Challenge

When expert services and consulting firm Berkeley Research Group (BRG) tapped Greentarget to lead its third annual M&A disputes research campaign, the intense economic and geopolitical upheaval made it difficult to predict what the next month would bring—let alone how conditions might shape the landscape for the coming year. Russia had just invaded Ukraine. The conflict added to turmoil in financial and energy markets even as the global economy was still recovering from pandemic-era chaos.

Given the disruptive impact of those headwinds on global business and supply chains, Greentarget’s Research & Market Intelligence team decided to tackle that issue head-on by examining how those economic conditions were influencing global M&A disputes.

Providing independent analyses and expert testimony in these matters is a core BRG competency. Digging deeper into this research angle would demonstrate the firm’s expertise in the international M&A dispute landscape, and raise BRG’s profile among its target audience of disputes-focused lawyers and finance professionals.

But the headwinds were shifting quickly – so Greentarget needed to uncover insights that would still be meaningful and newsworthy several months later when the research published.

Solution

Greentarget’s research team devised a two-pronged approach that included both qualitative and quantitative elements: 12 one-on-one interviews and an online survey of 181 individuals.

During the qualitative portion of the campaign, Greentarget spoke with leading deal and dispute lawyers around the world, including in major financial hubs like Hong Kong, London and New York. BRG provided Greentarget full access to the interviewees, which helped the team explore each lawyer’s unique point of view and guide the direction of the conversation.

The research team used insights gleaned from those interviews to develop the survey, which included a combination of new questions and some from prior years for year-over-year comparisons in the report.

Survey respondents included dispute lawyers, corporate finance advisors, deal lawyers and private equity professionals working in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and North America – a mix of people from which no other survey captures insights.

The Content & Editorial team combined key findings and charts from the survey with the insights and quotes from the interviewees, weaving in analysis from BRG’s own thought leaders to create a distinctive, newsworthy research report that revealed new trends in M&A disputes. The forward-looking nature of the report also provided utility to readers by mapping out what respondents expected to see in 2023.

Results

The M&A Disputes Report 2022 cut through the noise of an oversaturated M&A media landscape, garnering high-quality coverage in several publications—despite publishing near the end of the year, when dealmakers are busiest.

Greentarget’s Media Relations team secured coverage in global business, legal and financial industry publications, such as Bloomberg, The American Lawyer and Private Equity News. A Legal Dive article on the research was among the publication’s most read of 2022.

The report drove 320 visitors to the BRG website within the first month of its publication and has been viewed over 560 times. The web page that hosted the report had a bounce rate of 38% on BRG’s website (rates between 26% and 40% are considered excellent), while web traffic increased generally. The biography page of a BRG director involved in the survey analysis saw a 14% increase in traffic. On social media, some LinkedIn posts had engagement rates of 5.1%, higher than BRG’s average 3.3% engagement rate on the platform.

BRG also used the report as a business development tool, presenting the data in webinars, client dinners and receptions and the Thought Leaders 4 Disputes Corporate Disputes Conference – a key industry event.

The M&A Disputes Report helped BRG thought leaders deepen their relationships with clients by providing them with data and analysis that directly impacts their practices.