Each year Six enters into a 12-month charity partnership, which enables us to focus on supporting one charity organisation, and create a meaningful impact beyond monetary value.
For 2022, we’ve decided to inspire to think differently and partner with Sophie Hayes Foundation who support survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking. A subject we believe isn’t given the attention it deserves.
There are an estimated 130,000 people enslaved in UK, the majority of which are women and girls. Working with Sophie Hayes Foundation brand steering group for the past year really opened our eyes to the reality of modern slavery and human trafficking in the UK. They offer a unique programme that gives women survivors the skills they need to find confidence and employment, live independently and regain their rightful freedom.
This is a story of abuse, both mental and physical, but most importantly, it’s a story of courage and survival.
As a young woman, Sophie was trafficked from the UK to Italy. The person who groomed her wasn’t a stranger, but a good friend she’d spent five years building a friendship with. While Sophie had been building trust, her “friend” had been building a portfolio of personal details that would later be used to trap and manipulate her.
When Sophie arrived in Italy, she was threatened and her passport was taken from her. For six months she was forced to live a life of sexual exploitation, manipulation, sleep deprivation and starvation. After six months of abuse, sick and exhausted, Sophie stumbled into a hospital where she found the courage to call her mother. This was the beginning of the end of her ordeal.
Sophie’s freedom was brutally and unexpectedly taken away. But, sadly, her story is not unique. When Sophie returned to the UK to start her rehabilitation she set up the Sophie Hayes Foundation to help survivors of modern slavery find sustainable independence and freedom through education and employability. Over the past decade they’ve helped 475 survivors from 53 countries regain their freedom.
The partnership between Six and Sophie Hayes Foundation actually began last Christmas when we donated squares of Liberty Fabric, on behalf of our clients, as part of the Freedom Quilt Initiative.
To raise awareness and support Sophie Hayes Foundation as they continue to offer women survivors of modern slavery sustainable independence and freedom, here’s how you can get involved.
Additionally, if you suspect someone may be a victim of modern slavery, the Metropolitan Police have information on the signs of modern slavery and advice on how to report abuse. Or, if you yourself are currently living in modern slavery, please reach out for help.
We have been officially recognised as a ‘Great Place to Work’ by being awarded the sought-after certification.
Great Place to Work’s mission is to “help organisations create exceptional, high performing workplaces where employees feel trusted and valued”. Through the Certification process, they capture valuable employee feedback and details about the practices that make workplaces unique.
As part of this employee feedback, we were absolutely thrilled to report a 90% overall trust index from our team.
Some of our favourite bits from our team’s ratings include:
Come on – we’re a team of research consultants! Of course we love quantitative data, but we’re obviously going to go and gather a little qual too…
Megan Simmons, UX Consultant:
“cxp is a great place to work since we practice what we preach – it’s an empathy driven workplace”
Ollie Miller, Creative Director:
“There are no egos at cxpartners. From my experience that’s very unique. It means you can be you. You can feel comfortable sharing your ideas with people who really value your thoughts and really listen.”
Lauren Howells, Marketing Manager:
“We have such a supportive culture with space for everyone to have an opinion and speak up”
Chris Edge, Account Director
“It’s such a friendly and passionate team at cx, a diverse mix of skillsets working well together to really make a massive difference to our clients”
Nicola Pritchard, Senior User Researcher:
“Flexibility, support, adult to adult relationships, everyone’s proper passion for their subject, feeling connected, feeling heard, having permission to bring my whole self to work without judgement, total kindness of all the people here.
When I stop and think, that’s an amazing list!”
Henry Bacon, UX Consultant:
“I’ve only been here for about 6 weeks, but so far I’d say the people! Everyone’s super friendly and welcoming.”
Sharon Webster, UX Consultant:
“What I love about working at cx is being empowered, having opportunities to develop my career, learn from awesome colleagues and that being people-centred is lived and breathed here. Oh and there’s some fun projects too!”
Mark Skinner, Principal UX Consultant:
“I think the best thing is that we’re not expected to be robots – we can be ourselves, and when we need support, it’s there!”
Claire Barrett, Senior UX Consultant:
“Today’s pod catch up demonstrated one (of the many!) reasons cx is a great place to work… a bunch of lovely human beings asking brilliant questions on subjects that matter and just generally having insightful chats!”
