LinkedIn is the place to be for socially savvy C Suites. Social networks revolve around people. Periodically, algorithms must be reset to prioritise this, ensuring the content people see remains relevant. How we navigate the digital landscape for corporate brands and reputations matters more than ever. LinkedIn has a role (comparable only to the Financial Times) for reaching key audiences, and understanding how to use these tools to connect, persuade and defend corporate interests is essential. The role of senior people has been catapulted into digital significance through recent platform evolution, which builds upon natural human behaviours. Ultimately we care about people first, organisations second. We call it ‘People Over Pages’, and it’s the basis of our latest research, exploring how content from people gains traction compared to content from brands. In this original research, we analysed thousands of pieces of LinkedIn content from executives and their brands. We found: #1: LinkedIn looms large Between July 2023 and 2024, brands have increased posting by two-thirds (66%), and executives have increased posting by a remarkable 312%.  #2: Diminishing brand returns on LinkedIn Average engagements per brand post have declined by 6% between July 2023 and 2024, while increasing by 32% for execs. #3: Consumer potential Retail marginally outperforms other sectors (average engagements relative to average followers) and consumer-facing brands generally excel in engagements relative to B2B brands. #4 People Power CEOs will get 35% more engagements on LinkedIn compared to their brands despite having less than 10% of the following.  #5: Size isn’t everything for LinkedIn engagements As we see with influencer following sizes, you want to be small or really big for effectiveness - don't get stuck in the middle, where engagement is lower. #6: Brands and Executives need specific strategies for LinkedIn success Brands and executives benefit from different content themes to drive success. Brands thrive when connected to broader societal topics and sustainability. Executives engage when they discuss their people and their individual experiences (plus Financial Results!). Read more by downloading the full whitepaper. Find out more about Executive Comms.

“If it’s not on Strava it didn’t happen” -  a common sentiment for the avid athlete, but does it apply to brands? The platform and its users  Strava receives over 40 million uploads a week and has over 125 million users [ Strava ]. Originally launched as a niche website for cyclists, the platform's user base has more than doubled since 2020 [ Source ], as global lockdowns drove people outdoors and into their running shoes. Many out there will have run 5 and nominated 5 for the NHS during 2020…. It’s an environment to easily connect with friends and strangers with a common interest whilst tracking your health and fitness goals. Seemingly a refuge from social media behemoths, users long for the “real” connection that affinity-based platforms can offer. Yet this high concentration of like-minded individuals offers an opportunity for the right brands to seize - it’s not often that the audience targets itself for you.  With the platform introducing the ability for athletes to message directly within the app last year and soon forum-style discussion channels, intimate interaction within the app is only going to grow. Strava isn’t alone in its proliferation of intimacy. Other platforms, such as Goodreads and Letterboxd, that service a specific interest and bring together highly connected and similar communities are also rising.  The opportunity for brands on Strava With such powerful forces of connection at work, any brand looking to leverage the opportunity must do so with person-to-person relationships at the core of its approach. That means either a) facilitating these intimate connections or b) becoming part of the interaction through brand ambassadors.   Facilitating connection Strava offers brands the opportunity to create group pages and sponsored challenges. With upcoming changes to the platform facilitating more open style discussion, these digital refuges will likely become increasingly significant - conversations between brand and friend will coexist in the same intimate space to an even greater extent. Sponsored challenges not only let users track their progress in a brand-attributed environment, they also prove an invaluable source of first party data…  Take Hoka for example, who’s recent “ Born to Fly ” challenge was completed by almost 140,000 athletes, all in a bid to win a free pair of their top shoe for the sake of a measly 15km. Whilst not all finishers will have entered their email address, that’s still potentially 140,000 highly qualified marketing leads, all interested enough in a pair of Hoka’s to give their data away. These challenges start at €20,000. Yet that level of data capture will still have made a few marketing managers stop in their proverbial tracks… we just hope they’ve paused their Strava…  Looking closer to home, and in a space outside sporting equipment, Mind UK has also developed a presence on the platform to raise both funds and awareness. The charity recognised the link between physical and mental health, setting up a sponsored challenge to run a total of 50km, raising over £70,000 from nearly 137,000 participants [ Source ].  It goes to show that a brand occupying an adjacent space in the audience's minds, with a disproportionate crossover of interests, can leverage the platform as a fresh channel for growth. It’s not just the running shoes and cycling gels that people will sign up for. The key again is giving people a reason to complete the challenge - here completing the challenge (which then notifies the users friends in their feed) clearly signals something about the individual. Becoming part of the conversation As the age old saying goes, if you can’t beat them join them. The second way that brands can look to leverage the platform is through an ambassador program, making the most of existing follower bases from pro athletes or running creators, and injecting their brand into the conversation. With multimedia functionality and the ability to detail the kit you’re using, products can be seamlessly integrated into workouts and your brand into the conversation.  Take, for example, previous Tour de Femmes winner  Demi Vollering , a Nike-sponsored athlete who’s amassed over 146,000 followers on her Strava profile.   Her  recent ride in the Tour de France amassed over 11,000 kudos and 104 comments… with content featuring Nike sports gear as well as a personalised pair of AirForce 1’s at the end.  Her bio has that she’s a Nike athlete, yet there’s not an #ad in sight… Why should I care?  If your brand is in sports or any adjacent fields, tapping into a highly targeted audience of people actively looking to establish connection is too good an opportunity to miss. If you’ve not already, it’s time to insert yourself into the conversation.  Yet for most, your brand will have no real reason to be on Strava, and it shouldn’t be. It will feel disingenuous and inauthentic. You should however take heed of the platform's rise… alongside a boom in other affinity-based platforms it’s a signal of user intent to come together with those that have shared experiences. Other affinity-based platforms have also seen a recent rise in popularity, with apps such as Goodreads amassing over 150 million members, and Letterboxd growing its user base by 55% in the past year.  With Facebook pushing people towards groups as a destination with more intimacy, and 1.8 billion users using them each month [ SOURCE ], it’s clear that the big players are also paying attention to how social platforms are evolving. Your brand should too.

