Earnest
Our story
B2B marketing is tough. There are hard-to-reach audiences. Difficult-to-please internal stakeholders. And very often complex, intangible products.
That’s why B2B deserves just as much attention, passion and intellectual energy as B2C. And it’s why Earnest is on a mission to raise standards in B2B, creatively and strategically. Chasing out the humdrum, and ushering in the unexpected.
We positively relish the unique challenges that B2B marketing presents. Since we started the agency in 2009, we’ve earned a reputation for devising solutions that go beyond the obvious, often delivering far more than the client’s original objectives.
The agency offers an unusually broad mix of disciplines – including branding, campaigns, strategic planning, content, and experiential – and we’ve won awards for them all. That’s testament to the fact that we approach every challenge, of every size and every shape, in the same way – with high standards and open minds.
Downloads
Discover how Vodafone created new levels of alignment between sales and marketing to reach its audience of c-suite decision-makers
B2B marketing communications agency of the year
We’re here to help our clients find new ways to gain cut-through amidst all the shouting, and to win over the hearts, minds and budgets of their customers and prospects.
In the last 12 months:
• Our existing clients have stayed with us – and allowed us to do some pretty amazing things, from a global product launch for Kaspersky to helping Google celebrate its AdSense 10 anniversary in style, worldwide
• We’ve been fortunate to win 6 new clients, from a major rebrand and web development project for Iris to helping Misys put its Capital Markets software on the radar of investment firms globally
• The Earnest family has grown by 50% - as we’ve welcomed a heap more talented, passionate people to our ranks
• We’ve achieved 85% revenue growth and 65% increase in profitability in the last 12 months alone
• Over 15,000 B2B marketers have watched one of our Vital Statistics for B2B videos – and some have even enjoyed washing up with one of our infographic tea towels
• Introduced an innovative campaign dashboard – allowing us to measure, report and benchmark the effectiveness of our campaigns for clients
• And we’ve delivered some extraordinary results along the way – including a cumulative $60m+ worth of pipeline for our clients
Shortlist best international audience campaign: ‘See it. Control it. Protect it. With Kaspersky, now you can’
Let’s say you’re the person in charge of keeping your business safe and secure. Your data goes AWOL, it’s your neck on the line.
But the thing is, protecting your business is getting tougher than ever. More threats. New ways of working.
New technologies. Mobile and BYOD. It’s a constant juggling act. And you can’t afford to drop the ball.
Fortunately, the clever people at Kaspersky Lab decided to make life that little easier. Enter Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business (KESB) – a single security platform that’s got all the bases covered.
Anti-malware? Systems Management? Data Encryption? Mobile devices?
Quite simply, with Kaspersky, now you can. So how do you launch this revolutionary new solution to the folk who need to know around the world, building awareness and importantly, driving sales?
Think 40 countries, 18 languages, hundreds of localised campaign assets – all to be delivered in record time to arm regional marketers and channel partners across the world.
This is the story of the biggest global product launch and campaign in Kaspersky’s B2B history.
Shortlist best B2B product launch campaign: ‘See it. Control it. Protect it. With Kaspersky, now you can’
Product management is in danger of becoming a bit of a lost art in B2B, which is a shame – as its there to connect genuine customer needs with R&D. At Kaspersky, customer needs really do drive product development.
And Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business (KESB) is a great example of a product that solves customer painpoints and issues: some the customers realise, some they don’t.
So it was a real privilege to be chosen as the agency tolaunch KESB to a worldwide market, and a task that we took seriously. After all, KESB wouldn’t just be a game changing product for customers, it would revolutionise Kaspersky’s own B2B marketing.
This is the story of Kaspersky’s biggest global product launch in its history.
Shortlist best integrated or multichannel campaign: ‘Search. Find. Stop’
NetNames had a job on their hands to grow its business as a leading global brand protection service.
They needed a campaign that had plenty of cut through and brought leads flooding into the pipeline for the sales team to take care of.
A mix of impactful creative, personalised direct mail, a raft of thought leadership content and a supporting digital strategy helped them do just this – delivering over 72 meetings over the course of the campaign.
What did it involve?
• A fully integrated campaign that included inbound and outbound activity, sales enablement and content marketing.
• High impact direct mail – supported by tier 2 direct mail and email activity.
• Personalised URLs driving executives through to a microsite with tailored content, videos, case studies and sharing functionality.
