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The Pursuit of Excellence

By Katy Galasinski, Chief Growth Officer


As our CEO, Alastair, said, at Aspectus, branding, marketing and communications is all about creating client success. And when we recently launched our new brand, we shared our formula for success, our X factor, our special sauce.


A key part of this is Excellent Execution. I want to let you all in on what that looks like at Aspectus. And what better way to do so than crowdsourcing intel from my talented Aspectus colleagues, whose endless energy, talent, and precision deliver success after success for the businesses and brands we call our clients.


“Clients don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” – Charlie Bonner-Davies, Junior Designer


Excellent execution for clients begins with striving to be an extension of their team. We count financial services, tech, energy, industrials, and capital market companies as clients. But in practice, our clients are not companies at all. They are people: the one, two, or three executives, heads of communications or marketing, or CEOs that trust us with protecting their businesses’ reputations and brands. This trust is something every team member at every level works hard to create.


“Excellence for me means showing up every day as a safe pair of hands for my clients – making sure they trust us to get things done when we say we will, to a high standard.” – Nuala O’Sullivan, Account Executive, Energy


“In my eyes, excellence consists of many moving parts – stellar communication, insightful recommendations, valuable results and always putting your best foot forward, so we can build a strong and trusting relationship with clients.” – Ivy Gitarts, Senior Account Manager


It also means knowing what clients need before they know they need it. To do that we have to put ourselves in their position and adopt their POV. It takes time to develop this informed intuition with a client. We must immerse ourselves in the company’s marketing, sales, and business objectives. We have to fully comprehend the nature of their business, the marketplace in which they compete, and their offerings. And we must truly understand them, what their ambitions are, what keeps them up at night and how they like to work.


“Get a solid handle on your client’s objectives and your client’s boss’ objectives right from kickoff. Understand their obstacles and challenges and identify the gaps that you and your account team can fill.” – Christina Hong, Account Director


Once a client is confident that we have their backs, are in their corner, and consistently watch out for their best interests, they really do think of us as indispensable extensions of their team – integral partners in their business. Partners that support them from strategy to success in a way that creates meaningful business outcomes.


“No matter how good your strategy, in the end success always hinges on the execution. Ideas have to be distinct, relevant and challenging enough to change people’s hearts, minds and behaviors – or all your great thinking up front will go to waste. The reverse is also true. Execution is only excellent if it serves a brand’s big picture and takes it a step or two further towards success.” – Dan George, Associate Director


Different agencies undoubtedly treat their clients in different ways. For us, the term “client” doesn’t do justice to how we think about those companies who keep our lights on. And since each client point-of-contact has a unique personality and different workflows, and objectives specific to their businesses, we must be agile and adaptable.


“When I worked in-house, the agencies that stood out the most that we worked with were the ones who were able to proactively anticipate our needs, as well as reactively gauge when our needs or usual way of doing things had changed and switched pace accordingly.” – Christina Hong, Account Director


So that’s what Excellent Execution means to us. As you can see there is nothing formulaic about it. It’s an attitude that runs deep here at Aspectus. An attitude that empowers our people to do their very best work for our clients, for Aspectus, and ultimately for themselves.

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Insight unleashed: rediscovering the real magic behind the buzzword and harnessing its value in a data-driven world

By Ellie Jackson, Chief Client Strategy Officer

‘Insights.’ It’s one of those words, isn’t it? You know – the ones that get thrown around rather liberally over a period of time. And then, almost without you noticing it, you realize its true meaning has been diluted. 

For me, a true insight comes at the far end of a spectrum where ‘information’ sits on the left-hand side and ‘intelligence’ in the middle. Information is simply organized data. Intelligence is what the information tells us. Insight is the ‘a-ha’ moment. It’s that intelligence cleverly applied to the wider context of the situation that gives us an edge over everyone else. True insight requires us to understand what others don’t so we can make moves they can’t see. 

An Axe (marketed as ‘Lynx’ in the UK, Ireland, Malta, Australia, New Zealand and China) campaign from a couple of years ago really brings this to life. They worked with Google to investigate young men’s online searches: that data is the information. Searches like, ‘Is it ok for guys to eat tofu?’ and, ‘Is it ok for guys to do their eyebrows?’ formed the basis of the intelligence: there is a high level of insecurity among this group about what masculinity really means. The insight therefore was that what men are searching for is reassurance that it is okay to be themselves. Thus, a campaign was born: ‘find your magic’. 