In a post-pandemic era where the pub is struggling to regain its appeal from the hug of home (1) , how are relationships playing out online?   What’s new, what’s changing, and more importantly, is love everlasting? Using consumer data, social listening and digital signals, learn how brands can interact and understand how we live and love. Relationships matter Existing relationships are being reframed in importance. In the past 5 years the proportion of people who agree “family over everything” has risen 12% (now 76%) and “a wedding should be a large celebration with lots of people” has fallen 9% (now 28%)( 2 ). This year, just 23% of UK consumers report going out socially as much as they did pre-pandemic( 3 )- though Google Trends data suggests searches for family holidays are slightly up on pre-pandemic levels as well as searches for ‘family activities’. On social media, conversation around ‘family’ in combination with terms such as ‘outing’, ‘day out’, and ‘activity’ have grown 83% (38k) in the past year( 4) , suggesting a growing trend for people to showcase what they are doing with loved ones and discuss ideas for how to spend their time.   The types of relationships are changing However, the meaning of the term ‘family’ is also evolving. The proportion of people in the UK who agree “it is important to be married before having children” has fallen 6% in the past 5 years (to 35% of people)( 5 ) and, with the introduction of new grounds for divorce making it easier for people to end a marriage( 6) , families are more than ever being reconstituted into broader groups. In fact, search data reveals that relative to stabilised searches for marriage licences, divorce application interest has continued to climb post-pandemic( 7) . This is echoed in social data, with conversation about ‘divorce’ and ‘family separation’ rising 87% (430K) in the past year( 8) . However, new brands such as Amicable  are emerging to help people navigate the difficulty posed by separation, without solicitors - suggesting we will see greater emphasis on people finding more private ways to deal with their affairs in the future. Men are from Mars, women are from Venus Women in the UK are now around 25% more liberal on issues such as immigration and racial justice than their male counterparts - a difference that grows in younger generations( 9)  and signals increasing fragmentation ahead. On social media 51% of users in the UK are female( 10) , suggesting a roughly equal possibility for conversation about political issues online.   However, a 2019 study (US and UK) found that while gender does not predict political posting on Facebook, on Twitter there is a more pronounced gender gap - more than half of women said they have experienced mansplaining on the platform, especially those who were younger, well educated, and left-leaning( 11 .)   Looking at discussion of personal issues, Facebook has found that women are more likely to discuss things such as their own family, while men are more likely to discuss public events on the platform( 12) . For friendships and heterosexual relationships alike, this of course has implications for interactions with each other if women feel less able to express their views. Considering dating, a global survey conducted by Bumble( 13)  found that one in three (31%) women are no longer focused on adhering to traditional milestones such as marriage - perhaps as a response to the trends we see above in the failure of existing marriages. Only one in five (23%) women surveyed were seeking marriage, whereas nearly three-quarters (72%) were looking for a long-term relationship. In line with the wider shift in gender-based attitudes, nearly a third (31%) of women would only date people who have the same perspective on life. So, what commonality remains between people who are dating? Bumble found that a shared love of sports has now become a non-negotiable for 1 in 3 (31%) - regardless of whether you’re playing or spectating. With the recent rise of trends related to sport on TikTok, such as #running - which has had 561M views and 98K posts in the last 4 months and is still trending upwards, it’s easy to see that people will be connecting over such passions on social media. Furthermore, the integration of Instagram profiles on dating apps means that it’s more achievable than ever to signpost an interest in such activities in an authentic way.   Another study by Match.com found that animals remain a passion – with 24% of people looking for dog ownership and 17% for cats( 14) . Another finding was a desire for self-employment in a partner, which is closely related to the hustle culture conversation which we have seen for some time in social media and has half a million mentions in the past year alone when searching for the keywords “hustle” and “grind”( 15) . On the more physical side of things, 20% of people find blue eyes most attractive.   Meetup to matchup At a total population level, 8% of people meet their partners online - a minority when compared to the 15% who meet via mutual friends( 16) , suggesting personal networks remain very important for relationship formation. When this is filtered to the 18-24 age group, however, dating apps are as widely reported as mutual friends as the way couples meet. The finding is similar for 25-49 year-olds, though workplace romances rank similarly as well. This suggests that in coming years online dating could well become the dominant way people meet their partners as generations with purchasing power will increasingly be digital natives. Conversation about the dominant dating apps has increased by approximately 90% y-o-y( 17) , suggesting an increase in people discussing their romantic lives. Tinder had 83% brand awareness in 2023 in the UK as compared to rival app Bumble, which has an awareness of 58%( 18) , and Hinge with 42% - this dominance is replicated in social media mentions from the past year (85.3K Tinder, 73.4K Hinge, 39.3K Bumble( 19 ). Themes in this conversation include perceptions of success when using the apps and, commonly, the pitfalls such as being ghosted or catfished.   Competition is hotting up, however, with an indication that speeding up the in-person dating process is becoming increasingly desirable.   