Would you like to work with CPL One? We’re currently looking for a new office manager.

After nearly five years with us, our office manager is heading off travelling and now we’re on the hunt for a replacement. As the face of CPL One, you’ll be a friendly, flexible individual who is keen to be part of a growing business. If you’re interested in the role, please send your CV to ewa.wrona@cplone.co.uk as soon as possible, with a brief covering letter explaining why you are suitable for the role.

The role

• Responsible for general office management of both Cambridge and St. Albans offices
• Responsible for health and safety compliance across both sites
• Liaise with facilities management vendors, including cleaning, catering and security services
• Plan in-house or off-site activities such as company events, celebrations and conferences
• Support CPL One’’s overall business mission: “To help people belong”

Location

• Your main place of work will be our Cambridge office but you will be expected to spend some time (around two days per month) in our St Albans office. (Therefore, a clean driving licence and access to a car would be preferred – but not vital.)
• You will be expected to work from our Cambridge office Mondays to Thursdays. The Cambridge office is currently closed on a Friday, so you should be able to work from home (or the St Albans office) on a Friday.

Skills and competencies required 

• Strong administration skills
• Clear communication in English, both spoken and written
• Great interpersonal and communications skills
• Self discipline
• Good team working skills
• The ability to work to deadlines
• Flexible and able to prioritise effectively 
• An aptitude for IT – some knowledge of software packages: Google Suite, Excel, Word
• A high level of confidentiality, tact and diplomacy
• The flexibility and willingness to learn

How you will benefit

• Competitive salary
• 28 days’ annual leave, plus bank holidays
• Death-in-service cover
• Enhanced maternity and paternity pay
• Subsidised parking and cycle-to-work scheme
• Relaxed, friendly office, fresh fruit deliveries, social room
• Great teamwork ethos: regular social events and annual party

At the Memcom Conference 2023, CPL One celebrated recent work and welcomed a bright future.

It is sound commercial advice that your behaviour as a business should reflect your values, and that you should always deliver on your brand promise. Or, to put it in simple terms, actions often speak louder than words.

This basic principle came to mind last week at the Memcom Conference 2023, which was titled ‘New Horizons’. For CPL One, the title was fitting: the annual event was the public, in-person launch of our new CPL One brand identity. 

The conference was the first opportunity we’ve had to say ‘Hello world’ as CPL One. A new beginning, and a next step on our combined journey – but also the summation of a lot of hard work behind the scenes in developing our new company brand identity. 

Adding value for membership organisations

As part of the conference, we also delivered a session that showcased our recent work with the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP). 

The talk featured insight from our senior content strategist, Martin Bewick, alongside detailed input from Chris Bull, head of member value at RCGP, on how creating an effective Member Value Proposition (MVP) can add value to professional organisations. 

The room for our talk was a full house, and the discussion that followed continued well into the closing drinks and networking session.

Three rules for adding member value

In reviewing our work with RCGP and from questions on the day, we can summarise three foundational rules for delivering member value projects.

1. Data and insight – what you try to deliver for your members/audience should always be founded on quantitative and qualitative research. It’s about listening, acting on those insights, and ensuring the people to whom you have listened continue to be heard.

2. It’s a journey – and that’s something of a cliché. But seriously, play the long game. The challenge you’re tackling was there before you began the work, and will not disappear once your budget is spent and the wash-up meeting timetabled. You need to keep going, iterating, adjusting, going again.

3. Your rollout needs clear instructions – what you’ve learned needs to be actioned and actioned again. That means it needs to be ingrained into the culture. Beyond your stint explaining the plan, who will take it up? Can you pass on the baton? Who to? And what tools might they need to take it off your hands. This too needs to be part of the plan.

Can you help people belong?

The point here is not simply to complete a project, but to develop a real and open-ended sense of belonging for your members and/or wider audience. Helping people feel they are genuinely part of an organisation – that they belong there – is an ongoing process. Ensuring your plan truly belongs with the people who will help action it and live its reality should be seen as a long-term concern.