Here at Aspectus, we talk about ‘intelligent insight’ – that’s core to how we support clients. In many ways, the ability to offer insight is a central reason to hire an agency. It’s something we see as being at the heart of the value we can offer our clients. That’s why our sector specialisms in technology, energy & industrials, financial services and capital markets are so important to us. It’s only because we understand these markets so well, and from every angle, that we can truly understand different stakeholder motivations and concerns. And although every situation is unique, now we’ve grown to around 100 people globally without diluting our sector focus, that wealth of experience is a real goldmine for us – and by extension our clients – to draw on. The ability to see the full picture from the outside is one of major sources of value of hiring an agency, after all. 

Intelligent insights goes deeper at Aspectus, too. We have a specialist Brand, Insights, and Strategy team, which works alongside our sector specialists. We are firm believers in rooting our strategic decisions in evidence, and that’s why we preface all our brand and messaging projects with stakeholder mapping, audience research and a deep-dive into competitor/partner/client positioning. That basis ensures we have the necessary information to generate valuable insights. True creativity cannot exist without that insight to hang off.  Insights are needed to steer that punchy, possibly even provocative, idea that’s really going to deliver success. That kind of creative energy only delivers when it’s grounded in meaningful insights and real-world thinking. 

For clients, this approach might mean identifying trends in their own data that they would not otherwise have been able to pinpoint. Or spotting industry themes that can align with their messaging and resonate with their audience. Or hitting upon the perfect mix of channels to communicate with their stakeholders. It’s that neat idea that is usually so brilliantly simple that once you see it, you can’t imagine how you didn’t think of it sooner. Ultimately it means getting them to their communications and business successes.  

While all this value will remain, we are standing on the brink of a major shake-up of our industry. The increasing use of AI technologies will bring considerable changes – well-documented already by others – not least of which will be to support an insight-led approach. The ability to more quickly and  easily interrogate data will provide strong foundations of information and intelligence for insight-led thinking – the ‘human-in-the-loop’ layer where we add our value. 

Whatever happens, we’ll continue to focus unapologetically on insight-led strategies. And we’ll try to be strict with ourselves about only using the word when we really, really mean it. 

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Internal threat data: your key to cybersecurity media success

By Sanjana Rao, Account Executive

In a densely saturated market for media attention, it can seem an uphill struggle for cybersecurity sellers to carve out a name for themselves. A company news drought can be frustrating, especially in those periods when you have no new funding rounds, high profile hires, or marquee client partnerships to announce. But cybersecurity companies are treasure troves of internal threat data which can form the glue between your company and journalists writing their next story.

Banking on your data

Many companies in the cybersecurity space have access to vast repositories of data, which can be enhanced to tell new and compelling stories about current trends in the market in which you operate.
In other words, what are the current patterns your product is experiencing, and what can this tell us about the broader cybersecurity landscape? What modes of cyberattacks are most prevalent for your users? What security tools are most in demand from customers and prospects? What kinds of companies need your product and services? Internal data could reveal interesting data security trends in whatever verticals you serve.
Suddenly, an array of internal performance data becomes an insightful take on the wider industry and reinforces why businesses should invest in cybersecurity, and your product in particular.

Data-driven journalism

Journalists love data. Data offers hard evidentiary proof points in an inherently opinion-driven media world. When creating and pitching stories to journalists, you need to consider why it’s important to readers and what value you can add. A great way of doing this is by providing data, since this grants credibility to stories and gives real-world context. Media pitches backed up by data in the form of numbers, charts, graphs, tables, or interactive infographics offer a clear story map that makes a journalist’s life easier. Nowhere is this more important than the cybersecurity trade media like Beta News, Security Boulevard, and ZDNet – in the evolving landscape of cybersecurity threats, readers are concerned about the measurable risk that current and future trends pose to themselves and their businesses.
Thankfully, with new technologies at the hands of cyber criminals, no subsector is too niche for journalists, whether it be hardware security, Kubernetes, identity and access management, and many others. This presents an opportunity for you to become an industry data leader by offering market research that can’t be sourced from anywhere else.

Become a market research go-to source

The goal is to ultimately become the go-to data bank for journalists when they are writing their next stories. For instance, this could be commissioned yearly as an annual report, meaning over time, you can become known for something. For example, longtime Aspectus client and award-winning anti-malware solution provider Malwarebytes produces an annual and quarterly Ransomware Report, detailing ransomware attack trends. Cybersecurity trade outlets including InfoSecurity Magazine published articles on Malwarebytes’ 2023 spring report, noting that the UK’s education sector was the most targeted industry in 2022-23.

