Keystone Marketing

Arcade UK Ltd

Chantal Palmer — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 15:23:00 +0000

Turning CRM into a strategic growth tool

Client: Arcade UK Ltd

Commercial, Digital, Engagement, Strategy

The challenge

Building on 50 years of mechanical and engineering expertise, Arcade UK Ltd was ready for its next phase of growth, with ambitions to expand both its in-house capabilities and its reach across multiple sectors.

Despite boasting strong client relationships, specialist technical expertise and an impressive track record of successful projects, they still needed a more connected way to manage contact data, conversations, engagement and future business development in a way they hadn’t previously.

In initial marketing scoping conversations, we recognised that without a system bringing these activities together, Arcade’s growth ambitions would have been difficult to achieve. We identified the need for a strategic CRM approach that could support how the business works now, and a method to track targeted long-term relationship-led growth.

Our approach

We worked with Arcade to review their CRM requirements against the needs of the business, including ease of use, scalability, integration with existing systems, marketing automation, sales tracking and long-term value. Our aim was to help Arcade make a confident decision around choosing a platform that could support both immediate adoption and future growth.

We produced a shortlist of suitable CRM systems matching their needs and worked closely with them to evaluate the options before making a final recommendation. As both HubSpot and GoHighLevel CRM partners, we were able to provide independent strategic advice and guide them to the best fit solution before supporting the implementation.

Once a commitment to CRM was made, we helped Arcade shape the next phase of its development through a focused scoping workshop. Here we explored how their chosen CRM could better support governance, segment and manage their audiences and track communications activity, while being strategically aligned to their growth plan. We then handled full implementation of their chosen system; with weekly check ins to prepare the new system for population, whilst also working to ensure the CRM could sync with Arcade’s third-party project management system.

Impact

Arcade now has a CRM system that has been developed as a practical growth tool, ensuring consistent data collection, a stronger, recorded and more connected view of relationship management with communication history, and planning and sales visibility across the customer base. With a clear home for all contacts, Arcade has now moved to sending intentional communication campaigns to defined, segmented and targeted audiences, with the view to creating future relationships and work opportunities.

The post Arcade UK Ltd appeared first on Keystone Marketing.

Back to school, Keystone style

Chantal Palmer — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 14:29:44 +0000

The summer holidays may be in full swing but this August, Keystone is going back to school. We’re not sharpening our pencils or choosing a new pencil case, however. Instead, we’re going to be at the front of the room, handing out the worksheets and preparing to be teachers for a day. Our students will be young adults aged between 16 and 20, participating in a summer programme delivered by Cambridgeshire County Council.

We’re delighted to be working with The Library Presents team once again, supporting the free, three-week Become an Events Producer Summer Course, which gives young adults interested in the arts an opportunity to learn how to plan, promote and produce live events with guidance from industry professionals.

For us, this programme brings together several things we care deeply about: creative confidence, practical communications, community-focused arts activity and helping people turn good ideas into reality.

Participants will gain practical experience by producing a real ticketed event, helping them strengthen their CV, portfolio or UCAS application.

Taking place at Cambridge Central Library, the course will introduce young adults to the different skills involved in event production, from programming and working with artists to planning, budgeting, health and safety, fundraising and evaluation. Our role will focus on event promotion, with a dedicated session covering marketing, branding, audiences and communications.

Over the course of the day, we will cover how to:

Reach, engage and welcome the right audiences
Choose the appropriate marketing channels
Create strong and clear messages
Ensure communications feel inclusive and accessible

By the end of the session, each person will have developed a practical mini marketing plan they can use as the foundation for promoting an event.

Designing the session also reinforced something we’ve long believed. The same principles that help a young producer market their first event are just as valuable for charities, community organisations and commercial businesses planning campaigns of their own. That’s why we’re exploring how these practical tools could become a series of bite-sized marketing lessons for a much wider audience.

Keystone has worked with The Library Presents team for over three years, supporting communications across seasonal arts programming, promotional campaigns and audience-focused content.

Hayley Williams, Managing Director at Keystone, said: “One of the things we value most at Keystone is building long-term relationships with organisations that share our passion for creating opportunities and making a positive difference. The Library Presents is a brilliant example of that, so it’s a real privilege to be supporting this programme and helping young people gain practical skills, professional insight and creative opportunities.

