Brand comms built on industry research

Our client Thomas Telford Ltd (TTL), publisher of the NEC suite of collaborative contracts, wanted to create a significant piece of research content that the business could ‘own’, providing opportunities to promote the brand and, most importantly, start conversations with new and existing customers.

We worked closely with the TTL team to develop ideas and synopses for the research that would resonate with the target audience. The decision was made to look at three factors that are driving changes in the industry: the adoption of digital technologies, sustainability, and the move towards collaborative ways of working. These three factors were deemed to be the most topical, as well as being three areas with relevance to NEC Contracts.

The research included both quantitative data, facilitated by a specialist research partner, and qualitative elements provided by TTL’s in-house Data and Insights team. We worked with both TTL and the research partner to develop robust questions that would provide insightful data on the current issues and opportunities within the built environment sector.

In total the research included over 250 industry professionals from across the built environment, including civil engineers, main contractors, sub-contractors, infrastructure and public sector clients, and facilities managers.

From the data, we developed an in-depth report that summarised and analysed the findings to draw key conclusions about the progress to date and the future direction of the industry in these three critical areas. The report, Transforming Construction - Smarter, greener, together: the factors driving change in our industry, ran to more than 30 pages and included expert commentary from both key people within TTL and major client organisations across the sector. The report’s highly visual design was developed by our team based on a brief from TTL to evolve its design style while remaining true to the established NEC Contracts brand. To meet campaign timescales, our team completed the data analysis, technical copywriting and design of the report in approximately three weeks.

The report was then launched to the market through an integrated PR and social media campaign with visual assets created by our team. The broad range of participants in the research meant we could employ significant segmentation both in the report’s findings and through the communication campaign. It allowed us to develop tailored plans for each sector, maximising the impact and reach. The findings of the research have also fed into further PR activity, forming the basis of advisory pieces with publications across all NEC Contracts’ target sectors. Testament to the impact of the report is that this type of industry research report is now a regular part of the NEC Contracts communications strategy.