However, a conglomeration of internal data and a cutting-edge market report are two very different things. Getting there requires knowing exactly what your end goal is and how this can be rolled out to maximise your return on investment.

Data-driven PR builds credibility and good media relations

Survey research reports present robust opportunities for PR and marketing campaigns and content. Cybersecurity companies that conduct periodic surveys of industry participants or target audiences can generate data-driven storylines that not only can attract media attention but also can be repurposed into valuable content for blog posts, LinkedIn campaigns, white papers, and conference presentations. This can elevate a company’s voice of authority in its space, positioning executives as credible thought leaders and attracting new business. For some tips on conducting PR survey campaigns, see this earlier post.

As communications professionals, we have our fingers on the pulse of the cybersecurity news cycle. We also have longstanding and very personal relationships with the journalists who would be interested in your products. Moreover, our cybersecurity sector expertise means not only that we grasp the technical details of the industry, but we also are keyed in to the latest trends and news in the cybersecurity mediascape. We can therefore connect the dots between your business and their next article, which results in building media relations that pays dividends again and again.

Most importantly, we can work with you to create a creative, but relevant report topic that customers, prospects, and media can look forward to.

There is a lot to digest starting out in this process, so if you want to know how to make the most of your internal data, get in touch.

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Always-on: your protection against the triple forget threat

By Ellie Jackson, Chief Client Strategy Officer

Samwise Gamgee. Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. Bat-girl. Most heroes have a trusty sidekick. It’s a well-understood trope of fiction: the dashing, if occasionally volatile, hero/ine needs a steady counterpart. The one who can be relied upon. They might not take center stage, but without them, the whole house of cards would come crashing down.

That’s how I think of campaigns vs. always-on. Naturally as marketers, we tend to think in campaign cycles. When it comes to new business pitches, our big focus will be the exciting campaign idea. At the end of our careers, it will be the big campaigns that we remember. But that mustn’t lead us to downplay the importance of always-on.

Always-on is our protection against what I call the triple threat of memory decay, competitor noise and competing priorities. Let me break that down a bit…

Memory decay

It’s the nature of memory to decay from the moment something is no longer in front of us – that’s just how the brain works. The speed of that decay will vary based on the impact the exposure had, the length of time that’s passed since and the other things competing for attention – but in all instances, it’s something we marketers are up against.

Competitor activity

If we accept the general premise that people have a certain capacity of mental availability for different aspects of their working life, we accept that we have to share our space with our direct and indirect competitors. And that means any activity from our competitors could hasten the memory decay for us.

Competing priorities

Related to the above, are simply the other priorities that will pull the focus from our product or service – especially if we straddle the line between ‘business-critical’ and ‘nice-to-have’, or where we’re trying to displace an existing supplier.

This ‘triple threat’ is especially damaging in our specialist sectors. We’re not in the business of FMCG: the majority of our clients’ prospects are actively in-market relatively infrequently. And because we know that – even for high mental involvement purchases like our clients’ products and services – top-of-mind awareness plays a high part in final purchase outcomes, we must prioritize springing to mind at the right moment.

Campaigns alone cannot deliver this. Sure – done successfully they’ll deliver the peaks of attention that should hold some degree of retention. But this is where we need ‘always-on’ to fill in the gaps – because we don’t know when they’ll suddenly shift into an active buyer state.

As Maria-Angela Sanzone, Head of Paid Social at JPMorgan Chase, said recently at Advertising Week New York: “It comes down to repetition and eliminating dark periods so that you always have a presence. It’s the right place with the right message at their right time, not a right time.”

If you’d like support balancing your campaigns and always-on activity, contact our team.

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Hold that thought – why marketers need to stop having so many new ideas

By Ellie Jackson, Chief Client Strategy Officer

People who work in marketing and communications tend to be ‘ideas people’. The appeal of the new shiny thing is considerable. But as an industry, this can sometimes cross the boundary from help to hindrance. 

Over the last year or so there’s been a growing chorus of voices, suggesting – based on empirical analysis – that the concept of ‘wear-out’ might be having undue influence on campaign planning. ‘Wear-out’ is simply the idea that advertising campaigns lose effectiveness over time, as consumers become bored by them and look for something new. 

But we must remember the first rule of marketing: think as your intended audience, not as yourself.  

