Brief

To reinforce Royal London’s brand positioning as a genuine thought leader on retirement, H/Advisors Cicero worked with them to create a sustained programme of external communications that would support PR, social, marketing and business development channels.

Strategy & Execution

H/Advisors Cicero developed a campaign alongside Royal London exploring the impact of auto-enrolment on savings behaviour and outcomes in the UK, a decade on from the initial launch of the policy.

To inform the campaign, H/Advisors Cicero undertook a nationally representative survey of 3,000 adults in the UK. Additionally, to support the quantitative research, we conducted a series of in-depth interviews with a range of UK employers and professional financial advisers operating in the workplace market.

Our findings culminated in a flagship report and a supporting thematic report that dug into the detail of the gender gap in pensions. Both assets included key recommendations to employers and government on how they can better support and improve the retirement readiness of the UK’s workforce as a whole. We also supported the development of key media messages, expanding the campaign’s reach.

Result

The campaign launched in Q4 2022 and put forward an evidence-based case for consumers and UK businesses to better engage with retirement solutions, providing the basis for brand building and new business engagement.

The campaign gained good press coverage (inc. Money Marketing and the FT Adviser) and provided a platform for key spokespeople within Royal London to become figureheads of the thought leadership content and the emerging issues in pensions readiness it explored.

Brief

H/Advisors Cicero was appointed to help Propel Finance grow its customer base by explaining a unique form of asset finance lending for SMEs at a time when availability of credit was often seen as a drag on growth for small businesses.

We aimed to improve brand perception of Propel and their innovative solutions, which were hitherto rarely explored by journalists, despite widespread awareness of the problem.

Strategy & Execution

Our work over the past three years has been two-fold:

Positioning Propel as a technological innovator in the asset finance space. We have shown how easy it is to engage with the company through its embeddable and scalable products and services. Propel can then offer asset finance to a wide range of businesses. This has involved ensuring they win many industry awards and secure positive press coverage in both specialist finance/technology and national news outlets.

Conducting outreach to a wide range of sector-specific trade news outlets showing how their readers, often SMEs, could be taking advantage of asset finance. We have developed case studies and helped Propel handle its growth story.

H/Advisors Cicero provides invaluable strategic counsel to me and my team, always looking to find ways for us to reach new customers and looking for ideas to enhance our profile and brand perception. I look forward to the next three years working together!

Julie Warren, Marketing & Partnerships Director, Propel Finance

Result

Propel is one of the fastest-growing asset finance lenders in the country, seeing a 300% expansion in its order book in the past two years. Two major financial institutions have explored making an acquisition of the company in the past year alone.

Brief

H/Advisors Cicero was appointed as American Express’ (AMEX) retained public affairs agency in 2018 to deliver public policy campaigns and Parliamentary engagement. The retainer followed a successful Parliamentary reception organised by Cicero on Small Business Saturday to showcase AMEX’s work on improving the business environment for smaller businesses.

Our work is focused on four financial services policy pillars to identify future risks or opportunities that may arise. Cicero continues to support AMEX by promoting their work with small businesses, notably their ‘Shop Small’ campaign and their support for ‘Small Business Saturday’.

Strategy and execution

Cicero provides day-to-day support to AMEX’s Government Relations function, tracking financial services policy, political developments and key stakeholders for the business to engage with. On policy, Cicero ensures that AMEX is kept abreast of developments in the financial services landscape, identifying areas which may impact the business and key stakeholders.

Cicero also provides AMEX with event support, ensuring those with political stakeholders run smoothly, and identifying speaking opportunities for senior AMEX Executives.

Result

AMEX has made significant progress across its four financial services policy pillars, building relationships with key stakeholders in HM Treasury and making representations to mitigate any potential risk to the business.

Cicero continues to support AMEX with its Small Business Saturday and Shop Small events, alongside other events on small business support. In September 2023, Cicero organised a successful roundtable with Shadow Small Business Minister Seema Malhotra with ten business representatives.

Brief

Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE), was established through a Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) regulatory order to boost competition and innovation in retail banking. This provided an architecture for personal banking data held by high street banks to be shared with other financial services providers, including FinTechs. H/Advisors Cicero is OBIE’s retained communications and public and regulatory affairs agency, with the objective of supporting OBIE through a period of intense change and challenge.

