Cardew Group

"What makes Cardew different is ... our flat structure, where everyone is encouraged to share ideas and opinions, especially about how we can continually do better for our clients." Olivia Rosser on how she's learned from collective experience, teamwork and hard work as she's progressed at Cardew Group. Read more and find out more about a career at Cardew: https://lnkd.in/ei945yAn

We have rebranded! To reflect our broader service offering, growing team, and expanding geographical footprint, we are now Cardew Group, and we have a new website to match. Check it out, along with some of our recent insights: https://lnkd.in/dxsC7nkj

It is only 25 days since Labour claimed its historic election victory. With Parliament now in recess here's ten things we've already learned: Labour were ready: Forget the pre-election ‘no complacency’ message, Labour were ready to go with the Cabinet appointed, King’s Speech drafted, and Whitehall officials summoned to meetings over the first weekend. Labour wanted a team that could last: Labour brought Ministers from beyond the Party, ‘re-tread’ MPs and experienced newbies straight into Government. Starmer understood the power of a 174-seat majority and was prepared to demote frontbenchers to create space. Labour are in a hurry: With the election so close to the summer Labour have had to deliver immediately; cancelling the Rwanda scheme and onshore wind ban, reintroducing housing targets, a huge King’s Speech, and an audit of public spending – all before a shorter summer recess.  Labour are planning 2028 already: Labour won big but knows that unless it delivers quickly on three key priorities: the NHS, making housing affordable and kick-starting economic growth, they risk the wrath of the nation’s now more volatile electorate. Labour want to go back to the country in 2028 having delivered on key aspects of its programme. Starmer looks like a PM: Helped by a series of pre-summer events: NATO Summit, European Political Council, Men’s Euros and the Olympics, Starmer has immediately removed doubts that he wasn’t up to the job. His approval ratings have jumped and he has avoided major gaffes. Labour will take no prisoners: Labour know there are tough and unpopular measures ahead. The decision to suspend the whip from the MPs who voted against the two-child benefit cap was very deliberate. Cushioned by a huge majority, Starmer was not prepared to tolerate a rebellion so early. It WAS worse than they thought: Labour were always going to portray their inheritance from the Conservatives as disastrous but the review into the public finances has found some unexpected nasties - a view seemingly backed up by the OBR. Labour had not planned to pick a fight with pensioners by means-testing the Winter Fuel Allowance – and its a decision that could still come back to bite them. 30 October is huge: The Budget and launch of the three-year spending review will be of huge significance for the shape of Labour’s first term. The fiscal rules will now be under huge political pressure. The Chancellor’s reputation could be made or broken by how she deals with that challenge. Remember, remember the 5th November: The US Presidential election casts a huge shadow over and the nightmare scenario is a Trump victory, then a US withdrawal from Ukraine and consequent jump in UK defence spending. Labour are privately praying for a Harris victory.  … but don’t worry about 2nd November:  In normal times the result of the Conservative leadership race would be of huge importance, but Labour don’t fear any of the candidates. Time will tell if that confidence is misplaced.

It is only 25 days since Labour claimed its historic election victory. With Parliament now in recess here's ten things we've already learned: Labour were ready: Forget the pre-election ‘no complacency’ message, Labour were ready to go with the Cabinet appointed, King’s Speech drafted, and Whitehall officials summoned to meetings over the first weekend. Labour wanted a team that could last: Labour brought Ministers from beyond the Party, ‘re-tread’ MPs and experienced newbies straight into Government. Starmer understood the power of a 174-seat majority and was prepared to demote frontbenchers to create space. Labour are in a hurry: With the election so close to the summer Labour have had to deliver immediately; cancelling the Rwanda scheme and onshore wind ban, reintroducing housing targets, a huge King’s Speech, and an audit of public spending – all before a shorter summer recess.  Labour are planning 2028 already: Labour won big but knows that unless it delivers quickly on three key priorities: the NHS, making housing affordable and kick-starting economic growth, they risk the wrath of the nation’s now more volatile electorate. Labour want to go back to the country in 2028 having delivered on key aspects of its programme. Starmer looks like a PM: Helped by a series of pre-summer events: NATO Summit, European Political Council, Men’s Euros and the Olympics, Starmer has immediately removed doubts that he wasn’t up to the job. His approval ratings have jumped and he has avoided major gaffes. Labour will take no prisoners: Labour know there are tough and unpopular measures ahead. The decision to suspend the whip from the MPs who voted against the two-child benefit cap was very deliberate. Cushioned by a huge majority, Starmer was not prepared to tolerate a rebellion so early. It WAS worse than they thought: Labour were always going to portray their inheritance from the Conservatives as disastrous but the review into the public finances has found some unexpected nasties - a view seemingly backed up by the OBR. Labour had not planned to pick a fight with pensioners by means-testing the Winter Fuel Allowance – and its a decision that could still come back to bite them. 30 October is huge: The Budget and launch of the three-year spending review will be of huge significance for the shape of Labour’s first term. The fiscal rules will now be under huge political pressure. The Chancellor’s reputation could be made or broken by how she deals with that challenge. Remember, remember the 5th November: The US Presidential election casts a huge shadow over and the nightmare scenario is a Trump victory, then a US withdrawal from Ukraine and consequent jump in UK defence spending. Labour are privately praying for a Harris victory.  … but don’t worry about 2nd November:  In normal times the result of the Conservative leadership race would be of huge importance, but Labour don’t fear any of the candidates. Time will tell if that confidence is misplaced.

