We recently picked up a The Drum Award for tackling a real brand challenge: drive relevance with younger audiences and cement Harvester as a nationally loved brand, not just a nostalgic favourite. We went big on flavour — and even bigger on culture.  Partnering with a new generation of creator, TikTok's king of over-the-top food content, Elburritomonster (aka Oli Paterson), we launched a through-the-line influencer partnership spanning social content, in-restaurant activation, and menu innovation.  The content appeared everywhere — from TikTok to table talkers to curated menu flavour profiles. The results?  ⭐️ 12+ million impressions ⭐️ Awareness more than doubled amongst target audience (18-24s)  ⭐️ Thousands of directly attributable bookings  But what actually drove success? Picking the right partner with audience relevancy - and going all in - to build a campaign with impact.  We didn’t just want an influencer. We wanted a creator, someone who could bring energy, ideas and a genuine audience connection.  The right creator doesn't just drive views - they drive footfall, brand love, and cultural clout. If you want to chat more about our data-led approach to identifying and activating influence within the creator era, get in touch.

Corporate comms is evolving faster than ever before. To build a function that’s future-ready and remains relevant needs communications leaders to break down silos, blend strategy with agility, and bring sharp commercial insight to the table. The tools may change (hello AI), but the fundamentals - clear thinking, compelling storytelling, and deep business understanding - matter more than ever. We recently hosted a panel discussion with Andrew Cocks, Director of Corporate Affairs at Virgin Media O2, and Sophie Timms, Corporate Affairs Director at Kier, joined by other senior communications leaders. There was clear consensus on what it takes to future-proof a corporate comms function. Those who succeed will be the ones who can flex across disciplines, build trust through relevance, and consistently prove the value of communications in driving business outcomes. Here are our top takeaways from the session: Feeling busy? Perception is reality. The pace of change in corp comms over the last years has been ‘ferocious’, and what’s happened in the last 5 years has matched the previous 20.  All things to all people. Comms needs to be a one-stop shop. The future needs technical specialism but less focus on disciplines of specialism (internal comms, PR, public affairs, sustainability) - you won’t be able to meet the breadth or pace of challenges if you’re siloed. And you need to be able to readily pivot between tactical, strategic and big picture – often in short order. The press release is dead.  Well, not really, but many people entering the industry have never written one. Or pitched a journalist. But ignore the craft behind that at your peril - clarity of thought, demonstration of understanding, ability to distil information, and a deep understanding of the strategy - all backed up by data - is what the future needs.  Be commercial. It’s the only way corp comms will get a seat at the top table - AND be listened to. Speak their language - prove the value. Drop the comms speak. Really understand the business and its challenges. Is reading the secret sauce?  Building trust (and relevance) with senior stakeholders means being better and more widely read than anyone else - whether that’s TikTok or the FT. It has to be an embedded behaviour throughout the team.  The biggest unlock for corp comms: everyone understanding the business challenge. (And therefore writing better briefs). It’s frequently underestimated how little some members of a corp comms team - and external partners - understand the overall problem and why it needs to be solved. This leads to poor-quality briefs and a rush to plan tactical outputs that don’t deliver good outcomes. Don’t ignore the politics.  Politics will always exist. If you don’t get a handle on it, it will hamper future progress. No one except the in-house team can understand, navigate and mitigate this. Do the things only your inhouse team can do. We are still storytellers. It builds trust for both internal and external audiences. Facts and data need to be woven in but we shouldn’t lose the balance of comms - and that’s both emotional and rational. When done right, it can fundamentally change how people interact and view your business or brand (and comms!).  Comms vs Marketing. Who owns the brand? The business does... Ultimately, we have shared missions, shared objectives, but different levers to pull to achieve it. Temporary ‘soft’ structures or ‘centres of excellence’ around topics can be effective at creating a shared purpose without impacting the overall structure.  We were historically ‘scared’ of the impact of spell check. AI may change how we do comms, but it won’t rip everything up. It will raise the bar of what passes as ‘acceptable’ for outputs and deliver more opportunities, just as Google did for the minimum standard of knowledge. But interrogation is needed, and to keep a firm eye on how the human brain can enhance it.

