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BCB Group conquers the analyst community

BCB Group conquers the analyst community

BCB Group Conquers the Analyst Community

BCB Group is a leading crypto-dedicated payment services provider, serving many of the industry’s largest clients including Bitstamp, Crypto.com, Gemini, Huobi and Kraken.

BCB Group provides payment services in over 30 currencies, FX, cryptocurrency liquidity, digital asset custody and BLINC, which is BCB’s free, instant settlements network for the BCB client ecosystem.

AzteQ CUBe

Campaign stats at a glance

Analysts engaged

Analyst firms covered

%

Newsletter open rate

BCB Group Case Study

“EC-PR has introduced BCB Group to one of the most highly influential groups of people in the market – the industry analysts. The analysts now approach us when writing relevant content and reports, and have a good understanding of our unique proposition.”

 

Sam Shrager

Executive Director, Marketing & Communications, BCB Group

Dangers and Desires

BCB Group was looking to raise its profile among industry analysts to strengthen its reputation in the market as the go-to crypto payment company for anyone from both the crypto and the traditional banking industry. It was also looking to leverage analyst relationships to gather feedback and insights from some of the sharpest brains in the industry to inform its strategic planning, product development and messaging.

BCB Group selected EC-PR due to its track record of working with some of the largest and most influential analyst firms as well as its robust approach to analyst relations (AR), including analyst training and measurement.

Design

Due to BCB Group being entirely new to analyst relations, EC-PR proposed a two-phased approach, starting with a comprehensive Foundations piece. The Analyst Foundations spanned an Analyst Training for BCB Group’s executives, an Analyst Audit and a tiered Analyst List. The Analyst Audit was an in-depth survey of BCB Group’s key target analysts on what they think about the organisation, its products, market performance, competitive advantage and the industry at large. Such insights proved to be a valuable piece of market insight for BCB Group.

Following the Foundations stage, EC-PR organised a broad introductory round of analyst briefings where BCB Group was introduced to the analyst community for the first time. The introductory briefings sparked several follow-up in-depth conversations centred around the analysts’ research agendas or specific questions that analysts had about the company. The subsequent briefings helped deepen the relationships with some of the tier 1 analysts from major firms, including Gartner, Forrester and CB Insights.

EC-PR also developed, designed and distributed BCB Group’s quarterly analyst newsletter, specially curated for the analyst community which also helped drive awareness and recognition of BCB Group amongst target analysts.

Distinction

BCB Group spoke to 29 analysts from 8 analyst firms in the first 12 months of the campaign, including firms as reputable as Gartner, Forrester, Aite-Novarica, CB Insights, Everest Group, and smaller firms who are very influential in the crypto space, such as Futurum and Opimas.

The newsletter garnered a fantastic average open rate of 28%, helping get BCB Group’s message out to the wider analyst community.

BCB Group was featured in Aite-Novarica’s Commercial Banking Fintech Spotlight where it was praised for ensuring ‘robust compliance and anti-money laundering procedures that clients can benefit from to have certainty of payments coupled with the assurance that they are processed in a regulatory and compliant manner’.

Perhaps most importantly, throughout the 12-month campaign BCB Group was privy to feedback, insights and thought-provoking questions from some of the brightest minds in the industry.

“EC-PR’s programme of analyst relations has provided us with a platform for engagements that have transformed the way we think about ourselves as a company and the way we talk about our proposition. Analyst insights have proved to be an invaluable source of intelligence and expertise,” added Sam Shrager.

TOUCHSTONE B2B PR - The Essential Guide to Stellar Analyst Relations

Your Essential Guide to Analyst Relations

Our complete guide to Analyst Relations will get you started forging relationships with industry influencers for long term mutual benefit.
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TOUCHSTONE B2B PR - The Essential Guide to Stellar Analyst Relations

The Essential Guide to Stellar Analyst Relations

TOUCHSTONE B2B PR

Our guide to analyst relations helps you create mutually beneficial relationships with key industry influencers to help your firm grow.

Download

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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.