If we put ourselves in the shoes of our clients and prospects, we’ll see two things. First, that we are rather more obsessed with the shiny new thing than they are, particularly in the industries we focus on here at Aspectus, where trust is fundamental as the stakes are typically high. Second – and perhaps more fundamentally, we’ll realize that we are much more likely to feel bored by long-running campaigns that we have been living and breathing for some time, compared to the intended audience who will engage with them only periodically, and with a lower intensity than we do. 

This analysis (particular h/t to Kantar, System1 and Analytic Partners, and recent commentary from Mark Ritson in Marketing Week) has been focused on the advertising industry – where some of the best effectiveness analysis takes place because that’s where the money is. But it’s worth thinking about how that could be applied more broadly across the marketing mix. 

Of course, when it comes to media relations, there is a requirement for activity to move with the news agenda. But while the specifics of a piece of content might change, it’s critical that there is consistency of message and theme over a longer period – otherwise you’ll never really get to be known for anything. Too often we see clients jump from one topic to another, or even one segment or broader strategy to another, without giving the campaigns a chance to take root. 

We must retain that audience lens – our clients and prospects are typically juggling a lot of competing priorities, they may not actively be in market for our services right now, and therefore we can only grasp a relatively small slice of their attention, and there is more noise coming at them than ever before. That pushes us to stick with themes for longer, but make them work and stretch harder, across multiple channels in creatively varying ways to catch attention. 

The added bonus to that, of course, is that you get more value from a single idea or flagship piece of content. And given the effort that goes into getting these things right, it’s critical to extract maximum value from them. So, invest more in marketing the idea, rather than constantly having a new one. 

If you’d like to talk about how to get messages to take root, or how to extract more value from your marketing content, then contact us. 

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Aspectus celebrates stellar growth

Aberdeen remains a key strategic hub for global agency. 

Aberdeen, UK, 26th September 2023: Aspectus, the global brand, marketing and communications agency, reported rapid growth in the last 12 months, achieving global revenues of £12m – a 25% increase on the previous year – driven by a combination of increasing client demand, the introduction of new services and the agency’s formal expansion in Asia. 

Scotland has been an area of bumper growth. Earlier this year, the agency doubled its capacity by relocating to larger office in the heart of Aberdeen city and expanded its footprint with hires in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Aspectus now employs 12 people throughout Scotland, serving clients across the energy and industrials, financial services and tech sectors. 

In the last 12 months Aspectus, which recently rebranded, appointed a new Head of Southeast Asia to lead its expansion in the region. The company also launched its formal ESG offering to help guide companies’ communications on environmental, social and governance issues as the operating environment for global business evolves.  

Laura Iley, who opened the agency’s Aberdeen office in 2016 and is now Chief Commercial Officer at Aspectus, comments: “Having established our presence in Aberdeen seven years ago, Scotland continues to play a vital role in the agency’s success, where we see huge opportunity across all our core sectors.  

“Aberdeen has always been a gateway to international markets. Excitingly, our recent expansion in Asia means we now have a foothold in three continents – offering Scottish clients a truly global service, grounded in local knowledge.” 

Megain Buchan, Head of Energy and Industrials, says: “In addition to our financial services, capital markets and technology specialists, we have a dedicated team of energy experts here in Scotland, with ambitions to grow alongside the businesses transforming the sector. The atmosphere and attendance at Offshore Europe this month was a superb showcase for the range and diversity of opportunities in our evolving energy sector – and the role Scottish businesses have to play in it. We’re excited about the future and passionate about helping brands tell their energy transition stories in a way that drives real business outcomes.  

“The talent pool is crucial too – it was one of the drivers for establishing our Scottish presence in the first place. We pride ourselves on our deep sector expertise, and having access to local talent with hand-on industry experience has been a key driver of our growth.” 

Aspectus currently employs 100 people globally and has offices in Aberdeen, London, New York, Singapore, and Lucerne. 

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How to write a B2B website brief

By Edward Wilkins, Head of Design & UX

There are nuances to nailing a B2B website brief. Here’s our guide to getting it right.

In the dynamic landscape of B2B interactions, a well-structured website is a powerful asset. However, achieving this requires careful planning, user-centric design, and robust development practices (as well as a fair bit of empathy between clients and partners). Here’s our guide to helping you navigate these crucial aspects when creating a B2B website brief. 

Download brief template

Planning and Research: Building a Solid Foundation

Understand Your Audience’s Pain Points 

While seemingly an obvious point, the nuances of this in the B2B world are not. Gartner reported 77% of B2B customers describe making a purchase as “very complex or difficult” often having to work with 6-10 people to come to a decision. We need to ensure we speak to each one of these stakeholders through your website so they can find it and then understand the value you bring in all its potential complexity.  