“Marketing is often seen as the bit that happens at the end, once an event has already been planned. But good communication starts much earlier. It helps shape who an event is for, what people need to know, what might encourage them to come and how to make them feel welcome when they do.”

If you know someone aged 16 to 20 who loves the arts, enjoys organising things or simply wants to discover all that happens behind the scenes of a live event, we’d encourage you to share the course with them. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Become an Events Producer Summer Course is free to attend and will run at Cambridge Central Library from Tuesday 11 August to Wednesday 26 August.

The post Back to school, Keystone style appeared first on Keystone Marketing.

Applied InsurTech

Chantal Palmer — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 14:47:54 +0000

Turning complex insurance technology into a usable brand

Client: Applied InsurTech

Brand, Commercial, Digital, Engagement, Strategy

The challenge

Applied InsurTech needed a brand identity and messaging framework that could clearly communicate a complex commercial insurance technology offer.

The business provides technology that helps insurers and MGAs bring products to market more quickly, reduce costs and streamline the distribution of commercial insurance. The challenge was turning that specialist proposition into a brand that felt credible, modern and easy to understand for a commercial insurance audience.

They needed more than a logo. They needed the thinking behind it: a clear proposition, audience understanding, messaging, visual identity and practical brand tools that could support the business as it launched into the market.

Our approach

We began with a brand and messaging workshop, helping the Applied InsurTech team draw out what the business does, who it needs to reach, what makes the offer different and how the brand should be perceived.

The workshop looked at the business proposition, audience needs, USPs, competitor context, objections, tone of voice, brand personality and practical use cases for the identity. This gave the creative work a clear strategic foundation before any visual routes were developed.

From there, we created a messaging framework that included the vision, mission, strapline, short and long descriptive messaging, USPs and FAQs. This helped turn a technical offer into clearer language that could be used consistently across the website, sales materials and wider communications.

We then developed logo concepts and visual identity routes, exploring how the brand could express speed, integration, technology, confidence and accessibility. The final identity work included logo development, colour palette, typography and brand guidance, giving Applied InsurTech a more professional and usable brand system.

Impact

The project gave Applied InsurTech a clearer, more confident way to present its business to the commercial insurance market.

By combining strategic workshop insight, messaging development and visual identity design, we helped turn a complex proposition into a brand that was easier to understand and use, and better aligned with the business’s ambitions.

The work created a stronger foundation for Applied InsurTech’s market presence. It supported a clearer website proposition, more consistent communications and a visual identity that could help the business demonstrate greater credibility.

The post Applied InsurTech appeared first on Keystone Marketing.

Your webinar is not the campaign. It’s the content engine.

Chantal Palmer — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 14:46:14 +0000

Why the best webinars keep working long after you say goodbye

Over the years, we’ve worked on plenty of campaigns, events, webinars and content plans that all started with one deceptively simple question:

“What are we inviting people to?” A webinar. A briefing. A panel. A live Q&A. A product update. A thought leadership session?

Lovely. Useful. Eminently sensible : )

But, if we stop there, we miss the bigger opportunity. The one not written in the brief, the one you spot by listening carefully to what an organisation already knows, what its audience needs and where the conversation could go next.

A good webinar should never be just a date in the diary. It should not live and die in that one-hour (although let’s be honest, we could probably all make a strong case for 45 minutes) slot where everyone logs in, listens politely, asks a few questions if you’re lucky and then disappears back into their working day.

With a bit more planning, a webinar can become the heartbeat of a much bigger campaign. It can create insight, content, conversations, follow-up opportunities, sales intelligence and lovely little moments that keep working long after you’ve waved goodbye.

And that is where things get really interesting.

Let’s set the scene

We’ve all been to webinars that feel like someone has taken a slide deck, placed it gingerly on a screen and hoped for the best.

The invitation goes out. People register. A reminder lands. The session happens. Someone says, “Great turnout!” Someone else asks for the recording. Then the whole thing gets filed away in a folder called something like “webinar assets final FINAL”.

