- Case Study -
DDI
For over 20 years, DDI has conducted its annual leadership survey – the largest global study on the current and future state of leadership. Next PR amplified media coverage around the survey, elevated DDI company leaders as industry experts and positioned the company as the definitive source for timely leadership statistics.
THE CHALLENGE
DDI, a global company that develops leaders at all levels and produces some of the world’s top research on leadership, partnered with Next PR to generate buzz for the launch of its 2023 Global Leadership Forecast report series.
With so much noise in the workplace research space, Next PR needed to elevate the DDI brand and share its impactful industry insights.
HOW WE GOT THERE
Next PR set three key objectives for the campaign:
- Increase national and industry media coverage through spokesperson interviews and commentary opportunities
- Boost SEO by securing backlinks to the report landing page
- Attract and engage CEOs, Chief Human Resources Officers and other company leaders though media placements, social media engagement and report downloads
Next PR and DDI worked together to refine the reports’ contents, with Next PR guiding the client to ensure the highlighted insights were clear, digestible and concise. To maximize survey readership, Next PR advised DDI to publish the reports as ungated resources, enabling any visitor who clicked on a report link to access the survey results.
For the launch media strategy, Next PR conducted extensive research to identify relevant HR and business reporters based on prior coverage and the team’s strong media relationships in the HR space. Next PR also collaborated with DDI’s social media team, researching target reporters’ Twitter handles for DDI to follow and engage with prior to the report launch.
Ahead of each report launch, the Next PR team worked under embargo to pitch the story and maximize coverage on launch day. Outreach to top-tier/national targets began two weeks prior to each launch, highlighting compelling statistics within the reports.
The team followed up a week before launch, the day of launch and again after the report was live, sharing a different data point each time to deliver ongoing value to reporters. Pitches referenced the reporter’s prior coverage and tied a DDI statistic to a previous story to build relevance.
After each report launch, the team continued momentum by leveraging current events or other trending stories to reference DDI’s research.
For example, during Women’s History Month in March, Next PR pitched specific angles around women in the workforce and landed a CNBC interview about women leaders leaving the tech space. The client spokesperson weaved in data points and the published story included a backlink to the report. Similarly, when Silicon Valley Bank collapsed that same month, there was speculation it was related to remote work policies. Based on survey results, the team secured commentary on the value of and demand for remote work in Forbes tied to the breaking news.
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Media Placements
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Of Coverage Contained Backlinks
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Social Engagements
THE RESULTS
The campaign was an overwhelming success, with the Next PR team exceeding project KPIs, garnering 84 total placements, including 43 earned articles (against a goal of 25). Next PR secured 15 placements in national, top-tier publications like Forbes, CNBC, Time, The Business Journals and Inc., as well as in top HR-industry trades such as HR.com, CEOWORLD, DiversityQ and HR Dive.
The earned coverage alone reached a total potential audience of 343M, nearly 75% of articles included a backlink and media placements generated nearly 1,500 social media engagements.
The DDI team continues to foster ongoing relationships with reporters covering the reports and has fielded multiple follow-ups requesting additional data or commentary post-report launch.
Next PR's work for this campaign garnered a finalist nomination in PR Daily's Media Relations Awards for Data-Driven and Measurement Campaign.