How industry expert interviews built new brand authority

When bringing a new brand to market, how can you quickly convey to your targets what you’re all about? How can you build brand authority? And how can you increase your reach? These were all challenges facing employee wellbeing and performance company GoodShape when it launched in 2021.

The company had been in business for nearly two decades, providing absence management services under the name FirstCare. But its value proposition had changed with the evolving world of work. It now focused on providing data-led employee wellbeing insights, to help leaders better support the health of their people and business. And it needed to convey this subtle yet significant update to the market – particularly prospective customers.  

Capitalising on events to connect with influencers

As part of its go-to-market strategy, GoodShape was attending a series of high-profile industry conferences, both as an exhibitor and as a keynote speaker on the thought leadership agenda.   

We helped GoodShape to leverage its prominent presence at these events by reaching out to other headline speakers and inviting them to its exhibition stand for short interviews. The discussions focused on the speakers’ areas of expertise, but enabled us to highlight intersections with GoodShape’s message, data, and the pain points its addresses for businesses.

To further build resonance among GoodShape’s target audience, we purposefully engaged with experts in its target sectors – and even target customers – as a priority. This supported the company’s account-based approach to marketing.

Wherever possible, the interviews were filmed or voice-recorded, with the outputs including blog posts on GoodShape’s website, full and edited videos of the interviews, and social media posts to promote the new content. We prepared briefing documents for all parties, and in some cases held the discussions too. 

The interviews helped to create a buzz around GoodShape’s exhibition stand, and proactively optimised the company’s investment at events, minimising downtime. If experts were unable to attend on the day, we arranged in-person or online follow-ups, at a later date.

Besides building awareness of the new brand among influential industry experts, the engaging video content was valuable for lead generation and nurture activities too. It also built traction on the brand’s new social media profiles, benefiting from shares among the interviewees’ already established followings.

Results

20 high-profile influencer interviews secured across four leading industry events within 18 months.
Interviewees included:
People Director at an international broadcaster
Senior Benefits Specialist at the world’s largest software manufacturer
Group Head of Health & Wellbeing at one of the UK’s largest public services contractors
Head of Talent & Inclusion at the world’s leading workforce solutions company
Executive VP at a global public policy think tank and research institute
Clinical Director for Occupational Health at one of England’s largest NHS teaching Trusts
Mental Health Consultant to the EU Parliament

Showcase: Health and Wellbeing at Work 2023 event

Health and Wellbeing at Work is a key annual event for employee wellbeing experts, service providers, and business leaders in the market for the latest workplace support solutions.   

For the 2023 event, we prepared and pitched interviews to a shortlist of 28 influencers, securing positive responses from 11 – a 39% success rate.

We prepared detailed briefing documents and questions for all interviews. We held four interviews in-person, at the event, with the remaining seven taking place after the show.

Testimonial

“Being able to associate our brand with top thought leaders, so early after launch, has definitely helped GoodShape to quickly build authority within the industry.

“Besides boosting brand recall, we’ve been able to produce a wealth of punchy, thought-provoking content that challenges leaders to ask themselves if they’re doing enough to support their people and – in turn – their business.

“3THINKRS has been invaluable in managing the process, helping us hone in on questions that will resonate with prospects, and establishing connections that have grown our network of experts and prospects too.”

Terry Osborne, Director of Marketing, GoodShape

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