Thursday is a new app that’s only live for the 24 hours of Thursday, showing only people free for that specific day, with conversations deleting at the end of the time period. What this suggests is that the emphasis on finding a connection quickly is growing in appeal, almost reverting to the days of speed dating but within a digital framework. We are also seeing dating in general becoming amplified in social media by brands - with related keywords rising in popularity in the past 4 months   What does it mean for brands? Relationships are as core to our online as offline worlds - framing content through this lens drives engagement and relevance through positive associations Dating apps are the oxygen of younger dating - integrate them to content, consider partnering for experiences The young are less defined by their age than their gender and attitudes - they are a fragmented cohort, best marketed to as diverse groups, not “Gen Z” or similar descriptors Don’t underestimate gender - the single biggest defining predictor of how someone will (or won’t discuss relationships online, let alone their attitude towards them) _______ Let us know if you have any questions on this or if you want to discuss methods of keeping up to date with the newest consumer trends; we're a social media and digital marketing consultancy who love nothing more than the challenge of a digital data research project. _______     1 - HTTPS://WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM/BUSINESS/2023/OCT/08/ITS-SOUL-DESTROYING-TO-HAVE-ONE-CUSTOMER-ON-A-SATURDAY-IS-THE-PARTY-OVER-FOR-THE-UKS-PUBS-AND-CLUBS 2 – YOUGOV, 2024 3 - HTTPS://INSIGHTS.MINTEL.COM/RS/193-JGD-439/IMAGES/MINTEL_2024_GLOBAL_CONSUMER_TRENDS_ENGLISH.PDF?MKT_TOK=MTKZLUPHRC00MZKAAAGPWAUOC4NW1_KUITECUHM0VUUGY5HS9CEQW_2CYX-NQBTXN_SPWS4Q9JOBIYGPTTZFLOQRCEVHMEHNXKQ4TNJWMHYH8L5_AWLJNWJMHKVKCXKW 4 - MELTWATER, 2024 5 - YOUGOV, 2024. 6 -  HTTPS://WWW.BBC.CO.UK/NEWS/UK-61004089 7 –  GOOGLE TRENDS, 2024. 8 –  MELTWATER, 2024. 9 –  HTTPS://WWW.FT.COM/CONTENT/29FD9B5C-2F35-41BF-9D4C-994DB4E12998 10 – HTTPS://WWW.STATISTA.COM/STATISTICS/1400958/UK-SOCIAL-MEDIA-USERS-BY-GENDER/#:~:TEXT=AS%20OF%20JUNE%202023%2C%2051,PERCENT%20OF%20THE%20COUNTRY'S%20POPULATION . 11 -  HTTPS://JOURNALS.SAGEPUB.COM/DOI/ABS/10.1177/0894439319870259 12 – HTTPS://RESEARCH.FACEBOOK.COM/PUBLICATIONS/GENDER-TOPIC-AND-AUDIENCE-RESPONSE-AN-ANALYSIS-OF-USER-GENERATED-CONTENT-ON-FACEBOOK/ 13 – HTTPS://BUMBLE-BUZZ.COM/BUMBLE-DATING-TRENDS-2024 14 - HTTPS://UK.MATCH.COM/P/DATING-ADVICE/DATING-PREFERENCES-IDEAL-DATE/ 15 - MELTWATER, 2024 16 – HTTPS://YOUGOV.CO.UK/TOPICS/SOCIETY/TRACKERS/HOW-BRITS-MEET-THEIR-PARTNERS 17 -  MELTWATER, 2024. 18 –  HTTPS://WWW.STATISTA.COM/STATISTICS/1339807/MOST-WELL-KNOWN-DATING-SERVICES-IN-THE-UK/ 19 –  MELTWATER, 2024

We spotted this from Diageo in the FT regarding Guinness's self-confessed revival, thanks to women and younger drinkers. According to their Chief Exec, so-called “Guinnfluencers” have been credited for their role in driving the 24% uplift in women drinking Guinness (with growth driven largely by consumers aged 25-45 in the UK and Ireland). This A) is interesting and, B) represents an evolution in the role of influencers and attribution. The role of influence(rs) - are they drivers of audience growth or reflective of existing, shifting behaviours? I’m personally core to the growth audience and yes, I’m drinking more Guinness than I was a year ago… but is it because I’ve been #influenced or was the behavioural shift already happening and I’ve been exposed to consistently positive, social and digital reinforcement… Cyclical or symptomatic. Chicken and egg... It’s unclear. Either way, what IS clear is we can't ignore what’s happening, it's how brands grow… Guinness’s goal wasn’t to target women or a younger demographic rather a focus on growing and expanding the audience to reach more potential consumers (whoever they may be). Makes sense - be visible to more, see who sticks. And yes, they’re a big brand with big pockets, but what takes Byron Sharp’s well-known marketing theory on further, is how they’re approaching influencers as part of the media strategy (which realistically, is get in front of more people!). Guinness is using influencers as a media channel in their own right - for creative production and earned reach - to position themselves amongst the new growth audience as relatable, driving consideration and forcing repeat memory structures. The eternal challenge of attribution… The audience growth is financially significant enough to A) notice and B) disclose. Yet Guinness still can’t say influencers drove it in more than a general directional sense. Influencers being meaningful enough to discuss in your positive trading results, but still not in a specific enough way to be able to exactly attribute. A reassuring one for the rest of us?  It’s not you / us who find it hard - it’s hard even when you know it’s growing your business enough to tell markets about! Probably because they’re both cause and effect - symptom and cure - and so understanding which influencer advocacy occurs because you created it, vs what your customers created for you is tough. So, we keep on fighting the good attribution fight together! PS. For what it’s worth, the Guinness at The Devonshire does live up to the hype (if you can bother battling the crowds) and The George gives it a pretty good go too - let me know if you want to join me for one…

The Advertising Standards Agency, or ASA, recently ruled against Grace Beverley for posting TikTok and Reels content about a coat from her own sports brand, TALA, which she set up whilst studying at university and has grown into a multi-million-pound company. What does this mean for brand-owner disclosure, moving forward? With more and more influencers widening their income streams by using their platforms to create and market separate brands, it becomes crucial to keep the ASA’s guidance on ad disclosure front of mind. As we’ve discussed on our blog before, the ASA are very clear about their ruling on how influencers must disclose an advert on a social media profile. There’s no doubt that an influencer who is at all incentivised to promote a brand, or product in social media content, whether monies are exchanged or not, should mark it as such (preferably with #AD at the beginning).. When in doubt, #AD on content featuring an owned brand will keep influencers on the right side of the ASA’s “obviously identifiable” guidance, and it is the responsibility of any person involved in the content to ensure this process is followed. However, the ASA’s recent ruling on Grace Beverley’s content brings renewed focus towards what brand disclosure means when you own the brand you’re promoting. Grace posted two reels and four TikTok videos which The ASA deemed to have broken the rules, and asked her to remove. The company argued that her followers would be aware of her relationship with TALA, having documented the creation of her activewear brand from its very beginning, positioning Grace as synonymous with the brand. In addition, Grace’s bio clearly stated her connection to TALA. The ASA disagreed, determining that they breached rules that adverts must be obviously identifiable. Indeed, the CMA gives clear guidance on this for influencers with their own brands: “You should not rely on your bio, previous posts or