Shaping Share of Voice

BMT Group

Distinction in Defence

AzteQ CUBe

Achieving Clarity Through Strategy

Concirrus

Igniting Interest in Insurtech Startup

Achieving clarity through strategy

Achieving clarity through strategy

Achieving Clarity Through Strategy

AzteQ is a small and dedicated team of IT professionals who put people first.

A technology service partner, they help clients optimise their technology investment, maximise adoption and improve productivity.

AzteQ CUBe

AzteQ Case Study

EC-PR Quote marks“AzteQ has seen an incredible transformation, with return on our investment in EC-PR within months, particularly in building more depth of business with our current clients. From the messaging labs to the launch event, EC-PR has taken success way beyond what I thought possible.”

Pip Thomas

Customer Experience Director, AzteQ

Dangers and Desires

When we first joined forces with AzteQ, they’d recently merged their three separate technology businesses into one. They fervently believed that through unification, they had a powerful market model which brought enormous benefits to customers.

AzteQ were unsure who their target customer was and therefore felt compelled to chase all sales opportunities without knowing how to qualify them first. This was wasting time and resources and meant customers who were brought on board weren’t always the best fit for the brand.

Messaging was also poorly defined and inconsistent. None of this was helping AzteQ achieve its goals. It was clear that this lack of clarity needed correcting for the business to successfully drive business growth, and so they sought the help of EC-PR.

Design

While AzteQ had visionary leadership, senior expertise and a firm commitment to doubling in size over two years, it lacked a clear and defined market offering. Our solution was to get to the root of the company’s values and outline a communication strategy to help form the narrative moving forward.

Campaign delivery

  • Messaging Lab workshops
  • Value proposition
  • Communication strategy
  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Media Lens

Messaging Lab workshops

Creating a clear communication strategy was at the heart of our design. To do this, we facilitated two Messaging Lab workshops. The outcomes of the workshops allowed us to answer the following questions about AzteQ:

  1. What is your value proposition?
  2. Who are your target customers?
  3. What is your positioning statement?
  4. What are your key messages?
  5. Which industries do you prioritise?

Value proposition

AzteQ operates in a highly competitive space. It was clear to us from the beginning that a value proposition was needed to inform prospects why they should choose to work with AzteQ over a competitor.

Although AzteQ might not have immediately recognised it, they did have a unique approach. This was their people-first method which was a key differentiator in the industry. We helped the company to articulate this USP (unique selling point) through a method statement.

This collaboration between EC-PR and AzteQ resulted in a tangible outcome; AzteQ CUBe — the people-first framework for digital transformation.

Stakeholder engagement

Compiling a communication strategy cannot be an isolated exercise. Customers/stakeholders must be brought into the equation. That’s why we interviewed a cross section of AzteQ customers, asking them for their feedback. This feedback helped shape the company’s priorities and refine the communication strategy.

Communications in action

Once complete, the new communication strategy was used to brief the branding agency and the web designer. This ensured all marketing was cohesive and that messaging was consistent.

Media Lens

Now we had a comprehensive communication strategy in place, it was time to put it to best use, by using it to inform the next steps in the marketing programme — the PR. We carried out a Media Lens exercise which determined the topics AzteQ could talk about to gain most media attention.

Distinction

AzteQ called the results of our work ‘transformational’ for their business, commenting that a return on investment was seen in a matter of months.

The company cited 14 discrete benefits they’d enjoyed since our work was completed. Among these were being more visible and highly valued in their marketplace; a renewed understanding of who their target customer was, which saved them time and resources; more interested prospects; an aligned leadership team; and more engaged employees.

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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.

Shaping Share of Voice

BMT Group

Distinction in Defence

AzteQ CUBe

Achieving Clarity Through Strategy

Concirrus

Igniting Interest in Insurtech Startup

Informing influencers’ opinions

Informing influencers’ opinions

Informing Influencer’s Opinions

Concirrus is a UK insurtech which offers digital solutions for speciality fields of insurance — namely, marine and automotive.

Their product, Quest, is made for the marine market and allows insurers to calculate risk more accurately through the use of large sets of historical data, machine learning and artificial intelligence..

