Keystone Marketing

From bin lorries to blue lights, the power of public sector partnership

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

Amplifying traditional storytelling to sector-wide influence

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.

The post From bin lorries to blue lights, the power of public sector partnership appeared first on Keystone Marketing.

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.

The post If the brief evolves, don’t panic – embrace the opportunity appeared first on Keystone Marketing.

Sit. Stay. Grow. Marketing lessons from our dogs

Chantal Palmer — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 10:32:07 +0000

Inspiration can come from unexpected sources, maybe even from things staring straight at you. But this needn’t be your surroundings. Sometimes the answer is wagging its tail furiously. The Keystone family contains two furry, four-legged friends. They may not put in the hard graft but their characteristics and the way they behave is something that everyone can apply to their work.

Meet Sydney (oodles of Poodle and Chantal’s main squeeze) and Wookie (the clever and cheeky Cockapoo keeping Chris in check). Both who without knowing it, demonstrate some surprisingly powerful principles behind effective, audience-first marketing.

Wookie and Syd have 8 top tips (one for each toe bean on their front paws) about how you can be more dog in your marketing and engagement. Strip each tip back and what our furry friends demonstrate are the fundamentals of strong, audience-first marketing. And when applied consistently, those fundamentals can drive growth.

Loyalty to their audiences (their parents)

Dogs are the epitome of loyalty and once they form a bond, they stay true to their pack. The same can be said of you and your audiences. You take time to understand their needs, preferences, and pain points and you serve them everyday building trust. By doing that they are sure to come back every time. Unless they find a chicken leg in the bush.

Bring enthusiasm to every activity

We get it, not everything can be exciting and some tasks can feel mundane. But when you’re passionate about your service, it really shines through. Wookie certainly doesn’t hold back when he’s excited, jumping up for his dinner and following Chris furiously around the room until he gets it. So remember, enthusiasm is infectious and incredibly powerful. If you love what you offer, chances are your audiences will too.

Be an excellent listener

Dogs are (usually) great listeners. Until something more exciting piques their interest…but attentiveness to your audience is so powerful. Learn from what they are saying and applying it to your work, by doing so you’ll not only improve what you do but show your audience that they matter – a simple way to build and maintain brand loyalty.

Wookie (trying to be) an excellent listener

Adapt to change

Wookie is incredibly adaptable, having been rehomed, he’s had to get used to new environments and people – and he’s done brilliantly. In all organisations, adaptability is critical as we must remain flexible to keep up with trends and how our audiences behave.

We’ve recently worked with a team trialling new video content – a new approach for them. The results were strong, sparking conversations and leading to a desire to produce more. Adaptability takes time but it keeps your approach fresh and relevant.

Build communities

Dogs thrive in packs – you should see Syd and Wookie on their weekend walkies causing havoc with their other canine friends. Marketing engagement operates in the same way. When you invest in genuine connection and shared purpose, you build communities that drive loyalty, advocacy and sustainable growth.

Simplify your messaging

Dogs don’t complicate things. Syd could not make it any clearer when she wants her ball thrown. Trust me, the whole town knows it. And your messaging should be the same. Crafting straightforward, repeatable messages that resonate with your audience, means they know exactly what you do or stand for, and make it easy for them to act.

Syd being very clear in her messaging!

Be Persistent (but not too much!)

Persistence pays off. Those longing puppy dog eyes will eventually make us cave in. See Syd and wanting her ball. So, stay consistent to your beliefs and approaches if you know they will foster results.

Celebrate the small wins

Small wins deliver the biggest victories. Training a dog is hard but the delight on Wookie’s face when delivering a trick and being given sausage as reward. Acknowledging and celebrating milestones is important, not only does it increase morale within your organisations but sharing these with your audiences whether in excitement or gratitude towards them will reinforce their connection to your brand.

Marketing really does share a lot of traits with our favourite four-legged friends – establishing loyalty, building trust, being adaptable, and creating meaningful connections. Get it right and they’ll keep them coming back for more.

Now that Syd and Wookie have given you food for thought, the Keystone humans are here to help you further. We help you define your true value, reach the right audiences, and scale sustainably. Sound like what you need, let’s chat.

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Renovation Underwriting

Chantal Palmer — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 13:59:26 +0000

Helping Renovation Underwriting bring a comms chatbot to life

Client: Renovation Underwriting

Campaigns, Commercial, Digital, Engagement, Strategy

The challenge

When Renovation Underwriting wanted to make their processes more efficient and allow more time for their underwriters to underwrite insurance, they told us that they wanted to introduce a chatbot. When you first think of chatbots, perfunctory and dull comes to mind but we wanted theirs to be different and standout as they do as a market-leader.

