LinkedIn’s ‘Recommend to Employees’ feature has recently rolled out across all Company Pages. Whilst we are inherently sceptical of the long-standing trend for ‘features bloat’ across all social media platforms, LinkedIn's Employee Recommend feature actually has got some utility. November 2024 update: LinkedIn Recommended Content and Employee Advocacy Tab updated According to LinkedIn , the my Company tab and Employee Advocacy tab will be discontinued "Recommended content, the My Company tab on LinkedIn Pages, and the Employee Advocacy tab on the Page admin dashboard will be gradually discontinued beginning in November 2024 ." Page admins will still be able to engage with employees on LinkedIn by sharing the organisation's content:  You can reshare your employees' best @mentions and posts from the feed tab in your dashboard.  Notify employees of your most important posts to boost organic reach through the LinkedIn Recommend to Employees feature What is the LinkedIn Recommend to Employees Feature? A tool by which you can suggest content/posts on LinkedIn to your colleagues who have your company as their current employer on the platform. They can then easily post that content on their own LinkedIn pages. According to LinkedIn " As a LinkedIn Page super, content, or curator admin, you can recommend curated content for employees to use and reshare with their network. Recommendations are only shown to employees who are associated with your Page and have access to the My Company tab." Why use LinkedIn Recommend to Employees? Although there are services that provide curated ‘approved’ content to employees, they require third-party integrations and, therefore, relatively committed and tech-savvy colleagues. In short, it’s a hassle. Because this is native within LinkedIn, it reduces a lot of that friction. More broadly, however, LinkedIn is where people go to manage their professional identities. As organisations become ever-more attuned to the value of employee advocacy as a brand reputation tool, talent attraction tactic, and sales enablement tactic, providing streamlined tools to achieve this within the platform is very, very welcome. The one challenge we’d note is that (currently) you can’t segment which employees see the content - i.e. you can’t supply one set of recommendations for sales colleagues, another for finance colleagues, or one set for the property team, and one for the transport team. How do you use LinkedIn Recommend to Employees? Here’s the official LinkedIn Recommend to Employees overview, which forms part of their broader efforts with the ‘my company’ tab they’ve introduced , which allows employees to engage privately within LinkedIn. Pretty simple, in the grand scheme of things. About our Corporate Communications and C-Suite / Senior Executive Comms services Reputation in the digital age is driven by people. Corporate communications need to be delivered by people throughout the business - not just at the top.   Digital and social platforms mean your organisation's substance, criticism, and growth disseminate faster and with less predictability. LinkedIn’s post-pandemic success has especially driven this, with audiences from media to candidates engaging there—but more often with individuals than the brand itself.  OneFifty Consultancy can help with: Strategy and planning - Building your reputation through data, insight and digital specialists Data and insights - Identifying who influences your reputation directly and indirectly, from stakeholders to staff, across topics and people Digital exec profiling - How do your leaders show up digitally, how do their peers, and what they should be doing next Reputation Management - Enhance and protect through clear preparedness, processes and plans Digital Content Creation - The role of content production for corporate purposes, from video to photography, to copy and websites Find out more about Corporate Communications and Executive Comms  here.

OneFifty Studio is your creative solution to make people stop scrolling. From TikTok videos to get you on the #ForYou Page to websites that make your brand stand out, Studio brings together the consulting, data and insight experience of OneFifty with the best creative talent to create scroll-stopping content that is right for brands and audiences alike. Studio’s creative and production services. Digital brand experience What comes next for cool stuff online, for you (first) and the rest of the internet (afterwards). This is about bringing your brand to life, digitally, in the places you need to be seen by your consumers. Creative production The visuals that go into making your brand presence stand out online, driven by data. From 3D modelling and content production to copywriting and creative direction, photoshoots, video shoots and edits, OneFifty Studio's production team make it happen for digital campaigns. Content in action It's no secret that short-form video content on mobile-first apps is how more and more consumers experience the internet. From Instagram Reels to TikTok, we hit record and make it happen for brands who need to make an impact fast. Studio is your very own production department, creating scroll-stopping videos that work for the channel and your audience. We’re doing this already for brands such as Mazda Europe, [yellow tail], M&B, SEGRO and OVO. If this sounds like something you’d like to know more about, contact us here. Finally, we’re hiring across several content production roles - let us know if there’s anyone we should be talking to!