Concirrus

Campaign stats at a glance

%

Average analyst rating

%

Growth of analyst brand awareness

%

Analyst endorsement

Concirrus Case Study – Analyst Relations

EC-PR Quote marks“EC-PR’S AR programme has helped us get in front of some of the most influential industry thinkers in insurtech and started to build their advocacy and buy into our vision.

“The greatest impact AR has had on our business is related to the quality of feedback and insights gathered during industry analyst briefings. These have been instrumental in shaping our new company messaging and proposition. Without AR, Concirrus would not have been able to put in place an ambitious quarterly analyst engagement programme that we’re looking to elevate further in 2022.”

Andrew Yeoman, CEO of Concirrus

Dangers and Desires

We were already partnering with Concirrus in a campaign to supercharge its brand awareness amid the launch of Quest. The campaign was proving very successful and generating a large amount of earned media coverage, accelerating Concirrus to the status of insurance market leader.

The company had ambitions to scale and expand into other speciality sectors outside of marine. To do this, it needed to boost awareness of its brand among influential people in the industry. Having already worked with us and seeing the results we could achieve, Concirrus chose us to help them in this new area too.

Design

For Concirrus to increase its reach across industries and build its reputation, it needed to engage with industry analysts. Industry analysts are key individuals who are pivotal to a company’s success. Their opinions are well-documented and highly valued on a large scale.

Concirrus was relatively new to the market and, at the point of our engagement, was therefore largely unknown in the industry analyst community.

Campaign delivery

  • Analyst audit
  • Analyst relations training
  • Analyst briefings
  • Results monitoring

Analyst audit

To kick things off, we wanted to know the extent of the existing awareness, so we conducted an analyst audit. The results showed a very low awareness of Concirrus among industry analysts.

Those who had heard of Concirrus generally had only heard of the company in the context of marine, and no other insurance sectors.

We proposed a long-term programme designed to:

  1. Raise awareness of Concirrus in the analyst community
  2. Influence analysts’ perception of Concirrus and its portfolio.

Analyst relations training

Stage one of executing the programme involved us conducting analyst relations training with key members of the Concirrus team. We also created a tailored and tiered list of analysts we wanted to reach.

Stage two saw the implementation of a quarterly programme. This comprised regular analyst briefings with key analyst firms, and a quarterly analyst newsletter.

Our aims were:

  • To build close relationships with our top target analysts through regular contact
  • Raise awareness of the Concirrus brand among the wider analyst community through the newsletter.

Within the first year, we conducted 17 analyst briefings with 9 analyst firms and 14 analysts.

We also facilitated analyst pre-briefings ahead of a major acquisition announcement. And, for the purpose of specific analyst reports, we facilitated engagement with two additional analyst firms.

Results monitoring

The analyst audit was repeated a year after the first to measure what, if anything, had changed regarding awareness and perception. In just 12 months, Concirrus’ awareness among analysts increased on average from 1.9 to 3.6 (on a scale from 1 to 5).

Areas, where awareness was strongest, were Concirrus’ business strategy and value proposition, meaning that the brand wasn’t just better known — it was also better understood.

All analysts surveyed were either very likely (71%) or extremely likely (29%) to recommend Concirrus to their clients. This was in stark contrast to the results of the first audit, conducted before the analyst relations programme when the most common reply was ‘don’t know’.

Analysts also saw the Concirrus analyst relations programme in a very positive light, awarding it an average score of 4.25 out of 5. They gave the analyst briefings 4.6.

Distinction

As a result of the analyst relations programme, Concirrus is now very much on the map and front of mind among influencers. Through being associated with key individuals who are shaping the thinking within the insurance community, Concirrus achieved increased respect and a much-improved profile.

Altogether, the analyst relations work propelled awareness of the company, which is now considered a forerunner in all its specialist sectors.

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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.

XTM International

Making SaaS Marketing Marvellous

ITPEnergised

Net Zero Heroes

2i

Building a Bolder Brand

AzteQ CUBe

Achieving Clarity Through Strategy

A strategy for standout success

A strategy for standout success

A Strategy For Standout Success

Believing passionately about the world’s transition to net zero, ITPEnergised is a team of technical consultants who work with their clients to deliver renewables asset management services and expert advice on all environmental matters.