TikTok for brands is exciting - not least as it offers the prospect of going ‘viral’ in a way long-vanished on Facebook and other platforms. TikTok for brands is exciting - not least as it offers the prospect of going ‘viral’ in a way long-vanished on Facebook and other platforms. But, as TikTok gets ever-bigger, does the promise of brand-viral TikToks still hold up? We dived into the data from a sizeable basket of TikTok accounts, focussed solely on organic (rather than paid) impact on content performance. We quantified this virality as how many times greater a video performed than the average for that account. We found: There has been no meaningful shift in the rate at which posts do x2 better than the average for an account However, above x5 performance for views vs the brand average TikTok performance has seen a considerable decrease What does it mean? To ‘blow up’ (x10 performance) on TikTok for a brand  is nearly half as likely as it was a year ago - reducing some of the potential benefit for brands. This could be corrected for by increasing post frequency, or by evolving tactics to optimise for virality. The single biggest predictor of virality is the share rate, giving direction as to the behaviours a video needs to trigger. The other route is to reset expectations, and measurement. Adjust KPIs to reflect the decrease in virality, and the steady (likely longer-term) drift towards brands seeing reduced organic distribution. It’s a path well-trodden for social platforms as they mature, forcing monetisation through ads to brands who see it as a core platform, hooked on the organic reach. In short - level up your tactics to continue enjoying the TikTok viral vibes.

Newsletters are not something you typically associate LinkedIn with, but with 28 million users now subscribed to a LinkedIn Newsletter, it’s a feature to (at least) be aware of (LinkedIn, 2023) . The next 3 minutes will give you an overview of what they are, usage benefits, considerations, and the role for brands/ individuals. To utilise Newsletters effectively, you need an understanding of LinkedIn Articles. Put shortly, these make up the individual pieces of content within a LinkedIn Newsletter.  Examples of LinkedIn articles - there are no newsletters without articles! Linkedin Articles - what are they?  Long-form pieces of content (similar to a blog), that can be discovered by anyone on LinkedIn and search engine Can be posted by brands or individuals (only brands can use paid media to promote them) Are shared with connections and followers on news feeds   Displayed in the activity section of a profile (screenshot to the right) LinkedIn Newsletters - what are they? They’re a collection of regularly published articles that LinkedIn users can subscribe to. In other words, without Articles there’s no Newsletter - the two work in unison with each other.  A LinkedIn Newsletter about Best Practices for Posting on LinkedIn - helpful! LinkedIn Newsletter mechanics  Once a newsletter is created, invites will automatically be sent to followers/ connections If a user signs up to the newsletter, they can choose to receive notifications directly to feeds or/and (dependent on preferences) straight to their inbox  When a user starts following a new account which has a newsletter, a notification inviting them to subscribe is automatically sent All LinkedIn members can discover, read, and share LinkedIn Newsletters How is this different from a LinkedIn article?  The main difference is distribution. Unlike articles, users can subscribe to Newsletters, receiving notifications upon posting. Some users may even opt to be notified directly through LinkedIn Messaging.  Placement also differs, with the two features having separate drop downs in the activity section on LinkedIn pages (see screenshot below).  Finding your newsletters on the activity dashboard. What are the benefits of LinkedIn Newsletters?  Given the overlap between Newsletters and Articles, many of the same benefits apply - we’ll start with these first. Often overlooked are the SEO gains of these features. Unlike LinkedIn posts, Articles/ Newsletter content ranks on search. If you Google “how is AI impacting marketing?” you’ll find that the fourth-ranked site is a LinkedIn news article , written more than a year ago. This means a brand's LinkedIn article could be ranked at the top of page for a relevant search query (for years, potentially) - this presents a huge opportunity to generate qualified leads from search.  With a character limit of 125,000 per article, you’re able to deep dive into a subject, showcasing your expertise. It also offsets any negative changes you would otherwise make to a LinkedIn post to stay within the 3,000 character limit. This includes removing important content, or deprioritising your post through adding a website link with further information (LinkedIn wants users to stay in-app).  Newsletter specific benefits  It should come as no surprise, but subscribed users are far more likely to consume your content vs those who are not.  