ECA’s Commercial Associate Category

ECA welcomes interest from industry suppliers and service providers who undertake to work to the ECA Commercial Associate Code and whose business does not substantially overlap with ECA’s Member services.   

ECA Service Conditions

Please note: first and foremost, ECA aims to help all Commercial Associates to realise the value of Commercial Associate (CA) status.  The following Service conditions explain key conditions of the ECA Commercial Associate offer and they include various limits and requirements on both ECA and CAs, to enable fair and effective delivery.

Events

ECA gives priority to the involvement (such as participation, exhibiting or sponsorship) of Commercial Associates (CAs) in ECA’s Regional, Cross Regional and Branch events.

However, please note that access to ECA event opportunities may be subject to:

• ECA’s choice/agreement of event themes and content;
• invitation by the Regional/branch Chair; and
• event availability, due to the available dates, event frequency and venue capacity.
   

Annual Product/Service email listing

All Commercial Associates have the opportunity to feature in a quarterly product and services email that is sent to ECA Members. Each email features up to six CA listings.

Your listing can feature a relevant product or service that you wish to promote ECA Members. Each listing can contain up to 100 words, an image and website link.

Each CA can feature on one product or service listing per year.

Please note that listings must be sufficiently relevant to the ECA Member audience. Those regarded as not sufficiently relevant or which do not meet ECA editorial standards will not be featured, and ECA will contact you to discuss the best way forward.

Editorial (content)

All editorial, photography and other content submitted by Commercial Associates (CAs) should meet ECA’s Conditions, below.

These conditions aim to ensure that ECA’s audience receives suitable, high quality editorial and illustration and that ECA and CAs benefit from a clearly understood and positive partnership.

All reasonable efforts will be made by the ECA editorial team to provide CAs with editorial opportunities as shown in the CA proposition. As part of the CA offering, requests by CAs for editorial consideration have editorial priority over those made by non-CAs. 

The final editorial decision regarding publication of any content, whether print or digital, rests with the ECA editorial team.  Decisions on whether, when and where to publish will depend on factors that include the standard and nature of the content being presented and, for potential print inclusion, any restrictions on availability.

Online availability

ECA usually aims to publish suitable CA content on its digital channels, which may include ECAtoday digital. 

Suitable content

Guidance on the required standard of content (below) is designed to help the CA, ECA, and the readership, by encouraging content that is most likely to be read by the ECA’s audience.

To enable proper consideration of proposed content, the ECA editorial team will normally request a short advance precis, outlining the key message and purpose of the proposed content and why it would be of interest to the ECA audience. Upon acceptance, the editorial team will work with the CA to produce content, as far as reasonably possible, that is acceptable to both the ECA and the CA.

Guidance on editorial requirements

All content should include a central theme of significant interest to the readership (ECA Members, prospective Members and other industry stakeholders). Articles should contain significant information and/or insight of salient interest to an engineering services and/or contracting managerial professional audience.

Referring to reliable facts and figures is encouraged, as are relevant case studies or ‘real life’ design and installation/business examples. Technical or business content that credibly highlights the installation or operational benefits of products or services is particularly useful. Explanations and discussions around the business scope for, and performance of, technologies or other products are of interest.

Guest editorial columns should include opinion or insight that is of salient interest to our audience.

Brief examples of compelling information could include:

e.g. “an independent survey of our top xx customers on xx projects in 2021 found a new design of cable tray reduced installation time by an average of x%”

e.g. our client has used product x for x years and the following data shows how it has reduced energy use and maintenance bills in their premises by x%”    

e.g. “following two major customer enquiries, we now assess the embodied carbon of our top 5 selling electrical products using method x and we publish the results on our website (link)”

Examples, quotes from customers and case studies are often compelling.

However e.g. “Our company has a newly trained sales team/is customer friendly” or “our prices are competitive” or “we have increased sales” does not provide enough information of interest.

Editorial should not contain any content that could reasonably be assessed as undermining the reputation or stated aims of ECA.

In the event of editorial queries about the standard of content suggested by the CA, the ECA team will endeavour to provide constructive input about how content can be improved, or on topics that may be more suitable for the ECA readership.

