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Shipshape media engagement

Shipshape media engagement

Jul 3, 2024

Home · Case Study · Lloyds Maritime Academy

Shipshape Media Engagement

Lloyd’s Maritime Academy, a subsidiary of Informa Plc, offers an enormous portfolio of online training resources to maritime professionals worldwide.

Lloyds Maritime Academy

Campaign stats at a glance

Coverage pieces

%

Coverage in 40+ DA outlets

Coverage impact score

Lloyds Maritime Academy Case Study (brand awareness)

EC-PR Quote marks“EC-PR played an instrumental role in helping us to develop our communication strategy, so it was only natural for us to turn to Liz and Lorraine to help us execute it.

“Their support in building a strong portfolio of material, which has reinforced our capabilities and the importance of through-life career development, has been fantastic.

“We’ve recognised the momentum that has been built in increasing brand awareness and hope to continue to elevate the brand in 2020.”

Veronica Araujo

Head of Performance Marketing, Informa Connect

Dangers and Desires

Following our work developing her brand’s communication strategy, Veronica Araujo wanted to highlight the brand’s new positioning statement of ‘lifelong learning’ through the power of media engagement.

However, the team at Lloyd’s Maritime Academy had limited experience of proactively working with the media. They needed to leverage the knowledge and insights of industry professionals to create maximum impact, but how? The natural choice was to appoint EC-PR, with whom they had previously worked with to achieve great outcomes.

Design

Focused on highlighting the brand’s new positioning statement of ‘lifelong learning’, we curated a PR programme that would help to increase awareness of Lloyd’s Maritime Academy’s extensive training portfolio and engage with maritime professionals.

Campaign delivery

  • Identify and target key media outlets.
  • Distribute news releases.
  • Create case studies.
  • Secure feature articles.
  • Gain exclusive one-to-one journalist access.

Key media outlets

The team at EC-PR have developed a deep understanding of media in the maritime sector over the past two decades. We have worked with countless trade journalists in the industry, cultivating strong relationships across a broad range of media outlets.

This meant we were well placed to home in on the journalists and influencers that would help elevate Lloyd’s Maritime Academy out of the darkness and shine a light on the brand’s new ‘lifelong learning’ message.

Once we had created our list of the ideal people to approach, it was time to amplify Lloyd’s Maritime Academy’s offer.

Feature articles

Limited resources to develop new content meant that Veronica and her team were keen to draw on EC-PR’s strong technical writing capabilities.

Our years of experience in the sector enabled us to quickly identify the editorial ideas needed to resonate with the Academy’s target audience. We created a series of informative feature articles that positioned Lloyd’s Maritime Academy as experts in professional development, while addressing the concerns and interests of their target audience.

Case studies

Working with two ​​former students of Lloyd’s Maritime Academy, we created two case studies that were distributed to relevant media.

Each case study outlined the students’ individual experiences of the courses they completed, including the reasons why the Academy should be the ideal choice for other professionals looking to develop their skills.

Exclusive journalist access

Building awareness in the media landscape can be a challenging prospect – it relies heavily on reaching journalists who are often inundated with information and emails from brands all vying to be heard.

Industry events and exhibitions are an ideal chance to capture journalists’ attention. For the maritime sector, a popular annual event is London International Shipping Week, where many of the industry’s key players, influencers and journalists are in attendance.

We saw the event as the perfect opportunity for us to arrange interviews between members of the Lloyd’s Maritime Academy team and journalists on a one-to-one level, creating an ideal platform for the team to highlight the brand’s lifelong learning message in more detail.

Distinction

During a 9-month PR campaign, we secured 36 pieces of coverage in industry-specific press, of which 80% were featured in media outlets with a domain authority (DA) score of more than 40.

Our generated coverage resulted in an overall impact score of 301,000, giving authority and credibility to Lloyd’s Maritime Academy’s offer and helping to increase awareness of the ‘lifelong learning’ message.

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Our Case Studies

We work closely with our clients to understand their unique challenges and goals, and develop tailored strategies that deliver measurable results.

