Award-winning PR for GroupBC
Company
GroupBC
Sector
Services
The Brief
GroupBC, a Bentley Systems Company and market leader in information management, wanted to raise their profile, engage with a wider audience to secure customers for its CDE (Common Data Environment) product and identify tender opportunities. Fabrick was appointed to help GroupBC achieve these objectives through the use of PR.
The Solution
GroupBC has a wide range of customers. Through research it was established there were three levels of individuals that needed to be influenced – CEO, senior management, estate managers and digital managers. It was essential therefore that any PR activities spoke to each of these individuals in a language that would appeal to them.
As large asset owners are a key audience for GroupBC, it was agreed further education would be a primary focus for our PR, and more specifically a current project at The University of Birmingham where GroupBC’s CDE product was being used.
It was suggested a case study on the project would be beneficial, but Fabrick suggested a more strategic and highly targeted PR campaign where articles of value were placed in media that would be read by target audiences.
We delivered a series of technical, thought-leadership features led by the university which were published in BIM+, Campus Estates, Higher Education Estates and ABC&D and more. These had greater reach and appeal to journalists and readers and provided a higher level of peer-to-peer engagement than via a vendor led article.
We also delivered a roundtable entitled ‘Digital twins & estates: how to drive the digitisation of assets to create a more efficient, safer and resilient built environment’. The event was videoed, resulting in the creation of a White Paper, leading to even further trade press coverage.
The Results
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1 Fabrick's PR activities were awarded ‘Best use of press & public relations’ at the 2020 Construction Marketing Awards
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2 The mix of media – trade press print and online, a roundtable event and a video ensured GroupBC communicated its message in a variety of formats, but with a clear eye on a highly targeted audience.
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3 We secured five UoB features, with a reach of 48,360 and value of 10,560, far exceeding the coverage a case study article would have had.
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4 Two further features based on content from the roundtable were also secured, adding a further reach of 15,000 and value of £4,300.
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5 The combined impact of this campaign helped lead 25 meeting being secured, with five of these becoming live projects.
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6 The approach of using University of Birmingham as the lead ensured the content was credible and engaging.
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7 Comments from editors included: - “I appreciate the way you’re prepared to write it through Birmingham’s eyes, with your client playing a supportive but secondary role in the piece.” Andrew Pring, Editor, Education Design and Build, and Higher Education Estates.