And that, my friends, is where a lot of valuable thinking goes to die.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Registrations matter. Attendance matters. Of course they do. We need people in the room, otherwise we’re essentially talking to ourselves, which is fine for the arguments you have with yourself in the shower, but less ideal for a marketing campaign!

But if those are the only things we measure, we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

The real value is often in what people ask, what they click on, what they come back to, what they watch afterwards and what the webinar gives you permission to say next.

The live hour (or however long you can justify before attention starts gently leaving the building) is only one part of the job

This is something we’ve been thinking about a lot through our work with Renovation Underwriting and their Market Briefings.

The idea didn’t begin as a request for “a webinar”. It came from noticing something valuable during wider marketing conversations: RU had credible, practical market insight that brokers would genuinely benefit from hearing directly.

The opportunity was not simply to package that insight into a one-off session. It was to create a new engagement channel between RU and its broker audience, one that could build trust, invite questions and give RU a stronger platform to lead useful market conversations.

The live session matters, of course. Brokers are giving up time in their day, so the content needs to feel relevant, focused and worth showing up for. But that one live session can create a bank of expert insight that fuels articles, follow-up emails, social content, sales conversations, on-demand viewing and future campaign ideas.

And this is where the humble webinar stops being quite so humble. Suddenly, you’re not just planning an event. You’re planning a content engine. You start asking better questions earlier:

What should someone be able to do differently after attending?
Which moments would we want people to remember, quote or share?
What questions do we want the audience to bring into the room?
Which clips could live on LinkedIn later?
What follow-up content would be genuinely helpful?
How will we know whether the session created interest, not just attendance?

That final question is the big one. A webinar is not only a broadcast. It’s a way to find out what people actually care about.

Your audience will tell you what matters, if you let them

One of the easiest mistakes to make with webinars is treating the audience as passive viewers. They are not. They are busy people with jobs to do, clients to answer to and problems landing on their desks while your webinar is happening. But, if you create the right conditions, they’ll show you what they care about.

That might be through questions submitted in advance. It might be through the live Q&A. It might be through chat comments, poll responses, downloads, clicks or the parts of the recording they come back to later.

All of that is useful intelligence. It also changes the relationship. The webinar stops being a broadcast and becomes gold dust.

For RU’s market briefing, one of the opportunities was to move the Q&A from “any questions at the end?” into something more purposeful and participative. Asking brokers to submit questions around specific themes gives them a much easier way in. It also helps the panel shape the conversation around the real issues people are seeing in the market.

That might sound like a small change, but it makes a big difference. You stop crossing your fingers at the Q&A bit and give people a way in before they get there.

The first minute matters more than you think

This is one of those tiny human details that can change the feel of a whole session.

If people arrive into a cold, silent webinar room, they often stay quiet. They listen, maybe they take a few notes, then they leave. Perfectly pleasant, but not exactly sparkling with energy. But, if you open by inviting people to say hello in the chat, share where they’re joining from or answer a simple question, you give them permission to take part.

It is not complicated. It is not revolutionary. But it is human.

That first minute sets the tone. It says, “You’re not just here to watch. You’re part of this.” And once people have interacted once, it becomes much easier for them to ask a question, respond to a poll or share what they are seeing in their own world.

Think in clips, not just chapters

When you know a webinar could become future content, you start planning it differently. You still need flow, structure and a clear narrative, but you also need to think about the moments that might stand on their own:

A sharp answer from a panel member.
A practical tip.
A common misconception.
A punchy explanation.
A question that opens up a bigger issue.
A useful phrase your audience might repeat back to you later.

These are the moments that can become short video clips, LinkedIn posts, newsletter snippets, blog ideas, sales follow-ups or website content.

And here’s the important bit: you may not always find those moments afterwards if you have not planned for them at the start.

If you want useful clips, you need to brief your speakers properly. You need to help them understand the key messages, the audience, the likely questions and the practical value people should take away.

Otherwise, you might end up with a perfectly nice recording and no clear idea what to do with it.

Measure what happens next

This is where the webinar starts earning its keep. A good follow-up shouldn’t just be:

“Thanks for coming. Here’s the recording.”

Lovely manners, yes. Marketing genius, no.

A stronger follow-up thinks about what different people did.