“Websites are emotional beasts and even the most beautiful might not necessarily perform. To make the process as effective as possible, you need to work with a team that not only understands how to design and develop a website but also understands your industry inside-out so every page has a purpose.” 

Lucinda Armitage-Price
Head of Digital & Integrated Communications

Headshot of Lucinda Armitage-Price, head of digital

Clarify Your Unique Value Proposition 

Everyone knows it but this is about challenging it and getting it set in concrete. There should be no guesswork and no assumptions. As your website is often the first port of call between a user and your brand, it needs to convey a concise and compelling value proposition that clearly communicates why potential clients should choose your solutions.

A study by The CMO Council highlights that B2B buyers are 47% more likely to engage with a vendor who’s value proposition is easily interpreted. The more we can know about your brand, values, USP’s, messaging and tone of voice, the easier it will be for us to plot the key messages of your proposition across identified user journeys. If your brand identity and value proposition is not yet identified, a website project is the perfect time to address them.

Supporting these key messages should be carefully curated page copy that provides in-depth information about products, services, and solutions. This means enquiring about the copywriting capabilities of your agency and ensuring they have a track record for delivering website copy within your sector, it’s industry-specific jargon and technical details. 

Understand how your website fits into the buying journey 

B2B sales teams’ direct interactions with prospects are becoming much more succinct. Often now about providing very specific, technical information before closing. Instead, buyers expect digital platforms to provide the bulk of the information they require. In fact, Gartner ‘expects that by 2025, 80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur in digital channels’.

This means conventional website design methods tailored for B2C fall short in addressing the requirements of B2B customers. If your customers are businesses, you must treat them as such by implementing good B2B website design techniques, SEO foundations, and knowing how your site should be leveraged to support your wider marketing activity.  

Make sure to list all the types of content you would like to include on your site. This is less about page content, and instead about the content we either want to use to bring users into the site, keep them there or download and take away. For example news posts, blogs, videos, tutorials, fact sheets and case studies etc. Give your agency an idea of what you know has worked well in the past or what you’d like to do more of. Even better, if in scope, ask them to include a launch promotion strategy so marketing and your website are aligned from the start.

UX Design: Navigating Complexity with Intuitive Experiences 

Simplify Navigation and Structure 

In B2B, where time is of the essence, seamless navigation is paramount. While B2B businesses may want to promote intricate products or services, your navigation needs to be intuitive and straightforward. Don’t be afraid to reference examples of site structures and menu designs, within your space or beyond, that you feel serve as helpful food for thought. Your agency should be doing this too, but it’s always helpful to get your thinking to inform initial discussions. 

Highlight Credibility and Trust 

Build trust through UX design. Incorporate client testimonials, case studies, and certifications. In B2B industries, Team and Board members are often the most viewed pages after Home and Solutions. Make sure to give an idea of how much visibility of your team you’d like to show on the website. For example, should this stay specifically to your management team or include wider expertise? Would you like each to include a full bio or link solely to their LinkedIn profiles? 

“Exceptional UX design isn’t just a luxury for B2B websites; it’s the bridge that transforms complex solutions into intuitive experiences, fostering connections that elevate businesses.”

Edward Wilkins
Head of Design & UX 

Optimize for Mobile Responsiveness 

The importance of mobile-friendly design is by no means a new thing. However, we’re always surprised to still see businesses that have yet to get it right. Put simply, mobile optimization is no longer optional. With Statista reporting that mobile devices account for over half of global web traffic, your B2B website must be responsive across various devices. Stress the importance of responsive design, ask how it’s approached and enquire about your agency’s accessibility, browser and device testing methods. 

Development and Technical Considerations: Building for Performance 

Prioritize Speed and Performance 

Page speed is paramount. A Google study found that as page load time increases from 1 to 10 seconds, the probability of a mobile site visitor bouncing increases by 123%. Unlike B2C websites that tend to have a wider target market, the impact of technical issues like page speed are far more problematic if they impede the limited and hugely valuable interactions of your select audience. Your website brief should include a strong emphasis on optimized code, efficient hosting, and overall performance. 

Integrate CRM and Marketing Automation 

B2B relationships often require effective nurturing. By integrating CRM and marketing automation systems, your website can seamlessly capture leads and facilitate personalized follow-ups.  

“Sound development practices lay the foundation for B2B websites, shaping not just user experience, but the credibility and trust that drive lasting business relationships.” 
 