Photography/artwork (illustration)

Submission of photographs and artwork for potential use in ECAtoday or elsewhere is welcome and may be submitted at any time. All illustrations must be of sufficiently high resolution and meet our editorial standards. The recommended format and resolution is normally:

• 700x500px minimum
• No larger than 2MB
• 300dpi preferred if possible
• PNG or JPG format

We particularly welcome photography that shows safe, ‘real life’ UK engineering services installation practice, and which ideally shows a broad demographic of people. Staged ‘product only’ shots are far less likely to be considered than interesting photos (staged or otherwise) showing product installation or customer/premises usage. Photos or artwork already used by the CA for other purposes may be acceptable, we do not necessarily require new photography.

The decision to use any offered or supplied illustration lies with the editorial team. CAs should not embark on any new photography/artwork for use by ECA without first receiving written agreement from the ECAtoday team, after a brief has been agreed.  However, we welcome discussions with CAs about the possibility of bespoke illustration.

Webinars

Commercial Associates have the potential opportunity of a webinar presentation as part of the ECA Learning Zone Webinar series. This is subject to the standards and service conditions below and to the availability of Webinar slots and scheduling. 

1. Webinar allocation

The following information needs to be sent and agreed by the ECA webinar team before a webinar can be allocated.

• Webinar Title
• Synopsis of content – subject to agreement with the ECA webinar and ECA technical/business team

2. Content and format

The principal aim of the ECA Learning Zone is to educate ECA Members and the wider industry. Therefore, a proposed ECA webinar must include content that is:

• Relevant and significant – covering a relevant technical or business topic that will be of salient interest and/or benefit to ECA Members
• Educational/instructive – sharing new or pertinent information that will improve the audience’s understanding of a technical or business topic
• CPD accredited (preferred but not mandatory)

ECA will work with CAs on content suggestions and CAs will be given  opportunity to discuss the subject matter and content of possible Learning Zone webinar presentations with the ECA webinar team and the ECA technical/business teams as necessary. While our primary aim is to enable a successful webinar, ECA reserves the right not to proceed with proposed webinar content if it is deemed unsuitable for the ECA audience. In this case, and where possible, we may suggest alternative ideas for content.

Proposed webinar content must not be substantially be a promotional or sales pitch for a particular priced product or service, nor criticise other party’s particular products or services, though a CA’s priced products and services can be referred to in the wider context of a relevant webinar. Free products and services to the industry may also be referred to.

3. Webinar development and promotion (live and recorded webinar)

Upon agreement, a provisional webinar slot will be allocated.

To help maximise promotion, at least 6 weeks prior to this webinar slot the following should be provided to the ECA team:

• For each presenter (person who will speak during the webinar):
  • Name
  • Title
  • Company
  • Email address
  • Photo (minimum 100 x 100px)
• ECA and the CA will also agree to a minimum of promotional activity ahead of an ECA Learning Zone Webinar as follows:

• Creation of Webinar landing pages, registration links, and promotional copy will be carried out by ECA only. ECA reserves the right to edit and amend promotional copy provided by CAs, subject to its ECA editorial standards and guidelines (say where found).
• ECA Learning Zone Webinars are recorded. Recordings are usually uploaded to the ECA YouTube channel within 2 working days of the live webinar. ECA will publicise the recorded version and CAs are strongly encouraged to promote the replay via their own communications channels.

4. Pre-webinar checks (the dry run)

A system performance check and webinar rehearsal session must be completed at least 5 working days before the planned webinar. This will be organised and run by the ECA webinar team. This is designed to allow sufficient time to arrange a solution if any technical issues arise.

5. Withdrawal from webinar delivery

Withdrawal from an agreed ECA webinar slot can be highly disruptive to ECA and other CAs, and the provider is required to ensure their participation in the webinar as agreed. ECA reserves the right to cancel a webinar provided there is good reason, though in this unlikely situation it will provide the CA with maximum available notice and will seek to reschedule wherever possible.

If you have any questions regarding these Service Conditions, we encourage you to raise them with the relevant ECA department, as shown in the ECA Commercial Associate proposition checklist.