We set ourselves the challenge of making their chatbot part of the team and creating a persona.

Our approach

While we asked for a chatbot comms channel, our creative approach took that as the foundation but pivoted to make the chatbot a part of the team, releasing the underwriters to move away from basic enquiries but being on hand to guide brokers through the trickier elements of renovation cover.

We facilitated a brainstorm with the project manager to best understand the tool’s capabilities and from that brought our own creativity to change an IT product to becoming a human tool with a personality – bringing to life this chatbot.

We used our own AI to create the persona. The chatbot was given a name – DUA (standing for Digital Underwriting Assistant) – and given a visual identity (in brand colours of course!) We messaged the introduction of DUA as a real life colleague to the rest of the team, one that would be integrated in everyday operations, and devised a multichannel campaign to make DUA known to the target audiences.

Impact

The creation of the persona and visual identity turned a run of the mill announcement into a fun and impactful launch. Our comms across channels were designed to playful and exciting, introducing the AI generated visual persona of DUA to announce the newest member of the Renovation Underwriting team, which drove brokers to the chatbot and certainly created for some discussion on social media – achieving some of the best results for the year.

The introduction of an AI chatbot to Renovation Underwriting also meant that we were able to continue the conversation of the use of AI in the insurance industry in further copy.

The email roll out to brokers included a slightly higher than normal clickthrough rate, the LinkedIn post performed higher than most and the website news story resulting in a huge uptick in website visitors. The story also landed in stakeholders’ communications materials.

The post Renovation Underwriting appeared first on Keystone Marketing.

Cambridgeshire ACRE

Chantal Palmer — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 09:38:41 +0000

Helping Cambridgeshire ACRE find one voice, and make it usable.

Client: Cambridgeshire ACRE

Brand, Engagement, Strategy

The challenge

Cambridgeshire ACRE is a long-established rural charity with a small team and big ambitions. As the organisation grew, more people were writing on its behalf across social, reports, funding bids and blogs, but without a shared language or reference point.

Our approach

We surfaced the personality already there and turned it into a practical toolkit anyone could pick up and use.

We built a clear framework that defined where the tone should sit across key scales, then translated that into simple do’s and don’ts, examples and rewrites, plus “we are” and “we are not” statements to make decisions quicker.

We also created a custom ChatGPT prompt to help staff draft in the new voice from the start, reducing blank page stress and making the guidance genuinely usable day to day.

Impact

The result is a unified voice across written outputs that feels clearer, warmer and faster to produce.

The AI prompt has been a real game-changer for us… and given us confidence that our voice will come through every time

Hayley Neal, Chief Executive

The post Cambridgeshire ACRE appeared first on Keystone Marketing.

Why tone of voice is every organisation’s business

Chantal Palmer — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 16:45:48 +0000

When most people think about “tone of voice”, they imagine glossy brand bibles and large marketing teams. But tone isn’t just for the giants. It’s the most human part of your brand and it matters just as much when your team is only ten people strong and juggling a hundred jobs!

That’s what makes defining your tone of voice such a powerful act. It’s not a vanity project, it’s about consistency, connection and culture. Done well, it can unlock clarity and confidence across your whole organisation, build trust and, crucially, save time! That’s what we saw firsthand when we partnered with Cambridgeshire ACRE.

“At Cambridgeshire ACRE, we’re a small team with big ambitions. With 18 staff all communicating in slightly different ways, I knew we needed a consistent tone of voice. Something that could reflect our newly developed organisational values and help us speak with one voice while still sounding human and approachable.” – Cambridgeshire ACRE

Helping Cambridgeshire ACRE define a voice everyone can use

Cambridgeshire ACRE is a respected charity that’s been serving rural communities for over a century. They’ve grown steadily, and with that came a familiar challenge: more people writing on behalf of the organisation, across social media, in reports, as part of funding bids and in blog posts, but without a shared language or reference point.

Our work together started with a simple need: to help everyone write in the same voice, regardless of their role. But it quickly became something bigger. We surfaced the personality that already existed – approachable, passionate, grounded – and shaped it into something practical, human and, above all, useable.

“What came back was a set of values and a tone of voice that sound exactly like us: clear, warm and rooted in what we believe in.” – Cambridgeshire ACRE

The process: giving Cambridgeshire ACRE a shared language

We created a framework that:

Defined four tonal scales, (e.g. formal vs casual, serious vs funny), each with a clear rating that reflects where Cambridgeshire ACRE naturally sits.
Translated those tonal scales into practical do’s and don’ts, with example phrases and before-and-after rewrites to show the tone in action.
Developed tone personas to help staff visualise how the voice should sound and feel.
Clarified “We are…” and “We are not…” statements, giving every writer a simple, values-led reference point.
Delivered training and tools that empowered the team to write with confidence and consistency, whoever the audience.