Our case studies showcase a range of successful projects, including increasing brand awareness, generating leads, and establishing thought leadership in their respective industries.

Our experienced PR professionals have a wealth of knowledge and expertise, which they bring to each project, ensuring that our clients receive the best possible service. We use a data-driven approach to track and measure the success of each campaign, providing our clients with clear and transparent reporting.

Whether you are a start-up or an established business, our case studies demonstrate the value of effective PR and the impact it can have on your business.

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Rock solid authority

Rock solid authority

Jul 3, 2024

Home · Case Study · Seequent

Rock Solid Authority

A unique mining and exploration software and a Bentley Systems Company, Seequent is a pedigree in the Industrial Minerals (IM) mining sector.

Seequent has a proven, end-to-end workflow solution that unites all disciplines of geology, mine planning, and production.

Seequent

Campaign stats at a glance

Tier-1 thought-leadership articles (12 months)

Webinar registrations

White paper downloads

Seequent Case Study

EC-PR Quote marks“The roundtable and insight paper by EC-PR provided a platform for Seequent to share a clear message on effective data management with an important and influential audience. Working with EC-PR has allowed us to increase our share of voice in a new market. We grew our audience and engagement through an impactful thought leadership content strategy.”

Jessica Nussbaumer, Segment Marketing Manager, Exploration and Production, Seequent

Knowing the software would deliver exceptional value to its target audience, Seequent hoped to raise awareness amongst IM mining companies.
Here’s how EC-PR increased Seequent’s share of voice in a new market and grew audience engagement through impactful thought leadership and content strategy.

Dangers and Desires

Seequent’s USP and offering are best suited to supporting IM companies with challenges caused by digital transformation. While companies grasp the need to integrate technological advances as soon as possible, doing so across geographically dispersed teams with an extensive practical element can be a headache.

To remediate the headache, Seequent offers digital tools, fit for purpose, that are cost effective and resource efficient. Plus, the company supports IM entities during the digital transitioning. Confident with its strong offering of proven solutions, Seequent began looking to expand its visibility and grow its market share in IM mining.

Seequent approached EC-PR in 2021 to build its brand.

Design

Seequent first tasked EC-PR with generating engagement among key target stakeholders and influencers. Aiming to build the organization’s profile in the niche mining sector, EC-PR proposed a strategic approach.

The plan started with a light-touch communication strategy and a Media Lens competitive media analysis. Together, these initiatives enabled EC-PR to develop compelling ideas on which to build the campaign narrative.

Strategy design

  • Thought leadership articles
  • Press interviews
  • An insight paper
  • Media relations with key media outlets
  • An expert roundtable

Expert roundtable

EC-PR proposed a roundtable to focus on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) themes and digital transformation. Initially, outreach conducted ensured the roundtable would effectively target key stakeholders because, without expert participation, the roundtable would not draw decision-makers who are true prospects for Seequel.

Having secured a star-studded panel including Colin Church, CEO of the IOM3 trade body, Leah Wilson, VP of Corporate Social Responsibility at Imerys, Rainer Westerman, Lhoist’s Group Geology and Mining Director, Liv Carroll, Managing Director and Applied Intelligence Mining Lead at Accenture, and Craig Guthrie, Editor of top tier trade press title Mining Magazine — Seequel was ready to launch its ESG Roundtable.

Insight paper

Following the roundtable, EC-PR developed an insight paper to capture the key discussion points from the event. This was then circulated to IM mining stakeholders and leaders in the industry. We hosted both the roundtable and paper on Seequent’s website.

Subsequently, we promoted the insights from the roundtable and insight paper via a sustained campaign on LinkedIn, supported by engagement from industry influencers, the company leadership team. We, of course, ensured that press contacts of EC-PR’s helped boost its reach.

Article placements

EC-PR secured several by-line article placements for Seequent in leading global IM trade media titles. These included AT Mineral Processing, Global Mining Review, IOM3’s Materials World and Mining Review Africa, giving the software brand an authoritative voice on ESG and digital transformation amongst global IM readership.