selecting links for more information for your followers to discover what relationship you have with the brand you’re promoting or advertising.” So here’s where the link between owning, and promoting a business, gets a little more nuanced. A business profile running content about the product they sell is clearly advertising by virtue of the context in which it appears - but does the same apply for the exact same piece of content, posted on the business owner’s profile, if the business owner isn’t an “influencer” in the traditional sense of the word? In their guidance for influencers, the CMA and CAP define the concept of an ‘influencer’ as including ”any human, animal or virtually produced persona that is active on any online social media platform, such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitch, YouTube, and others”. So, is a business owner an influencer? Technically, if you take the above as your definition. There’s an argument that, theoretically, all content from a person associated with a business should be marked as an #AD, whether to 10, 100 or 10,000 followers. If this were the case, 9/10 posts on LinkedIn could probably be deemed #AD-vertising (though we’d argue that the nature of LinkedIn gives meaningful context for employee posts without it needing to be expressed at the start of every post!). Ultimately this is a nuanced conversation about how media-literate we collectively assume users to be - an imprecise art, less a science. So what now? Influencer marketing is constantly evolving, and so is the guidance from the CMA. If you’d like to talk through the guidance or want to run a compliant campaign for your business, get in touch with us, or have a look at our Influence(rs) page.

Healthy or happy? Fit or fat? Nutritional or naughty? Britain has a confused approach to our eating in 2024. Using consumer data, social listening, and digital signals, we explore how we talk, search and chomp as consumers - and crucially what it means for how brands engage. Inconsistent ingestion We’re seeing inconsistency in people’s research interests and consumption habits related to food and drink, exposing a tension in our mindsets that has brand implications. In particular, it’s young people making choices that run contrary to their interests, as well as their understanding of health and nutrition. Healthy choices are driven by science and budget Beyond calories On one side of the plate, we see the focus on healthy choices. However, ‘healthier’ options are no longer characterised by calorific content in the way that we’ve seen in the past. Instead, it’s increasingly about the functional composition of food, informed by science. Symptomatic of this are innovations such as the Zoe app, which uses blood tests and other samples to give data-led insight into the impact of what we consume on our bodies. Costly choices However, a primary social media conversation in relation to healthy food is the rising cost of living and the inability this gives many people to make health-related choices[i]. In the same vein, access to tools such as Zoe come at a premium that many people can’t afford in this context. This has inspired content creators such as Emily Harrison, whose “Beat the Budget” channel and cookbook offer inexpensive healthy meal ideas. The role of social in this context is clear - inspiring people for whom such choices would otherwise be inaccessible. The role of supermarkets here is also important -  we see Aldi coming top in terms of positive opinion (80%), closely followed by Marks & Spencer (79%) and Lidl (75%)[ii]. With two of the top three supermarkets being so focused on low prices it’s clear that the UK market is currently fixated on affordability to a greater extent than markers of premium quality when it comes to food decision-making. For social media, both Aldi and Lidl are known for creating conversation with their rivalry between each other as well as M&S - this has a positive sentiment majority of 34%[iii]. Vit-al signs On a broader scale, we see ‘science’ championed by the consistent increase in searches for vitamins and supplements over the past five year period[iv]. Today, 44% of people in the UK report purchasing vitamins - up 15% from five years ago[v]. Research by Mintel suggests younger cohorts in particular are interested in this microlevel of information about what they consume, in fact 55% of under 35s would like to see the vitamin and mineral content of food and drinks listed on menus[vi]. This goes some way to explain the rise of tailor-made vitamins such as Vitl and the rise of influencers like Kourtney Kardashian’s launching functional health gummies brand Lemme, suggesting social media authority is also central to this trend. We also see twice the level of positivity about vitamins and supplements in social conversation, relative to negativity, over the past year’s conversation[vii]. Naughty but nice On the other side of the plate we see that, while people are engaged in nutrition, they are equally enjoying the same indulgences as we have seen historically – perhaps to a greater extent than ever. The UK population are eating 50% more takeaways than before the Covid pandemic[viii], while searches for “healthy takeaways” have been declining in the past 5 years[ix]. This demand for takeaways is particularly observed among the under 30s group, with 42% agreeing they “usually” order in or get takeaways[x]. Winning the takeaway trend As of August last year, the top takeaway of choice in the UK was pizza (50%), followed closely by Chinese (48%) and then Indian (36%)[xi]. However the top takeaway brands according to positive opinions for the first quarter of 2024 reveal that burgers and fried chicken are more dominant – Burger King (58%), Pizza Hut (57%), McDonald’s and KFC (both 56%), as well as Domino’s (52%) all perform particularly well[xii] - though when we look at search data it is McDonald’s that wins out in terms of volume of search[xiii].  