• Supported by search, PR, social media, online display and press advertising
Shortlist best use of creative: ‘Make the web work for you’
How do you create a campaign that pops up in all theright places?
The Google SMB Marketing Team wanted our help in persuading potential advertisers to spend more of their marketing budget with Google.
Not only did we have to compel a cautious audience about the benefits online advertising could bring, but we also had to educate them on the different approaches they could take - enabling them to make the web work for their business.
We knew that to get cut-through this campaign would need to be special - sharing something that could grab our audience’s attention and keep them interested...
And it needed to deliver useful content that they would keep, share and refer to, again and again.
What did it involve?
• A customer-acquisition campaign targeting German and UK marketing executives to drive engagement, create awareness and build relationships
• Positioning Google as digital experts, and the best partner to help their business succeed online
• Creating content that clearly explained Google’s role in helping businesses reach new customers and establish new connections
Interactive direct mail
Earnest developed the ‘Make the web work for you’ campaign, delivering engaging content in the form of an interactive pop-up book and pop-up cube mailer - featuring a series of handy infographics.
Shortlist best B2B brand initiative: ‘DX Delivered Exactly’
A new brand and proposition capturing the essence of DX
DX is the UK’s largest independent mail, courier and logistics operator.
The DX business had gone through a huge amount of change and acquisitions, meaning it was in danger of becoming a fragmented brand and being left behind in an increasingly competitive market.
Our task was to help evolve DX’s image and to build a ‘new DX’ for the future.
Brand research was conducted amongst customers, partners and DX staff – from management to drivers – to gauge current and desired perceptions of the brand.
This resulted in a change management programme involving every part of the business.
Our brand strategy delivered a new proposition and identity – with Delivered Exactly capturing precisely what the business is about. The new values and vision were launched internally through the ‘Delivered Exactly Programme’ and all customer touch points – from vans and trucks to calling cards and digital comms – were rolled-out to fit the new brand.
Shortlist best use of creative: ‘Search. Find. Stop’
How do you create a campaign that pops up in all theright places?
The Google SMB Marketing Team wanted our help in persuading potential advertisers to spend more of their marketing budget with Google. Not only did we have to compel a cautious audience about the benefits online advertising could bring, but we also had to educate
them on the different approaches they could take - enabling them to make the web work for their business.
We knew that to get cut-through this campaign would need to be special - sharing something that could grab our audience’s attention and keep them interested...
And it needed to deliver useful content that they would keep, share and refer to, again and again.
What did it involve?
• A customer-acquisition campaign targeting German and UK marketing executives to drive engagement, create awareness and build relationships
• Positioning Google as digital experts, and the best partner to help their business succeed online
• Creating content that clearly explained Google’s role in helping businesses reach new customers and establish new connections
Interactive direct mail
Earnest developed the ‘Make the web work for you’ campaign, delivering engaging content in the form of an interactive pop-up book and pop-up cube mailer - featuring a series of handy infographics.
This year, Earnest turns three. It’s been a whirlwind. From humble beginnings and with a clear mission to do things differently, we’ve become the fastest growing B2B marketing agency in the country.
Never ones to rest on our laurels though, we always billed this year as our ‘tricky third album’. But 12 months later, our existing clients stuck with us – with some pretty amazing results. We’ve been hard at work dazzling our seven new major client wins – including Google, St John Ambulance and DX.
The Earnest family has grown by 60 per cent this year alone – that’s even more lovely people with a real passion for B2B, all without jumping the shark, falling out or gaining drug habits (and no sign of any groupies unfortunately) and still with a relentless passion for never settling for second best.
Kaspersky Lab, a top four IT security company, wanted to boost market awareness, increase sales, and launch its ground breaking Endpoint Security 8 product. But with an increasingly commoditised IT security market, where do you go?
The ‘Be ready for what’s next’ campaign was a positive rallying cry aimed at senior IT decision-makers across Europe and North America. It aligned the campaign with both seizing business opportunity and managing risk; the twin challenges faced by every IT administrator and CIO – globally.
But to prove this, content was needed. This needed to be relevant, interesting, disruptive and above all, useful.
The campaign drew a European audience of more than 18.5 million through print media and over 157 million through online coverage. The pipeline was worth $29m.
So Kaspersky had a great idea, and with content, they proved it.
