Summary
Agency: Linstock Communications
The Challenge
The accounting and advisory market is dominated by the Big Four. As a challenger to these firms, Grant Thornton recognises the need to produce industry-leading insights in order to boost brand awareness. As part of its programme of international research, it had begun surveying business leaders on the issue of gender diversity in management teams. The challenge for Linstock was to help Grant Thornton develop and deliver content which would cut through the noise when it comes to workplace diversity – an important but extremely crowded issue for commentary and insight.
The Solution
Linstock works with Grant Thornton to produce an annual piece of thought leadership on the issue of gender diversity in senior management. The Women In Business report measures women’s progress in occupying senior business positions, but also offers fresh perspectives and calls to action in order to boost diversity at the top of firms. As part of the strategy to establish Grant Thornton as the leading voice on the topic, the report is published every year on International Women’s Day, to increase salience and media traction. The report also demonstrates Grant Thornton’s international reach by including insights from nearly 40 economies.
Linstock works with Grant Thornton to analyse the data and to draw out key story lines to engage the media.
Our primary targets are international media, but the materials are easily tailored for use in individual regions. The report’s insights are conveyed using blogs, social media and a graphics-driven approach, making it easy to use online and helping push traffic to the company website.
The Results
1. WiB cemented Grant Thornton’s market position and reach by dominating the international business media on the issue:
· The Financial Times published a women in business supplement - four of its articles used Grant Thornton’s research and comment, including the front page story and main infographic
· Broadcast interviews appeared on CNBC and BBC World News
· Articles ran on Reuters and Forbes news sites
· More than 600 articles ran globally, where Grant Thornton offices reside
· Grant Thornton still receives media enquiries each week
2. Audience engagement was hugely successful:
· Over 22,000 website views of the report
· 12,000 LinkedIn impressions
· 1,800 report views on the official International Women’s Day website
· Twitter messages received more than 500 re-tweets
· Results were shared in academic presentations at Cranfield and Edinburgh University
“Linstock combined creativity, academic rigour and macro trend sensitivity.”
Dominic King, Global Research Manager, Grant Thornton