Objective

Parker Fitzgerald advises financial institutions on risk and transformation. That is a market where the buyer is a small number of very senior people who will not respond to advertising and cannot be reached by volume.

The firm had an ambitious growth strategy and needed the brand to arrive before the salesperson did. In professional services that means one thing: being quoted on the subject the buyer is currently worried about.

Creative response

An integrated thought-leadership campaign: white papers and opinion pieces, produced and launched with the research, PR and digital teams working as one, plus a full refresh of the corporate website. The published material and the brand work came through the design, digital and creative function.

• A series of positions, not a series of documents. Thought-leadership themes chosen to build the firm as a market-leading commentator on digital risk and transformation, with the outputs following the position rather than the other way round
• Regular white paper reports and opinion pieces, published on a cadence so the firm was present continuously rather than in bursts
• Launches run as integrated campaigns: research, PR and digital together, with media strategy, opinion pieces, press releases and media sell-in as one motion
• Co-branded thought leadership with strategic partners including UK Finance, borrowing institutional credibility to reach buyers the firm could not reach alone
• A corporate website refresh covering all content and the brand mission, so the destination matched the profile the campaign was building

Co-branding with UK Finance repositioned the publication from a consultancy’s marketing asset into an industry-backed platform, changing how the work would be received without adding production complexity.

The website refresh landing inside the same programme is the other half of it. There is no point earning a mention in the Financial Times if the reader arrives at a site describing a different, smaller company.

• A series of positions, not a series of documents. Thought-leadership themes chosen to build the firm as a market-leading commentator on digital risk and transformation, with the outputs following the position rather than the other way round
• Regular white paper reports and opinion pieces, published on a cadence so the firm was present continuously rather than in bursts
• Launches run as integrated campaigns: research, PR and digital together, with media strategy, opinion pieces, press releases and media sell-in as one motion
• Co-branded thought leadership with strategic partners including UK Finance, borrowing institutional credibility to reach buyers the firm could not reach alone
• A corporate website refresh covering all content and the brand mission, so the destination matched the profile the campaign was building

Co-branding with UK Finance is the move worth naming. A consultancy publishing alone is marketing; the same consultancy publishing alongside the industry's trade body is positioning. It costs nothing in production and it changes who returns the call.

Results

• Coverage in the FT, The Times, The Telegraph, the Wall Street Journal, the Evening Standard, CityAM and The Banker: national, international and trade, from a firm most of the public has never heard of
• Client events including roundtable breakfasts and drinks receptions, with journalists and politicians secured as speakers
• A refreshed corporate website, content and brand mission included

UK FINANCE, co-branding partner on joint thought leadership

WHITE PAPERS, the recurring format, published on a cadence