INSPIRE

Outsourcing the journal improved its client appeal, released resource and created new opportunities.

With impressive growth behind it, Hitachi Consulting wanted a publication to reflect the greater capacity and richer blend of capabilities the firm now offers. Sales-led messaging does not work for them and they believed the best way of delivering valued information around the issues clients are struggling with was to create a magazine they could trust.

The answer was Inspire, a 24-page, A4 publication, produced by Grist. The first issue covered topics of strategic interest to senior executives within the financial services industry, one of Hitachi’s core markets. Content included articles on how banks can use their branch networks to maximise their sales effectiveness, how companies can derive the most value from their carbon management programmes and the challenge of creating stability while delivering change.

Hitachi’s key clients receive a full colour printed copy of the magazine, but with a highly technologically literate target readership, it was clear from the start of the project that Inspire would need to be more than a paper-based publication. Hitachi wanted to do something bold and creative, partly to underline its wider belief in the benefits of innovation.
The interactive magazine perfectly harnesses the interactivity of the web with the engagement of a client magazine. Next generation graphics including ‘sliding’ headlines draw the reader in and pages ‘turn’ as they would in a print publication. Rich media, such as video, is utilised and there is a high level of interaction too, including active email links for all the Hitachi executives featured in the magazine and easy “send-to-a-friend” functionality.

“Based on the online analysis I have seen to date, and direct feedback from clients, Inspire – both the print and online versions – has been a great success. So far this project has worked really well for us. Working in partnership with a publishing agency that specialises in the professional services sector has given us the benefit of knowledge, skills and resources that we could not have accessed otherwise.”

Neil Whittaker
Vice President
Hitachi Consulting