Conversation around McDonalds has increased 269% in the past year, while for Domino’s it’s increased 273% - reinforcing the role of these brands in our social media lives. This conversation frequently references McDonalds and Domino’s recent advertisements which seems to have irritated a lot of people! There are also frequent references to McDonalds in popular culture – mostly indicating ideas about it being a basic but comforting choice. When it comes to the app services, we see searches for Deliveroo win out over JustEat and UberEats in search. In social conversation terms, Deliveroo conversation has grown 48% (10k mentions) y-o-y[xiv], while JustEat has grown 179% (34k mentions) and UberEats by 241% (25k mentions). From reviewing the sentiment of these searches people are often taking to social media to make complaints about the company as opposed to discussing it. 38% of conversation is negative about the 3 brands mentioned above, relative to 21% positivity[xv], so this seems in line with the popularity we see in the chart below. Complaints predominantly relate to the wait times for food and service of delivery drivers, though there is also mention of the frequency of illegal working practices and illegal immigrant employees. PUTTING IT ON A PLATE What do brands need to do to connect in our food landscape? ●      Health = rational. Engage around the functional benefits, framed by science ●      Treats = emotional. Engage around the situation, the people, and the habit - it’s a ritualistic and often self-deprecating conversation ●      Treats are framed by brands - make sure your brand either helps someone project identity online, or partner with brands to drive emotional attachment and join the narrative ●      Healthier choices are often framed by trust and credibility - partner with the right people to drive the belief and trust ●      Don’t market to cohorts as intrinsically healthy or indulgent - market to the needs/aspirations of people which connect with one or the other side of the plate Let us know if you have any questions on this or if you want to discuss methods of keeping up to date with consumer trends. ___ [i]MELTWATER, 2024. [ii]HTTPS://YOUGOV.CO.UK/RATINGS/CONSUMER/POPULARITY/SUPERMARKET-CHAINS/ALL - TRUE AS OF 9/5/2024. [iii]MELTWATER, 2024. [iv]GOOGLE TRENDS, 2024. [v]YOUGOV, 2024. [vi]HTTPS://STORE.MINTEL.COM/REPORT/UK-EATING-OUT-REVIEW-MARKET-REPORT [vii]MELTWATER, 2024. [viii]HTTPS://IFS.ORG.UK/NEWS/TAKEAWAYS-AND-MEAL-DELIVERY-GREW-MORE-50-DURING-PANDEMIC-AND-HAVE-STAYED-HIGH-THEREAFTER [ix]GOOGLE TRENDS, 2024 [x]YOUGOV, 2024. [xi]HTTPS://WWW.STATISTA.COM/STATISTICS/1282840/TOP-TAKEAWAY-FOOD-UK/ [xii]HTTPS://WWW.STATISTA.COM/STATISTICS/950444/MOST-POPULAR-RESTAURANT-BRANDS-IN-THE-UNITED-KINGDOM-UK/ [xiii]GOOGLE TRENDS, 2024. [xiv]MELTWATER, 2024. [xv]MELTWATER, 2024.

‘Out-hyperbole the next guy’ – not a diatribe on social media marketing, but Stuart Kirk, global head of responsible investments at HSBC Asset Management, discussing central banker/policymaker responses to the financial risk of climate change, back in 2022. His colleagues didn’t concur that “climate change is not a financial risk that we need to worry about”, and Stuart Kirk, global head of responsible investments at HSBC’s Asset Management unit, was suspended, since resigning – with public criticism from senior colleagues including HSBC group chief executive Noel Quinn. Now, rather than discuss purpose, authenticity and the like, what caught the eye was the use of LinkedIn. Senior HSBC colleagues issued their critiques via their own LinkedIn profiles, press office directed media enquiries to said posts, and journalists quoted them. Regardless of how HSBC got there, this was an emphatic, swift and definitive closing-down of the story. Corporate Twitter profiles have historically been used in this way; to see co-ordinated use of senior execs’ LinkedIn profiles to respond, over a weekend, is rare. But it reflects something important: are your leaders set up to win in the new frontiers of reputation management – digitally? Could you get statements out on their LinkedIn over a weekend? Do they have rounded profiles, with relevant audiences following them at scale? Are you able to amplify this effectively with paid and owned approaches? LinkedIn’s use in this case for rebuttal/ reputation management touches on three core trends within corporate digital identity. LinkedIn as a core platform for ESG/reputation-sensitive topics with key stakeholders and audiences – because it’s relatively firewalled from activist/consumer engagement, it allows for more nuanced peer discussions impossible on Twitter. The role of individual leaders driving reputation management digitally, rather than their corporate entities. They outperform through algorithmic and authenticity-led factors on values-led issues. Journalist use of LinkedIn for research/newsgathering, company insight and sourcing stories – again taking the role Twitter historically held. What matters is doing the digital hard yards with leaders before the moment that reputation truth strikes. The key steps to consider to be able to move effectively: Executive profiles and identities – more than just the chief executive, it should consider senior teams more generally, potentially covering specific mapped areas. Audience-building so the right people are already there and engaged. Mobilise the wider employee base – internal can be external in managing the message. Be clear on the interplay between brand and demand activity, given LinkedIn has historically been a sales-led platform: there is positive synergy. There are constants in reputation management – the importance of message and time. Where the world has changed is in how you connect and distribute your views and responses, and the need for individuals, not corporates, to connect with your audiences. The shift to digital as the default, LinkedIn as the lead, people as the principle will rapidly be the new norm in corporate reputation. NB Originally written by Alex Pearmain for PR week here

LinkedIn brand / company page inboxes - here's how they may work. LinkedIn has (relatively quietly) rolled out inboxes for LinkedIn brand / company pages (not to be confused with InMail or Conversation ads) Years after other social platforms, it’s always been a curiosity that you couldn’t privately message a brand page. It began with LinkedIn’s origins, where you simply listed your employer, rather than it being a platform where brands marketed themselves. Those years are long gone, and the need for a LinkedIn brand page inbox has been real. Key use cases for brand page inboxes include: Handling in-bound sales enquiries Customer service - especially where you need to authenticate a customer with sensitive info Reputation / issues management Campaign activations (e.g. giveaways or similar) Influencer/Stakeholder engagement What do you need to know about LinkedIn Brand Page Inboxes? You have to be a super-admin or content admin to use the inbox. This will present governance issues around who can access for some organisations There’s (currently) no way to integrate into conversation management software, requiring direct access, and preventing integration into at-scale customer service workflows You can’t block users on LinkedIn, meaning trolls will be able to persistently communicate directly - BUT you can turn this feature off if the above issues make it an unviable tool for your business needs right now TikTok has grabbed the headlines in recent years for growth, but there’s a good case for LinkedIn as the platform that has made the most meaningful improvements to the product offering.