Marko Batarilo
Senior Development Lead

Secure Data Handling and Privacy 

Data security is a critical concern in B2B transactions. The Cisco 2021 Security Outcomes Study reveals that 85% of security professionals believe improving security can lead to competitive advantage. Your website brief should address the necessity of strong data encryption, GDPR compliance, and secure user authentication. 

Search engine optimization 

All elements that have been discussed are imperative for search engines to recognize your website as a trusted source and therefore ranking it as high as possible. The design needs to have a clear flow with content that really speaks to its audience and areas such as site speed and responsiveness will feed those algorithms the good stuff and with an ongoing program, you can expect your website to continue to perform. 

Ready to get started?  

Download our briefing template below now. 

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How professional services firms can edge out the competition this Q4 by refreshing communications strategies

By Kirsten Scott, Deputy Head of Financial Services

Rod Stewart famously sang, “It’s late September and I really should be back at school.” The boys (and girls) of summer are indeed gone. If you were lucky enough to have holiday time off in August, you are probably already steeped in an unrelenting race to meet Q3 objectives and end of the year objectives. After a few years of robust revenue and productivity growth, the professional services industries now expect growth to level off considerably under suffocating macroeconomic trends. Both the US and UK economies remain plagued by high interest rates and inflation, and flat growth. Experts project the UK will finish with only 0.4% GDP growth in 2023, while the US will come in around 2%. Further, analysts downgraded their 2024-2025 expectations, noting the interest rates will not drop to pre-pandemic levels anytime soon.

Legal, accounting, consulting, and other professional services leaders now return from summer holidays poised to tackle growth-hampering headwinds like shrinking margins, increased competition, talent shortages, and regulatory changes. We talked to some of the professional services sector experts here at Aspectus to glean some insights into how professional services firms can ensure they stand out in the second half of 2023 and how they should ramp up communications approaches for the rest of the year.

Appraise the competition’s media communications footprint

Communications, marketing, and PR leaders spend so much time focused inward, advancing their firms’ media and messaging strategies, that it is easy to lose a handle on what competitor firms are saying in the mediascape. It’s a challenge to break through the noise in the crowded professional services industry, and with firms being impacted by macroeconomic conditions, everyone needs to work that much harder to increase or maintain market share. Just as in other business functions like product development and client service, professional services firms should assess how competitors are talking to their stakeholders and positioning themselves in the media. And when we say assess what they are doing, we don’t just mean taking a quick scan of their website, recent media hits, or asking industry peers their opinions of the competition. We mean really checking under the bonnet.

PR and marketing managers should dig into which communications channels they are using, how frequently they are using them, what topics and themes are they talking about – and then assess which messaging tactics you should mirror, and where there could be whitespace on which to capitalize. Firms should choose a couple of top competitors and generate a landscape analysis, an assessment of competitors’ media exposure in comparison to their own. They can execute a comparative analysis of website, keywords, and SEO performance. If you can figure out what thought leadership conversations firms are having in the media, you can get a grip on how they are positioning themselves in the market. Effectively, it’s a media SWOT analysis (who said they were only for a firm’s overall business position?), and they are a great way to evaluate your position in the market and make necessary communications strategy adjustments to improve or refine your positioning for Q4.

Reassess and refine your brand messaging

Now that you know where your firm stands against the competition in the media, you can make some tactical changes to retool your approach or upgrade your marketing or PR game, wherever it needs to be. PR, marketing, and communications executives will often revisit their brand’s messaging when a firm goes through a big change like a merger/acquisition, a change in value proposition, a rebranding, or brand refresh. However, they should also periodically revisit their brand messaging platform in accordance with changing market conditions or, as noted above, competitor positioning.

A messaging house is a master comms bible document of sorts in which a company formalizes how it communicates with its target audiences and all stakeholders. This document should be a North Star that any public facing department uses to communicate to stakeholders, from prospects and talent to investors and shareholders. All too often reviewing your firm’s messaging is a task that slips to the bottom of the list. But the last couple of years have seen constant disruptions, whether it’s been the pandemic, rapid digitization, or increased ESG expectations, we have seen a massive shift in what clients value and what they want from their advisers. Communications and marketing leaders should devote time to a refined messaging house document to ensure that their messaging platform is continually consistent, aligned with overall PR objectives, and stands up to scrutiny.

Creativity sparks engagement from key audiences

Whilst trust and relationships are of paramount importance to professional services firms, that doesn’t mean there is no room for creativity in marketing and communications. Especially for marketers who feel stuck in a rut in which their digital communications have grown stale and repetitive, a concentrated effort on considered creativity can help stimulate more compelling content. Our own creative director Daniel George coined the term to crystallize how we strive to deliver elevated campaigns and content by combining our right- and left-brain talents.