If you already have a newsletter sent on email, you might still be questioning why you should switch to LinkedIn Newsletters. Put simply, there’s a greater chance LinkedIn subscribers will read it, with LinkedIn messages having 4x higher open rates compared to traditional email (Semrush, 2025) . Along with this, LinkedIn Newsletters are more likely to generate engagements from your target audience - it’s quicker to leave a comment than to reply back on email.  LinkedIn Newsletters - What to Consideration   Although there’s opportunity to capitalise on SEO benefits and showcasing expertise, there’s also an opportunity cost. Publishing regular LinkedIn Articles for a Newsletter is no small task - the time it takes to write one article could be spent creating 5 LinkedIn posts.  Although there is no weekly or monthly requirement to post Newsletter content, it does need new articles continuously added. Without this, you risk losing subscribers and the users who have joined your Newsletter/ community. With this in mind, make sure your Newsletter covers a topic that you can write in-depth on, and that you’re able to post about on a regular basis. Finally, not everything needs to be made into an Article, some things are better left as posts.  A quick note on Execs   Given the growing importance of individuals on LinkedIn, should execs be creating newsletters? In short, yes. Users are more likely to engage with an individual representing a brand, rather than the brand page itself. This is reflected in engagement data (OneFifty Consultancy, 2024) , with Executives generating an average of 28% more engagements per post, despite having less than 10% the following of their brands (between July 2023 to July 2024). If we apply this to article leads from search, you can clearly see why individuals should be utilising LinkedIn Newsletters on behalf of brands.

Here’s how you can hear more (or less) from your company… Getting the attention of your employees can be hard to come by, but their engagement(s) on LinkedIn is a huge factor in the success of the brand page. The removal of some key employer features on LinkedIn makes reaching employees and tracking their activity more difficult, but far from impossible. Read on to see how you can still directly notify employees but won’t  be able to automatically see all their post activity due to the removal of the  Employee Advocacy  tab. Removal of LinkedIn’s My Company tab, Employee Advocacy tab, and curator admin role Recently, LinkedIn announced that the My Company  tab, Employee Advocacy  tab, and  curator admin role  will be gradually discontinued beginning in November 2024. Whilst the My Company  and Employee Advocacy  tab will completely disappear (read on to see how you can retain that all-important analytic data) the  curator admin role will automatically transition into the analyst role - it’s essentially the same functionality and permissions just without the Employee Advocacy features.  Find out here. How to ‘Notify Employees’ on LinkedIn with ease… Despite the above, page admins will still be pretty powerful in terms of reaching current employees. You can share your company’s content by: Resharing your employees' best @mentions and posts from the Feed  tab in your dashboard Notify employees of your most important posts to boost organic reach And to see the impact of this almighty function, to see the reach and engagement generated by notifying your employees of Page posts, all you need to do is view your post analytics. These posts will be labeled with employees notified - it doesn’t appear on exports though, only through the platform. Find out more here . Some common pitfalls to avoid when notifying your employees on LinkedIn Seems pretty simple, right? Well, actually, not all employees are notified immediately - LinkedIn don’t provide any guidance on why that’s the case and when they would be notified by - there’s also a few other things to be aware of: Employees are actually defined as: members who’ve listed a (current) employer’s Page in the  Work Experience  portion of their profile Employees will be notified on both desktop and  mobile that their employer has shared a post with them through their notification updates Notifications may take several hours to be processed and delivered You can only notify employees once every 24 hours Why can’t I notify my employees on LinkedIn? Some companies won’t be able to notify employees, there’s a few reasons why. Companies with 0 or 1 associated employees can’t notify them. You’re also unable to notify employees if they’ve already been notified about the post or if the post has been targeted (or geolocated). How to notify employees on LinkedIn How can I retain employee advocacy information on LinkedIn? Holders of one of the admin  roles, will need to export analytics as soon as possible to retain this data. You can also access the data from your Page, including the My Company tab, using the Pages Data Portability API.  Exporting LinkedIn Employee Advocacy Analytics So, what next? All page admins can continue to notify employees for the foreseeable future, but with the removal of LinkedIn’s My Company  tab, Employee Advocacy  tab, and curator admin  role, it would be sensible to export analytics that you may  need in the future.

