Mel Bound

CSSC joins over 200 organisations, from across the UK’s Health and Fitness sector, in calling on all parties to commit to policies and actions that address the appalling and deteriorating state of health and fitness in the U.K. 2023 saw record levels of sickness absence and the NHS is at breaking point under the demands it faces. Govt, of whichever persuasion, needs cut the rhetoric and deliver resourced action. We need a population that is ‘Up, Out & Active’. Govt and Employers need to collaborate to encourage and assist our communities, our population, our children, our colleagues and ourselves to get active. It’s good for you….it’s good for your family….it’s good for the community…..it’s good for employers…it’s good for the economy & country. Please Share. ukactive #HealthandWellbeing #MyCSSC

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Not exactly guerrilla marketing, but the WHOOP sign is brilliantly placed right in view of everyone seated at Boston’s iconic Fenway Park. With their HQ just across the way, they’ve found a way to capture major exposure—likely saving a considerable amount in sponsorship fees. What’s the best example of guerrilla marketing you’ve come across? #marketing #sponsorship #Whoop #Boston #advertising #guerillamarketing

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I find it really sad and worrying that on the day that Sport England have published their latest Active Lives Children and Young People Survey Report, which shows that 47.8% of children are meeting the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines of taking part in an average of 60 minutes or more of sport and physical activity every day, the below makes the news headlines. The headline should be about the harm that will be created in the future by the fact that 52% of our children and young people are not being physically active - not about why a weight loss drug is not available on the NHS. We need to get a grip as the personal impact it will have on people’s quality of life, happiness, co-morbidity of disease, premature death is huge. The societal impact in terms of low productivity, cost of healthcare, working age people out of work and on welfare benefits equally as big. We need to quickly change our societal mindset and start to work harder to create conditions that engineer movement and physical activity back into our lives. So as well as publishing white papers on “Get Britain Working” we should all (government, media, businesses, parents, teachers, communities) get behind and better support Sport England, Active Partnerships and all other system partners to “Get Britain Moving”. #unitingthemovement

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Hot off the press: new research by SheSays on what work should be like. Favourite highlight: "the biggest thing that’s missing from current workplaces is truly fair and flexible work policies". Emphasis on flexible which should not be confused with hybrid. #futureofwork Great work Charlotte Read and the whole SheSays team

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In a powerful move, over 200 UK organisations and sports stars have united to urge the next government to prioritize making the UK the most active nation in Europe. And this isn't just about sports, it's about transforming our health economy and society. The potential benefits are staggering: a £3.6 billion boost to GDP, a £1 billion reduction in NHS spending on preventable diseases, and a whopping £71 billion increase in life satisfaction annually. It's time for action, not just words. Our sector is ready to lead the charge, but we need commitment and collaboration from our leaders. #TakeTheLead #FitnessIndustry #StrengthTraining

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I was pleased, this morning, to see Cycling UK and BBC News shining a spotlight on the real issue we have with illegal #eBikes on our streets. Reputable bike brands and shops are fighting to highlight the arduous safety checks that go into the manufacture and assembly of quality eBike systems. More needs to be done to tackle the growing problem of unregulated and dangerous retro-fitted eBike systems being used by food delivery riders from companies like Deliveroo, Just Eat, and Uber Eats. Food delivery riders get paid more if they are able to ride between jobs faster, and inevitably this leads to temptation to derestrict eBikes and fit cheap and nasty eBike conversion kits. More needs to be done by delivery firms to address this. At the end of the day, these delivery riders may not be directly employed, but the big food delivery companies know what is going on, and need to do more to ensure that they adhere to the laws. https://lnkd.in/eC3YMm9s

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🚀 Exciting Announcement: Launch of the 'Place Change Makers' Podcast Series! 🚀 Sport England's Place Collaboration and Learning Team (PCLT) are thrilled to introduce a six-episode series that delves into the essence of ‘people’ in the context of place-based approaches. Over the past six years, we've partnered with 18 different communities, sharing stories and insights about the skills, mindsets, and behaviours essential for driving systemic change. 🌟 Series Launch Date: Tuesday, 9th July at 10am 🌟 What to Expect: Throughout this series, we explore the journeys, challenges, and practical examples from those at the heart of work in our communities. Each episode focuses on a unique aspect of place-based systemic working, featuring insights from our place partners across the country. Episode Lineup: Episode 1: People Make The Difference: Hackney & Sheffield place partners explore the mindsets, values, and behaviours crucial for systemic change. Episode 2: Building Capacity: Southall & Leeds partners discuss community empowerment and leadership development. Episode 3: Being A Humble Leader: Greater Manchester & Doncaster partners examine leadership within place-based systems. Episode 4: Building Meaningful Relationships: Devon, South Tees & Calderdale partners share insights on impactful collaborations. Episode 5: The Power of Reflective Practice: Pennine Lancashire, Durham & Bradford partners highlight the role of reflective practice in systemic change. Episode 6: Workforce Matters: Withernsea & Pennine Lancashire partners explore recruitment and team cohesion in systemic initiatives. Also keep your eyes peeled for a blog from Lola Akindoyin, Head of Programme for Hackney Place Partnership, who shares her journey of change and the importance of ‘people’. We would greatly appreciate your support in liking, sharing, and engaging with our content across social media. We also invite you to share your reflections on the skills and behaviours that have been crucial in your work using the hashtag #PlaceChangeMakers to help amplify these great examples of working stories. Huge thanks to Naomi Bird and the wider PCLT for getting this over the line!