Did they attend live?
Did they ask a question?
Did they download the extra resource?
Did they click through to a web page?
Did they watch the recording afterwards?
Did they engage with a poll?
Did they show interest in a particular topic?

That behaviour can help shape what you send next. It can inform a sales conversation. It can guide your next piece of content. It can show you which subjects deserve more attention.

That is why webinars can be so valuable for commercial organisations. They do not just help you speak to your audience. They help you learn from them.

So, what should you do before planning your next webinar?

Before you write the invitation, build the slides or start wondering whether 12pm or 2pm is the magic hour, ask yourself:

What role does this webinar play in the wider customer journey?
Who exactly is it for?
What do we want people to understand, feel or do afterwards?
What questions do we want to invite?
What content could we create from it?
How will we follow up based on engagement?

You really need to have a good ponder about what would make your webinar useful enough for someone to give you their time? People are busy. They are tired. Their inboxes are full. Their calendars are groaning. If they give you an hour (or a beautifully disciplined 40 minutes) you need to respect it.

That means making the session clear, useful, well-promoted and easy to engage with. It also means making sure the value does not disappear the second the webinar window closes.

One final thought

A webinar is strongest when it’s not treated as a standalone task or a checklist on your marketing calendar. It’s a chance to show what you know, listen properly, create something useful afterwards and give people a reason to come back to you.

So, before your next webinar, don’t just ask, “What are we going to say?” Ask, “What could this become?” Finding that answer is where the real value is.

And that, dear reader (how Bridgerton of me), is the difference between a webinar and a campaign engine. One fills a slot in the calendar. The other creates a channel that can keep working.

The post Your webinar is not the campaign. It’s the content engine. appeared first on Keystone Marketing.

Renovation Underwriting

Chantal Palmer — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 12:53:16 +0000

Turning specialist insight into broker engagement

Client: Renovation Underwriting

Campaigns, Commercial, Digital, Engagement

The challenge

Renovation Underwriting has a wealth of specialist knowledge to share with brokers, from market insight and product updates to the real-world risks shaping renovation projects.

The challenge was turning that expertise into a regular broker-facing event that felt focused, useful and worth attending. They needed a polished communications journey that could build interest, encourage sign-ups, support speakers and create a stronger live experience for brokers.

Our approach

Keystone identified an opportunity for RU to use its market credibility in a more direct and engaging way with brokers by turning insight into a clear, engaging and well-managed virtual event.

The twice yearly Market Briefing webinars were a strategic recommendation that created a new engagement channel between RU and its broker audience, and one that has gone on to generate significant value.

We work with the RU team to shape the agenda, understand what they want brokers to take away and structure the content around the most useful audience moments. From there, we create the wider campaign journey, including HubSpot invitation emails, reminder emails, registration forms, landing page copy, automations and supporting assets.

We also design and build the PowerPoint presentation for the webinar itself, bringing speaker content together into a polished format that feels on-brand, easy to follow and ready for the live event.

In the most recent Market Briefing, we helped RU evolve the format by making it even more broker focused. We gave the session a sharper editorial structure by reducing the number of internal speakers and introducing an external subject matter expert.

This gave brokers a clearer, more valuable experience: a market update from RU, an independent perspective on project risk and a more interactive discussion around the issues they are seeing in practice.

The change also created space for a more substantial panel discussion and Q&A, giving brokers more opportunity to share views, ask questions and explore practical challenges in greater depth.

Impact

The Market Briefings have become a consistent part of RU’s broker engagement activity, giving the team a structured way to share expertise, strengthen relationships and keep brokers close to the renovation risks, trends and opportunities shaping client conversations.

By combining strategic planning, content development, HubSpot delivery and presentation design, Keystone helps RU turn each briefing into a joined-up communications campaign rather than a standalone webinar with the value extending beyond the live sessions. Each briefing creates expert content that can be repurposed into follow-up communications, thought leadership articles, on-demand viewing and wider broker engagement.

The post Renovation Underwriting appeared first on Keystone Marketing.

The Dog Digest | Walkies for better ideas: why stepping away helps

Chantal Palmer — Fri, 29 May 2026 12:31:33 +0000

There are some things dogs just do better.