At CPL One, our purpose (as we sometimes say in public) is to help people belong. What that means may differ for each audience and business with which we work. That’s the message we set out to deliver at the Memcom conference last week. But it’s not just about talking the talk, it’s about walking the walk. Perhaps we could do some of that together.

We said ‘Hello world’ at Memcom. If you’d like to find out more about our services, say ‘Hello CPL One’.

CPL One’s managing director Mike Sewell reflects on an important day in the story of our business.

Today marks the latest phase in the CPL One story, as we reveal our new brand identity.

It is also the day when three formally starts to become two, with CPL One Group now proudly boasting two brands: CPL One and Cabbells.

The name CPL One alludes to the two companies from which we have evolved. Between them, Century One and CPL share decades of heritage and content marketing expertise; bringing them together to form CPL One means we have a single, strong brand that will continue to offer excellent quality and service – and brilliant work – for our clients.

We trust this website and all other CPL One touchpoints will reinforce our primary business purpose, which is that ‘We help people belong’.

When we say ‘belong’, we are thinking of three groups of people:

1. The people who read/watch/listen to, and otherwise engage with the content we create on behalf of our clients
2. The individuals who work for our clients and from whom we learn so much, just as they learn from us
3. The team at CPL One who are, frankly, our most important asset.

We have around 70 people based at our Cambridge and St Albans offices, as well as a number of freelancers, and they have all had the opportunity to be involved in the creation of this new identity.

Over time, you will start noticing the range of different visuals within our brand. These reflect our team’s interests, personalities and preferences, as well as the type of clients for whom we work. This individual involvement in the new identity is just one way we want to demonstrate how we help people belong.

The board and I are incredibly proud of the ambition, strategic thinking and outstanding creativity that our team has shown in devising, developing and delivering this identity. It’s a showcase for what CPL One can offer.

As well as the new brand and new identity, the launch of this website marks another key milestone. For years, we have been planning and making brilliant above-the-line advertising for our clients, but we haven’t necessarily lived up to one of our values and been ‘bold’ in talking enough about this offering.

That changes today.

As you’ll see in the ‘What we do’ section, we list advertising as a key part of our content marketing offer, alongside five other services: content, design, digital development, digital marketing and sales.

These services encompass dozens of skills within the agency, including animators, copywriters, editors, media buyers, media planners, videographers and web developers. But there’s little point in delivering any of these multi-media offerings if we don’t also, as business author Simon Sinek wrote so long ago, ‘start with why’.

That means, before we begin to produce any work for our clients, committing appropriate time and resources to clarify why it needs to be done and, therefore, what the content and communications strategy should be.

As I mentioned at the start, alongside CPL One our other brand is Cabbells, which has approaching 50 years of experience in the arts and heritage sector.

Led by director Sarah Simpson, Cabbells will continue to specialise in delivering for clients including Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, BBC Proms and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.

These are exciting times in the CPL One story. If you think we can improve your content marketing, as we have done for dozens of other organisations, then do please get in touch.

Watch our moving new film for an educational charity that we have supported for more than a decade.

The film highlights the work of the Batemans Trust, which works with some of the most disadvantaged children and young people in Chennai, India.

Filmed on a mobile phone by two Batemans trustees, and edited by CPL One’s Jonathan Sankey, it shows how the charity offers vulnerable children the comfort of a second home and family. It is also a joyful snapshot of the work of Batemans’ outreach project, which is offering good-quality early years’ education to needy families.

Anne Desir, the charity’s chair of trustees, says: “We are so grateful to the team at CPL One for the expertise they offer us at no charge. They already deliver our digital and print newsletters and other promotional materials, and this film is another fantastic example of how the CPL One team goes above and beyond to ensure that the vast majority of money raised by our supporters goes directly to our projects in India.”

Visit the Batemans website to find out more about how you can support the charity, including the opportunity to sponsor a child for £15 a month.