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You need a good storyteller to run an effective campaign. But you need a 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 storyteller to run an effective Government. With the polls narrowing and a new Conservative leader just a few weeks away, this needs to be the ‘reset moment’ when Labour wrestle back control of the narrative. Great to talk to Ben Kentish on LBC about how the changes in No.10 can get Labour back on the front foot.

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The Telegraph really doesn’t like the RSPCA’s rebrand. This one-sided listicle is actually its more measured response. Elsewhere it announces: ‘The RSPCA’s new advert proudly shows off exactly who they are – bigoted Left-wing extremists’ Yeah. Wow. It’s not alone…. The Mail went with: “RSCPA's wildly woke rebrand: As charity infuriates farmers and slams Brits killing snails - how donors stopped giving after years of ludicrous rescues which have seen seagulls saved and mountain goats rescued...from mountains” The Sun declared: ‘Woke’ animal charity chiefs ridiculed for urging us not to squish spiders with newspapers like The Sun in bizarre ad. It’s a rabbit hole of bizarrely wild-eyed reporting (not myxomatosis I hope..). And generally it’s best left alone. I mean, if The Sun and Mail are calling you woke it's generally a sign you're doing something right. But what is bugging me is the insidious pseudo-reporting of this listicle from The Telegraph. Yes, you’ve found five charity rebrands that weren’t very successful. Well done. Any interest in balancing it with the hundreds that were successful? Yawn. But it's the way they do it. The language they use. Take the opening lines of the article: “Charities are set up to help those in need. That’s why so many of us donate after all.” Fair enough, you think. Unarguable point. This is clearly a writer who is not only reasonable and to the point but is also philanthropic. “But significant sums are also being spent on things other than frontline services, including rebrands dreamed up in boardrooms and overseen by PR companies.” It’s playing to a well established trope: pin-striped execs casually deciding people’s fates over cigars and Pol Roger, while a PR exec schemes in the fug. It’s pantomime rhetoric dressed up as impartial reporting. They know what they’re doing, and they do it well, but readers of The Telegraph’s business pages deserve better. This could have been an article about the issues charities currently face in raising funds from young people, or the specific challenge of being a brand that 93% recognise but far fewer like or plan to donate to, or whether abandoning the iconic octagon will work (I personally think Jones Knowles Ritchie have yet again done brilliantly here). If anyone from The Telegraph’s business pages would like any more of these ideas for genuinely insightful and useful articles around rebrands I, and my team, have plenty, and we can connect you to brilliant brand design teams who are doing remarkable work that positively transforms charities, businesses, lives and society. We’re not pantomime villains – please stop writing about us like we are. #prfordesignagencies #branding #businessjournalism 

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Please read this by Mark Sellman in The Times today, remembering that I struggle to raise funding for MakeLoveNotPorn Academy, our 0-18 and beyond sex education platform to help make children aware as early as possible of what is positive and negative in a sexual context: https://lnkd.in/e3jbrak6 while billions-of-dollars-funded Snap Inc. was involved in 40% OF CHILD GROOMING CASES WHERE A PLATFORM WAS RECORDED. The young white male founders of Giant Tech are not the primary targets, online or offline, of harassment, abuse, sexual assault, racism, violence, r*pe, or intimate image abuse. So they didn't, and don't, proactively design for the prevention of any of those things on their platforms, and we see the results of that around us every day. Those of us most at risk every day - women, Black people, people of color, LGBTQ+, disabled people - design and build safe spaces and safe experiences. But we don't get funded (just 1.7% of all venture capital last year went to female founders). Which is why we have still not seen how much safer, happier and more lucrative the future of the internet will be for all of us, when it's designed and built through the female lens AT SCALE. Please, micro-invest in MakeLoveNotPorn and our unique 'human curation layer on top of the internet' model (there is no self-publishing on MLNP nor MLNP Academy - human eyes vet every video, every piece of content, every profile post, every comment, highly efficiently and scalably) at link in comments.