Greeting people with genuine enthusiasm. Napping without guilt. Finding joy in the same walk you did yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that.

Sydney, in particular, has been reminding us here at Keystone of the value of a good wander.

Through the flowers, into the long grass, nose down, ears up and fully committed to the moment. No inbox. No notifications. No “just one more thing before lunch”.

Lovely work, Syd.

Of course, most of us can’t spend our working day bounding through the undergrowth, however appealing that might sound. But there is something important in the idea of stepping away.

Not as a treat when everything is finished. Not as something you have to earn. Just as a way to give your brain a bit of room.

Because we’re all guilty of sitting at our desks for too long. After a while, everything can start to feel a bit cramped: our thinking, our patience and even our perspective.

So, if an idea won’t quite land, or you’re still staring at the same email after reading it 14 times, sometimes the best thing you can do is leave it alone for a bit.

Go for a walk around the block. Spend ten minutes in the garden. Step outside. Move. Look at something that is not a screen.

And if you are eating sandwiches at your desk again, getting crumbs in the keyboard, that is probably your sign.

A change of scenery can do more than we give it credit for. It gives your mind something different to work with. It can help loosen a conversation, shift a mood or make space for the thought that would not come when you were trying to force it.

The same applies at work. Not every useful conversation has to happen in a meeting room. Not every good idea arrives because someone has booked 30 minutes in the diary and added an agenda.

Better thinking often comes when there is a bit more space around it. Better conversations happen when people feel human, not hurried. And better work comes from people who have had a chance to breathe.

There are plenty of things we can learn from dogs. They can help with your marketing too, but that is a conversation we had last time.

For now, if your brain feels stuck, take a leaf out of Sydney’s book.

You don’t have to disappear into a field of flowers, although frankly we wouldn’t blame you.

Just step away for a moment.

Your inbox will still be there when you get back.

Annoyingly.

The post The Dog Digest | Walkies for better ideas: why stepping away helps appeared first on Keystone Marketing.

“Just like you” A concept that subtly appeals to the ego

Chantal Palmer — Wed, 27 May 2026 14:56:34 +0000

Prepare for an uncomfortable reality: Humans are self-obsessed.

If you feel offended, don’t be! It’s not your fault. It’s hard-wired. Not a choice or a personality flaw. Ultimately, it’s what kept your ancestors alive.

While the risk of being chased by a sabre-toothed tiger is (thankfully) fairly slim these days, old habits die hard. Our subconscious is working round the clock, scanning for threats and opportunities that help us live to see another sunrise.

This innate programming, to notice the things that appeal to our self-interest, is not a challenge. It is a really powerful marketing tool.

When something looks and feels like it was made for us, our attention locks in. It is why the first question we always ask, when creating any form of marketing or communication, is: who is your audience?

Attention is only the beginning

Capturing attention – and let’s not downplay how difficult this is – is the first challenge. The next is what you do with it. And how long do we have to do this? In many cases, probably only a matter of seconds.

Time for another uncomfortable reality: you might think you’re in charge of making rational, considered decisions. You’re not. Your brain is making over 35,000 subconscious decisions for you, every single day. Imagine how exhausting life would be without this subconscious processing, especially if you already find it hard to decide what to have for dinner each night!

A useful shortcut from attention to engagement is emotion, because emotion is part of your fast brain and your ingrained need for self-preservation.

Getting “spidery” fear signals? Be wary, stay alert.
Did something make you smile? You’re safe, you can relax.
Feeling seen? Now you’re listening.

What does this look like in practice?

A brilliant example is our recent project with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority. We had a clear brief: create a prospectus for UKREiiF, the UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum, where investors, developers, local authorities and senior decision-makers come together to explore opportunities, build partnerships and accelerate investment.

Understanding the audience was a big focus of the discovery workshop. We needed to get beyond “investors” as a broad label and think about what this audience is really looking for.

Investors and developers don’t just want information. They look for signals. Momentum. Confidence. Credibility. Opportunity. The sense that something is happening and, importantly, that they have spotted it at the right time.

They are bold. Curious. Astute.

Just like the region.

We had a match!