The awards recognise the creativity and hard work that helps to drive up the standards of membership organisations and shine a light on how they increase value for members and contribute to a better society.

The shortlist was revealed at a Spring Party, held at the Barbican Conservatory in London.

CPL One was shortlisted in the Best Use of Data, AI or Insight category for our work with the Royal College of General Practitioners, and in the Best Annual Report category for a project for the Association of British Insurers.

We received two nominations in the Best Magazine Launch or Re-Launch category, for The Marine Biologist (Marine Biological Association) and Iconnect (The Institute of Conservation), and also earned a nomination for Parking News (British Parking Association) in the Best Magazine (more than 20k circulation) category.

Will Gray was shortlisted as Editor of the Year for Nuclear Future, the magazine we create for The Nuclear Institute, and finally our Nautilus International team were shortlisted in the Best Podcast category. You can see the full shortlist here.

CPL One managing director Mike Sewell said: “From print magazines to podcasts, and from data and insights to annual reports, the awards nominations show the breadth of work CPL One offers to professional bodies and membership organisations. A huge congratulations to all the teams involved.”

The 2023 Memcom Excellence Awards winners will be announced on 26 September.

After a university experience disrupted by the Covid pandemic, our newest account executive, Francesca Cronk, took her first steps into the world of work with a degree of trepidation (and one in psychology!). She needn’t have worried.

I started working at CPL One in September 2022 after graduating from the University of Liverpool with a 2:1 degree in psychology. 

My university experience was interesting to say the least. My first year was cut short by the Covid pandemic in March 2020 and I had to finish the year online, including my exams. My second year was then fully online, and my final year was a mix of online and in-person lectures, with exams online once again. 

For me, one of the most interesting things about a psychology degree is the research for your third-year dissertation. Unfortunately, Covid meant we didn’t have the opportunity to conduct any in-person, laboratory studies and were limited to online questionnaires.

Graduation was a bittersweet moment – feeling sad because that part of my life was over, but excited (and scared) to start the next chapter and get a job. 

After applying for various jobs in marketing, I had two successful interviews at CPL One in August, and started my current role as an account executive at the beginning of September. My first ‘adult’ job!

New projects, fresh excitement

The past six months have been a whirlwind of taking in lots of new information. I have had the opportunity to work on different projects, including with Bourn Hall Fertility Clinic, the Royal College of GPs and the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management.

I’ve learned many new skills, too, including how to set up Facebook and Google ads, writing engaging copy for social media, and project management skills.

There have been some very busy times, but I’ve really enjoyed the past six months and I’m looking forward to what’s to come.

The thing that has most surprised me about starting full-time work is just how much I enjoy it. To be honest, when I was coming to the end of my degree I was worried about what to do next. When I did get a job, what if I didn’t like it? 

Lots of people go through multiple jobs before they work out which sector they really enjoy, so I’m lucky and excited that I really enjoy my first job. I think content marketing is the sector for me.

Transferable skills

Before I started this job, I thought content marketing was simply a marketing approach that involved various forms of writing, including magazine content, blog posts and social media posts. Having been here for six months, I know that, while this isn’t wrong, there’s a lot more to it than I thought.

Studying psychology has provided me with skills that can be applied to so many areas, including my work at CPL One. For example, time management, organisation and project management, are all proving very useful. In terms of skills specific to my degree, the research and analytical skills, as well as understanding consumer behaviour, have been great skills to bring to my role. 

I’m actually much more relaxed here than when I was under the constant pressure of essay writing at university. I finish work and look forward to the next day, knowing that I’m learning. I needn’t have worried so much about taking that big step into work.

The first issue of The Treasurer magazine to be produced by CPL One is published this month, featuring a new choice of paper to give the magazine a fresh, modern feel.

CPL One won the contract to produce the magazine on behalf of the Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT) during 2022, following a competitive tender process.

