BearingPoint
Institute journal
Global business and IT consultancy BearingPoint invests a great deal of time and effort in developing high-quality thought leadership content for its Institute Report. Backed by rigorous proprietary research, the impressive programme aims to deliver unique insight across key market sectors.
Targeting a C-suite audience increasingly spending their time online, the BearingPoint Institute wanted to build on the success of its established print publication and maximise engagement with the content via its digital channels.
Fresh from the development of a new design template, Grist was commissioned to handle issue six of the Institute Report from start to finish, developing a full body of content for a financial services special edition covering banking and insurance topics.
Grist’s experienced writers and editors worked with globally diverse project teams at BearingPoint to shape the research, gather insights from a series of interviews, curate supporting material, and deliver it back as the basis for a compelling thought leadership narrative from the consultants.
Each storyline demands attention through a new and provocative opinion on the subject matter, supported by executive client views and comment from relevant third parties, leading to actionable recommendations for the C-suite target reader.
The long-form content is broken up into manageable pieces that help to draw in the reader and encourage action, for example, with infographics, executive summaries, case studies, Q&As, company profiles, graphics, flowcharts, timelines, self-assessment surveys, key takeaways, further reading references, box-outs, pull quotes and key stats.
Further enhanced through motion graphics and talking heads videos, this rich mix provides the fuel for a sustained digital distribution strategy which drives traffic to the content hub and valuable data capture through downloads of the full articles.
Content is amplified across online channels to extend the reach: repurposed for targeted email campaigns, supported by blog posts and placed articles in relevant trade press, and distributed widely via social media.
BearingPoint partners publish extensively on LinkedIn Pulse and LinkedIn Groups to deepen engagement with their networks, and over 100 tweets were written to help start profitable conversations on Twitter.
Content is also available via a bespoke iPad app directly from the iTunes store. An innovative new navigation bar allows readers to quickly see content of interest and effortlessly move between articles.
The digital assets are proving a key tool in driving consistent traffic to the core content on the BearingPoint Institute website, where audience data shows more visits, increasing time on site, a higher number of downloads, and more direct contact with the authors.
The encouraging analytics mean that plans are now in place to develop the landing pages and content hub to further optimise the user journey.
The firm has also seen a surge in demand for hard copies of the report, and the Tier 1 press coverage has helped to extend the reach and longevity of the content over a longer period.
Ludovic Leforestier, head of analyst relations at the BearingPoint Institute, said: “Producing great content is hard, so when you have it you need to maximise the potential. Grist provided valuable insight into the reader experience and helped to professionalise our publishing process.”