Instagram's back with a brand new invention - Instagram Collabs The world of Instagram continues to grow with yet another feature. Introducing ‘Collab’, short for… You get the drift. If you didn’t know about it already, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered on everything you need to know. UPDATE: Advertising Collab Posts and Partnership Ads Read about Meta Partnership Ads on our updated blog here. What is Instagram's new Collab feature? You might’ve seen a glimpse of Instagram collab on your Instagram feed, as the UK and India are the two countries it has currently rolled out in. It allows the same piece of content to sit on two account pages, at the same time, essentially partnering the publishing of the content. What are the benefits for brands who use Instagram Collab? Content will be shown to a larger number of followers, simultaneously appearing on the Instagram feed of both accounts (seen by both of their followers) Post stats will also be made available to both users, with comments and reactions for the post available in a single stream, allowing for greater transparency and visibility on influencer collaborations Maximises engagement on branded posts and establish more collaborations between brands and influencers There's the potential for a reduction in fees for posting on influencer pages, as it will become one and the same, but this is still to be confirmed... What are the limitations of Instagram Collaborations currently? Instagram Collab is currently only available to a selected group of creators, and only in the UK and India. These creators will see an option to invite another account on the tagging screen when posting or creating a photo/Reel, while everyone else has to wait for a wider rollout. To see an Instagram Collab live in action, here’s an example ! An update on Instagram Collabs! Meta has updated its Instagram creator ads product, rebranding ‘content ads’ to ‘Instagram Partnership Ads’, colloquially named collab ads. The rebranding essentially acts as an upgrade, with additional features allowing for more effective use of influencer collaborations. So although the concept behind partnership ads isn’t new, the naming and scope of use have changed significantly. Interested in finding out more about Instagram Collabs? Get in touch.

If you’ve been on the Internet at all this week you’ll have seen the viral "Questions I get asked" TikTok / Reels trend blowing up… What we’re calling the ‘banging hands together to aggressive music and answering questions trend’ (otherwise known as the “Questions I get asked” or “‘chopping dance” trend) has been around for a couple of weeks, but is everywhere right now. We’ve seen Olympic athletes jumping on it as well as influencers and content creators; in fact we can’t open up Instagram without seeing videos of people looking like they’re about to start doing the Mash Potato dance. Here’s everything you need to know about this TikTok trend. The music in the 'questions I get asked' TikTok trend The Magic Bomb - Hoang Read (listen once and it’s going to be in your head FOREVER) How to do the trend: Use the TikTok text function to add text at the beginning of the video before the beat kicks in: “Questions I get asked as a [insert your niche]”. For the dance, make fists and bang them together in time with the initial beats. Clap. Then it’s some variety of trigger fingers or pointing whilst you have your answer up on screen, and repeat. Is this the easiest TikTok ‘dance’ trend yet? It’s definitely easier than others we’ve seen... Why should I jump on it? This is more than just dancing (which people love to watch on TikTok anyway) - it’s an opportunity for creators to respond to questions that their audience either constantly ask, or are too nervous to ask. Should brands jump on it? If you have a face or person representing your brand on TikTok and Reels already, such as a founder, then go for it. Here’s a few ideas for you… “Questions I get asked about starting my own social media agency” “Questions I get asked about being a co-founder of a digital marketing agency” “Questions I get asked about balancing running my marketing consultancy business and making TikToks….” How do I make TikToks… Here’s a short guide on our blog to uploading your first TikTok... Can someone make TikToks for me or my brand? No problem. Speak to the team at OneFifty Studio , the experts in making #ScrollStopping content on Tiktok and Reels.