We are excited to announce that Clare Dobson - a former Senior Civil Servant - will be working with Cardew as Senior Policy Consultant, significantly bolstering our Public Affairs practice. Clare has over 20 years’ experience of developing government policy to address some of the most pressing challenges facing the country such as energy and climate change, cyber security and business innovation.

Great discussion tonight on Future Challenges in Mining IOM3 (Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining) with Duncan Wanblad of Anglo American Rohitesh Dhawan of ICMM, Tanya Chikanza and Barbara Dischinger (She/Her/Hers) introduced by Christine Blackmore FIMMM CSci CEnv and chaired by Colin Church. Much talk about engaging future generations of employees.

The move of the Evening Standard to being (almost) entirely online is the latest reminder of how digital has disrupted media and, in a little sidebar to that carnage, created opportunities for corporate communications strategies. Like any good revolution, this all began with seizing the means of production. For anyone to be heard at scale, it used to be that you needed to access to audiences via a TV station, a newspaper or a radio station.  And that didn’t change with the internet, not immediately.  The ability to create content online remained exclusive for the first of the WWW generation. Only those with production platforms could do it.  When Internet 2.0 arrived, things begin to change. The ability to upload content directly to video platforms (YouTube) or content management systems (WordPress) and to social media (Facebook, Twitter/X et al) all meant that those who needed a voice online could create one. And companies and organisations did just that – creating their ‘owned’ voices which bypassed the media but replicated the online media model: Create content on your own platform.  Make sure it’s top of the search pages.  Amplify and engage around that content on social media.  The end result is measured in increased web traffic and a growing number of social media followers.  But companies don’t own their followers and they certainly don’t own search – they are vulnerable to the emerging switch to AI-driven search and to shifts in algorithms designed to push them to advertising models. So your digital communications model needs to broaden – and to pull in your users closer through more, better digital content. Creating digital products – especially in video, but also podcasts, newsletters and more, creates a subscriber model. One where people will swap their data in exchange for being informed and even entertained. And ownership of that data (in a GDPR -compliant way, naturally). Moving them along the spectrum of engagement – from searching for you; to following you to subscribing to you. So make your content search-optimised by all means. Build social media audiences, of course.  But that third option of creating content that’s good enough to create that value exchange of data-for-information needs creativity and editorial skill - it goes beyond just sending out a pdf of results every quarter.  So if you want to pull your audiences closer with content and digital products, get in touch digital@tbcardew.com 

With 37 days until General Election polling day, political campaigning is in full swing. To stay up to date with policy announcements, the latest polls, the betting markets and the best memes on the campaign trail, sign up to our newsletter by emailing publicaffairs@tbcardew.com

When Google first emerged, its primary purpose was to map out the internet. By indexing the content, they were able to build a navigation tool (search), by which we found all that content and so develop a hugely profitable business model based around advertising spend. That is how they went from being a brand to being a verb. But it was supposed to be agnostic to the content itself. As of this week, that has begun to change – they are no longer mapping out content for us to discover, they’re now interpreting the web for us. That is a whole different question. Google’s AI tool, Gemini, will power the new approach in which search results will be delivered as AI-driven summaries – scraped from, but unattributed to, their original source. While it raises questions about the quality and potential bias of the algorithm, and there is competition from ChatGPT’s search intentions and others, we can be reasonably confident that Google’s central place in our digital culture will mean we adopt the new approach. What will be a novelty at first will swiftly become commonplace. The assumption in Google’s Kings Cross HQ for AI is that we’ll ask ever more complex questions and receive ever more nuanced answers. Just we won’t know from whom (and that in itself has already provoked legal disputes around the IP). Links will no longer be prominent on search, except for the most basic of searches. So, it’s a seismic move for brands and content creators. Many consumer-facing organisations and news brands will see their carefully search-optimised links pushed further down the page, and their traffic (and revenues) fall. The sources scraped for the summaries will largely be a mystery, as the Google algorithm always has been. How this pans out remains to be seen, but it is likely that the rustic crafts of search engine optimisation will need to change. A company’s site will still need the good hygiene of search – meta data, marked-up images and strong domains. Inbound links may be less important, and keywords will need to be ever more strongly connected to user intention rather than supporting the creation of a click-bait content factory. For the moment, this only applies to searches in English in the US, but it will come to us all. For brands looking to prosper, the key will be authoritative, expert and original content. The written word is important, as ever, but both image and video search are likely to grow. This isn’t the time to bow out of the search race, it’s the time to re-focus and raise the content game. Inevitably, search will drive fewer users to your site, but you can add your voice to the AI consensus, and you can build your own audiences with social media strategies and digital products driven by subscription. The battle for digital visibility has entered a new age. If you would like to discuss what this means for your organisation, do get in touch: digital@tbcardew.com