Not only are we a Great Place to Work, but we also have some pretty great benefits too, including:
We offer ‘remote-first’ working, with offices available in London and Bristol, and are currently recruiting for:
However, if you’re keen to join the team but your skillset doesn’t quite match the roles above – get in touch, we’d still love to hear from you.
With Facebook announcing the rebrand of Meta in 2021 and the push towards the metaverse many have looked to the social media platform with a fresh pair of eyes whilst newer platforms like Snapchat and TikTok have been taking the limelight.
Facebook is maturing as a business and whilst some view it as an older form of social media it still has a very large user base that spans across different platforms and message services including Messenger, Instagram, Whatsapp and more.
SEO on Facebook follows similar patterns to the best practises outlined in our article on Instagram SEO and many of the same basic principles may apply as we look at ‘Metaverse SEO’ in the future. Here we share our guide to getting found on Facebook both in terms of the search feature of the site and the timeline.
As a side note, we will continue to refer to the platform as Facebook for the purposes of this article, however, we appreciate we may need to update in the future to keep up with the SEO best practice of keeping content up to date!
The Business page of your Facebook profile is essential for marketing purposes and getting the correct information on there will help you optimise the page and your profile from an SEO perspective.
Having a profile with all of the correct information around business specialisms, opening times and contact information will help your customers find you and provide the best possible user experience.
Additionally, having relevant keywords and concepts in your profile descriptions will increase the overall effectiveness of your Facebook SEO efforts.
Adding backlinks to your Facebook profile from your website and other areas will help increase the visibility of the page on other platforms and search engines. This will increase the chances of your page being viewed and potential customers getting in touch.
If you have other information you would like to share on your Facebook page then make sure you include custom tabs within your page architecture. This is a powerful tool to leverage when it comes to Facebook SEO and can be used to add sections on content, job listings and much more.
If you want to increase the awareness of your onsite blog content then adding links to the pieces from Facebook will help you to increase coverage. This can drive social visits to your site and increase the overall reach of your website and Facebook profile.
As previously mentioned using keywords on your business profile page will increase the chances of searchers finding your business when they are using the relevant keywords that you are targeting. Make sure that you are not too spammy and the keywords are relevant and organic.
One of the quick wins that you can get on your Facebook SEO is optimising your vanity URL. This will give you better brand control over your page and make it appear a whole lot more polished. To optimise this go to your page settings and change your username.
The jab, jab right hook methodology popularised by Gary Vaynerchuck is a good principle to follow when it comes to your Facebook content strategy and indeed all of your marketing communications. If your users feel they are getting something of value then this will increase the chances of them buying your product or service further down the line. Great content will also improve your Facebook SEO, so it will definitely be worth pursuing.
Get in touch with the expert SEO team at Varn to find out more about using SEO on your website and social channels, we can help if you want more guidance on getting found in a Google search.
Cerba Research, one of the world’s leading central, specialty and diagnostic laboratory services companies, have appointed AgencyUK to support their marketing communications effort from 2022. The appointment follows a competitive pitch that involved a number of agencies from around the world.
Cerba Research is owned by Cerba HealthCare,a €630m company and France’s national health service laboratory provider. The French group has grown on the five continents and draws on 50 years of expertise in clinical pathology to better assess the risk of diseases development, detect and diagnose diseases earlier and optimize the effectiveness of personalized medicine. Cerba Research plays a key role in this ambition to scale further as they become one of the world’s leading laboratory services companies as the industry moves ever closer to the human designer medicine model for drug discovery and development programmes.
Cerba Research has been operating for 35 years, with a global network of 450 clinical laboratories anchored in seven centres across the globe including in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific regions.
Cerba Research’s expertise and track record them an attractive partner for government agencies and non-government organizations as well as pharma and biotech companies thriving to change the shape of their clinical development.
“We are delighted to be working with Cerba Research during an exciting period of growth. As they continue to scale we will help them with their brand strategy, the rollout of their marketing communications, their employer brand as well as their digital capabilities, through web, mobile app and CRM platforms. We have unique experience in the healthcare sector that has led to us doubling our pharmaceutical portfolio since 2020, and Cerba Research is another significant addition” says Sammy Mansourpour, MD AgencyUK.