Article coverage lasted for twelve months, providing continued opportunities to share the thought leadership across social and digital media to maintain Seequent’s share of voice for at least a calendar year.

Distinction

As a result of the roundtable and insight paper, Seequent achieved ongoing engagement with influential experts and commentators in the IM sector. Content from the event continued to generate conversation in the months following the roundtable, with commentators sharing content across their digital channels.

Online engagement for the roundtable and the paper also achieved significant reach, with the roundtable posted as a live webinar on LinkedIn, attracting over 300 registrations. Simultaneously, the insight paper achieved more than 300 downloads.

In conjunction with the roundtable and paper, supported by a comprehensive thought leadership programme, Seequent’s brand visibility skyrocketed. The software brand now holds an expanded influential network within Industrial Minerals.

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Our Case Studies

We work closely with our clients to understand their unique challenges and goals, and develop tailored strategies that deliver measurable results.

Our case studies showcase a range of successful projects, including increasing brand awareness, generating leads, and establishing thought leadership in their respective industries.

Our experienced PR professionals have a wealth of knowledge and expertise, which they bring to each project, ensuring that our clients receive the best possible service. We use a data-driven approach to track and measure the success of each campaign, providing our clients with clear and transparent reporting.

Whether you are a start-up or an established business, our case studies demonstrate the value of effective PR and the impact it can have on your business.

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Building a burgeoning brand

Building a burgeoning brand

Jul 3, 2024

Home · Case Study · Predatar

Building A Burgeoning Brand

Predatar provides data resiliency SaaS solutions that enable traditional value added resellers (VARs) to rapidly evolve into profitable and sustainable managed service providers (MSPs) by delivering their own-branded data protection offerings.

CEO, Alistair Mackenzie has been instrumental in developing the Predatar brand.

A visionary leader with a strong interest in marketing communications, Alistair is the former MD of Silverstring. It was during his time overseeing Silverstring’s transformation that Alistair recognised the requirement in the market for this service.

Predatar

Predatar Case Study

EC-PR Quote marks“EC-PR has really focused on understanding the business, and it quickly became apparent that this wasn’t just about building brand awareness – we needed to have absolute clarity around our value proposition and our messaging throughout the different stages of the buying cycle.

“EC-PR helped us to formulate this, which was instrumental to ensuring the brand awareness campaign was aligned and laser-focused on our target audiences.

“Tenacious and challenging, coupled with a great spirit, Lorraine and Liz are committed to raising the bar and delivering a PR programme that is dynamic and impactful.”

Alistair Mackenzie

CEO, Predatar

Dangers and Desires

With more than 17,000 competitors in the SaaS industry, standing out from the crowd is a huge challenge.

Alistair needed to find a way to build brand awareness and credibility quickly among ambitious CEOs of VARs who were looking to evolve and expand into MSPs.

Articulating the brand’s vision for supporting business transformation and engaging with its key target audience were pivotal to Predatar’s success. Predatar came to EC-PR to ask for our help, as we were known in the industry for supporting brands with building awareness and kudos

Design

For this campaign to yield the right results, we needed to identify key players in the IT industry and create engaging and thought-provoking content that would position Predatar as the expert in SaaS solutions for business expansion and transformation.

Campaign delivery

  • Communication strategy
  • Roundtables
  • Whitepapers
  • LinkedIn articles
  • Thought leadership articles

Communication strategy

In a market that is saturated with competitors all vying for attention, developing a communication strategy that would cut through the noise and penetrate the places that mattered, was essential in communicating Predatar’s concept to those who would benefit the most.

Identifying key individuals was pivotal to building Predatar’s credibility in the market. Focusing on the pain points of business transformation and the aspirations of ambitious VARs through a series of communication methods allowed Predatar to develop a trusted voice, articulate its vision and encourage engagement among key industry players.

Roundtables

EC-PR proposed two roundtable events that would focus on the pain points and challenges VARs faced when it came to evolving and transforming their business model.

