Our primary objectives were to build awareness of Sage Business Cloud with UK media and reposition Sage as an innovative expert in cloud-hosted business data and management. We were also tasked with positioning Sage Business Cloud as the easy access solution to improved intelligence, productivity and ROI across a selection of business functions.
The campaign was divided into UK media relations and global content creation, with our target audiences covering multiple verticals and business sizes. This required a complex, multi-component strategy that had to be carefully planned and managed from start to finish.
Our approach centred around thought leadership and regular briefings with trade media, combining Sage’s news pipeline with the wider conversation about ongoing technology issues in the accounting space.
This led to the creation of several mini campaigns through the year, including:
- Content and media interviews around the evolution of accountancy in order to announce the findings of the 2018 Practice of Now report, which coincided with the company’s flagship UK event, Sage Session London. By highlighting the report’s key themes, we secured multiple pieces of coverage and five media briefings at the event itself.
- A set of thought leadership articles that addressed the phenomenon of Blue Monday, offering advice to business owners, leaders and employees on how to boost productivity and morale.
- A vision for the future of the accounting sector, based on an in-depth eBook we drafted called ‘Accounting for Change’. This explored current industry trends – such as how technology is reshaping the sector – and offered practical advice for accountants.
The final elements focused on news hijacking and industry awards. We closely monitored relevant industry news for Sage to comment on and coordinated a comprehensive awards program, drafting and submitting several successful entries throughout the campaign.
These activities helped to secured more than 100 pieces of coverage over the course of the 12-month campaign, ranging from news articles and thought leadership pieces, to case studies, Q&As and industry comments. This coverage spanned top-tier tech trade press and key vertical media, all of which helped to reinforce Sage’s position as the leading provider of cloud business management solutions.
