Client

Trustpilot is a public platform where consumers can leave reviews for businesses and businesses can respond to honest feedback. The platform is free to use and open to all businesses and consumers — yet independent of both — so every interaction on Trustpilot is transparent for all to see. Trustpilot has over 100 million reviews and more than 500,000 businesses on its platform.

 

Challenge

Trustpilot wanted to build brand awareness and develop relationships with marketing leaders in key markets and sectors: reinforcing their position as a leading voice in the future of trust-based marketing.

In order to do this in an authentic way, they sought to explore an issue of critical importance to consumers and marketers alike, which closely matches the purpose of Trustpilot itself: consumer attitudes towards brands that adopt stances on ethical, sustainable, or political issues – and the importance of those brands taking an honest and trustworthy approach.

In doing this Trustpilot wanted to provide CMOs with insights into evolving consumer attitudes and a practical plan to improve their ethical credentials: thus demonstrating value and building trust.

 

Solution

We developed a two-stage campaign.

Stage one was a survey of consumers. We spoke to 7,000 consumers about their attitudes and found they value brands that take an ethical stance and are honest in their marketing. The research was published in the initial Brand Integrity report.

Stage two was a follow-on survey of 600 marketing leaders to compare attitudes with consumers and in-depth interviews with CMOs to explore the findings, add practical insight and provide quotes for the report and campaign assets.

The results demonstrated that adopting a stance not only meets consumers’ expectations, but fulfils marketers’ wider strategic goals: it’s a win-win. The resulting report, Brands that take a stand, explores what approaches CMOs take in relation to brand purpose.

The reports yielded content to use for awareness, lead generation and internal engagement. In total, 75 sub-campaigns were produced across various channels and regions, including blogs, paid and organic social media, and content syndication, plus a series of webinars, tradeshows, breakfast briefings and speaking sessions.

 

 

Results

The campaign exceeded all targets within the first three months.

The PR campaign secured 22 pieces of media coverage across key markets, including top tier outlets. Top performing activities included a webinar which generated 88 leads, 17 opportunities and 3 deals on its own. Similarly, a presentation and panel discussion at eCommerce Expo in UK generated 532 leads, 15 opportunities and 2 deals.

The reports have so far had almost 2,300 downloads, generating over 9,000 leads.

The ROI is already 160%, with 95 deals won, and significant pipeline generated with 154 deals potential yet to close, and a potential ROI of 570%.
 

“This campaign smashed all targets. The engagement was really high – consistently breaking Trustpilot KPIs for report downloads, speaking session attendees and collaboration across marketing functions.”
Gillian Harris, Head of Marketing Program Management, Trustpilot