Considered creativity means we use our bright creative minds not merely to be creative for creativity’s sake, but combining raw creativity with intelligent insights about both the client’s PR and business objectives and the sector’s most relevant, trending issues. The best way to stand out, grab attention, and demand action from prospects is to ignite a spark in their mind that hasn’t been lit before through bold, attention-grabbing content – whether a social post, an op-ed byline, white paper, press release, video, or other. You want to be talked about for all the right reasons, and getting creative is the best way to control the narrative, start conversations, and engage the right target audiences.

Inspire the right target audiences

As an industry that relies on human capital and expertise, its firms put a premium on optimizing how they talk to their key audiences, how they position themselves in the market, and how they communicate their brands to all stakeholders. A 2023 Mavenlink research report revealed that increased competition was the number one challenge for businesses in the professional services sector, followed by managing changing client expectations at number two. Firms can separate themselves from the competition in Q4 by refreshing their strategic marketing and communications strategies to align with tightening economic conditions, changing consumer expectations, and a noisy mediascape. According to Thomson Reuters Institute’s 2023 State of the U.K. Legal Market report, “Firms need to re-consider how they present and deliver value to their clients. The key lies in understanding and meeting client needs…” Clear communication of a firm’s value proposition requires that all internal and external communications are consistent, compelling, and convincing – it’s the only way to drive change and make a sustained impact.

If any of this has got you interested in what you can elevate your marketing strategy this year, get in touch with our team of global experts.

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Lehman Brothers 15 years on: why communication is king

By Madalena Thirsk, Account Executive, Capital Markets, Aspectus

September 1844, a Bavarian man and his two brothers arrived in New York full of hope and aspirations for a new life in the land of opportunity. September 2008, 164 years later, their legacy – Lehman Brothers – would collapse into bankruptcy, triggering the biggest financial crisis the world had ever seen.

The collapse was largely due to the firm’s involvement in trading complex derivatives, such as mortgage-backed securities, and the subsequent exposure to the subprime mortgage market. When the market turned sour, the value of these securities plummeted. The credit default swaps (CDS) contracts linked to these securities then amplified the losses, leading to the firm’s collapse.

The crisis highlighted the importance of clear and transparent communication as a crucial tool for maintaining financial stability and managing market expectations. One and a half decades later, there have been notable improvements in the way central banks and regulators communicate risks surrounding derivative instruments. Take the issue of forward guidance as a prime case in point. Central banks, including the Bank of England and the Fed, have increasingly used forward guidance as a key communications tool. This involves providing guidance to financial markets and the public around the likely future path of monetary policy – helping to manage expectations and provide greater clarity on the central bank’s intentions.

Central banks have also become more transparent about their policy frameworks, objectives, and decision-making processes. They often publish detailed policy statements, meeting minutes, and economic forecasts to provide insights into their thinking. In fact, the vast majority of major central banks now hold regular press conferences following policy meetings to explain their decisions and answer questions from journalists. This practice allows for real-time communication with the public and the media.

Then there is the social media factor, which has grown in importance considerably since 2008. Central banks and regulators have largely embraced social media platforms as a medium through which to disseminate information and engage with the public. Platforms like X are now used to communicate policy decisions and provide updates on economic conditions. Meanwhile, sites such as LinkedIn play a vital role in sharing information to address global financial stability concerns that emerge in international forums.

These advancements in communication are intended to enhance transparency, build credibility, and manage expectations in financial markets and the broader economy. Clear, timely and effective communication helps reduce uncertainty, foster trust, and allow central banks and regulators to better achieve their policy objectives.

The US regional banking crisis earlier this year (which had a slight whiff of Lehman about it) should reinforce why central banks and watchdogs must maintain their commitment to public communication. And today’s anniversary is a timely reminder. The importance of providing clear guidance on policies, actions, and intentions concerning derivatives cannot be understated.

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Measuring What Matters: Missteps in Marketing Reporting (and how to fix them)

By Ellie Jackson, Chief Client Strategy Officer

One of the fascinating things about being in marketing in the last decade or so has been the evolution of digital marketing and how that’s affected measurement and reporting. For the first time, we have been able to link campaigns, content and coverage to shifts in the quantity and quality of web traffic. That data not only shows us what has and what hasn’t worked but is also a directional steer for future campaigns.