“After working with the ACT for the past few months and creating a range of content on digital channels, it’s lovely to be able to hold CPL One’s first print issue of The Treasurer in our hands,” said director Sophie Hewitt-Jones.

The Treasurer has earned a strong reputation as a leading magazine in the professional membership sector – and CPL One’s ambition is to build on and develop that reputation further.

“The new, matte paper stock and a change to a compostable wrapper is the most tangible change so far, but we are confident that we have more than matched the existing high-quality design and editorial content,” added Sophie, who has worked with colleagues including Phil Smith, Helen King, Kevin Reed and Maia Parratt to create and deliver CPL One’s first issue of the magazine.

Anne Hogarth, director of marketing and communications at the ACT, said: “It’s great that the first issue of 2023 is now live in the members’ areas of our website and the print version is being distributed as we speak.

“Phil, Sophie and the teams at CPL One and the ACT have put in a lot of good work and creativity over recent weeks and months and we look forward to continuing that momentum, across both digital and print channels, during the rest of 2023 and beyond.”

Topics covered in the issue include talent retention, cryptocurrencies, greenhouse gas disclosures, forecasting technology and some farewell thoughts from Caroline Stockmann, who is stepping back as chief executive of the ACT.

With CPL One’s help, The Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association’s Great British Bonus scheme has had yet another winning year. 

The Great British Bonus (GBB) is an incentive scheme run by The Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association (TBA), which is based in the home of horseracing, Newmarket – not too far from CPL One’s Cambridge office. 

The aim of the scheme is to increase the number of British-bred horses in racing and, in so doing, safeguard the future of British breeding. It offers bonuses of up to £20,000 per eligible race to fillies and mares, and, to date, more than £9 million in bonuses have been paid, with the £10 million mark fast approaching.

After creating and establishing the GBB brand identity in 2020, the CPL One team has continued to work with TBA and GBB to develop a marketing strategy to grow the scheme. That has included: paid-for advertising; direct e-communications; digital marketing; physical mailouts; organic social media management; and event support.

GBB continues to go from strength to strength. 

The scheme has already proved its value, with respected owners, trainers, and breeders saying they purposely search out GBB-eligible fillies at sales. And in 2022, against the key goal of generating filly registrations, all the scheme’s targets were hit once again. Indeed, with around 1,000 people registering at the final stage, the scheme saw an increase of almost 12% from 2021.

For everyone on the team at CPL One, it’s great that 2022 was another winner with GBB.

Read more about the Great British Bonus scheme. 

Johnson Matthey (JM) has become the latest multinational to benefit from CPL One’s expertise in creating compelling content for a broad range of audiences. 

Since January 2022, CPL One has been working with the specialist sustainable technologies business to deliver stories in a number of formats for its global employee communication channels.

JM, which has more than 13,000 employees operating in more than 30 countries, approached CPL One because of our reputation for researching and delivering stories that are engaging for people at all levels of an organisation.

Content created by CPL One journalists so far has included long- and short-form written copy, animations, videos and infographics. The stories explain how JM employees help the company address four essential transitions the world needs for a sustainable future: driving down transport emissions; decarbonising chemicals production; transforming our energy systems; and creating a truly circular economy.

Andrew Bain, JM’s group head of brand, content and digital channels, said: “JM’s ambition is to catalyse the transition to net zero for our customers, and we have so many positive stories to tell about how we are doing this. CPL One’s expertise in journalism and storytelling has enabled us to produce richer content and their in-house video and graphic design expertise has ensured we can deliver it in a range of formats.”

CPL One managing director Mike Sewell added: “We’re proud to be working with JM during a period of great change for the company. Alongside its drive to remove harmful pollutants in the automotive sector, JM is focused on playing a leading role in the hydrogen economy and helping decarbonise the chemicals industry. Our team members are enjoying getting to know the people within JM who are making this happen, and then telling their stories to a wider internal – and sometimes external – audience.”

In addition to Johnson Matthey, CPL One also creates regular content for a number of other corporate businesses including EY, Capgemini and Canon Europe.