Navigating the digital landscape (and doing it well) is more critical than ever for corporate brands and reputations. Much like the Financial Times, LinkedIn plays a pivotal role in reaching key audiences for senior executives; mastering the professional platform to connect, influence, and protect corporate interests is now indispensable. We first started to notice LinkedIn shifting to prioritise personal pages over brand pages in 2022 across the brands and senior executives we worked with, and our recent research proved it , showing that: Average engagements increased by 32% for execs between July 23 and July 24 CEOs will get 35% more engagements on LinkedIn compared to their brands despite having less than 10% of the following We recently had the opportunity to discuss this with the LinkedIn team at an event at our offices in London, and co-founder Katie summed the key points up in   this post. Here's what LinkedIn's personal analytics looks like, looking at impressions over the course of a year. Cue - Creator Analytics - LinkedIn analytics for personal pages LinkedIn Analytics isn’t a new feature, but one that is rising in prominence as senior executives explore the benefits of a regular content schedule on their personal pages.  Why do we like it? OneFifty approaches any activity with a solid data and analytics foundation. We always ask what works, what doesn’t, and how you can tell whether your efforts are making a meaningful difference to your company's marketing—LinkedIn personal analytics is one way we can do this.   What analytics does LinkedIn offer for creators and personal pages, and where can I find my stats?   LinkedIn Analytics are free to download, and we’ve linked to the two main views on LinkedIn Analytics below: Impressions Engagements You can view your results online, or LinkedIn offers the opportunity to download a CSV of data, allowing you to explore metrics and statistics such as impressions, engagement, top posts, and demographics in more depth.  Want to know who is seeing your content? Job titles is a great way to ensure you're reaching the right people. Why should brands and/or senior executives care about this? Maintaining an active presence on LinkedIn is more than just building a personal brand and finding job opportunities. For senior leadership within organisations, it’s a way of building brand presence and driving preference for your company by putting the people in the organisation at the heart of it.  People like to hear from people, and want to work with people. Or, as we say, people > pages.

As a general rule in our industry, once you go client side, you never go back. Sarah Carey talks us through why she joined OneFifty. So when Alex and Katie asked me to join them at OneFifty, leaving my cushy 9-5 job behind and jumping back into the world of client management, it’s fair to say I was a little apprehensive. I’ve known Alex and Katie for years (in fact we met when I was Alex’s client at Just Eat ) so I knew it wouldn’t be so bad, and even if it was, I could always get another client-side job anyway. So I followed my gut and took the plunge, handing in my notice and saying goodbye to an easy life of gossiping in the kitchen, having meetings about meetings and cutting agency budgets. I’m now four months in and I’ve decided to write this blog post about what scared me most about the transition, for anybody else who needs a little push to leave their 9-5 and make the leap into the world of consulting. 1: Switching off / on The thing that scared me most of all was losing my work life balance. Having a job in an industry that switched on at 9am and switched off at 5pm on the dot meant I was free to spend the rest of my time doing whatever I want. Since starting at One Fifty, I’ve barely even looked at a watch, and I’m not sure I’ve ever left at 5pm! My house is definitely less tidy than it used to be, and I have to get up earlier than ever to fit in a morning run; the balance has definitely skewed in the work direction... But the thing is, this doesn’t really bother me at all like I thought it might. Yes, I might have to deal with a client crisis during the weekend, and yes, I’ve chosen to write this at 9pm at night, but I’m never bored, and I’ve found that being busy and doing things at the time that suits me is pretty good. Why? Because when I choose to switch off, it’s my choice, and when I choose to switch on, I’m ready to work. 2: Ownership When you work client side, you have a product, a brand or an experience that’s yours, and you take enormous pride in it. You hate your