Greentarget

Case Studies

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Establishing true authority in a crowded landscape requires an effective PR strategy. One proven way to cut through the noise is research-driven thought leadership – a strategy that Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law firm representing management, has effectively leveraged in partnership with Greentarget for a decade.

Since 2012, Littler and Greentarget have conducted an annual survey of in-house lawyers, C-suite executives, and HR professionals to understand the top regulatory, social, and technological issues impacting the workplace. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020 created a need for Littler to provide quicker and more frequent data. Companies of all sizes were facing unprecedented challenges and the firm’s clients expressed a strong desire for benchmarking data to help respond to a rapidly changing pandemic environment.

Solution

To stay ahead of the curve, Littler and Greentarget reconfigured their strategy by introducing shorter “pulse” surveys focused on time-sensitive issues. In the early months of COVID-19, team members across Greentarget’s Media Relations, Research & Market Intelligence, and Content & Editorial teams – led by Littler’s account team – developed a more efficient approach that cut down lead time before publication.

From March 2020 through the end of 2021, eight survey reports (six in the U.S. and two in Europe) were published, providing valuable insights for employers on such issues as vaccination policies, return-to-office expectations, hybrid working models, and safety protocols.

Results

The surveys have generated substantial media visibility, with more than 1,100 media placements stemming from the 2021 research in top-tier publications – including the Associated Press, Axios, Bloomberg News, CNBC, Financial Times, Forbes, New York Times, PBS Newshour, Politico, Reuters, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post – as well as in a range of industry trade and regional media.

The reports also led to a considerable increase in website traffic for Littler, including a five-fold increase in page visits to press releases related to the reports and almost double the traffic to report landing pages from 2020 to 2021. Additionally, the survey on the Delta variant’s impact was cited multiple times in OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard as part of the agency’s factfinding with respect to employer vaccine mandates.

Perhaps most significantly, Littler has received a plethora of direct feedback from clients who are relying on the data to help guide and support workplace strategies, as well as understand how their peer group is approaching emerging issues. More than 4,500 executives completed the surveys in 2021 – the highest response rate in the history of Littler’s surveys and another clear indicator that issuing brief surveys on timely and relevant issues is resonating with clients.

Taken as a whole, the research reports have further bolstered Littler’s standing as the go-to employment and labor law adviser and authority across a broad range of industries – all while providing critical insight to employers in uncertain times.

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Amid a saturated media landscape, many thought leaders struggle to get their insights in front of key audiences. Organizations like global consulting firm BRG have turned to a host of owned-content channels in recent years. But even then, it’s difficult to stand out.

One such effort by global consulting firm BRG was ThinkSet Magazine, which launched a few years ago as a way to elevate the voices and perspectives of the organization’s thought leaders. But, in 2018, BRG wanted to increase the publication’s effectiveness – and turned to Greentarget’s award-winning Content & Editorial team for help.

Solution

Greentarget began the engagement by reconfiguring the magazine’s editorial strategy, starting by creating more compelling content. ThinkSet also became a digital-only product, phasing out quarterly print editions to focus more on online audiences. Just as importantly, Greentarget turned its attention to optimizing ThinkSet content for search, by including keywords in headlines, ledes and subheads – and even using search-engine optimization (SEO) techniques to come up with story ideas.

These efforts began in early 2019 and continued through the first half of 2020, before pandemic-era budget considerations limited new ThinkSet content. But that pause, and eventual return, of regular content provided an unusual opportunity to judge the effectiveness of the SEO work of the previous 18 months.

Results

Traffic for ThinkSet peaked at the end of May 2020, right as content was reduced. But far from falling off a cliff, traffic remained fairly constant thanks to the lasting effects of Greentarget’s SEO techniques. The content that had already been produced using those techniques continued to draw readers through search, avoiding a precipitous drop in readership.

Then, in late 2020, Greentarget resumed ThinkSet content production, employing the same SEO techniques. By spring 2021, traffic had returned to nearly the levels seen in spring 2020. With search-optimized content now appearing regularly – and buoyed by articles from the past two years that continue to perform well — ThinkSet is poised to set new highs with its traffic.

More importantly, BRG thought leaders are better positioned as true authorities in a wide variety of subject areas.