Just like you

“Just like you” became the strategic and creative thread for the prospectus.

The opening proposition, “Global investment opportunities for the bold, the curious and the astute”, immediately reframed the document around the audience, not just the place. It then mirrored those qualities back to the reader: “We’re bold, just like you”, “We’re curious, just like you” and “We’re astute, just like you.”

This was not flattery for the sake of flattery. It was relevance.

“Just like you” worked because it positioned Cambridgeshire and Peterborough as a place with the same qualities the audience values in themselves: ambition, intelligence, pace, judgement and appetite for growth.

We weren’t just asking investors to look at the opportunity. We were inviting them to recognise themselves in it.

More than words

The bold approach did not end with the copy.

We wanted the design treatment to embody the same confidence. The result: striking typography, image-led storytelling, bold section openers, interleaved with tactile, transparent pages, and a more editorial rhythm. The prospectus demonstrated greater pace and more presence than any of the other regional prospectuses we’d looked at during our competitor analysis.

Ultimately, it made investors feel that Cambridgeshire and Peterborough was the kind of place they would naturally be drawn to. A place of momentum, intelligence and ambition. A place for people just like them.

The takeaway

That is the power of audience-first communication.

When people see themselves in your message, they are more likely to give it their attention. When they see their ambitions reflected back with credibility and confidence, they are more likely to believe the opportunity is worth pursuing.

Appealing to the ego might sound uncomfortable. But done well, it offers the most direct route to recognition and engagement.

The post “Just like you” A concept that subtly appeals to the ego appeared first on Keystone Marketing.

From unheard to unmissable

Chantal Palmer — Wed, 20 May 2026 15:35:10 +0000

How to inspire volunteers and keep them engaged

In every community, there are brilliant causes looking for helping hands – and people who gladly give their time to support others. However, this isn’t always visible, and the challenge is reaching people who perhaps haven’t considered the selfless act of volunteering previously by showing the impact, both on self and others. In a crowded landscape of campaigns and calls to action, it can be hard to stand out.

At Keystone, we see this challenge often. Whether it’s commercial businesses, local Government or nonprofit organisations, they often have the passion, the purpose and the people, but not always the tools and techniques to cut through the noise. And if the all-important message doesn’t land, there’s no engagement and the opportunity to make an impact is lost.

However with the right approach, campaigns calling for volunteers can be highly impactful, compelling, and mightily effective.

So what better way to mark Volunteers week than to detail our work with Volunteer Cambs and how, together, we turned a great idea into a campaign with longevity.

We were approached by Cambridgeshire’s leading voluntary and community sector support organisations – Hunts Forum and CCVS, now known as Support Cambridgeshire – who were preparing to launch a new digital platform promoting local volunteer opportunities from charities and not-for-profits across the county. The concept was strong, but we were starting with the blankest of blank canvasses – there was no name, no brand, no visual identity, instead just a long-term vision waiting to be turned into a reality. To begin with we required a unique brand identity, clear messaging, and stakeholder support. This would guide towards an impactful launch coupled with expected immediate take-up, as well as the tools to ensure we could keep local communities engaged over the long-term.

Our approach: Strategy meets storytelling

For us, strategy always starts with a workshop; with the insight gathered becoming the foundation of any plan. Stakeholder buy-in was part of that strategic aim, and volunteers and representatives from voluntary organisations were brought on board with the aim to understand the mindset of a volunteer and identify both the challenges and opportunities when asking people to give up their time for others.

Another consideration that played a central theme in our workshop discussions was around the connotations behind the words ‘volunteer’ and ‘volunteering’ being both positive and negative. How could we quickly and deeply appeal to people’s kindhearted values without them nervous of being consumed by volunteer demands.

From deep conversations and clear understanding, the name came first – Volunteer Cambs – which laid the groundwork for Chantal, our creative guru, to develop a collection of visual identity concepts for client review. From there, we cultivated the creation of a full brand, followed by a ready-to-use toolkit and a suite of promotional elements that the programme team and their partners could put into use straight from launch.

With all the key elements in place – from brand, to messaging, to assets, our attention turned to launch – which saw us deliver a coordinated online and offline campaign centered around the message ‘Make Your Mark’. This call to action worked county wide as a key headline statement but also worked hyper-locally too, with the name of target towns added to personalise the offer and resonate with an entire community.