competitors and you dedicate yourself to building something, and you get to see results. I was nervous that I’d hate working for other people’s brands, and I’d be jealous or resentful of them, and that I wouldn’t feel a sense of ownership over what I was producing. But I’m pleased to say it’s been completely the opposite! I’ve realised that although I don’t have ownership of the brands I’m helping to market in the same way I once did, I have ownership of their experience of OneFifty, and that’s just as good. The joy of working at a startup means you see every effect your input has on clients, and you’re proud of producing great work. It also means you’re accountable when you mess something up, and that responsibility can be daunting sometimes, but it drives you to do the best you can. 3: People can be annoying, and that’s okay I won’t lie; sometimes clients can be frustrating. I’ve been one, so I know. Sometimes budgets get cut, sometimes you have to stay late to deliver a project they decided they wanted at the last minute, and sometimes they just change their mind for no reason. It sucks. Having been a nightmare client, I was understandably nervous about being on the other side! The beauty of switching from client to consultant means you have a level of understanding where it comes from, because you’ve been through what they’re going through. Not only can you can build better relationships because of it, but it helps you to understand that clients are humans too, and not totally evil (maybe just a little bit evil). So all in all, I’m knackered, and I really need to tidy my house, but if you ask me whether it’s worth ditching your boring 9-5 for something a little bit less predictable, the answer is definitely yes.

Social media jobs and internships - what are we doing? Being architects of what comes next requires, well, ‘architects’ (we are yet to hire an actual architect, for the avoidance of confusion – it’s a term we use to cover clients, colleagues and partners in identifying what next will be, and building it). We do this by hiring the best, then giving them the opportunity to explore their excellence, in what we call a ‘coaching culture’. We focus on ‘coaching’, as people have a higher degree of autonomy and self-direction than in many workplaces, but we are performance-orientated. Coaching ensures that excellence grows, with a singular focus on driving individual and collective performance. The way our team spend their days reflects that. A key component of hiring the best is ‘growing our own’. We work at the cutting edge of a rapidly evolving industry, and we have a long-term aim for half the team to have started their careers with us. Why? We think it is a strong driver of culture, it’s a strong indicator of career development opportunities being present in abundance, and, frankly, we believe we can better equip people to learn to be architects of what comes next than anyone else. 2021 sees us build on the strengths of the internships we’ve run since our early months, which have formed the entry point for new talent. This year, to help fuel our continued growth, we’re expanding our entry-level recruitment to three distinct opportunities: Our existing 3-6 month social and digital internships will continue. They’ve identified brilliant people, many of whom work as experienced team members today. We advertise these when we have need – keep an eye on our LinkedIn page . These are open to any applicants. At the time of writing, we’ve got an Influencer Relationship Internship live We are introducing a Trainee scheme . All the details to apply here – but the key thing is that this is a programme to hire University graduates into the business on a permanent basis, with a structured one year programme We are creating 3-month Headstart internships – which are only available to people who AREN’T University graduates (or currently studying at University). This opportunity is based on some brilliant people we’ve had working with us, who hadn’t felt University was right for them. The opportunity has specific support built to create the ‘headstart’ to develop skills needed for architects of next which aren’t typically developed during school. You can apply here Lean more about our commitment to equality. This range of different opportunities is designed to ensure that the best talent can join, develop and grow within the team. As with everything we do, it’s based on analysing data – from our hiring to date, and the wider market, with the goal of driving excellence. Let’s create what comes next. Meet the team.