Strategy & Execution

• Our retained support to OBIE’s has included:
• A CMA review, including public consultation, of the implementation of Open Banking. This would determine the future oversight, governance and funding of Open Banking;
• An independent inquiry commissioned by the CMA, carried out by Alison White, into whistleblower allegations about the working environment at OBIE. The failings identified by the inquiry resulted in the resignation of the then Chair and Trustee of OBIE;
• Supporting the incoming Chair and Trustee, Charlotte Crosswell as she began to overhaul governance and operations at OBIE to prevent a repeat of the failings identified by the White Report; and
• Helping the organisation, including its new Chief Executive, Henk Van Hulle, move ahead with a positive agenda for the future after the publication of the CMA’s next steps for Open Banking in March 2022.

H/Advisors Cicero provided completely integrated communications advice, including crisis comms, media relations and public and regulatory affairs. This helped the leadership of OBIE steady the ship after a period of intense disruption and uncertainty and remain focused on the delivery of the CMA’s order.

Despite the many challenging scenarios faced during our continuing engagement with the OBIE, the organisation is very well positioned to see Open Banking achieve its full potential. Our agile approach to communications is shaped by an ability to call on technical experts spanning public affairs, crisis communications and in-house research and campaigns professionals, at a moment’s notice. This enables our clients to contend with the unforeseeable and move their planned agenda forward simultaneously. It is this ability that helped place OBIE in the position it is today.

Adam Taylor, Managing Director, H/Advisors Cicero.

Result

OBIE is a significant success in the rollout of open banking and is positioned as a likely candidate in the next steps around open finance and smart data.

Brief

We were appointed by the LMA to drive increased coverage, raise the profile of the organisation in trade and national media, and broaden and deepen the spokesperson bench across the LMA leadership team. We would also serve as advisors on media strategy and crisis communications as well as creating content for social media, including video.

Strategy & Execution

We built a comprehensive media strategy for the LMA, which included developing messaging around critical issues such as culture, emerging risks, ESG and cyber. We gave media training to the entire LMA leadership team and advised on media angles for stories senior LMA executives wanted to highlight. Media engagement included both national titles, such as the FT, and trade publications within the insurance market. Combined with an effective social media strategy and refreshed design content, both managed by H/Advisors Cicero, this is transforming the LMA’s external output.

Result

The LMA and senior executives have become the go-to source of expertise for national, broadcast and trade media on topics as diverse as Ukraine grain shipments, culture within Lloyd’s, and environmental concerns, with hundreds of quality articles citing LMA spokespeople.

Brief

As part of ongoing work with Just (previously Just Retirement), a specialist retirement income provider, H/Advisors Cicero supported with a public policy campaign to ensure positive outcomes for consumers from the ‘Freedom and Choice’ pension reforms announced in the UK Budget.

Strategy & Execution

Messaging: We argued that better safeguards were needed to ensure consumers were as well informed as possible before making a savings drawdown decision. We worked with Just to develop policy positions to build in these safeguards, including the ‘Second Line of Defence’ (SLD) policy, which would require providers to implement risk warnings for those accessing their pension pots.

Engagement: Next, we co-ordinated an effective, multi-faceted engagement strategy encompassing key Westminster policymakers, including the Work and Pension Select Committee and the shadow policy team, to make the case for the SLD.

FCA: A key focus of this activity was to ensure that Just were plugged into the FCA and specifically the policy team led by Maggie Craig, but also Chris Woolard and David Geale to enable Just to help the regulator understand their business and policy positions on the ‘Freedom and Choice’ pension reforms.

Result

The Work & Pensions Select Committee raised the issue repeatedly with senior FCA officials. Just briefed Parliamentarians throughout the passage of the Pension Schemes Bill, ultimately resulting in Labour’s Shadow Pensions Spokesperson putting forward an amendment to have the measure included in the legislation. The FCA ultimately confirmed that it would introduce a “second line of defence” for customers contacting their pension provider. Just has established a relationship with the FCA and is now involved in the regulators industry stakeholder communication and consultation.