The seductive nature of short-term metrics

Take media relations, which has traditionally been considered hard to measure. Efforts like AMEC’s Barcelona Principles have made good headway, but when you get into the details, it’s still an area of much debate. Against that backdrop, the transparency of digital marketing reporting has been seductive. There’s been a drive to measure more and more marketing activity in this way – assessing short-term ROI based on clicks and conversions.  A recent study from the LinkedIn B2B Institute found that of 4,000 B2B marketers, just four per cent were measuring the effect of campaigns beyond six months. 

It’s tempting. And there’s no denying that it’s useful to see when a piece of coverage has prompted a rise in traffic or branded search, and how that traffic has performed. We can see that the coverage is being seen by the right people and prompting immediate engagement. 

But this is where we need to be careful not to overreach. What we’re doing here is using short-term, lead generation metrics to assess a tactic from the long-term brand-building stable. This is valuable information, but it’s only part of the picture. It’s like judging a marathon by how fast the runners cover the first 100 meters. 

The Long and the Short of it

If you’re familiar with Binet and Field’s work The Long and the Short of it, skip on down a couple of paragraphs. If not, let me explain what I mean. It’s useful to think of marketing as having two broad elements: long-term brand-building, and short-term ‘performance marketing’ or sales activation. Success comes from the right combination of the two, which both feed and feed off each other. 

The ‘long’ is about brand-building: strengthening your brand awareness and perceptions over time to increase brand salience – the likelihood of your brand being top of mind at the point of purchase. When it comes to big B2B purchases – an area in which we specialize, the chances are that only around five to ten per cent of your audience is actively looking to buy at any given time. So, a big part of the game is ensuring that your brand is first to mind when your prospect moves into the buying cycle. Because even for high-mental-involvement purchases, supported by buying committees and procurement teams, lots of research indicates that being one of the top brands to spring to mind initially has a high correlation with eventual purchase. 

Another central value of brand-building is the price premium you can command. Price is generally considered to be one of the biggest levers of profit growth, and one of the biggest contributors to price insensitivity is brand strength. So, it’s about future sales and the margin you can make on those future sales – which is of course a major part of how stock valuation is built. (For more on how to win internal conversations on the value of brand investment, see here.) 

Of course, all of that takes time, and must be complemented by the ‘short’: lead generation – the type that’s naturally more measurable because the path to purchase is more direct. 

Long-term metrics for long-term tactics

So, to pick up the thread: when we assess long-term tactics like brand-building – which is generally the primary aim of B2B media relations – by short-term metrics, we risk missing part of the picture. The truly meaningful measures of long-term brand-building efforts, such as media relations, are growth in brand awareness or salience, and brand perceptions versus direct and indirect competitors and how these change over time. 

Choosing the right reporting for you 

Where does that leave reporting? The first thing to say is that almost all reporting is valuable as long as you’re using it in the right way. A monthly list of coverage with details on the publication’s reach and overall view on KPI progress is a really helpful way to assess whether your media relations team is delivering what you agreed. Plenty of our clients opt for this route and it works well for them. 

If – as a growing number of our clients choose – you can get an integrated report that considers the full range of marketing tactics in the round and links aspects like coverage to web traffic, that is even better – as long as you recognize that this is only part of the value of the media relations program. 

Best of all, of course, is proper independent audience research, completed annually. That will show you the real impact of your activities and shape your future strategy. Of course, that costs money. Money well spent, I’d argue, since it allows you to optimize your broader marketing investment, but it’s not feasible for all. We’re a pragmatic bunch and are always exploring options to fit all budgets – whether that’s using Share of Search or smaller focus groups. 

Whatever route you choose, the key is to be intentional in the way you use it to ensure you’re not missing part of the picture.  

If any of this has whetted your appetite for more meaningful metrics, contact our team of strategists.  

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Webinar – ESG Communications in South East Asia

Have a listen to our panel of experts discussing the challenges of ESG communications in South East Asia. They share lessons learned in regards to branding, marketing and communications decisions surrounding ESG and debate the importance of stringent reporting to hold businesses accountable.

The brilliant Lynda Hong, Senior Environment Correspondent at The Straits Times moderated the discussion with our panel of experts being: 

  • Kavita Gandhi, Executive Director of the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS)
  • Ken Hickson, Founder and Chairman at Sustain Ability Showcase Asia (SASA) 
  • Joyce England, Head of Corporate Communications EMEA and APAC at Experian

We hope you enjoy. Please get in touch if you’d like to hear more about our ESG services.

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