Content marketing – it’s an awful term. Thankfully this post isn’t a diatribe on that, but a digest of the current rules and recent developments (especially around the Competition & Markets Authority – CMA – guidance and rules), as apply to UK content marketing. Which matters because you could a) get in a lot of legal trouble, and b) really let down your customers or audience. We’re more concerned about the latter, to be honest, but we’ll help you with the former. So, first, for those less familiar to this, remember it’s common to pay for a blog/vlog to talk about a product or service. Indeed many ‘influencers’ make it a default. They simply don’t cover something if there’s no $$$… But, these ‘conventional’ operating processes online rub up against the law. Or at least they do if the posts don’t disclose the paid relationships. Secondly, this isn’t sudden – the last year has seen a growing concern from supervisory bodies. The ASA/CAP produced guidance for vloggers, following a clampdown on some household brands like P&G and Oreo. So, the CMA have issued new guidance. In multiple forms: A news announcement Three ‘60-second summaries’ for businesses on how to comply An open letter to online publishers and bloggers An open letter to marketers and clients The key points: If you paid, make it clear. Everyone involved is responsible for it – not just the brand, or just the influencer. Some people have recently got in trouble on this. A brand called MyJar (no, us neither) and Starcom. Now Google are already on this (no-follow links have been mandatory for some time), but they got even tougher in March – requiring the disclosure whenever a product is provided, not just payment (although it’s not apparent anyone is actually doing so…). Now what’s interesting there is that it covers the more frequent situation – people give product, not necessarily cash. But if that’s followed through on, media would have to do so too, and Google aren’t suggesting that. The challenge here is knowing what to do. Disclose more? Most bloggers/vloggers will tell you their  audience hate appearance of #spon content. Disclose, but lightly? Works well, but there’s ambiguity over what would be sufficient. Don’t disclose – what do you risk? Reputation if ASA get cross? This is where CMA could be interesting. But they will need to show teeth… So, in conclusion, on the CMA blogger rules (indeed, law!), it is important to note that operating models for revenue, reputation and disclosure are fundamentally different online. The idea of national-level bodies effectively policing an international medium seem dubious. There are two points: 1) how sophisticated are consumers to online operating models for content publishers, and 2) could and should the internet be regulated in the same way as traditional mainstream media. The answers to these are still in development, we’d suggest. Further detail, for those interested: note that Facebook announced changes to how branded content ought be labelled. It isn’t necessarily quite the same – the significant issues here are not yet apparent. Firstly, Facebook position this move as helping marketers – enhanced stats for example. That may well be, but it does also give Facebook an automated way of noting what content to eliminate the last vestiges of organic reach from, as well as sell ads at the brand concerned. On the flipside, it marks a structured way for people to trade their earned reach. That’s a change, but sadly it only applies to verified pages, at this point. Also, note what the US situation is, with the FTC also pursuing people… You may be wondering what the point of law concerned in these CMA changes is, and what the penalty is? Well astroturfing has always been illegal since the Consumer Protection legislation was passed in 2008, and this falls within it. Oh yeah, you can get 2 years in prison and an unlimited fine. Wowser. #ASA #bloggers #vloggers #law #influencers #CMA

It’s tempting to say you’re wonderful at everything. Human nature dictates it: we’re hardwired to compete for scarce resources with other humans. That manifests itself in literal competition, or, more often in the modern world, through status (historically higher status equalled greater access to food, shelter, warmth. Perhaps things haven’t changed so much over the millennia….) This week the rather lovely Dom Burch (we love a Yorkshireman here) wrote an interesting piece for the Drum about a trend for senior marketers to strike out alone, creating informal networks of highly specialised micro agencies, with mutual referrals. Now this struck a chord with us. Dom’s onto something. But we think there are three separate trends here, which are slightly being conflated. Micro (1/2 man band) marketing agencies staffed by senior people Specialist rather than generalist provision of marketing services Referrals between experienced marketers Going full circle to our avaristic human natures, 1) and 3) would seem surprising. Why would you not want to be the boss of lots of people, and keep every shred of work to yourself? Well, although ‘flexible working’ and ‘work life balance’ have been trumpeted in IT and HR press for (literally) decades, it has now come to significant fruition. Combined with an ever more intense lifestyle for senior marketers (the golf course and corner office are distant dreams glimpsed only through Don Draper), the conditions are ripe to have a satisfying material quality of life, combined with a different type of professional status, through one’s own micro-agency. Likewise referrals, which are, in a way, a blanket of mutual security, and are classic examples of the behavioural concept of reciprocity in action (i.e. not as altruistic as they first appear). In some cases this will also lead to 2) – a shift towards more specialist services. Sometimes because of principle, but often logistics: there are some marketing services which simply need large teams (constant content programmes, or media buying). Micro agencies cannot provide some of those services. But, combining all these trends into one risks confusing them with a slightly different trend, which we see, and are personally part of. That is of a push to specialism because being exceptional at something matters. Not ‘quite good’ at lots of things (which is still an achievement), but really, really exceptional at something. One of our favourite businesses, Hiut Denim, has proven one can buck the conventional wisdom of denim retail with this philosophy.  We bring it to digital interactions – we believe by being really focussed on supporting organisations and individuals to make these more meaningful, we can achieve a disproportionate impact with those who are creating what comes next. There are lots of other things we are good at it, but to fundamentally change the way people think, create and execute digital engagements we have to be great at that one thing, above all else. It’s about the deep experience of serious social media marketing. That means bringing together skillsets, mindsets and talent in ways which haven’t occurred so far, to build models of real human behaviour, premised on large-scale social data, but grounded in the reality of how digital and social customer, marketing and comms programmes really work. That doesn’t have to mean small. Our ambition is to be as big as required to change the way digital engagement operates. Original perspectives like Dom’s matter to a better understanding of the marketing services landscape – and his analysis is in many ways spot on. But micro doesn’t always equal specialist, and human nature can sometimes lead to people making decisions which appear (at face value) counter-intuitive. We have one question we come back to with the team, daily: Is this exceptional consultancy, which contributes to building what comes next? #specialist #talent #excellence #humanbehaviour #marketingtrends #marketers