“Chantal and Hayley completely got it. From the first conversation, they understood what I was trying to achieve and why.” – Cambridgeshire ACRE

Embedding the tone with AI: the custom prompt

When we began working with Cambs ACRE, the brief did not include AI. But as we got under the skin of their challenge, with multiple people writing from different perspectives and all needing to sound consistent, we saw a gap. Our recommendation was to create a reusable AI prompt that would act as a writing support tool, stitching their new tone of voice into everyday content creation.

Part of our work included tailoring that prompt to Cambridgeshire ACRE’s voice. It helps staff generate first drafts in ChatGPT that hit the right level of formality, warmth and credibility right from the off. No more blank pages and no more guesswork.

“After sharing the final documents with the team, it became obvious that we needed a simpler way to embed them into everyday writing. Chantal responded brilliantly, creating an AI prompt that we now use as a tool to sense-check and strengthen everything from blogs to news stories.” – Cambridgeshire ACRE

The prompt was built on the tone of voice guidance we had co-created with Cambs ACRE, so that when someone uses it to draft a blog or social post, they can focus on telling the story of their project, the part they know best, with peace of mind that the wording will also hit the right tonal notes. In practice, it means even non-communications staff can produce copy that feels on-brand. It is already saving time, reducing stress and, crucially, it protects the brand personality at every touchpoint.

This was never about ticking a box. It was about thinking bigger, offering a solution they did not know existed until we raised it as their trusted partner. By proactively identifying the need, we gave the team a tool that makes their guidelines instantly usable, every single day.

“The AI prompt has been a real game-changer for us. It’s taken the pressure off staff who don’t write often, and given us confidence that our voice will come through every time.” – Cambridgeshire ACRE

The impact of all that work?

A unified voice across all written outputs means communications are now clearer, warmer and more efficient to produce. Everyone, from volunteers to trustees, knows how Cambridgeshire ACRE should sound. And just as importantly, how it shouldn’t. It matters because every interaction is an opportunity to inspire confidence, build trust and foster genuine connections.

“The difference has been immediate. Staff feel more confident in their writing, knowing they have a tool that helps them communicate clearly and consistently. One colleague, who had never written for an external audience before, used the prompt to draft a blog, submitted it and was genuinely moved by the positive response.” – Cambridgeshire ACRE

What happens if you don’t define your tone?

Without a clear, shared tone of voice, organisations face a number of emerging risks:

Mixed messages: Audiences hear one thing from a newsletter and another from a policy paper. Confusion sets in.
Reduced trust: Inconsistency creates a sense of unreliability, especially for funders and partners.
Internal friction: Colleagues second-guess each other’s writing. Rewrites and approvals become bottlenecks.
Lost identity: Over time, the personality of an organisation dilutes until it’s just… words.

None of these are show-stoppers in isolation. But together, they chip away at confidence, internally and externally. A clear tone doesn’t just solve this; it prevents it altogether.

Why this work matters now

Tone of voice isn’t just about sounding good. It’s about sounding like you. As organisations grow, adding team members, broadening audiences, communicating more often, it becomes harder to sound consistent. And yet that’s when consistency matters most.

For organisations like Cambridgeshire ACRE, who balance professionalism with community connection, tone becomes the thread that ties everything together. It’s not a luxury. It’s infrastructure.

Our advice to growing organisations

If you’ve never thought about your tone before, now might be the time if:

Multiple people are writing on behalf of your organisation
You’re working across different platforms or channels
You’re applying for funding or building partnerships
You want to save time and write with more confidence
You’re integrating new people into the business

You don’t need a 50-page tone of voice document. But you do need clarity, a shared understanding and a way to put it into action.

And if you’re ready for help…

Keystone can guide you through it. We work closely with teams to surface their authentic voice, define what good looks like and embed it across everything you write. The result? Communications that feel more human, more consistent, and more you.

If that sounds like what you need, let’s chat.

“I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend working with Chantal. She was responsive, positive and supportive throughout and the end result has made a real difference to how we communicate with the world.” – Cambridgeshire ACRE

The post Why tone of voice is every organisation’s business appeared first on Keystone Marketing.

How to design an event stand, that stands out (geddit, geddit!)