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LGBTQ+ News Update! The UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lucy Frazer, has called for the discrimination of trans people - that they should be banned from elite-tier athletic competitions. Frazer's priority is fairness, so here are some questions to consider: - What is fair for trans women? - How do these plans consider trans men? How will their safety and fairness be considered? - How do we ensure fairness across differing cis women, who vary considerably in size, strength and testosterone levels? Will we need to ban anyone else? - Would re-instituting puberty blockers alleviate these concerns and issues? A lot of people have a lot of opinions about this topic. To help ensure your opinions are informed, here is some further reading for you: - https://lnkd.in/eeMyGqti - https://lnkd.in/eYRyFHBA

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According to PRWeek UK research, over 65% of #publicrelations agencies rate the quality of briefs that they receive from in house comms teams as either 'very poor', 'poor' or just 'average'. Only 2.2% say they receive an 'excellent' brief. This is clearly a massive challenge and shows how important it it that the whole industry steps up, if we're to ever break out of the chicken and egg cycle that we spend too much time inhabiting. Senior in-house practioners that I speak to are regularly frustrated by the quality of #PR agency reponses and work - typically across their #planning, #strategy and #measurement / #evaluation appoach. Tactics and activty are rarely questioned, and are where the PR agency focusses in response. This research helps explain why - without excellent briefs, the PR agency can be in the dark about how else to respond. The rise of #procurement departments implementing rules where prospective suppliers can't contact the prospective client just makes the matter worse. The PR agency is literally blindfolded. #PRWeek's article, linked in the first comment below, sets out a number of challenges that need addressing. They focus on : Budget Clarity - Some briefs fail to mention any budget, while others provide unrealistic ranges Clear Organisational Objectives - Many briefs lack clear, specific objectives. Without well-defined goals, clearly defined audiences and transparent sharing of benchmark data, agencies will always find it challenging to tailor their strategies effectively. Objectives need to be outcome focussed and SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) Decision-Maker Involvement: A lack of up front attention from decision makers and absence at critical stages can easily lead to misalignment. RFPs and pitch processes are not a chore to be delegated and avoided Procurement and Process Efficiency: Overly complex procurement processes can be burdensome, and frequently result in clients buying based on price, not value Realistic Expectations: Some clients exhibit a lack of understanding of PR's capabilities and can set unrealistic expectations If we want to improve the perception, practice and achievements that can be delivered through PR and Comms programmes, we all need to work together to take responsibility. In house teams need to invest the time to write great briefs and run great RFP processes. They need to provide clearly stated outcome focussed objectives, realistic budgets and be present and engaged throughout the process. In turn, agencies need to focus on strategic planning based on these objectives, great creativity and brilliant tactical execution. With all of this aligned, we can all move on to a world of better #measurement and #evaluation as well. Let's all work together to make frustrated quotes like this from the article be a thing of the past! 😖 “Lack of SMART objectives across all briefs” – Anon 😖

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Exciting times at FSP who have launched the FSP playbook! This book is like gold dust, if you are lucky enough to have a copy, you are one of the lucky ones⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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In the inevitable search for Q4 growth...at what point does the continuous Christmas creep become so inadvertently commercially motivated for it to damage our good old "Brand Christmas" ? Some WARC reflections .... mind the growth 😁 Why Christmas keeps getting earlier Christmas creep, the phenomenon by which the hallmarks of the Christmas period – decorations, products, music, ads – arrive earlier and earlier each year happens for a reason. The trouble with Christmas Timing is everything, especially in such a crowded moment. Brands known for their Christmas advertising, such as the retailer John Lewis Partnership, have aimed for a first-mover advantage with their annually awaited Christmas spot, which tends to be its own news storm. Emotionally led campaigns also need time to bed in and lodge themselves in the memory – there is strong evidence that good ideas can improve over time, even over years. So is context: the sheer messaging congestion during the Christmas advertising period has driven others to take radical new steps in channel selection when the competition could simply outspend you. Why Christmas matters The Christmas period is vital for many brands, especially in retail, with that importance reflected in consistent Q4 spikes in ad spending over the last 10 years globally. But, effectively, the rush comes down to the hard deadline of 24th of December, by which time brands need to land a message that performs. This is shifting, however, with Christmas campaigns now designed to boost brand equity long beyond the Christmas period, or to find a winning idea that can wear in over many years of Christmas activation. Reasons to creep "Christmas creep" is not new; it is, in many ways customary for people to grumble about Christmas getting earlier. It comes down to retailers becoming increasingly reliant on a strong final quarter of the year, a time when they'd rather get their festive talking points out of the way early rather than risk “holiday fatigue”. The Christmas season is getting earlier The Guardian observes that activity for the period has consistently crept forward over the last four decades. Its analysis is based on three areas: Christmas music: according to the UK music charts, it appears that it’s now acceptable to listen to festive music from mid-November, a steady creep from a two-week period leading up to the 25th, which had been common in the 1990s. Christmas products: The average launch date for mince pies across four major UK supermarkets shows a significant pie creep, with the date this year coming down to 7 September. By comparison, in 2020, the average launch was 28 September. Christmas markets: Around the country, Christmas markets are opening earlier, with the typical date of opening now around a week ahead of the last decade. Sourced from WARC, The Guardian. Image source: Adobe

