Summary
With ambitious growth targets and low market profile, KPMG’s consultancy practice needed to raise awareness and engage senior business audiences from a standing start. Man Bites Dog (MBD) placed PR at the heart of the practice, delivering a differentiated sales proposition and a clear call to action for the consultancy’s complex services.
Strategy
MBD generated demand for KPMG’s services by promoting the problems they
solve.
Our strategy was to identify, quantify, and brand two critical business threats that would resonate with senior business leaders and align with the services KPMG had targeted for growth: cost optimisation and revenue enhancement.
We created two research-based thought leadership campaigns to demonstrate the twin pressures of a slow recovery: firms were caught between a rock and a hard place – a ‘Price Lag’ and a ‘Cost Boomerang’.
Thought leadership was underpinned by a sustained guru-building campaign.
Impact
MBD generated over 200 pieces of coverage, leading Big Four share of voice for a consultancy with no media profile at the outset and delivering a differentiated proposition for the firm’s consultancy. Coverage delivered direct business leads, while the research generated client discussions on pricing and cost management and informed sales campaigns for target industries.
About the client company
Performance & Technology, referenced as ‘KPMG’ below, is the management consulting division of KPMG, the Big Four audit, tax, and advisory firm.
Strategy
In 2010, as the Big Four rebuilt their consultancy divisions, KPMG set ambitious targets, aiming to triple consulting revenues within four years.
Having sold its consulting business a decade before, KPMG’s current practice faced low market awareness and little differentiation among competitors.
KPMG turned to Man Bites Dog (MBD) to raise the profile of its consulting capability and promote key services to business decision-makers.
Objectives of the campaign
KPMG required a PR campaign to:
1. Raise awareness of consulting services amongst board-level decision makers.
2. Create a differentiated sales proposition for KPMG’s cost optimisation and revenue enhancement services (identified as a key focus for growth).
MBD aimed to generate demand for KPMG’s services by promoting the problems they solve. Our strategy was to identify, quantify, and brand two business critical threats that would resonate with business leaders and align with KPMG’s revenue enhancement and cost optimisation offerings.
1. Price Lag: The damage to firms’ profit margins caused by panic discounting
during recession.
2. Cost Boomerang: The risk that costs shed by firms during recession would return to their cost base.
We created two high impact thought leadership campaigns to demonstrate KPMG’s cost and pricing expertise, underpinned by a proactive guru-building campaign to promote the firm’s broader consulting capabilities.
The target audience
The campaign was designed to:
1. Engage C-suite senior decision-makers in large UK corporates.
2. Target key sectors for KPMG, particularly retail and consumer goods.
This presented the twin challenge of creating a story which was:
- Big picture enough to be relevant to hard-to-reach C-Suite media and specific enough to engage sector trade media.
- Aligned with KPMG’s complex, technical consultancy propositions.
Media, channels or techniques used
In order to generate high impact news to cut through to multiple audiences, MBD designed and commissioned independent opinion research to robustly evidence the threats trapping firms between a rock and a hard place – or a price lag and a cost boomerang.
Research was aimed at senior decision-makers in large corporates in target industries. The Cost Boomerang concept resonated so strongly that KPMG elevated this particular campaign to European level.
Research findings generated powerful headlines:
Price Lag
- UK companies discounted indiscriminately during recession, leaving them unable to pass on rising costs to customers.
- This Price Lag effect is reducing profits by £20 billion annually.
- Businesses planned to exploit the VAT rise by inflating prices.
Cost Boomerang
- UK firms expect 95 per cent of costs cut during recession to bounce back – costing UK PLC £90 billion.
MBD and KPMG drafted two white papers: Paying the Price for Recession and The Cost Boomerang. These were promoted via internal communications, email marketing, Twitter and Linkedin. Dedicated microsites showcased research findings as infographics and featured video shorts from KPMG partners.
MBD achieved sustained impact via a supporting guru-building campaign, securing expert comment and dedicated articles in national and trade media to promote the breadth of KPMG’s consultancy expertise.
Timescales of the campaign
1. Strategy, Planning & Content Creation: May-November 2010
2. Price Lag
- Phase 1 – December 2010: Price rises planned to coincide with VAT increase • Phase 2 – February 2011: Businesses pay high price for discounting
3. Cost Boomerang
- Phase 1 – May 2010: Costs worth £90bn bounce back • Phase 2 – July 2011: UK firms lack cost control culture
4. Guru Building
- Ongoing campaign – May 2010-date
Results
Based on the campaign objectives, success was evaluated on three criteria:
1. A coverage target of 80 hits.
2. Impact on share of voice among Big 4 competitors.
3. Impact on business development.
Coverage
The campaign secured more than 200 pieces of quality coverage, showcasing the breadth of P&T’s consulting expertise to senior business audiences.
1.Paying the Price for Recession
Phase 1: MBD staged a media and Twitter debate with the British Retail Consortium over retailers’ response to the VAT increase, achieving blanket coverage on BBCand Sky news and in The Daily Telegraph, Guardian, City AM, Management Today, Retail Week and The Grocer.
Phase 2: The £20 billion Price Lag dominated BBC radio morning news, with interviews on the Today Programme and Five Live Wake Up to Money. Print highlights included City AM, Management Today and analysis pieces in the Sunday Telegraph and Marketing.
2. Cost Boomerang
Phase 1: MBD ran the £90 billion Cost Boomerang story exclusively in the Financial Times with a half-page analysis and infographic piece, followed by two analysis features. Coverage included City AM, CIO, Information Age and features in sector media including The Grocer and Retail Week.
Phase 2: A European launch and story on companies’ failure to establish a cost
control culture will launch between July and September.
3. Guru Building
MBD secured almost 100 dedicated features and comments promoting P&T’s range of consultancy capabilities.
In addition to monthly columns in the FT (over 30 articles) and CIO, coverage highlights include the Wall Street Journal Europe, Sunday and Daily Telegraph, Guardian, CNBC Business, Financial Director, Finance Week and The Banker.
Share of voice
The campaign significantly enhanced KPMG’s profile, taking the firm from fourth to first for share of voice amongst Big Four competitors for the campaign period.
Business development
MBD created a unique call to action for KPMG’s cost and revenue propositions, enabling KPMG to warn companies to take action to avoid the Cost Boomerang and to present solutions to the Price Lag effect.
Client testimonial
“Man Bites Dog delivered a clear call to action for KPMG’s consultancy services.
“Their thought leadership campaigns achieved powerful media impact, boosting our share of voice in the consultancy space.
“They also drove direct business leads. Their research formed the basis for targeted
sales and marketing outreach, enabling an integrated approach to marketing our consulting expertise.” Anna White, senior PR manager, KPMG
