This edition of The Ceres Edit brings together a selection of LinkedIn posts and longer-form thinking from across the Ceres team, covering AI visibility, employee-generated content, client campaigns, food and drink branding, leadership and the everyday moments that often spark the best comms reflections. From strategic questions around authority and search to experiential activations, shopper behaviour and brand relevance, these are some of the ideas shaping our thinking this month.
Kathryn on summer negotiations, at home and at work
☀️This summer is going to be the ultimate test of my diplomacy, communication and negotiation skills.
👦 Second son landed home last night from uni for the summer. For 142 days, to be precise. And with him came the contents of what appears to be an entire house, now beautifully displayed across our hallway.
So begins the delicate art of communicating with a 20-year-old who has found his independence.
🍽️ How do you gently suggest that plates and glasses make their way to the dishwasher, not just the sink?
👖 How do you explain the location and purpose of the wash basket, which has, incidentally, been in the same place for the last 15 years?
🍵 How do you communicate that towels don’t dry particularly well on bedroom floors, and that mugs need to come downstairs before they become a science experiment?
🐕 How do you negotiate dog walking, shared TV viewing, putting the bins out, the occasional dinner contribution, and potentially, bravely, an introduction to the lawn mower?
Because whether it’s at home or at work, good communication is all about timing, tone, clarity and choosing your battles wisely.
And, of course, knowing when to let things go.
💕 In reality, he’ll probably do what he wants, when he wants, and we’ll forgive most of it because we LOVE having him home. He’s great company, funny, and yes helpful at times... but if he has his way, he'll work 140 days of his summer to earn that much-needed money for year two. So maybe I don’t have much to complain about after all 😊.
Welcome home, H. Let the summer negotiations begin.
🤠 P.S. The cowboy hat remains unexplained. Some communication challenges are best left for another day!!
Read Kathryn’s original LinkedIn post
Maddie on feedback, leadership and people management
Yesterday’s Agency Hackers Growth Day gave me a lot to reflect on around feedback, leadership and people management.
A big part of the conversation focused on the difference between supporting people vs solving everything for them. Agencies naturally breed fixers, we jump in, remove blockers, smooth things over. But good leadership probably isn’t about making everything easier all the time.
The key takeaways around giving feedback were:
* giving it when people actually have time and headspace to process it
* showing what “good” looks like instead of assuming expectations are obvious
* focusing on behaviours and impact, not emotion
* recognising patterns instead of treating repeated issues as isolated moments
One line that stuck with me was: “Feedback can make or break people, don’t clip people’s wings”
What I appreciated most was how practical the conversations were. Less theory, more honest discussion about the realities of leadership, communication and people management in agencies.
Lots to reflect on from this one 🤯
Read Maddie’s original LinkedIn post
Taryn on whether coffee is ever just coffee anymore
Heading into Waitrose & Partners this morning, I received a text from my husband…
“Can you pick up some coffee please?” ☕
Simple enough, right? As an avid tea drinker, I thought so too… until I found myself staring at rows and rows of options 👀
Ground. Beans. Instant. Bags. Pods. Flavoured. Bright, bold challengers. Traditional favourites.
When did the coffee aisle become so confusing?! 😱
Gone are the days of choosing between “average instant” and “posh instant” 😂
Coffee at home has become a category in its own right, shaped by café-style moments at home, cost-conscious shoppers, and growing choice across formats, flavours, and machines.
So, it got me thinking, is coffee ever just coffee anymore?
As someone in food marketing, I’m instantly drawn to the branding - the colours, packaging, tone of voice and lifestyle cues.
My husband? Much more practical: strength, format, roast and taste.
And that’s what makes the category so interesting.
Some shoppers buy on habit, some on price, some on convenience, some on sustainability… and some because the pack simply feels right.
So, what drives your coffee choice?
Brand? Strength? Price? Format? Flavour? Packaging? Or are you loyal to one product and not budging?
As for the milk choices to go with it… that’s another post entirely! ☕🥛
P.S A big shout out to challengers like Grind & Little's Coffee | B Corp™ are dominating shelf space quicker than my husband can say “strength 5” 👏🏽
Read Taryn’s original LinkedIn post
Ceres on taking the Walnut Pledge into the heart of London
London, you understood the assignment 👏
For National Walnut Day, we took the hashtag#WalnutPledge into the heart of the city, with one simple mission: get more people thinking about a daily handful of California Walnuts UK. And eating them too!