Bluesky, the Twitter / X alternative, has just had another round of publicity in mainstream media, partly related to Elon Musk’s political involvement with the incoming Trump administration. So, if you’re wondering what it is, whether you should be involved, or whether your brand should join Bluesky, here’s an overview of what brands need to know about Bluesky … What is the social media channel Bluesky? You can read how Bluesky describes itself  here .  It’s easier to describe the product as “like the old Twitter, but without all the users” (yet). Currently, they have about  15M very tech early adopting users. Why do people use Bluesky? As with all social apps, there are a range of reasons, but specifically: It’s open source by design, addressing some people’s concerns around Musk’s ownership of Twitter To control the algorithm- you can determine how it sorts and presents information To network with other liberal-leaning tech early adopters disenfranchised with X Can brands use Bluesky? Yes.  Securing your preferred handle is both easy and technical at the same time.  Read more here . Brand managers will typically need to engage their IT team.  There are no advertising options (and are unlikley to be), so it’s important to consider how you’d pursue an owned and earned approach, and how you’d build audience (it will require signposting from elsewhere) and how you’d engage beyond your own profile. What brands are on Bluesky? Should my brand be on Bluesky? Currently, few mainstream brands are meaningfully active. Capturing your basic Bluesky handle is a sensible step. Is Bluesky the next Twitter?  What about Threads? Well, Threads has surged in users but has struggled to come close to the cultural impact. Network effects amongst the public chattering class, the bedrock of Twitter’s success, are one major component in whether Bluesky could replicate Twitter. The other factor is beyond their control - Twitter/ X itself. How they hang on to power users and public influencers may be as big a factor as any other platform’s functionality. Do you have more questions about Bluesky (and other social media channels!) for brands? Get in touch.

ESG is much discussed, with companies announcing commitments daily. ​ But, how is this being expressed in social media? Does positive ESG performance drive positive social media sentiment around corporate reputation?  To assess this, we compiled a data set with all the FTSE 100 companies across the past 12 months, including their social Twitter sentiment around ESG-related, branded conversations,  ESG scores (using a combined index following   this methodology by CDP  and this one by  MSCI ), and share price movement over the same time period. ​ What did we find? ​ Ultimately, scoring well on ESG does NOT, by itself, lead to positive social sentiment. It is not (at least yet) the main driver of social corporate reputation. ​ Digging into the nuances within this… ​ Key findings from our analysis ​ ESG is a relatively small part of social discussion around FTSE100 companies – ESG-related Twitter conversations (only) made up <5% of overall branded mentions in the past 12 months across the FTSE 100. In fact, the volume of news articles talking about ESG was x3 times bigger than the Twitter conversation.  Trading performance matters more than ESG – companies with strong share price performance (e.g. SEGRO, Coca-Cola) see the strongest social sentiment. As social sentiment does correlate strongly with trading performance, we conclude that profit warnings, dividend announcements, and the likes remain the key drivers for social sentiment. Activation matters when it comes to ESG & reputation – looking at a subset of the “most talked about” FTSE 100 companies when it comes to ESG, we found that their social sentiment actually DOES correlate with their ESG performance. We tentatively conclude that unless brands hit a certain threshold of conversation around your ESG efforts (whether that is organic or stimulated), you won’t see any positive effects for social sentiment. Therefore, the most effective strategy in practice will be to build a strong ESG proposition/ stand AND then activate it.  Poor ESG performance doesn’t drive poor social reputation – ESG and social sentiment don’t correlate positively, but we also haven’t found the inverse. From that, we take two things. You can’t fake it – poor ESG performance can’t be (or isn’t) translated to positive chatter. Equally, limited ESG performance isn’t a significant source of social media malcontent. Download the research below... About our Corporate Communications and C-Suite / Senior Executive Comms services Reputation in the digital age is driven by people. Corporate communications need to be delivered by people throughout the business - not just at the top.   Digital and social platforms mean your organisation's substance, criticism, and growth disseminate faster and with less predictability. LinkedIn’s post-pandemic success has especially driven this, with audiences from media to candidates engaging there—but more often with individuals than the brand itself.  OneFifty Consultancy can help with: Strategy and planning - Building your reputation through data, insight and digital specialists Data and insights - Identifying who influences your reputation directly and indirectly, from stakeholders to staff, across topics and people Digital exec profiling - How do your leaders show up digitally, how do their peers, and what they should be doing next Reputation Management - Enhance and protect through clear preparedness, processes and plans Digital Content Creation - The role of content production for corporate purposes, from video to photography, to copy and websites Find out more about Corporate Communications and Executive Comms  here.