Live, self-serve geofilters, face swap. We know it can be hard to keep up with all the practical developments in social media, and it’s been a busy one so far in 2016, so we’ve done the hard work for you. Read on for your 15 minute digest of what’s new for Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn YouTube and Tumblr… Facebook Live: First introduced last August but made available to everyone in January, this is Facebook’s new live streaming feature. An icon now appears under your status update – look for the upper body with a double halo. Similar to Periscope, but in your News Feed, you write a short description and start filming. It’ll tell you how many people are watching and their comments. For the minute (as ever it’s about to change), you can only film via the mobile app (i.e. your phone) so production values are lower, as are costs. More importantly Facebook are promoting it hard whilst they try and capture this new market, so all your followers/fans will get a notification (or at least those who look at their notifications during that period of time, and to a max of 3 in a day). Why is this significant? it’s the first time brands have been able to activate their page fans organically for several years. But don’t expect that to last forever… Reactions: When a Like just isn’t enough. Long-press (or hover on a computer) the familiar thumbs to get access to five additional animated emojis – “love,” “haha,” “wow,” “sad,” and “angry”. Why these? They’re the sentiments people use most often. Canvas: Facebook’s mobile ad format that’s also been called “Instant Articles for brands.” The aim is to give advertisers a more immersive way to reach people without them leaving the platform. So when you click on an ad connected to Canvas, it opens full-screen inside of Facebook, rather than loading a mobile website. Currently being use in Ted and Bernie’s political campaigns in the US elections. Twitter GIF: We LOVE a GIF (just look at our Twitter) so imagine our excitement when we saw Twitter had launched a GIF keyboard. The new feature lets you search a library of GIFs (Twitter has teamed up with Riffsy and Giphy) by keyword, reaction or category. Curated timelines: As of February Twitter introduced its algorithmic timeline, which means the tweets at the top of your timeline are now sorted based on relevancy, rather than chronology. What does ‘relevancy’ mean? In the words of Twitter: “We choose them based on accounts you interact with most, Tweets you engage with, and much more.” DM links: Twitter has been looking at how it can help brands improve its customer service through the platform. Now you can insert a deep link that a customer can click to start an immediate private conversation. Post service feedback: Linked to the above, Twitter is rolling out customer feedback with selected brands, which allows just that. After an interaction, customers can privately share their opinions on the service. More on both here. Instagram View counts: Views are now displayed below videos – previously you could only judge performance on hearts and comments. A view begins at 3 seconds and it only gets counted once regardless of the number of loops someone watches. Account switching: A relief for anyone who manages more than one account, you can now toggle between than rather than logging in and and out to switch. Extending the ad platform: The maximum length of videos has been extended to 60 seconds. Testament to the growth is commercial success, Instagram announced in February that it has 200,000 monthly active advertisers (versus a few hundred in June 2015). It has said three quarters of these are outside of the US. LinkedIn Groups: They’ve had a revamp. LinkedIn want to improve the quality of content shared (less spam/self-promotion) and overall user experience. You can only access them via a dedicated app and there are no more open groups. They’re either standard (request to join or invite-only) or unlisted (invite to join only and not findable in search). You can no longer search by name, member or keyword either. Essentially it significantly limited people using groups for prospecting and lead generation. LinkedIn Referrals: A platform introduced last year which aims to make it easier for employees to recommend their first-degree LinkedIn connections for open positions at their firms. You have your own ”LinkedIn Referrals” site and it automatically tells employees which of their first-degree connections are matches for a job. They can send matches links to the job openings via email or InMail. It costs between $10-12 a year per employee who uses the service. LinkedIn Account Targeting: Marketers can now run targeted ad campaigns to 30,000 companies at once (previously it was 100 and a very manual process). Advertisers present a list of companies they’d like to reach, which LinkedIn cross-references against the 8 million businesses in its network. Targeting can be further refined to reach profiles based on job function or seniority. YouTube Acquired BandPage: Bandpage is a startup which helps artists profile themselves and sell concert tickets and merchandise. This accelerates their shared goal of helping musicians everywhere thrive. Blurring tool: Has something awkward spoilt that otherwise perfect video? Never fear, YouTube has a custom blurring tool for that. Just draw a box around the offending item and  it will stay blurred as it moves around the video. YouTube Connect: It seems everyone is getting in on the live streaming act, and Google’s efforts are likely to be up next. Snapchat Self-serve geofilters: An additional revenue stream for Snapchat, you can create and distribute your own custom geofilters in a specific area for an allotted time. Approval takes about a day and pricing starts at $5. Nielsen ad ratings: Measurement is on the horizon. Advertisers have demanded better performance data for months and in February it announced a partnership with Nielsen so brands (who promo videos on Live Stories or Discover) will be able to view campaign performance through Nielsen Ad Ratings. Live story web embed: The Oscars marked the first time you could see snaps outside of the app. Snapchat updated its website with Live Story online, making snaps much easier to share (and the platform more accessible). It’s not clear how the web player will be used going forward but expect more. Lenses: A range of filters which you can apply to your (or someone else’s) face. The selection is updated daily, and include rainbows, dogs and the hugely popular Face Swap. You access them by taking a selfie and then tap and hold your face until a mesh appears. You’ll then see several lensesto select from. Tumblr Instant messaging (replies are back): Fan Mail has been replaced with instant messaging, a much welcomed addition to the platform. You can text messages to others, or share posts via the paper plane button. GIFs: As of the end of last year, Tumblr launched its own GIF maker, using videos or a burst of photos. Pinterest Interactive pins: Recipe and Movie pins have become much more data rich – including ingredients, cooking times and servings, and new information like rating, cast members and reviews. Image search: When using the mobile app, you can now click a particular part of a pin and Pinterest will search its archives for similar image. It will help strengthen its search function and offering to advertisers – as they’ll have more information on what people are looking at.