The first step was to ensure the roundtable would effectively target those we wanted to engage with most. Securing expert participation was therefore essential to this work, as was attracting key decision-makers to ensure that awareness of the Predatar brand reached the right prospects.

With participation secured, Predatar was ready to be catapulted into the IT hemisphere.

Whitepaper

Capturing the attention of key decision makers in VAR businesses was crucial to the success of Predatar’s business. Therefore, we set about creating and launching a whitepaper that focused on hard-hitting insights and data that would position Predatar as leaders in the SaaS solutions industry, while harnessing credibility among its target audience.

LinkedIn articles

To help maximise exposure of Predatar’s offer, we utilised the power of LinkedIn to target key individuals and decision-makers in VAR businesses.

Focusing on the themes and information that would most closely resonate with Predatar’s target audience, we created a bank of LinkedIn articles that were posted to Predatar’s company account and delivered directly to a carefully curated list of recipients.

Thought leadership articles

We produced a series of thought leadership articles, which addressed the challenges facing VARs who were looking to transform to MSPs, providing them with the ideal solution in the form of the Predatar concept.

Our articles were expertly crafted to target specific trade media with audiences in Predatar’s key industry sectors.

Distinction

As a result of EC-PR’s work, Predatar has become a leading voice in the SaaS solutions market, experiencing increased growth across all areas of its business. The firm’s offering to its VAR customers is well-known and highly respected in the industry, making them a force to be reckoned with against even the biggest players in the market.

As well as building brand awareness, the campaign provided Predatar with much-needed clarity around the alignment of their own communications and operational phases, which allowed them to flourish further and with confidence.

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Show your brand’s mettle and grow it into its memorable, gorgeous potential.

Our Case Studies

We work closely with our clients to understand their unique challenges and goals, and develop tailored strategies that deliver measurable results.

Our case studies showcase a range of successful projects, including increasing brand awareness, generating leads, and establishing thought leadership in their respective industries.

Our experienced PR professionals have a wealth of knowledge and expertise, which they bring to each project, ensuring that our clients receive the best possible service. We use a data-driven approach to track and measure the success of each campaign, providing our clients with clear and transparent reporting.

Whether you are a start-up or an established business, our case studies demonstrate the value of effective PR and the impact it can have on your business.

View all case studies
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Global award ambitions achieved

Global award ambitions achieved

Jul 3, 2024

Home · Case Study · ResQ

Global Award Ambitions Achieved

ResQ is a leading contact centre with over 2,000 employees across three UK-based sites.

The company, which was founded in 2006, helps clients, which include Scottish Power, EE and Vodafone, to grow and nurture their customer base.

The number one priority for the ResQ team is to provide their clients with a world-class experience — something they achieve through their genuinely passionate team and innovative cloud technology.

ResQ

Campaign stats at a glance

%

Award entries shortlisted

Awards won

%

Growth in award wins (YoY)

ResQ Case Study

EC-PR Quote marks“Award entries can be a big-time investment. Therefore, it’s important to think strategically about which categories to enter and make sure they’re done well! EC-PR’s collaborative approach, coupled with their ability to extract the required information from the business and distil it into a submission that would impress the judges was invaluable support. 2022 has been an award-winning year for ResQ in which EC-PR played an important role in these wins.”

Chief Marketing Officer, ResQ

Dangers and Desires

There was no doubt that ResQ could boast an impressive service and team of people, but what they lacked was the time to shout about it. They had all the potential to be award winners, but none of the time to nominate themselves.

The company realised what they were missing — according to the British Quality Foundation, small businesses which win awards can see a 63% increase in income as a result; large companies can see a 45% increase.

By not entering awards, ResQ risked falling into comparative obscurity against competitors who were investing time in awards. Yet, nominating themselves meant further stretching an already-stretched marketing department.

The good news was that ResQ recognised the importance of its objective and acknowledged its limits in achieving it. This meant they understood the need to seek external help from the experts.