Is COP an ES-G win for brands on social media? Brands are now mindful that they need to showcase their green/responsible credentials to an increasingly ecologically and socially conscious customer. COP26 gave brands a potential high-profile platform to showcase their green credentials, network with ministers, and drive brand objectives. But should big environmental set-piece events such as COP26 play a role for brands who want to showcase their ESG credentials? Who drove digital and social engagement, and what can be learned? The research: what we did... We analysed 40,000 tweets about COP26 over the two weeks the event was held. We then broke down each tweet into pairs of consecutive words in both the body and bio of the author to help us analyse not only the topics mentioned but also context and sentiment far more accurately. So, who is talking about COP26 and ESG online? While the conversation online is still being driven by a combination of left-wing political advocates, environmental activists, and journalists, there was an unexpected addition. As the pictures of vicars and pensioners blocking motorways for Insulate Britain have shown, the idea that climate activists are all tree-hugging 20-somethings is naive. Older generations are increasingly acting and speaking out on climate-related issues. The term “Retiree” was the 12th most popular word in the sample of Twitter bios that mentioned the event. Pension funds and the like, take note. However, within this conversation, this cohort is still left-leaning, and therefore, this audience may not align with every organisation's target audience. The sentiment often struck a defiant tone among the people who were tweeting. Calls to action were frequently used, with phrases such as “show,” “send,” and “stand up.” What also stood out was an “us vs. them” narrative within these same tweets. “Stand up together and show them a message,” for example. This narrative can be a potential minefield for brands to engage with. Online chatter: What are they talking about? Unsurprisingly, the online conversation was centred around various states’ pledges and leaders' contributions. As expected, Greta, Boris, Nicola, and Biden all feature prominently, as does Jeff Bezos, who was the only real business figure to generate significant mentions or RTs. What is notable, though, is just how little brands are getting cut through within this conversation. Given the amount of pledges companies made during this period, there is very little traction apart from the odd retweet from senior corporate individuals at the event. Less than 1% of tweets in our sample mention a brand. We also broke out the brand mentions of principal sponsors in our sample; Scottish Power did best in terms of volume with 0.2%, Microsoft was mentioned in 0.065% of tweets, and Unilever was mentioned in just 0.002%. So, what does this mean for brands and climate pledges? Simply, the public perception is that climate change needs state based solutions, therefore the discussion around the largest climate based summit is still dominated by discussions around pledges by states. OneFifty believes there are better opportunities to announce important climate pledges for brands, digitally speaking: Engaging directly with key stakeholders online can be more efficient, and effective, whether through paid, owned or earned routes The role of individuals is key within this, from across the organisation, real people, using personal profiles, need to show their involvement and commitment to get traction. For brands to generate digital engagement they need to create their own moments, not join others. TLDR: unless Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos is your CEO, leave the COP announcements for Boris to worry about. About our Corporate Communications and C-Suite / Senior Executive Comms services Reputation in the digital age is driven by people. Corporate communications need to be delivered by people throughout the business - not just at the top.   Digital and social platforms mean your organisation's substance, criticism, and growth disseminate faster and with less predictability. LinkedIn’s post-pandemic success has especially driven this, with audiences from media to candidates engaging there—but more often with individuals than the brand itself.  OneFifty Consultancy can help with: Strategy and planning - Building your reputation through data, insight and digital specialists Data and insights - Identifying who influences your reputation directly and indirectly, from stakeholders to staff, across topics and people Digital exec profiling - How do your leaders show up digitally, how do their peers, and what they should be doing next Reputation Management - Enhance and protect through clear preparedness, processes and plans Digital Content Creation - The role of content production for corporate purposes, from video to photography, to copy and websites Find out more about Corporate Communications and Executive Comms  here.