Chantal Palmer — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 14:10:35 +0000

Hi, I’m Chantal, Head of Creative at Keystone. Over many years working as a creative brand lead, art director, and hands-on designer, I’ve learned that creating stand-out event experiences isn’t just about eye-catching design (though it helps!). It’s about understanding audience behaviour, being strategic with your brand messaging, and knowing exactly how to capture attention quickly. Here’s what experience has taught me about making event stands genuinely effective…

Let’s set the scene.

We’ve all been there. You’re wandering through an exhibition hall, trying to avoid eye contact with the eager-beaver salespeople on stands, who are desperate to keep their minds off the pain in their feet that they’ve been standing on all day by talking to you! Meanwhile, you’re trying to spot the businesses you DO want to talk to in the morass of badly designed stands.

If you’re the one organising a stand, it can be easy to forget what it’s like on the other side. So, your job is to make it as easy as possible for people to find you, show them exactly how you understand them better than your competitors do, and get their details so you can have a fabulous conversation with them later – the holy grail of events.

I can’t promise you all of that in this piece alone, but I can give you a starting point, one that will get you on the right track to creating a show-stopping stand!

Say it big, bold, and briefly!

Imagine visitors are window-shopping: if they don’t immediately understand who you are and why they should care, they’ll keep walking.

Make your main message short, clear, and memorable. Tell your audience what they want to know, make it worth their time, and definitely do not waffle. Visitors don’t have the patience for complicated stories. People can only process limited information when passing by. You have around seven seconds – often less – to grab their attention and convince them to pause, so make it count!

Design for visitors, not just your brand

It’s tempting to build your stand purely around your products or services but, as you probably know from experience, visitors can be a bit shy about approaching stands because they worry they’ll get jumped on them straight away!

Create an approachable, open layout that allows them to check you out at a safe distance. People need psychological permission to step closer. A stand that feels too enclosed or busy makes people feel trapped. Open stands invite visitors to move in at their own pace.

Think about offering something tangible at the stand’s edge so visitors can get information without feeling pressured. Give them space to think and observe, and they’ll feel safer stepping closer.

Provide a reason to linger

Once you’ve made someone pause, you need to encourage them to stay. Curiosity and engagement are powerful motivators, and visitors are naturally curious, but hesitant. Give them a gentle nudge by offering interactive features such as live demonstrations, product testing, a touchscreen experience, or even a friendly competition – it gives visitors a reason to stick around and engage on their own terms, increasing their dwell time.

Event visitors have practical needs too. Offering phone charging stations, drinks, or a seating area makes your stand inviting and gives attendees a practical reason to stop. People appreciate these thoughtful touches, and it can create positive associations with your brand.

Images that connect

People naturally connect with people, especially when eye contact is involved. If you’re using photography of faces and people, have them ideally looking directly outwards, it helps your stand feel more approachable. We’re drawn to eyes and faces, especially if they feel familiar or relatable.

Don’t forget to include diverse imagery to reflect your audience back at themselves. If visitors recognise something of themselves in your visuals, they’re more likely to stop and engage.

Think practically, design strategically

Don’t overlook the practical side of design. Key messages and visuals at eye level are a winner. The bottom of your stand is usually wasted space because visitors rarely look down as they pass, so don’t hide important information there that you rely on to get your point across.

Balance visual elements carefully. Contrast bold headlines with supporting messages but keep clutter to a minimum. A clear hierarchy of copy ensures your stand is easy on the eye and easy to absorb.

If you have multiple messages you want to get across, use gradients, blocks of colour, or contrasting panels to create visual separations. People process information better when it’s clearly structured. Keep the main headline area simple and powerful and use separate spaces or panels for detailed product information, testimonials, or supporting messages.

Corners and edges of your stand help define your space without closing it off. A carefully placed vertical post or panel can serve as a boundary marker and still keep the stand open and accessible.

Think about building your stand with reusable or modular materials. Not only is it environmentally responsible, but it can also be more cost-effective if you’re attending multiple events every year. Practical design choices also make setup and breakdown simpler! Additionally, don’t forget about essentials like hidden storage or power access, functionality is just as important as aesthetics.

Measure success and keep improving

Finally, make sure you measure how people interact with your stand so you can figure out what worked and what didn’t. There’s no point putting in all that hard graft if you don’t learn from it. QR code scans, competition entries or even a simple count of how many people stopped to talk to you can give you a helpful sense of impact, and help you sharpen things for next time.

One final tip to help you stand out? Keep your visitor in mind at every stage. If you do that, your stand won’t just look good—it’ll feel good too. And that’s the bit that captures attention, sparks conversations and leaves a lasting impression.