Design

On appointment, the first thing we did was to identify ResQ’s core target accolades, which was a mixture of prestigious industry and local business awards. Our goal was to collate all the information needed to craft the nominations on behalf of ResQ and, ultimately, be shortlisted and win as many of the target accolades as possible within the campaign’s duration.

Campaign delivery

  • Identify target awards
  • Craft entries
  • Create a timeline
  • Win awards!

Identify target awards

Working closely with ResQ’s senior team, we established their vision for award entries/wins. Their target list of 10 included:

  • The European Contact Centre and Customer Service Awards 2021 (ECCCSAs)
  • The UK National Contact Centre Awards 2021 and 2022 (UKNCCA organised by the CCMA)
  • UK Contact Centre Forum (UKCCF) Awards 2022
  • North East Contact Centre Awards 2021 (NECCA)
  • Hull Live Business Awards 2022

Craft entries

We suggested that to help ResQ achieve their goal of entering and winning awards without losing precious time, we would support in the drafting, editing and finalising of 10 targeted award entries. We would also offer editing support on an additional two award entries.

Create a timeline

To ensure we worked together effectively and everyone knew the deadlines, responsibilities and expectations, we created a clear timeline over the 12 weeks before the first submission was due. This allowed time for up to three rounds of edits to make sure the timelines were realistic and that the best possible work could be produced.

We also put forward our recommendations for key areas to focus on, which we carefully aligned with guidelines for judging criteria, and advised on supporting assets to strengthen the entries.

Tangible triumphs

Out of the 10 award entries we wrote for ResQ, they were shortlisted for 9.

Successes included:

UKNCCA 2022

  • Gold Award for Best Health & Wellbeing Programme
  • Gold Award for Most Effective Colleague Engagement Programme
  • Bronze Award for Outsourced Contact Centre of the Year

UKNCCA 2021

  • Silver Award for Best Health & Wellbeing Programme

UKCCF 2022

  • Gold Award for Recruitment Team of the Year

North East Contact Centre Awards 2021

  • Shortlisted for People Engagement Award

Hull Live Business Awards 2022

  • Business of the Year Award (over 51 employees)

Distinction

From picking up just one silver award at the UKNCCA awards in 2021, with our help, ResQ received two gold and one bronze award from the same awarding body in 2022.

The top wins were for ‘Best Health & Wellbeing Programme’ and ‘Most Effective Colleague Engagement Programme’ — exactly the areas ResQ wanted to be recognised for, as these categories highlighted the lengths the company went to support their team.

ResQ can now proudly call itself a ‘multiple gold award-winner’, and we are delighted to have played a key role in that.

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Show your brand’s mettle and grow it into its memorable, gorgeous potential.

Our Case Studies

We work closely with our clients to understand their unique challenges and goals, and develop tailored strategies that deliver measurable results.

Our case studies showcase a range of successful projects, including increasing brand awareness, generating leads, and establishing thought leadership in their respective industries.

Our experienced PR professionals have a wealth of knowledge and expertise, which they bring to each project, ensuring that our clients receive the best possible service. We use a data-driven approach to track and measure the success of each campaign, providing our clients with clear and transparent reporting.

Whether you are a start-up or an established business, our case studies demonstrate the value of effective PR and the impact it can have on your business.

View all case studies
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Making SaaS Marketing Marvellous

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Shipshape media engagement

Getting back brand control

Jul 3, 2024

Home · Case Study · Lloyds Maritime Academy

Getting Back Brand Control

Lloyd’s Maritime Academy, a subsidiary of Informa Plc, offers an enormous portfolio of online training resources to maritime professionals worldwide.

New to the business and leading a marketing team of six, Veronica Araujo’s prime remit is delivering successful performance marketing campaigns. Her team’s work is centred around generating leads to fill the hundreds of courses that Lloyd’s Maritime Academy offers globally.