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Challenge

Remember when PokémonGo was all the rage in the summer of 2016? Law firm Perkins Coie certainly does. By 2016, they’d long been a go-to law firm for innovative technology companies – including developers of augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) like that used to catch virtual Pokémon.

So while they were enthusiastic about the mobile app’s success, they were also concerned about losing ground to new entrants clamoring for market share. They were the preeminent legal authorities on AR/VR – and wanted their reputation to reflect it.

But in a space flush with newfound buzz, making their voices heard would be no easy task.

Solution

To stake Perkins Coie’s claim as the premier legal advisor in the AR/VR space, Greentarget counseled the firm to conduct an annual survey of startup founders, investors and industry executives. Our research team developed the AR/VR Survey Report from start to finish: drawing on insights from qualitative interviews, drafting quantitative survey questions, collecting and analyzing the data and writing the report itself.   

And upon completion, Greentarget’s media relations team carefully crafted pitches about the survey tied to relevant news hooks. Since the release of the first survey aligned with the launch of PokémonGo, the team offered the survey data to reporters covering the rising popularity of the mobile app, resulting in interviews with leading publications like the Associated Press and Fortune.

Greentarget has now developed three more iterations of the report – one per year – with fresh themes and questions about emerging legal considerations, industry investment and outlook, applications across other sectors, and global AR/VR adoption.

Impact

  • Greentarget has secured more than 400 pieces of news coverage for the AR/VR report, in leading national publications like the Associated Press, Fortune, Forbes, Venture Beat and Fast Company. Reporters refer to survey data in news articles 12-18 months after the initial launch. Over the years, the report has helped the firm’s partners establish and maintain relationships with influential reporters, who now regularly turn to them for commentary.
  • Social media posts Greentarget drafted around the report have resulted in some of the firm’s highest engagement rates – over 9,500 impressions for each survey iteration.
  • Established the firm as an authority on the business issues facing industry stakeholders.
  • The survey report, media hits, bylined articles and infographics highlighting the findings are consistently used as marketing collateral for client pitches and industry events.

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  • Greentarget secured more than 40 media placements for RBC Global Asset Management’s Responsible Investing Survey in outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Chief Investment Officer, Financial Times and The Globe and Mail.
  • The report was viewed over 5,500 times on the survey microsite.
  • Social media posts about the report garnered over 225,000 impressions.

Challenge

As responsible investing continues to gain traction among investors, one big question remains: What is its material impact on the risk and return outcomes of investment portfolios?

RBC Global Asset Management (GAM), an established leader in responsible investing, firmly believes not only that institutional advisors can realize better long-term performance with environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors integrated into their investment processes – but that active managers who understand ESG will have a competitive advantage.

RBC GAM’s leadership thus saw this continued uncertainty as an opportunity to both elevate its brand and help educate its institutional audience.

Solution

Greentarget and RBC GAM conducted a survey of institutional asset owners, financial advisors and pension consultants to research the current state of responsible investing. The survey results would educate industry stakeholders, empowering them to make more informed decisions about integrating ESG into their investment processes

To that end, RBC GAM’s marketing team worked with its vice president of corporate governance and responsible investing as well as several senior portfolio managers to craft the survey questions. Nearly 800 financial industry professionals from the U.S., Europe and Asia participated, and their responses revealed a compelling divergence of views about the value of ESG on investment performance.

Greentarget and RBC GAM’s subject matter experts analyzed the results. Greentarget’s content team edited the survey report and a blog post series that highlighted specific topics from the survey.

From there, Greentarget’s media relations team went to work promoting the report through earned media.

Impact

Greentarget’s media relations team secured over 40 pieces of news coverage and 131 million impressions on the survey results. Placements included top-tier business publications like The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Financial Times.

The survey report itself was viewed more than 5,500 times on the company’s microsite, which was built exclusively for the survey launch. Meanwhile, RBC GAM’s global responsible investment website, microsite and ESG videos were viewed by over 3,500 people during the campaign.

Paid and organic LinkedIn and Twitter posts garnered over 225,000 impressions and over 2,000 click-throughs.