Through guiding their clients on issues relating to energy, environmental impact and engineering, they facilitate the transition to net zero.

The company has unparalleled experience and provides consulting services to over 2500 small to large scale projects across 150 countries.

ITPEnergised

ITP Energised Case Study

EC-PR Quote marks“Thanks to EC-PR’s support, we now have a blueprint which clearly defines how sales and marketing will assist us in delivering the business plan, providing us with clarity as to where we need to invest our resources for greatest impact. We now feel a sense of empowerment, and it has renewed passion and pride in what makes the ITPEnergised brand so special.”

Jonny Clark

Managing Director, ITPEnergised

Dangers and Desires

At the helm of ITPEnergised is Jonny Clark, an ambitious and visionary Managing Director focused on business growth. Jonny recognised that to achieve his business growth goals, certain aspects of the business required immediate attention.

The absence of a clear communication strategy meant there was a lack of consistency when it came to communicating with the target audience. The organisation had no clear line on how it differentiated itself from competitors, nor on why customers should care whether they worked with ITPEnergised or someone else.

Jonny chose to work with EC-PR because of our experience and track record in building marketing strategies and providing companies with a blueprint for how to achieve marketing and communications success.

Design

Developing a communication strategy means starting at the beginning and addressing the key questions surrounding the personality of the brand and how it wants to be perceived by the target audience.

A collaborative approach was needed here, with our role being facilitator. We proposed a fact-finding, research-led route to discover the values that lay at the heart of the company.

Campaign delivery

  • Messaging Lab workshops
  • Communication strategy
  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Validation research

Messaging lab workshop

The first step to building the new communication strategy for ITPEnergised was to hold Messaging Lab workshops. In these sessions, we worked closely with the organisation’s senior leadership team to discover how they viewed the company, what they felt the key differentiators were and who they saw as their main target customers.

Communication strategy

The resulting communication strategy featured five key components:

The value proposition

This inspired ITPEnergised to recall what drove them from the start. In working with them to refine their value proposition, we helped them create a simple statement that defined them as a company and differentiated them from competitors.

Target customer personas

Companies can get lost in the everyday melee, forgetting which kind of customer it is that brings them the greatest return, in terms of profitability and satisfaction. Through this exercise, ITPEnergised was able to define which type of customers they really wanted to focus their energies on attracting.

Positioning statements

The next stage on from defining target customer personas was to create a positioning statement bespoke to each one. This addressed the key pain points the customer typically experienced and explained how the company could offer solutions and reassurance to ease this pain.

Key messaging

Ensuring they were reflective of their positioning statements, we worked with ITPEnergised’s senior team to agree on their key messaging — what it was they wanted their customers to understand about them. This information fed into the communication strategy, providing angles for narrative.

Industry prioritisation

Like every business, ITPEnergised did not have endless marketing budgets. This meant they needed to drill down on the industries most important to them. Doing this gave them direction in where to focus their attention when it came to marketing activity.

Validation research

Engaging external stakeholders is an important aspect of building a communication strategy. That’s why we conducted validation research amongst a small group of ITPEnergised’s customers — to ensure the strategy was in line with their perceptions.

Distinction

The communication strategy we built now forms the backbone of all ITPEnergised’s marketing activity. It offers clarity and guidance on communication and gives the company a clear way forward, providing a much-needed structure that was previously lacking.

Much more than just a comms strategy

ITPEnergised’s Managing Director commented that thanks to EC-PR’s support, the organisation has been given a renewed sense of empowerment and pride in what makes their brand so special.

From our point of view, it was a privilege to be involved in a project with a company whose work is so important to the world we live in and we’re delighted we could make such a positive difference to how they view themselves.

Subscribe to our updates

Stay up to date with the latest insights, case studies and PR guides.

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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.