Lloyds Maritime Academy

Lloyd’s Maritime Academy Case Study (Communication Strategy)

EC-PR Quote marks“The communication strategy development programme EC-PR delivered, returned control and authority to the marketing team. We feel a greater sense of brand ownership and appreciate the enormous value of the Lloyd’s name, which had become lost amidst delivering everyday tactics.

“As a marketing team, we are better aligned and empowered, and we are working hard to put our clients back at the heart of everything we say, do and develop.

“We now know exactly what we need to say to support our different target audiences at every stage of the buying cycle. The clarity and structure of the communication strategy, which EC-PR has provided us, has given us the set of tools and the plan we need so that everything we do makes sense. It is still very early days and I look forward to reporting on the impact the new strategy has had on our business.”

Veronica Araujo

Head of Performance Marketing, Informa Connect

Dangers and Desires

Veronica’s team sits under a sub-brand called KNect365 Learning. This was causing a great deal of confusion and dilution when marketing the Academy’s courses.

Veronica and her team had become aware that the business was not only operating in silos but was functioning on a tactical level rather than with an aligned strategy. As a result, Lloyd’s Maritime Academy’s world-famous and prestigious brand was not being leveraged to its full effect.

When looking for a partner to help rectify and improve the situation, Veronica turned to EC-PR. Well-versed in the industry and with a track record of successful campaigns, we were perfectly placed to help the team achieve all their communication strategy goals.

Design

In an ever-increasing competitive landscape, it became clear that a more targeted and focused approach to Lloyd’s Maritime Academy’s marketing and communications activities was needed.

Veronica had already initiated a quantitative brand perception study when she appointed us to design and deliver the branding programme.

The purpose of our work was to design a programme that would clarify how the brand was perceived by its key stakeholders, as well as develop a communication strategy that would provide clarity and consistency in its approach.

Our work would form the backbone for all marketing communications, and serve as a guide for all activities, including the PR programme we would subsequently deliver.

Campaign delivery

  • Identify the value proposition
  • Distinguish industry prioritisation
  • Develop a brand persona
  • Create positioning statements
  • Improve messaging

Identify value proposition

We undertook a full analysis of the industry sector to uncover and identify the Academy’s sweet spots and establish greater understanding of its value proposition.

The aim was to establish the Academy’s USPs that ultimately set it apart from its competitors and would help us to form the strategy that would clearly communicate the Academy’s benefits to maritime professionals looking to develop their knowledge through training.

Develop a brand persona

Working closely with Veronica and her team, we undertook a series of exercises and activities that mapped out the Academy’s key traits and tone of voice that would ultimately form the brand persona.

It was only once this important work was completed, and a brand persona established, that we could move onto creating the correct positioning statements to improve messaging across all channels.

Distinction

As a result of EC-PR’s work, Veronica and her team could confidently refine their marketing activities to deliver consistency and clarity across all channels, while leveraging the Lloyd’s brand to maximum effect.

The team felt that as well as harnessing the famous Lloyd’s name, they were better equipped to deliver their work and focus on clients’ needs.

The communication strategy work presented here was only phase one in what is set to be an ongoing undertaking of Lloyd’s Maritime Academy’s marketing, but, importantly, it sowed the seed for future success, allowing the company to move forward with certainty and clarity.

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Show your brand’s mettle and grow it into its memorable, gorgeous potential.

Our Case Studies

We work closely with our clients to understand their unique challenges and goals, and develop tailored strategies that deliver measurable results.

Our case studies showcase a range of successful projects, including increasing brand awareness, generating leads, and establishing thought leadership in their respective industries.

Our experienced PR professionals have a wealth of knowledge and expertise, which they bring to each project, ensuring that our clients receive the best possible service. We use a data-driven approach to track and measure the success of each campaign, providing our clients with clear and transparent reporting.

Whether you are a start-up or an established business, our case studies demonstrate the value of effective PR and the impact it can have on your business.

View all case studies
XTM International

Making SaaS Marketing Marvellous

ITPEnergised

Net Zero Heroes

2i

Building a Bolder Brand

AzteQ CUBe

Achieving Clarity Through Strategy