Upon its launch across the United States, the American division was confronted with a significant challenge. Building brand recognition and awareness to support its sales efforts proved to be a formidable task.
TMF’s strategic approach, despite the challenges, led to successful outcomes, instilling a sense of confidence and security in the company’s future.
The parent company, based in Asia, had already entrusted its EMEA campaigns to TMF. For a decade, they had experienced TMF’s consistent overperformance on demanding KPIs and our ability to respond and be flexible to changing customer needs and market dynamics. This trust in our capabilities was a testament to our reliability, responsiveness and assurance that their U.S. communications were in safe hands.
TMF was tasked with the challenge of delivering a transformative public relations program, with a higher number of key performance indicators (KPIs) in the US market, yet paid a lower fee along with a 68% cut in advertising budget compared to the failed agency. We were determined to develop an ambitious program focused strongly on two objectives: to grow brand awareness and support sales growth.
Our challenge was to engage with US marketing resources and senior management team, who were used to a particular way of working, to regain their trust, and increase their expectations and ambitions from public relations and content curation. At the same time, TMF was expected to report results in granular detail back to the company’s headquarters to show significant and continuous improvement compared to the previous agency.
Against a historical backdrop of lack-lustre agency performance, we needed to show from the outset that excellence was possible. Our collaborative effort, built around a new program aligned with US sales objectives, not only delivered results but also instilled a profound sense of accomplishment and inspiration.
Most agencies provide a reasonable or adequate service, but points of weakness are common:
There are other common weaknesses too – inexpert writing and content development; poor management of advertising campaigns; and a lack of success with award entries – which we had to address in this case to turn around the PR & marketing operation.
In the first two years TMF team delivered exceptional service, far beyond that of the previous agency, and well above expectations. We significantly exceeded the set KPIs each year: 110%-over target for pitched and placed articles, interviews, and feature stories; 34%-over target for case studies; more than a twenty-fold increase in output of monthly blogs (average reach 12,000-plus), newsletters, and eBooks; a 350% increase in press release pickups in target publications; daily social media posting across all target platforms, representing a ten-fold frequency increase; an unprecedented 70% shortlisting success rate for awards submissions, resulting in first-ever award program wins; and – for the first time – on-time, detailed, and accurate monthly reporting.
TMF’s high-value original editorial content (i.e., not ‘advertorial’ or filler items with low reader impact) reached all target media, including the US market’s top 8 publications, reaching a 275k-plus combined monthly readership, and the 8 top online publications and portals, with a combined reach of 322k-plus unique monthly impressions.
By the fourth year of the retainer, TMF had established strong brand awareness for our client in its key target sectors, positioning the sales team to compete against premier players and established brands.
Our campaign elevated our client from low profile to high visibility and transformed US public relations, replicating our success in European and Middle Eastern markets.
Ready to use our industry knowledge and contacts to raise your profile and boost your sales? Contact us today to find out more.