“We were looking for an experienced partner that brought both creativity and technical capability and we found this in AgencyUK. They have a good reputation in the healthcare sector and have previously delivered many of the vital components needed when a company like Cerba Research is in fast growth. Their insight and guidance so far haves already started to help us shape our future strategy and we’re excited for this to continue” says Sofie Vandevyver,, Head of Business Operations and Marketing, Cerba Research.
AgencyUK has already appointed Amy Boundy as Head of Strategy previously of VML London to help lead the account. Amy joins the team bringing her experience of working with pharmaceutical and biotech organizations as well as managing clinical trial programmes for the NHS.
Amy works closely with the NIHR team to increase the numbers of research projects taking place in Primary Care.. Studies include those focused on treatments for Covid-19 in the Community, such as the Principle and Panoramic platform trials and chronic conditions such as coronary heart disease and diabetes.
“I’m fascinated by the work many biotech companies do in their search for the next therapeutic drug discovery, and this has been my passion when working for agencies and pharmaceutical companies directly. AgencyUK has a unique proposition, with a fast growing healthcare portfolio and an enviable list of global brands. I’m looking forward to joining the team and embarking on the next chapter with Cerba Research” Amy Boundy, Head of Healthcare Strategy, AgencyUK.
In the pursuit of pushing our client’s businesses to stay on the front foot and become more innovative and engaging for their audiences, we’ve been harnessing our creativity better than ever before.
Here’s a little round up of what’s been going on in our creative department of late. This is the next instalment of our Six Mix. If you also want to watch vol I, it’s on the homepage of our website.
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We’ve acquired new clients who have brought us strategic and creative challenges and we’ve enjoyed taking these solutions to a new level. From a global brand awareness campaign for S&P Global Platts to developing worldwide employee engagement and cultural transformation projects across the engineering and energy sector. We had the opportunity to flex our brand creative and campaigns & content muscles. We’ve also had the pleasure of creating and launching BAM’s business transformation strategy, and the development and launch of a new brand: enfinium.
It wasn’t all about new clients, either. We’ve deepened our relationships with our long-standing clients, including bp. Lloyds Digital Academy, Lex Autolease, Verto, University of Oxford and many more. In partnership with them, we pushed them as far as we could creatively, always looking to delve deeper into what makes them tick and share their unique visions with their customers.
Behind the scenes, our studio has expanded. We’ve beefed up our design, copy, motion and UX teams with a host of friendly, brilliant experts who’ve been able to challenge us and our clients with new ideas and a lot of fresh energy
Feeling inspired by what we’ve been up to? Let’s talk about your next project . Drop us a line at [email protected]
Has 2022 got you thinking about investing in some valuable training for your team? Maybe there were some SEO challenges that were brought to light in 2021, and this time you want to be equipped with the knowledge and technical know-how to make informed decisions when it comes to SEO.
To support you and your team, we are offering a series of workshops, dedicated to the fundamentals of search marketing involving Technical SEO, Google Ads, and Google Analytics. All of our workshops are aimed at beginners to help them gain more knowledge and confidence to drive their business to perform better online.
As much as we prefer hosting our training courses in person, we have to put the safety of the participants and our team first, so for now we are providing them via video conference. Our hope is that, as 2022 progresses our workshops may be able to be moved to our lovely office in the picturesque Bradford-on-Avon.
Our Technical SEO workshop aims to provide you with an understanding of the fundamental search engine optimisation elements needed to improve the performance of your website on Google and other search engines.
Our resident SEO professionals will be on hand to debunk common technical SEO myths and give you practical examples that you can apply directly to the session.
2022 Dates: Thurs 21st April | Thurs 21st July | Thurs 20th October
The Introduction to Google Ads workshop is run in partnership with our sister company, AdPilot. This training course aims to provide you with the know-how needed to research, build and manage a structured Google Ads account, as well as hints and tips that you can implement into your own Ad campaigns.
Google Ads and paid search marketing can be difficult to understand without the right guidance, so let our paid search experts break it down into easily manageable sections.
2022 Dates: Thurs 17th February | Thurs 19th May | Thurs 18th August | Thurs 17th November
Our Google Analytics training workshop will provide you with the knowledge you will need to set-up and manage a Google Analytics account, including the most effective ways to monitor, analyse and implement the best approaches to improve the performance of your website.
As with Google Ads, Analytics can be a daunting but necessary part of your SEO strategy so is important to get the right support from experienced professionals.
