.

The trouble is, outside of specific circumstances, that doesn’t give audiences much to go on. Sure, you might capture their attention (if it hasn’t been done before) – but once they’ve listened to what you have to say – have you given them cause to stop, think and come back for more?

That’s why, at Aspectus, we practice considered creativity. Not unrestrained creativity for its own sake, but tightly focused creative energy brought to bear on real client challenges.

For us, the brightest creative sparks are those that come from deep understanding of our clients’ businesses, audiences and industries; that make the connection no one else has to turn a problem on its head – and express by telling a story that no one else has yet thought to tell.

Once we have an idea that is distinctive, relevant and, perhaps, a little subversive, we work to let it take us as far as possible – with a ruthless focus to tried-and-tested best practices that we know work.

It’s this approach that helped us create what ComputerWeekly ranked one of “the most important cybersecurity stories of the year” for Malwarebytes.

It’s this approach that enabled us to translate complex regulation into qualified leads for Goldensource.

And it’s this approach that allows us to guarantee results for our clients. Keeping them fiercer than the competition.

By Daniel George

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Press preparation: fluster free media interviews


Ever been ice skating? It looks so easy when you see all the others out there gliding gracefully round the rink. That’s until your get your own skates on and give it a try for yourself.

It’s a bit like that when it comes to doing a media interview. It all seems straightforward, chatting away on radio or TV or having a nice lunch with a writer from the Financial Times.

And that’s when so many people come horribly unstuck. At best, they fail to make anything of the opportunity that every media interview offers.  At worst, they do real damage to themselves and their organisations.

Preparation and proper training are both crucial.

At Aspectus, we run our own flexible media training programmes, which are tailored to each individual and client. Over the years we have trained hundreds of people on how to handle a media interview. Many have become exceptional performers, getting their key messages across every time but also simultaneously giving the media what they want too.

And these are the guys who get invited back into the studios and media platforms over and over again. They know how to play the game.

Once you’ve had the Aspectus training and know all the techniques inside out, then it’s all about having the confidence to go out there and do it!

However, being prepared for every interview is also crucial. We work with our all clients to develop key messages, powerful quotes and memorable images to use whenever they go in front of the cameras or sit down with a journalist.

That’s where the confidence really comes from: training, technique and preparation.

Next thing you know you’ll be weaving your way round the media ice rink making it look just so, so easy.

By Tim Focas

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