The launch campaign gained the backing of the then Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and generated significant media coverage through a targeted press release and strategic press engagement. Stakeholders across the county amplified the message, creating a ripple effect far beyond what could have been achieved alone – illustrating the value of strong relationships and strategic partnerships.

Most importantly, thousands of visitors to the new site showed a deep local interest, from which hundreds more volunteers connected with causes that mattered most to them – meaning more local organisations gained the support they needed to thrive. 18 months on, the same distinct messaging and toolkit of assets created for launch are still rolling now, proving that a well-considered campaign has longevity and is easily managed by in-house charity workers after our outsourced launch team stepped away.

Our work in partnership with Volunteer Cambs is proof that with the right strategy and community engagement approach, your message can go from unheard to unmissable.

Here’s our five key takeaways for volunteer recruitment and retention

1. Lead with impact

Show the tangible difference volunteers make. Use real stories and clear examples to make the value of their time obvious and compelling.

2. Know your audience

Create detailed volunteer personas so you can tailor your messaging to their different motivations, skills, and life stages.

3. Simplify the call to action

Remove any barriers to getting involved. Make it crystal clear what you want people to do, why it matters, and make it easy for them to connect.

4. Build advocates

Engage partners, existing volunteers, and local influencers to spread the word. Their credibility and reach can amplify your message significantly more than ever that you can do on your own.

5. Keep the conversation going

Thank volunteers, share updates, and listen to their feedback. A positive, ongoing relationship is the key to a long-term commitment.

The post From unheard to unmissable appeared first on Keystone Marketing.

Huntingdonshire District Council

Katherine Hesketh — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 13:31:53 +0000

Bin lorries to blue lights. The power of public sector partnership

Client: Huntingdonshire District Council | Public Sector

Campaigns, Engagement, Local government, Strategy

The challenge

Huntingdonshire District Council (HDC) set out to reduce carbon emissions across the organisation, piloting a project that cut fleet emissions by over 80%. They achieved this by switching their entire pool fleet of 95 vehicles from fossil diesel to hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO). While other councils had made similar changes, HDC took a more ambitious approach. They invited local blue light services to join both the pilot and the rollout.

They asked for our help to tell a story that would celebrate this cross-public sector partnership and demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and innovation. We saw an opportunity to take things further – amplifying from traditional storytelling to sector-wide influence, and building on something already at the heart of the project: collaboration.

Our approach

We started by building a central “story kit” to anchor all communications. This was developed through interviews with the council and their partners in the police and fire service, capturing both the technical detail and the shared ambition behind the project.

To bring the story to life, we commissioned professional photography of all three partner fleets refuelling, creating a strong visual symbol of collaboration in action.

We then planned and delivered an initial celebration event, giving HDC senior leaders the opportunity to thank partners directly and formally mark the success of the trial.

From this foundation, we created:

a press-ready partnership story for local media
a detailed case study for trade and industry press

With both the police and fire service sharing the story through their own channels, the campaign achieved 16 pieces of coverage across local and sector media.

We built on this momentum by planning with a second, larger stakeholder event, designed to share learning and spark interest from other councils and public sector organisations. This opened up new conversations with organisations with whom the council had not previously engaged.

Crucially, we repositioned the project from a simple fuel switch to something far more powerful: a live example of cross-sector collaboration driving practical progress towards decarbonisation.

Impact

Collaboration sat at the heart of this project and became its most powerful outcome.

Alongside strong media coverage, the campaign helped position HDC not just as a council reducing emissions, but as a facilitator of wider change.

The trial sparked new conversations around shared infrastructure, training and future partnership working, strengthening relationships across the region and opening the door to further innovation.

Reducing emissions at scale is worth celebrating. But what this project really demonstrated is what becomes possible when organisations actively work together to solve shared challenges.

Orchestrated by Keystone as a proven connector and facilitator across organisations, HDC enabled partners to align around a shared story and highlighted the impact of the project beyond the council itself.

