The companies changing the way we live, work and think.

Grabbing the attention of the UK’s next generation of business influencers is no easy task. They are visionaries dealing in the day-to-day of turning start-ups into empires and driving real, meaningful change. To build influence with this group, we needed to be as real as they are, to offer them something of real value. Think Forbes 100 or Fortune 500. Those are the lists that belong to another era, and our audience is the future. We wanted to build an integrated campaign, with real content at its heart, to reflect that.

As champions of creativity and technology, we wanted to celebrate innovation in the UK – by revealing and showcasing real innovation in the UK. We put new definition around “innovation”, a word grown tired from years of industry-wide abuse. Our definition: the companies changing how the UK lives, works and thinks. We created a fully-integrated content campaign, designed to give value to UK start-ups – the next generation of business influencers – by raising their exposure through the channels at Bloomberg’s disposal. Furthermore, by enabling Innovators to become advocates themselves, we organically amplified the project’s exposure and reach.

The process was simple: organize, gather, disseminate, amplify.

We assembled a panel of judges from finance, technology and social enterprise to identify the 50 breakthrough companies who are changing how the UK lives, works and thinks. We looked beyond the obvious, finding Innovators from every corner of the UK, not just the usual suspects in a warehouse in London.

We sent photo, video and editorial teams to the offices of these companies all over the country to harvest the materials for the content. The microsite provided the campaign’s heart, enabling users to explore the content captured in the field about each Innovator. The launch party provided opportunity for the Innovators to network and share ideas.

A launch-day article leveraged the reach of Bloomberg’s flagship news website. Micro-videos on Facebook and Twitter provided bite-sized interviews and insights from Innovators, driving to the microsite. Crucially, we gave each Innovator their own social media toolkit, enabling them to become ambassadors for the project and give us access to their community on social. The social media tookit included Innovator micro videos, customised quote cards, and digital badges for use on their social media profiles.

The aesthetic and attitude of the micro-content was translated to promotional creative that ran in Print and on TV. With no budget for a big OOH campaign, we needed to be cunning. Flyposters in Shoreditch made a mark in the home of the majority of the Innovators, and succeeded where billboards couldn’t. They were cheap, targeted, and atypical of brands like Bloomberg.

As a result, we broke company records for video consumption on social media, giving a huge boost in exposure to featured Innovators and enhancing Bloomberg’s positioning with this key audience.

Role: Creative Director at large, idea and strategy generator, art direction

Team:
Dan Seffens, Design
Damian Totman, Global CD
Justin Malko, Executive Producer
Catherine Rolfe, Digital Producer
Chris Briseno, Digital CD
Jo Weintrop, Project Manager
Oliver Eden-Green, Copywriter
Phil Chubb, Head of Content
John Luisi, Video Editor

Awards:
B2 Awards: Gold, Book, Marketing theme