Authentic communication from the C-suite has lost its novelty, but has it gained in prevalence? Beyond the CEO, is social communication now a tool around the board table more broadly? What works to attract and engage an audience? Here's the lowdown on exec communications. Our new research on FTSE 100 C-suite / CEO use of social media and executive comms showed some notable strong performers, with key areas driving success: Personality – sharing things which relate to your individual experience Issues leadership (e.g. mental health) – but not ESG as a general area Engaging with people – not just shouting with your profile as another news channel Not just duplicating corporate news… Particular standouts were Bernard Looney (BP), Alan Jope (Unilever) and Amanda Blanc (Aviva) who prioritised these behaviours. We concentrated our research on Executive Directors in the FTSE 100 because these are some of the highest-profile businesses. They also face very similar constraints on behaviour (listed businesses with multiple constituencies to address) and, therefore, broadly comparable communications frameworks. Outside of the FTSE 100, there are fascinating examples of UK CEO / C-Suite communicators, many with different exec communication strategies and a wider array of communication objectives and constraints. Here are some of our favourite examples of C suite and executive comms. Representing very distinctive points of view, and engaging with current affairs. Topical issues – often in areas which don’t match the status quo, often means using Twitter: James Timpson (Timpsons) Richard Walker (Iceland Foods) Luke Johnson (Risk Capital Partners) Perhaps unsurprisingly, Instagram usage is higher amongst those working in creative industries, such as fashion: Angela Ahrendts (ex-Apple / Burberry) Paul Smith (Paul Smith!) Meanwhile whilst LinkedIn is a more predictable choice for a leader, there are some notable examples of especially effective usage: Umar Kamani (Pretty Little Things) Timo Boldt (Gousto) In the research, you can find out: How much is social media actually used by FTSE 100 executive directors? Who uses social media most effectively to build a personal profile? Which c-suite members are the most active on social media?   Read the Executive Comms research here About our Corporate Communications and C-Suite / Senior Executive Comms services Reputation in the digital age is driven by people. Corporate communications need to be delivered by people throughout the business - not just at the top.   Digital and social platforms mean your organisation's substance, criticism, and growth disseminate faster and with less predictability. LinkedIn’s post-pandemic success has especially driven this, with audiences from media to candidates engaging there—but more often with individuals than the brand itself.  OneFifty Consultancy can help with: Strategy and planning - Building your reputation through data, insight and digital specialists Data and insights - Identifying who influences your reputation directly and indirectly, from stakeholders to staff, across topics and people Digital exec profiling - How do your leaders show up digitally, how do their peers, and what they should be doing next Reputation Management - Enhance and protect through clear preparedness, processes and plans Digital Content Creation - The role of content production for corporate purposes, from video to photography, to copy and websites Find out more about Corporate Communications and Executive Comms  here.

In times of change and turbulence, we look to leaders. For large businesses, that now means leading in public, as their C-Suite, Executives and Directors communicate directly with stakeholders, publics, and employees, digitally. In this context, how has the C-suite used social media to connect with the myriad of needs and priorities confronting them? We set out to conduct a meaningful analysis of how C-suite executives in FTSE 250 companies have used social media in the last year, to shed light on how it can best be harnessed in the year ahead. Our findings provide a benchmark for maximising effectiveness in C-suite social media use, encompassing analysis by financial performance, business industry, C-suite role and overarching topic trends of posts. When it comes to Corporate Comms and how execs use social media, we looked at: Which channels (Linked, Twitter and more) do they use? How often do they post? What content on social media drives the most engagement? Which FTSE 250 Director (CEO, CFO, HR Director etc) is best practice at social? What does it mean for your strategies? This new research, which examines every c-suite Director in the FTSE 250 and their use of social media, has uncovered surprising insights, including the days to post for engagement vs. consumption. You can download the full report here. About our Corporate Communications and C-Suite / Senior Executive Comms services Reputation in the digital age is driven by people. Corporate communications need to be delivered by people throughout the business - not just at the top.   Digital and social platforms mean your organisation's substance, criticism, and growth disseminate faster and with less predictability. LinkedIn’s post-pandemic success has especially driven this, with audiences from media to candidates engaging there—but more often with individuals than the brand itself.  OneFifty Consultancy can help with: Strategy and planning - Building your reputation through data, insight and digital specialists Data and insights - Identifying who influences your reputation directly and indirectly, from stakeholders to staff, across topics and people Digital exec profiling - How do your leaders show up digitally, how do their peers, and what they should be doing next Reputation Management - Enhance and protect through clear preparedness, processes and plans Digital Content Creation - The role of content production for corporate purposes, from video to photography, to copy and websites Find out more about Corporate Communications and Executive Comms here.