2022 Dates: Thurs 17th March | Thurs 16th June | Thurs 15th September | Thurs 15th December
Our workshops are limited to 8 spaces per session, so please book soon to avoid disappointment. You can book direct through the Varn training courses page or via Eventbrite.
For further details on training and how it could benefit you and your team, in lockdown and beyond, contact our team on 01225 439960 or at [email protected]k.
Global education service provider and brand owner of TopUniversities.com, QS Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) have appointed AgencyUK as social media partner. QS is the world’s leading provider of services, analytics, and insights to the global higher education sector and famed for its university rankings, which have become the annual benchmark for universities around the world.
AgencyUK were appointed following a three-way pitch, in response to a social strategy and brand awareness brief set by the QS marketing team. AgencyUK will develop the organic social media strategy for the higher education and student communities around the world and launch a new programme of social media content off the back of it.
The pitch was overseen by Tim Edwards, Chief Marketing Officer at QS. Its purpose was to find an agency team who can support, unite, develop and promote their mission – to empower motivated people anywhere in the world to fulfil their potential through educational achievement, international mobility and career development.
The first wave of activity undertaken by AgencyUK includes strategy and creative that is based on education sector insights gathered from their world-leading independent market research and data analysis. The strategy will extend into the development of a global strategy and social media content plan rolled out in partnership with the QS global marketing team.
Tim Edwards, CMO, QS, said: “We were looking for an agency with strong strategic and creative capabilities and a track record in disrupting competitive markets. QS has grown rapidly through a combination of new product development and corporate acquisition, but we remain focussed on maintaining our market leader position, and to do so means being closer to our target audiences and continually investing in channel marketing.’’
Amy Stobie, Commercial Director, AgencyUK, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have been appointed by QS. They are a well established brand with a host of well known digital properties and a continuing ambition for growth. Our social and creative teams are well placed for reaching out to these target communities and we’re keen to get going.”
AgencyUK are an independent brand communications agency with 32 staff based in the UK. The company has demonstrated 200% growth over the pandemic period, largely attributed to the expansion of their healthcare portfolio. QS is the fifth global account win in the past 12-months.
The Green Claims Code has come into force, meaning companies making sustainability announcements should review their claims. Marketing and PR teams will need to take notice of what the Green Claims Code means for their communication work.
The code has been introduced to stem the tide of greenwashing, the process of conveying a false impression or providing misleading information, presenting a company’s products as more environmentally sound than they truly are.
Companies that are found to be greenwashing may end up in the firing line of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). They are breaking consumer protection law.
It’s therefore imperative that sustainability information distributed by your company is accurate and true.
Development of the Green Claims Code
The Code comes after the CMA’s discovery that around 40% of businesses’ claims around their environmental work were misleading for consumers. More and more companies are adding green or positive environmental claims to their products and services.
Claims include suggesting a reduction in packaging pollution or that your item was produced more sustainably than your competitors’ product. Consumers have seen these announcements in all areas, from cleaning products to tech services to beauty supplies.
The CMA has found that these statements are often unsubstantiated or inflated.
This video from the CMA has more information about the Green Claims Code.
The Green Claims code guidance
The CMA’s is focusing on fashion and fast-moving consumer goods to start. Don’t think that other businesses can wait. The Green Claims Code guidance applies to every company. Non-consumer facing and services businesses also need to check their claims that relate to sustainability. Every business should review their green claims and ensure that they are meeting their obligations.
What does the Green Claims Code mean for my business’ PR campaigns?
CMA’s criteria states that all environmental claims must be truthful and accurate; unambiguous; substantiated and consider the full life cycle of the product or service.
If businesses are comparing themselves to similar companies, then any comparisons of services and products must be fair.
Your business cannot fall foul of the CMA’s requirements. Here are some steps that could be helpful as companies seek to change their operating models and principles to become more sustainable.
Look inwards and understand just how sustainable your business really is. Review the claims made by your company relating to the environment, sustainability, carbon emissions or socially responsible actions.
This should be thorough and cover every part of the company, from packaging, marketing materials, website copy and encompass visual representations as well as text. If you use a recycling icon to illustrate a product when the entire product is not recyclable, the icon could be an infringement as it creates a misleading effect for the consumer.