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🔄 3 Ways Brand Strategy is Evolving - Things to think about for 2025 As we enter the last couple of months of 2024, at Hello Finch we’ve been reflecting on how brand strategy is evolving. Traditional brand strategy focused on positioning and differentiation. But in 2024 we saw fundamental shifts in how successful brands are being built. Here's what’s changing... First Evolution: Community Over Communication 🎯 Brands that win aren't just talking TO their audiences anymore - they're building WITH them. It's not about perfect polish, it's about perfect participation. At Hello Finch we work with a lot of young entrepreneurial talent and this is a key message we have on repeat - it’s not just about likes it’s about engagement. ➡️ The most successful brands we work with are spending 60% of their energy on community building and 40% on traditional marketing. This is literally inverted from five years ago. Second Evolution: Radical Transparency 💡 The era of carefully curated brand personas is over. Today's consumers can spot manufactured authenticity from miles away. They're demanding real behind-the-scenes access. ✅ One of our favourite Instagram Accounts is @DearCocoLondon* - Ant Duckworth, the Founder embodies Radical Transparency and we encourage all of our clients to take a look at his masterclass approach Third Evolution: Micro-Moment Marketing ⚡️ Instead of big campaign pushes, winning brands are mastering the art of showing up consistently in small, meaningful ways. It's about being present in decision-making moments. ➡️ This shift requires a fundamental rethink of how we structure brand strategy. The old quarterly campaign model is being replaced by always-on, adaptive approaches that can respond to cultural moments in real-time. One of our strategic investments ttagz embraces this approach - by engaging everyday customers in your brand, you retain their loyalty for a lifetime. In summary, the brands that will win in 2025 aren't just adapting their messaging - they're transforming how they operate. Strategy isn't an annual exercise anymore. It's a daily practice. Thoughts? What shifts are you seeing in your industry? Hello Finch. Listening Intelligently *Find Dear Coco Coffee at Strand-on-the-Green and The Gessner... we reckon you'll be hard pushed to find a better ☕ and for those out of Londoners, Ant has his on brew available through his website 😉 #BrandStrategy #Marketing #Innovation #FutureOfBrands #BusinessGrowth

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‘You can’t really measure the impact of PR’. I hear that said so often that sometimes even those of us working in the sector can be at risk of internalising that belief. Which is why it’s so uplifting when a client takes the time to write in on a Friday afternoon to say ‘the result of the press coverage [that Rostrum generated] is a 25% increase in website traffic and a 50% increase in form completions’. That’s a measurable return on investment from your PR programme.

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As someone probably once said, race directing is an endless series of small crises, occasionally punctuated by a disaster... Ok, that may be a bit dramatic, but it's certainly true that race directors have more than their fair share of curve balls to deal with in their day-to-day lives, from late-arriving medals and social media "controversies" to last-minute permit denials and event cancellations. So how do you get ahead of things when things go wrong? How early should you look to communicate the situation to your participants and stakeholders? And how should you go about doing it? That's what we're discussing in our latest Head Start podcast with PR pro Meg Treat, APR. Communicating effectively with participants and stakeholders when hiccups come up can make a world of difference. So knowing how to do that can really add an invaluable skill to your professional toolbox. Many thanks to Meg for taking the time to join me on another podcast, and a massive big thank you to our podcast sponsor RunSignup for supporting us in bringing free expert content to the race director community. Plenty more content like this in our podcast feed, including another chat with Meg Treat on DIY PR for race directors + much much more. So check it out! #crisismanagement #pr #podcast

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https://lnkd.in/ec9WzV-s Some interesting travel and transport sustainability initiatives for Sports clubs and venues to think about from Massive Attack upcoming gigs (their musics not bad either!) Especially as just like music events sports travel and transport emissions are one of if not the biggest ongoing environmental impact clubs and venues have to tackle, but also one of the hardest to reduce!

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Delighted to be asked to contribute to this discussion on how to build successful campaigns. Inevitable reflections on 2012 but also more recent projects. We look at the importance of goal setting and clear delivery frameworks, detailed milestone planning for change, transparent communication and the superpower of listening, the balance of the grand plan and the light touch and the empowerment that must come from effective leadership.

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