Instagram Collabs and Partnership Ads - What's new from Meta? If you’re crazy about influencer content and you spend your Saturday nights researching how it’s integrated into the paid funnel (just us?), then there’s a chance you stumbled upon Instagram's ‘announcement’, rebranding its influencer partnership product as collaborative ads... When we say announcement, we’re referring to a 170-word blog from Meta that gives you the very basics into potentially the biggest shakeup to collaborative advertising since the creation of the paid partnership product... So in case you missed this announcement (hehe), we’ve broken down: What has changed within Meta’s paid partnership product? The meaningful implications Instagram Collab ads have when it comes to working with influencers Our own thoughts on the future of collaborative content for social media and digital marketing Can you boost a collab post on instagram? What are Instagram Partnership Ads or Meta Collaborative Ads? Meta has updated its Instagram creator ads product, rebranding ‘content ads’ to ‘Instagram Partnership Ads’, colloquially named collab ads. The rebranding essentially acts as an upgrade, with additional features allowing for more effective use of influencer collaborations. So although the concept behind partnership ads isn’t new, the naming and scope of use have changed significantly. More specifically: The update allows brands to produce content in partnership with a creator, without using an existing post (creating a dark ad) Advertisers can boost more variations of UGC, including branded content with the paid partnership label, Instagram Collab posts, @mentions, people tags, product tags, and other content without the paid partnership label Once a creator has accepted the partnership request, their audience is shared with the brand, enabling custom audiences to be created. This includes: everyone who has engaged with the creator's account, followers, users who have visited the account, and users who have saved any post or ad How are Instagram Partnership Ads different from before? Previously, advertisers/ brands were only able to boost existing organic creator content with the paid partnership label This meant when brands were using influencer content in paid campaigns, there were two options: boost content from the influencers page through the paid partnership label use the creator’s content and run as a dark ad (unable to link the creator's handle as a sponsored partner) The update now allows for the creation of dark ads with the paid partnership label, resulting in a third option for utilising influencer content When using influencer content in paid campaigns, the most effective method of targeting was through interest-based proxies of the influencer's followers An example of how brands could use Collab Ads… In a parallel universe, say Heinz identified football fans as their prime target audience, and created an influencer campaign where footballer Erling Haaland ate beans as a nutritious halftime snack... When using this content in paid campaigns, Heinz would have to build an audience for football fans based on interest pools that Meta has created. To generate these pools, Meta uses data from content that users have interacted with, and the problem is (shock!) Meta’s algorithms are not perfect. For instance, you might despise football and wonder how you can spend 105 minutes watching TV for there to be 1 shot on target and no goals… However, you may like a goal posted by @Ladbible , and because of this, Meta includes you in one of its football-related interest pools. This would mean that you're included in Heinz’s targeting, and served a video of the Man City squad eating a can of ‘Haaland's halftime Heinz’. So, even though you're not actually part of Heinz’s prime target audience, you'd be included in it, according to Meta. The difference with Collab ads... To get around this, the most effective way to reach their target audience would be to directly serve ads to Haaland’s followers, the users who are most influenced by Haaland. And right on cue, the update to the partnership product means an influencer's audience is shared with the advertiser/ brand - Heinz can now serve ads directly to Haaland’s followers, more effectively reaching and influencing their target audience vs. interest-based targeting. Importantly, once Heinz has accepted Haaland as a paid partner, they can use Haaland's handle alongside Heinz’s in a dark ad, without extra permission from Haaland. This effectively gives them free rein of the ad creative variables and needs no further approval from Haaland, provided he's tagged them in the post. It should be noted that, on Instagram, Haaland can see active and inactive ads and has the ability to pause them, however, he would not receive a notification of when the ad goes live. So in theory, once Heinz has Haaland as a paid partner, they could create unlimited ads in partnership with Haaland, with different copy and creatives, without Haaland's approval… Ultimately, what does this change to Instagram Partnership Ads mean for brands? Increased reach effectiveness with target audience - we’re able to target the followers of users and create lookalikes of users who have engaged with the influencer's profile, building a more specific targeting pool vs. our current interest-based lookalikes Increased effectiveness for utilising influencers as a credible role in driving demand gen Ability to continually leverage creator partnership permissions (without having to gain access each time) Our own thoughts on Meta's collab ads... There’s no doubt that sharing custom audiences is massively beneficial to the influencer and brand. However, given the limited transparency of new ads being set up, it does seem like a ticking time bomb until an advertiser/ brand purposely or accidentally uses a large influencer's handle (like Haaland's) in a campaign that they’ve not been made aware of. When this happens, the partnership product is likely to be revamped to include greater security, with the influencer having to approve each individual ad. Perhaps this is why Instagram ‘secretly’ announced the rebranding of content ads, and this isn’t the finished product.