And while this blog focuses on stand design, it’s worth remembering that your stand is just one piece of the puzzle. To really make an impact, you need a clear, confident brand that knows what it stands for, a deep understanding of your audience and a plan to engage with them before and after the event too. When all of that lines up, the stand becomes the cherry on top, not the whole cake.

Your quick checklist:

Make your main message short, clear, and memorable.
Create an open and welcoming layout (no barriers!)
Interactive elements can entice your visitors in
Keep all the important information at eye-level
Connect with friendly, approachable photography
Remember to think practically, as well as strategically
Measure and refine after each event

Good luck stand designer, may the force be with you! Cx

The post How to design an event stand, that stands out (geddit, geddit!) appeared first on Keystone Marketing.

Connecting Cambridgeshire

raslade — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 18:26:15 +0000

Educating residents on a landline switch-off.

Client: Connecting Cambridgeshire

Brand, Campaigns, Digital, Engagement, Local government, Strategy

The challenge

Connecting Cambridgeshire, responsible for improving digital infrastructure across the region, faced a significant challenge: how to communicate a critical and national infrastructure change with low public awareness and potential for serious consequences for older and more vulnerable residents?

We took a technically complex, poorly understood and emotionally charged issue and set a clear strategy on how to effectively communicate it to the people who needed it most.

Our approach

Knowing that success lay in creating messaging and a visual identity that would deliver clarity and confidence to the people most at risk, we:

Surfaced the team’s insight and expertise during a kick-off workshop
Built out a unique creative identity that flexed to appeal to two distinct audiences
Developed print materials that would cut through the telecoms industry’s jargon-heavy messaging, address widespread misinformation and complement the Government’s national messaging.
Designed a campaign that would gain momentum as awareness increased.

Equipped a wide range of stakeholders with the tools they needed to amplify the campaign.

Impact

Whilst this campaign is still an unfolding story, immediate impact comes from:

Support materials for vulnerable residents were made available in 59 libraries across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
Advertising space utilised on the mobile library service, which makes over 500 stops at villages and communities across the district

The post Connecting Cambridgeshire appeared first on Keystone Marketing.

Volunteer Cambs

raslade — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 13:33:36 +0000

Laying the foundations for future volunteer platform impact.

Client: Support Cambridgeshire

Brand, Campaigns, Digital, Engagement, Nonprofits, Strategy

The challenge

Cambridgeshire’s leading voluntary and community sector support organisations (Hunts Forum and CVVS) were about to launch a new digital platform promoting the local volunteer opportunities on offer from charities and not-for-profits across Cambridgeshire – but they needed our help to cultivate a unique brand identity and clear, to help ensure a powerful launch followed by immediate take-up, as well as clear communication and support tools.

Our approach

From the very beginning, we knew that stakeholder buy-in was key, so we began with a facilitated, interactive half-day workshop attended by both volunteers and representatives from voluntary organisations. The aim was to understand the mindset of a volunteer and to identify the challenges and opportunities when asking people to give up their time. Workshop insights created a follow-on strategy and fed into a brand new name for the portal, before our in-house creative team rolled out several visual identity concepts for consideration. The chosen brand identity in toolkit format for all to lift and use, and a number of marketing promotional elements were produced to give the team access to key promotional materials for their upcoming event programme.

Impact

To launch the brand, we delivered a coordinated online and offline campaign centred around the message ‘Make Your Mark’, which gained the backing of the Cambridgeshire Mayor and generated significant media coverage through a targeted press release and strategic press engagement.

The post Volunteer Cambs appeared first on Keystone Marketing.

Pinpoint

raslade — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 12:30:13 +0000

Small family support charity benefits from strategic marketing and AI consultation.

Client: Pinpoint

Digital, Nonprofits, Strategy

The challenge

Giving a reputable, long-standing, community-driven charity detailed advice and greater confidence on best practice operational marketing tools to maximise their productivity and unlock new commercial growth with a potential training arm.

Our approach

From an initial audit of marketing assets and a dedicated half-day workshop, our strategy lead and marketing technologist consulted with senior charity leads and published a detailed recommendations document and developmental roadmap. Our consultation included:

guidance on how to embed new technology approaches into existing operations to maximise productivity
An independent review of best practice tools for investment, such as CRM systems, eLearning platforms and AI support.

Impact

As a small charity, Pinpoint lacked in-house expertise in best practice marketing and technology systems to futureproof their organisation. Our consultative approach and tailored report provided a clear, practical roadmap for future development. By recommending process refinements with a ‘technology-first’ mindset and outlining indicative costs for a move to traded delivery, we gave Pinpoint the strategic insights needed to support informed operational decision-making.

The post Pinpoint appeared first on Keystone Marketing.