Shaping Share of Voice

BMT Group

Distinction in Defence

AzteQ CUBe

Achieving Clarity Through Strategy

Concirrus

Igniting Interest in Insurtech Startup

Southworks Analyst Relations

Southworks Analyst Relations

SOUTHWORKS Analyst Relations

SOUTHWORKS delivers outsourced software development at scale and at speed for start-ups, scale-ups and enterprise customers looking for nearshore software development with transparent up-front pricing, short-term flexible contracts, and time zone affinity.

SOUTHWORKS’ highly skilled software engineers bring the development intensity to deliver quick strategic wins, scale engineering organisations, and take its clients from stuck to scaled one week at a time.

southworks logo

Campaign stats at a glance

%

Tier-1 analysts engaged

Analyst briefings in 12 months

SOUTHWORKS sharpens conversations with AR

EC-PR Quote marksJohnny Halife, CTO, SOUTHWORKS“The analyst relations programme has supercharged our interactions with some of the most knowledgeable people in our industry. The conversations have helped us shape and finesse our new messaging that has in turn levelled up my conversations with analysts, industry, and customers.”

Johnny Halife, CTO and Board Member, SOUTHWORKS.

Dangers and desires

SOUTHWORKS was looking to raise its profile among industry analysts in order to strengthen its reputation in the market as an innovative provider of services for nearshore software development. It was also looking to gather feedback and insights from some of the sharpest brains in the industry in order to inform its business planning, go-to market strategy and messaging.

SOUTHWORKS selected EC-PR due to its track record of working with some of the largest and most influential analyst firms as well as its robust approach to analyst relations (AR), including analyst training and measurement.

Design

SOUTHWORKS was new to the world of analyst relations so EC-PR first proposed a comprehensive Foundations programme to set up SOUTHWORKS for success with industry analysts. The Analyst Foundations spanned an Analyst Training for SOUTHWORKS executives, an Analyst Audit and a tiered Analyst List. The Analyst Audit is a comprehensive survey of the analyst community about their perceptions of the organisation, its products, as well as its competitive advantages and weaknesses.

Following the Foundations stage, EC-PR proposed a quarterly AR programme with a focus on introducing SOUTHWORKS to the analyst community with the help of analyst briefings.

Campaign delivery

  • Analyst training
  • Analyst perceptions audit
  • Tiered analyst list
  • Analyst briefings

 

Distinction

In the first 12 months, SOUTHWORKS held briefings with 21 analysts from a number of analyst firms, including major players such as Gartner, Forrester, IDC and Everest Group. EC-PR also secured an opportunity for a SOUTHWORKS customer to participate in the Gartner Research Committee Forum which is a unique opportunity to present a customer case study to a wide audience of Gartner analysts.

EC-PR’s approach to AR is marked by careful ‘tiering’ of analyst contacts – a highly targeted approach that ensures enough time is spent with analysts classed as ‘tier 1’ while also ensuring the wider analyst community is kept up to date on all things SOUTHWORKS. During the 12-month campaign, SOUTHWORKS spoke to 44% of its tier 1 analysts (and with some even twice).

SOUTHWORKS was also featured in a PAC/teknowlogy blog by Nick Mayes where it was noted the company is accelerating growth off the back of an increasing demand for engineering services. ‘The company has an interesting platform of business, and can be banded with the fast-growing cluster of mid-size specialist development players including BJSS and Endava in Europe, and Kin + Carta and Globant from the other side of the Atlantic,’ noted Nick Mayes.

“EC-PR has guided us expertly through the set up and deployment of our first AR programme, delivering professional guidance and robust advice coupled with valuable insights into the world of industry analysts,” added Nicole Revers, Global Marketing Lead at SOUTHWORKS.

TOUCHSTONE B2B PR - The Essential Guide to Stellar Analyst Relations

Our essential guide to Analyst Relations

Analyst Relations can put your company in front of influential thinkers in your industry, bring insights, invaluable feedback and open doors to new opportunities. Find out how to get started with our practical guide.
Download

Are you a distinction-driven leader?

Let us boost your brand’s reputation and recognition.

Request a callback

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.

XTM International

Making SaaS Marketing Marvellous

ITPEnergised

Net Zero Heroes

2i

Building a Bolder Brand

AzteQ CUBe

Achieving Clarity Through Strategy