B2B companies should be wary of using words such as ‘green’, ‘sustainable’ or ‘eco-friendly’. The Code states that terms such as these may suggest that a product or service has a positive environmental impact or “at least no adverse impact”. To meet the Green Claims Code, words and claims such as these must be true and can be proved. Otherwise, the company might not meet legal obligations.
Once you understand how sustainable your business is, ensure the information shared with your audiences uses the right language. As mentioned above, all claims must be substantiated. Add a single click-through link to provide clarifications for the claims.
Review all links in your business’s communications that relate to sustainable and environmental work, products or services. Proof points are needed to substantiate all the claims made and so this may require new designs, marketing materials and potential retractions.
Ensuring compliance with the Green Claims Code is not a one-off process. Across any sector, the number and nature of references to sustainability will change over time. Invest in training for all employees and check they understand the requirements regularly. It is not enough for senior leadership to understand the importance. Marketing, communications, compliance, product development teams should understand it too.
Preparing for the CMA’s Green Claims Code may appear daunting. However, consider this as part of your wider ESG and Sustainability strategy, as well as part of legal compliance. Accreditation via cross-sector schemes such as BCorp and membership of industry-specific organisations can help you to ask the right questions about your green claims.
The introduction of the Green Claims Code is also an opportunity to refresh your ESG & sustainability messaging, so also consider outside ESG communications support to ensure your PR strategies are fit for purpose.
Find all resources and relevant information about the Green Claims Code here.
Michelin starred, restaurant quality pasta, delivered straight to your door. That’s the idea behind new recipe box venture, Otto. And as the fledgling service prepares to outgrow London town, they’ve turned to Bristol agency Flourish to lead the way to plates further afield.
Since launching in May last year, Otto has ramped up service – going from servicing just four London postcodes, to delivering right across the capital. And now, with big plans to expand outside of London, Flourish has been appointed the agency to help take exceptional pasta to the masses. And boy is there an appetite…
In 2020, the UK spent a huge £190m on fresh pasta and noodles (YouGov). And pasta accounted for just under 12% of evening meals (kitchen cooking index).
The popularity of recipe boxes has skyrocketed in the last few years, too. A Cardylicks study found of the 22 million UK bank accounts they analysed, 11 million purchased recipe boxes. It’s a market that was worth $10.6 billion globally in 2020, and it continues to grow.
But with growth comes competition. Otto will be going toe-to-toe with the likes of Pasta Evangelists and all kinds of other recipe box cuisines, so demonstrating value and quality will be top of the agenda.
Otto was founded by entrepreneur and Pots & Co founder Julian Dyer, and long-time collaborator and friend Phil Howard, Chef-Patron of Michelin-starred London restaurant Elystan Street.
Julian said of the recent partnership between Otto and Flourish: “We’re really excited about working with Flourish on taking Otto onto the next step of our journey.”
He added, “We have exciting plans for the retail side of Otto as well as the restaurant, working with Flourish will help us produce inspiring marketing campaigns to bring the brand to life and help us grow the business.”
Flourish has been a long-time supporter of challenger brands like Otto, albeit on a different scale – Samsung, ebay and Huawei to name a few big-hitters. And Flourish’s Managing Director Ian Reeves can’t wait to get stuck in:
“As a customer journey agency, the acquisition of new customers plays an important role for all of our clients, and especially for brands ready to expand, like Otto.”
He added, “We’re absolutely delighted to be working with Julian, Phil and the rest of the Otto team – their passion is infectious, and their pasta is unbelievably good.”
To find out more about our work with challenger brands, big and small, please get in touch.
First event: 10th February 1.30pm – 2.15pm
Bristol-based web design and development agency, Unfold has just launched a brand-new events series, Below the Fold. The series centres successful business people, giving them a platform to share learnings from their journeys. Hosted by Unfold’s founder, Harry Cobbold, these events aim to educate and inform attendees with insider knowledge and tips for success.
What it takes to get your business acquired
The first episode in the series will see Gapsquare’s Zara Nanu taking the guest seat, with Harry interviewing her on Gapsquare’s recent acquisition and what it takes to build and acquirable business.
You can catch the event on 10th February 2022 from 1.30pm – 2.15pm. All events in the series will be held virtually via Zoom for the foreseeable future. If you can’t make the date, you can register in any case and you will be sent the session recording following the event.
Register for the event here.
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