Influencer marketing has grown notably in recent years. With it has come demands, loud and quiet, for enhanced regulation. Recently the ASA & CMA have issued combined guidance for the first time. Why does the ASA / CMA guidance matter for influencers and brands? The new guidance has legal force, as well as the risk of reputation shaming (the ASA’s tool, previously). What are the key points of the ASA / CMA guidance? Everyone in the process (brand, agency, influencer) has responsibility for compliance Every piece of communication needs to say ‘advert’ or ‘ad’ - there’s no scope for paid partnership tags, “ambassador”, “gifted” etc It is all encompassing… anything you are gifted, or experience - let alone paid to participate in - has to be disclosed If you’ve previously had a relationship, you should disclose it What are the implications for brands, creators and influencers? People have long utilised the ‘grey areas’ of previous legislation / guidance… this makes it more explicit, especially around the use of ‘advert’ However, we are already seeing influencers find new ‘grey areas’, using text on stories which obscures the “ad” tag, etc… Reputable brands will follow to the letter. Bad actors will not - exactly the people who circumvented reasonable behaviour previously The same applies to influencers - the disreputable will continue to be so The clarity provided is welcome. Does it drive meaningful change for the public? Probably not. They’re already highly media-literate when it comes to influencer endorsement, it cannot address those sitting outside UK jurisdiction, and those intent on deceit will continue. We can expect to see a flurry of citations from the ASA to influencers and marketing campaigns as they demonstrate the guidance.

Meta recently announced the introduction of WhatsApp channels - this forms part of a wider direction of travel from Meta toward advertising and monetisation on the WhatsApp platform. As you will see, while WhatsApp used to have limited use cases for businesses (mostly if you needed a solution for customer service, e.g., WhatsApp Business), WhatsApp Channels have introduced a unique way for businesses to update customers in a newsletter / RSS feed fashion. What is a WhatsApp Channel? WhatsApp Channels are essentially a one-way broadcast tool for organisations to send text, images, videos, stickers, and polls to a list of subscribed users. Instant Messaging Channels are not a new concept: Telegram has had these for a while (in fact, since 2015!), although the business viability for these has been limited (due to the overall platform being associated with cryptocurrency and piracy). WhatsApp is still rolling out the ability to create WhatsApp channels worldwide, and most users can already subscribe to them. Channels live in a new ‘updates’ tab on WhatsApp and users will be able to discover them from a public directory. However, we expect that building a following will also require signposting from other digital and physical properties (e.g. social, e-mail and QR-codes). Here are some WhatsApp Channels that are have already been released to the public: WhatsApp - 18.2 Million followers Real Madrid - 12.2 Million followers BBC - 435.8K followers Why should businesses consider creating a WhatsApp Channel? As always, the main purpose (and perceived benefit) of a platform will only become clear once users start using it (the same way as Threads). However, there are some use cases that we can already identify based on what was announced by Meta: You can roll out content (or important updates) in a newsletter fashion -additionally, users will be able to engage with the content through reactions. This, coupled with polls, will give businesses an additional user engagement metric to work with. Furthermore, it appears users will also have access to a range of emojis to react with (allowing some degree of sentiment analysis). Any piece of content that is forwarded from a WhatsApp channel will link back to the original channel. This is an opportunity for businesses to capitalise on network effects and word-of-mouth. Furthermore, being in the public directory will mean a further opportunity to be discovered on the platform. Whatsapp channels are embedded with unique privacy features. For example, subscribed users will not be able to see who else is subscribed, or even which users have reacted to a given message. The owner of the channel will only be able to see the public name of the user (and no one will be able to see the phone number or profile picture of who is subscribed to the channel). This will make customers more inclined to join WhatsApp Channels, in contrast to joining a group, or messaging directly with the business. Furthermore, this solves the moderation issues associated with using groups, and the limits on broadcast lists. The TLDR: What do business owners, brand managers and marketers need to know about WhatsApp Channels? The introduction of WhatsApp Channels shifts the platform towards a direction that is more content-focused and advertising-friendly. We have yet to see if this will lead to a further monetisation of the platform (and maybe the introduction of ads). WhatsApp Channels offer a unique way for businesses to update customers in a newsletter fashion, while also benefiting from (a) additional engagement metrics, (b) word-of-mouth and (c) platform security