It’s no secret that beer is a popular topic on social media, with over 3.7 million mentions over the past year. The reason we chose craft beer as our August trend, though, is because it performs particularly well, with a 13% growth in mentions since summer 2015. This has been reflected by a stunning 40% growth in sales over the past 2 years, and the market’s still going strong, despite the fact that total pub beer sales are actually slowing down. As we mentioned in our previous blog post, this year there’s been a significant shift in preference to quality over quantity amongst UK beer drinkers – but how has this been reflected in how individual beers perform on social media? It would be difficult to write an article about craft beer’s social media presence without mentioning Brewdog, the fiercely independent craft-beer giant whose Facebook has garnered a significant 235,000 likes, not to mention their 115,000 Twitter followers and 175,000 Instagram followers. This month, following a new pledge to give away 20% of their profits to charity, they’ve exploded on Twitter, with over 7000 mentions this month, up 43% from this time last year. Brewdog’s branding is perfect for social media: quirky, down-to-earth, with an emphasis on personal connection and community as part of their business ethos. In fact, its founder, James Watt, regularly interacts with fans via his personal Twitter, which has 43,000 followers – more than Heineken and Budweiser’s UK Twitter followings combined. Independent craft breweries without the clout of Brewdog are still managing to punch above their weight on social media. Well-known independent breweries Fuller’s and Shepherd Neame (whose Spitfire Ale campaign on Facebook was a Shorty Award finalist a few years ago) have both seen impressive double-digit growth rates in Twitter mentions this year, as have – as have smaller breweries Cloudwater, Brew by Numbers. These breweries have built up a high level of community engagement, and a following of fans who are actively interested in any company updates or new products they may be releasing. Most middling-to-large breweries have social media followings that rival those of international names. Cloudwater, for example, has 19,600-plus Twitter followers; almost exactly the same number as Budweiser UK. Nevertheless, big beer has been investing more and more into digital marketing alongside other new marketing techniques such as experiential marketing, also designed to appeal to the young adult demographic. Lots of big brands are still lagging, though – for example, on Instagram, Tennents and Coor’s Light UK have a paltry 2.3k and 1.6k followers respectively. Brew by Numbers’ business is a fraction of the size and has over 9k. (That said, this trend is reversed on Facebook – Coor’s Light UK has over 250,000-plus likes, with Brew by Numbers not even hitting the 10,000 mark, a more accurate reflection of the mainstream UK market for beer.) Just as importantly, many larger beer companies own smaller breweries with non-negligible social media followings of their own. These subsidiary brands are more likely to perform well amongst craft ale enthusiasts, online and off. For example, Coor’s owns Sharp’s, makers of Doom Bar; Marston’s owns Hobgoblin; and Heineken owns the famously quirky Newcastle Brown Ale. Working to a similar end, Carlsberg has recently tried to get back to its ‘craft’ roots too with the launch of its ‘Expørt’ range. Unsurprisingly, this trend hasn’t gone down too well with the UK’s independent breweries, who view big brands as muscling into their territory and appropriating their marketing techniques. The Society of Independent Brewers recently mustered forces for a counter-attack by launching a seal of approval designed to give beer-lovers a better idea of just where their drink is coming from. So – what works for craft beer on social media? Brewdog performs consistently well across social media due to its strong branding, high engagement levels and the media attention it receives, both positive and negative. Newcastle Brown Ale is another strong-performing brand on social media; its humorous short videos have gone viral a number of times, and viewers don’t necessarily need to be beer fans to enjoy their wit. Shepherd Neame’s have a well-established, responsive social media presence. Their Facebook team typically reply within the hour to enquiries, and Facebook fans of their Spitfire Ale have almost doubled over the past 2 years, now totalling over 100,000 with a total reach well into the millions. Shepherd Neame have been building strongly since the end of 2014 when they saw their Facebook following increase twofold with a highly creative online marketing campaign. Meanwhile, Fuller’s London Pride have visually cohesive Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts, posting well-composed photos and topical content in their trademark red-and-gold colour scheme. One successful influencer photo last month triggered 3,000 engagements, while a recent Facebook post for the women’s rugby world cup garnered over 800; a good move to reach out to the female demographic, often disregarded by beer companies. As more and more of the world moves online, brewers’ battle for the public’s affections will only continue. Even straggling brands will need to begin developing their social media presence, and for now it’s likely that they will continue to look to the quirky, ‘grammable image of craft beer as a model. Just don’t expect Brewdog fans to to be happy about it. #augusttrend #beer #craftbeer #socialtrends