Principal Consultant Sarah Carey tells us why her weekends are for studying mental health… One of the unusual things about OneFifty is that, aside from what we call a ‘universal skills minimum’, we’re pretty self-directed in our professional development (learn more about how we grow great people here ). There isn’t one particular course somebody has to take to progress in their role, we don’t force people to take a day away from their desk to learn about time management skills (the irony) and mandatory training is generally done as and when it fits a client need. Instead, we’re guided by our OKRs, whereby our individual roles contribute to the success of the business, and this includes setting ourselves targets for our personal development and skills acquisition, with a view that these skills should help ladder up to the overall company objectives.  As part of my development OKRs over the past few years I’ve: Taken on reporting duties to help get a really thorough understanding of our research processes Attended photography workshops Gone all in on PPC campaigns for 6 months to get to know digital acquisition inside and out. But in Spring 2021, I wanted to do something a little wider than skills development, whilst still contributing to OneFifty as a business. So, I decided to become a Mental Health First Aider, training online with Ben & Sarah from the Good Mental Health Company. What is a mental health first aider? A mental health first aider is the psychological equivalent of a physical health first aider – their key goal is the preservation of life when somebody might be experiencing a mental health issue. We’re there to listen non-judgmentally, signpost towards helpful support channels such as a GP, and generally be compassionate and understanding if somebody is experiencing a crisis. I knew this was something I personally wanted to do having had my own experiences with depression and anxiety, which I’ve been really open about with the team here. As part of the leadership team within the business, I’m personally responsible for creating an environment in which people feel comfortable talking about their mental health. I know from my own experiences that the ability to speak honestly to a colleague about how you’re feeling is really important in overcoming workplace stigma, and can counteract negative attitudes towards mental health. That’s why, over the course of 5 weeks in Q1, I spent my evenings and weekends poring over YouTube videos, text books, webinars and online lectures in a quest for knowledge about mental health. The course doesn’t just cover the basics of mental health in the workplace – it goes into the science behind why some people have a certain brain chemistry, and teaches you how to recognise the signs and symptoms of different mental health conditions. To get the qualification, you have to undertake an assessment, answering a variety of questions about different aspects of mental health, and going through a roleplay to help signpost somebody to the right support. Nerve-wracking but I’m pleased to say I passed with a near perfect score! (I’ll be mad about the 1 question I answered incorrectly for years to come…) What’s next? I’m really happy to say I’ve been able to put what I’ve learned over the last few months into practice in both my professional and personal lives, and I’ve definitely got the bug for learning – weekends are now dedicated to Yale University’s Introduction to Psychology online course! But the most exciting thing is that I’m helping to build a positive culture, not just within OneFifty, but in a world in which talking openly about mental health is more important than ever. Thanks for reading, and if you’d like to know more about Mental Health First Aid, send me an email – I’d love to chat.  Helpful resources Mind Charity website Mind Charity YouTube The Good Mental Health Company Crash Course in Psychology

In the first of a regular series we’re calling #ArchitectsOfNext, we sat down with David de Koning , Head of Communications at Funding Circle . As one of the UK’s most disruptive and innovative businesses, he discusses his views on the evolving role of social media and data. This series aims to inspire others with firsthand insight into how people shaping innovative digital engagement models think and deliver their work. David de Koning is not the conventional face of finance. The marathon runner has a warm informality and baby face (he disputes this point) which sees people light up around him: from the ladies in the Funding Circle canteen as we chat, to our photographer. It’s that disconcertingly open, trustable approach which explains much of the unconventional, and refreshing model he’s bringing to life for the financial services sector. Throughout our conversation, he returns to the themes of trust and transparency, which he feels are at the heart of an alternative way to drive customer and stakeholder engagement – not to mention the Funding Circle business model itself. “Culture matters when you’re taking on one of the largest and most conservative sectors” de Koning enthusiastically outlined. “How we behave internally extends all the way to the conversation you