As a result of Greentarget and RBC GAM’s joint efforts, the survey report and promotional campaign won the Public Relations Society of America’s Silver Anvil Award in the B2B Integrated Communications category.

More importantly, the institutional investor audience now sees RBC GAM as an even stronger thought leader in the rapidly growing responsible investing space. 

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CHALLENGE

It’s a question professional services firms often face: How do you keep a multi-year research campaign fresh and relevant to continually support and enhance a client’s overall brand while expressing authority on pressing issues? Answering that question – and finding ways to refresh longstanding, institutional research campaigns — is key for many of Greentarget’s clients in an era of closely watched marketing budgets and an emphasis on ROI.

There are few professional experiences more exciting than the launch of original research, and consulting firm Strategy& established itself as a primary authority on CEO transitions through its annual CEO Study. But over time, the Strategy& communications team became concerned that the survey, while still relevant and strongly received, was in danger of fading into the background.

Strategy& engaged Greentarget to revitalize the research and ensure that the annual CEO Study did not lose its mantle.

APPROACH

Market research on narratives related to CEOs revealed a surge in media coverage related to female CEOs, chiefly around compensation disparities and the increasing number of female CEOs involved in IPOs. Additionally, Greentarget’s research revealed that data surrounding the increased tendency of corporate boards to pursue “outsider” CEOs (executives hired from outside of the organization) was sparse at best.

With this context, Greentarget suggested Strategy& pivot from the typical approach of presenting the entire data set holistically and instead segment the data in line with the themes of outsider and female CEOs. Greentarget also helped Strategy& identify a panel of female partners to carry the insights forward authentically through a combination of earned, owned and shared media, another departure from the firm’s typical approach.

  • Shaping the Narrative with Owned Content
    The team drafted content, including blog posts, on behalf of female consultants for publication in media outlets and the survey report’s microsite. A post about the challenges organizations face and the approaches they must take to build a pipeline of female leaders resonated with Strategy&’s audience, with nearly 2,000 views and a 52 percent full-read ratio.

    Using Twitter’s behavioral-targeting tools, Greentarget designed social media campaigns extending the reach of the survey’s themes. The team also developed targeted paid campaigns on LinkedIn to reach C-suite and executive-recruiter audiences.
  • Spreading the Word
    Greentarget’s media relations team not only shared top-line findings about women and outside CEOs, it pursued additional angles from the survey with unexpected media targets to expand the reach of the survey. For example, the team positioned the finding around whether MBA graduates make better CEOs with the management and diversity reporter at Bloomberg Business, which resulted in a story with prominent placement that featured Strategy& subject matter experts.

    Greentarget launched a real-time monitoring process that identified news hooks and topics to help Strategy& stay abreast of CEO transitions and related news. For example, a few weeks after the survey published, Nestle hired an outside CEO, and Greentarget used the announcement as an opportunity to offer the survey data to reporters and secure additional interviews for Strategy& spokespeople.

    Greentarget’s content team helped Strategy& spokespeople develop strong points of view on the survey findings, resulting in multiple blog posts from spokespeople like DeAnne Aguirre, the Global Leader of Katzenbach Center (part of the Strategy& network).

    To target new relevant prospects and markets, Greentarget developed a global FAQ document and other marketing materials to support regional marketing teams and further promote the survey findings and relevant data to additional networks. This approach offered a bridge between the firm’s thought leadership and business development, leveraging insights to spark conversations with prospects.

RESULTS

  • Enhanced Reputation While Establishing a Position of Authority
    The report garnered 100 more top-tier media stories than the previous year, including mentions in the Financial Times, The Economist, Fox Business, Bloomberg and Washington Post. In all, Greentarget secured more than 150 media placements worldwide.

    On the social media side, engagement rates on Twitter and LinkedIn well outpaced the average for both platforms. Furthermore, 94 percent of social mentions and 89 percent of overall social impressions were earned – meaning Greentarget’s recommended survey themes were on target and resonated with the intended C-suite audience.

    The materials Greentarget developed, including the regional FAQ document and blog posts, helped secure media coverage in key markets such as the UK and Germany, reinforcing Strategy&’s global position as a premier consultancy.

    Overall, Strategy& leadership considered the effort the most successful survey campaign to date.
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