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If the brief evolves, don’t panic – embrace the opportunity

Katherine Hesketh — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 13:15:31 +0000

How staying open to new ideas helped a council unlock more value from a fleet decarbonisation project

“Scope creep.” Two words that neither client nor consultancy enjoy hearing. It foretells delayed or over delivery, extra costs and carefully laid project plans heading south. Instinctively, the need to stick tightly to that original plan is something we all collectively desire. It certainly feels like the safe option.

But what about those unforeseen opportunities that appear as the project evolves? The new information emerging. The conversations that reveal unexpected connections. The ideas that were not part of the original brief but suddenly make a lot of sense. Would ignoring all of this potential be tantamount to shooting yourself in the foot?

We see this often in our work with clients. Organisations come to us with a clear idea of what they want to achieve from marketing or community engagement, but through discussion and exploration new possibilities start to surface.

Our recent project with Huntingdonshire District Council (HDC) is a great example of why staying open to those possibilities can unlock something far more valuable than the original plan. What’s interesting about this story is that a willingness to embrace unexpected opportunities was something that HDC experienced before they even came to us.

A practical project with a clear goal

Achieving net zero by 2050 is the target our government is legally committed to. Many councils, including Huntingdonshire District Council are already working towards an earlier delivery of that goal. After declaring a climate emergency, HDC committed to reaching net zero by 2040. Analysis revealed that its vehicle fleet accounted for more than a third of its carbon footprint, so reducing fleet emissions became a priority.

The council began trialling hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) as a lower carbon alternative to diesel. The results were convincing. In September 2025, the council voted unanimously to switch its entire operational and pool fleet of 95 vehicles to HVO, cutting fleet emissions by more than 80 percent.

Alongside the council’s own trial, local emergency services were invited to test the fuel in their vehicles. Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue and Cambridgeshire Constabulary both participated and quickly found that HVO performed well in operational conditions.

HDC celebrate the successful pilot and roll-out of the HVO project

The trial achieved what it set out to do. But something else had started to happen.

When collaboration reveals new opportunities

What began as conversations about fuel quickly expanded into something broader. As teams from the council, police and fire service worked together, they discovered they shared many of the same operational challenges. Running large vehicle fleets, maintaining equipment and delivering public services around the clock created similar pressures for each organisation.
Discussions about fuel logistics soon turned into conversations about infrastructure, maintenance and the potential to share resources.

The partnership had started with a simple goal, testing a new fuel. But by staying open to collaboration, the organisations discovered opportunities that had not been part of the original plan.

It’s not moving the goal posts, it’s adjusting and widening them

A similar shift happened when HDC approached us. They knew they had a good story to tell and the goal was clear – let people know what had been achieved through their HVO pilot and roll-out. But as we talked through the project together, it became clear that the real value of the story lay in the learning behind it. Beyond celebrating what had been achieved, we identified that the team had insight and experience, particularly in the blue lights partnership aspect of their story, that other councils and public sector organisations could learn from. So we suggested taking the idea one step further. Instead of simply publishing the results of the trial, why not create a space where other organisations could hear directly from the people involved?

The value of bringing people together

Together with HDC and their partners, we organised a face to face event where local authorities and public sector organisations could explore the project in more detail.

HDC’s stakeholder event: A cleaner, greener fleet – HDC’s story of switching to Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO)

A short presentation set the scene, then the focus shifted to open conversation. People spoke candidly about the realities of fleet decarbonisation, the operational challenges involved and the lessons learned through the trial. Those conversations proved to be just as valuable as the original project itself. Delegates left with practical insight, new connections and the reassurance that many of the challenges they faced were shared across the sector.

Have enough flexibility to stay open to new ideas

Looking back, it is clear that two things helped this project create more impact than originally expected. First, the council invited partners into the process rather than working in isolation. Second, everyone involved remained open to the idea that the project might lead somewhere new. The HVO trial started as a technical experiment and evolved to become a partnership. Ultimately it became a shared learning opportunity for others in the sector. None of that would have happened if everyone had stuck rigidly to the original brief.

The lesson? Good planning is important. But so is curiosity.

When organisations remain open to new ideas, projects often reveal opportunities that were impossible to see at the beginning. Sometimes the best outcomes are not the ones you planned for, they’re the ones you discover along the way.

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