have with us on the phone, to the feel of our tweets. If we’re not totally transparent and trustworthy throughout, people will know”. Referencing the book Legacy, about the All Blacks rugby team’s famous and self-renewing humble culture, he continued, “The All Blacks still ‘sweep out the sheds’ (changing rooms) after every game. It keeps the world’s best rugby players grounded and united. I think about that for us, but in a much more British way. How do you have a culture about fast decision making, about empowered people, who are self-regulating? Rather than a changing room, it’s about if someone spills a cup of tea, would you sweep the floor, even if it wasn’t your cup of tea, because it is for the greater good?” If this sounds very Silicon Valley start-up tech infused, that’s deliberate. “We have a unique perspective because we are a fast growing FinTech company. People forget how opaque the financial services industry was, pre-2008 – and remains today for many organisations. For people to trust an online company they had never heard of, doing something no-one had ever done before (P2P lending), with significant amounts of their own money, needed a different model to engage and build that trust. Transparency is the only viable solution.” That openness, and novelty in a highly traditional sector comes easily to de Koning – a man open by nature. “We use data to understand what matters to people, and then build our engagement models around it. For most people, money is at the heart of our emotions – it is about security, status and wellbeing. If we wanted to disrupt an industry, we needed people to trust us with one of the most important parts of their identity. We also had to change behaviours: small businesses have been going to banks for financing for centuries. To do that, from our starting point, we had to show people we were different. We did, and continue to do so, through being very open about our data. We share nearly everything, right down to our bad debt curves. More people should be giving their data away to those who care about it.” During our conversation, this struck me: de Koning’s challenge is not worrying about whether the brand is getting people to LOL as much as the next one (which is often the proviso of consumer brand leads), but how to create different models of engagement, in an industry which is often reviled by customers of all types. “Financial services is complex, and on a content level, we use social media to digest that complexity, and break it down. It’s about simplicity – the “my Mum test”: can she understand it, and does it engage her. The age of flowery language has gone – it shows a complete lack of understanding of your audience. We’re in the business of mining data, and breaking that down for you. “Our blog is the first port of call for all our engagement. It’s where anyone – customers, stakeholders, media, prospects – can find out what we’re doing first. Twitter is then used for the more passive, but interested, whilst the (private) forums are for the hyper-engaged.” It’s apparent this allows for a natural segmentation of interests, which also allows a tailoring of content and engagement types. “The worst thing for our 45,000 customers, would be to wake up and find we’d changed a product, without letting them know first. Do we always get it 100% right? No, but we do believe in engaging constantly, and transparently – when we do this well we avoid that ever happening. We hope that helps us to build trust. – It doesn’t mean everyone gets a vote – we’re a business, not a direct democracy – but it should  mean there are few surprises, and you’re always valued and shown the respect you should be, given you’ve trusted us with something so valuable to you. “It’s easy for brands to view customers as monolithic blocks, when actually they are an assortment of hugely diverse people, with hopes, fears and aspirations of their own. Using data, and having a socially-driven engagement model allows us to treat them as such.” One could sit in the uber-cool London office, and think this is a lovely sentiment, but perhaps somewhat divorced from the reality of making a nuts and bolts financial return. de Koning counters this: “Where we get interesting is how we then apply this to our performance marketing and vice versa. There’s a trust halo, which absolutely assists conversion optimisation. There’s also a consistency and credibility in the way our PPC, Facebook advertising and others is entirely in-line with our our owned and earned engagement. Once people have signed up to the site, we begin the engagement all over again: do you really understand what we’re doing, what you’re doing, and how can we ensure it’s as transparent as possible?” Our conversation turns to his views on the world around us. “We’re living in this era of simplicity, but not all brands are there yet” he says, with some hint of frustration evident. “Take booking flights online, for example, that remains an awful user experience to check in. Simplicity really is key for digital channels.” When pushed for advice he’d give to others who are aiming to change the digital interactions their organisation has, he continued: “Transparency