More than 1,200 sample bags were handed out, brain-boosting games were played, and plenty of people stopped by to chat about the simple 30g daily habit, our favourite kind of conversations!
But this wasn’t sampling for sampling’s sake.
The activation was designed to connect the moment of trial with a clear next step, using a high-footfall location near Sainsbury's stores to help move people from “that was nice” to “I’ll pick some up”. That’s where experiential starts to work harder.
Not just creating awareness, but supporting measurable in-store impact and encouraging repeat purchase over time..
A fun moment in the city, a clear retail link, and one part of a wider digital, influencer and PR campaign designed to keep the #WalnutPledge front of mind throughout June.
Next stop: Wakefield 📍
Catch us on 6th June at Lower Trinity Walk 👋
Read Ceres’ original LinkedIn post
Naomi on why employee voices matter in the age of AI search
We talk to clients a lot about Employee Generated Content, and why it matters that people within a business are posting in their own words, not just resharing the company page.
A new Meltwater and LinkedIn report adds another layer to that conversation. The research analysed 9.5 million AI citations and found that LinkedIn ranked as the #2 most cited source by AI models across B2B categories.
But the part I found most relevant from an EGC perspective was:
💡 75% of LinkedIn citations came from individual member profiles, compared with 25% from company pages
💭 And 72% of AI-cited LinkedIn content was original, compared with 28% reshared.
Of course, that doesn’t make company pages any less important. They still play a vital role in shaping the brand narrative, housing key messages, building credibility and giving campaigns a clear home. But the strongest strategies use both; company pages set the direction and employee voices help bring it to life.
We see this in practice too for clients and Ceres PR. Content tends to resonate more when people within the business add their own perspective, context or experience to the wider story.
It’s a useful reminder that EGC is not simply about asking people to amplify brand content. The real value comes when people inside the business are sharing something of their own:
🧠 A perspective from their role
❓ A practical answer to a question customers often ask
🔍 A view on what is changing in their sector
🧩 A useful explanation that makes a complex topic easier to understand.
This is important, because LinkedIn visibility may no longer just be about reach, engagement or follower growth. If AI tools are increasingly pulling from credible, structured, expert-led content, then employee voices could also play a role in how brands show up in AI search.
That makes EGC a bigger strategic opportunity. Not just a way to extend the life of company content, but a way to build authority through the people who know the business, the market and the customer best.
Maybe the question for brands is not “how do we get more people to share our posts?”, but “how do we create space for the right people to share knowledge others genuinely find useful?”
Read Naomi’s original LinkedIn post
Taryn on when a brand becomes part of the moment
JUBEL accidentally became the unofficial sponsor of our girl’s weekend 🍺 🍑
Not in a polished, contractual kind of way.
More in a “sun’s out, let’s have a Jubel” kind of way.
By day two, it had basically become part of the weekend vocab. Not “shall we have a beer?” or “what’s in the fridge?”
Just “Jubel please”
The sunny afternoon drink ☀️
The easy fridge grab ❄️
The refreshing draft in the sun 🍻
The festival pre-beer 🎪
And that’s the bit that gets my food marketing brain buzzing ⚡️
Because isn’t that exactly what every food and drink brand is trying to achieve? To move beyond being a product and become part of a moment💥
Not just a lighter beer, but a whole lifestyle movement. That’s when brand association becomes powerful.
Sun = Jubel 🍑
Girls’ weekend = Jubel 🥭
Festival tinnies = Jubel 🍋
And once a brand owns that kind of occasion, loyalty starts to feel a lot less forced. It becomes instinctive.
For F&B brands, the challenge isn’t always to shout louder about a product.
Sometimes it’s about showing up so naturally in the right moment, that people start doing the branding for you. It’s the kind of brand love you can’t fake 🧡💫
So, thank you Jubel for making our Bank Holiday a thirst quenching delight.
And it was my pleasure to introduce Rebecca Connolly to the peachy goodness! 🍑🧡
Read Taryn’s original LinkedIn post
We’ll be back soon with the next edition of The Ceres Edit, bringing together more of the posts, perspectives and themes shaping our thinking across food, health and wellbeing communications.