is really hard. No-one thanks you in the short-term, and they only ever want more. But it is a true competitive advantage. It builds credibility and stickiness with customers.” We conclude by returning to one of his favourite topics – GIFs. His excitement about introducing internal messaging platform Slack to the business is twofold: firstly to extend the transparent engagement model to even their digital internal comms, but secondly as another way to get even more GIFs used on a Friday all company communication. His next meeting? Looking for candidates for an entirely new role – a Customer Engagement Champion. It sums up the challenge of those acting as the architects for what comes next: “The issue is, where do you go and look for someone to do a new role like this? No-one else has done it before, which makes recruiting for it a lot more time-consuming…” With that he strides off through the office, beaming at all around – living the promise of trust and transparency. If you want to get ahead in digital marketing and social media, read/do: Top Twitter follow: @fundingcircleUK Top Instagram follow: The Rock Top blog subscribe: Fred Wilson at USV or FT Alphaville Productive habit: Prioritisation Unproductive habit: Reading and responding to emails too frequently Favourite brand: TOMS #interview #ArchitectsofNext #data #socialmedia #profile

Imagine being happy. (Nearly) all the time. You’re imagining Natalie Glaze. Imagine you get to combine two things you love, every week. Creating great content for your blog  and brands ( Stay Wild Swim and ByGlaze ) , and helping create a better way for brands and social influencers to work together. Actually make that three things you love: add brunching hard, with maximum avocado. Natalie is one of the OneFifty team, focussed on developing new, better ways for social creators and influencers to work with brands, to create what comes next. She’s also a celebrated pro blogger and Instagram influencer, covering travel, fitness, food, and more. Natalie started her working life as a media buyer/planner. An appreciation of the value of data didn’t eliminate a desire for more creativity on a daily basis. “I just felt there had to be more – I had things I wanted to see, things I wanted to say”. So, blog in-hand, she decided to split her time between creating content and enjoying amazing experiences, and working with brands as a freelance social media consultant. Her life reflects the development of social media as a marketing discipline – from interesting development, to mainstream marketing “I’ve seen so many people create careers from social media. It’s fundamentally changed the way we look at a typical career path, adding freedom, creativity and accessibility.” That’s not just affected her life, however. “The way brands realise the power of social media, and the way they seek to utilise influencers has changed too. Generally for the better, but there are still brands who don’t embrace the potential, and others who don’t understand the balance required between an influencer’s objectives, and their own.” Where journalists used to look to media organisations for structure, Natalie looks to other content creators. “My biggest inspiration are definitely fellow bloggers. Lots of my friends have built successful brands online, and are literally loving – and smashing – life. That’s hugely empowering for me to see, too.” Looking at 2017, one of her key focus is the way short-form video, such as Instagram Stories, creates new ways for creators to develop content: “It used to be the case that people either did text, image, or video. Now, increasingly, people are doing two, or even three, of these. That’s exciting to be a part of.” Sometimes it’s neither what, or who, you know. But how you know it. Natalie’s eternal happiness might in part be due to working out something much of the world’s only just waking up to: that if you create great content, and ensure everyone generates value, you can enjoy a great avocado-based breakfast. That’s definitely something to smile about. To stay ahead in marketing and social media think/do: Top Insta follow – Jay Alvarrez , A Bikini A Day , Symmetry Breakfast , Condé Nast Traveller , Sincerely Jules . I can’t choose one! Productive habit – making lists Unproductive habit – being late Favourite brand – too many favourites, impossible to choose. Maybe another unproductive habit is being indecisive.

Over the last year we interviewed a range of inspiring people, who are shaping the way brands, creators and customers interact through social media. We call them Architects of Next: a label we use for anyone who is working hard to change the way the world works. We want to encourage more Architects of Next – giving them confidence and motivation that their dreams aren’t crazy, that their ideas aren’t alone, and that they’re pushing an agenda the world needs and wants. We’ve produced a limited run of physical books, based on those interviews. They’re beautiful, if we say so ourselves, inside and out. If you’d like one of five we’re making available for a wider audience, let us know and why, by emailing hello@onefiftyconsultancy.com . Here’s to what comes next.