Consumer Sustainability Survey - L.E.K. Consulting
L.E.K.'s first sector, digitally enabled, multi-media/channel, multi-country campaign — UK · US · Australia.
THE CHALLENGE
The L.E.K. consumer team had carried out an expansive piece of research into consumer attitudes to sustainability. The partners had written it up as an article on the firm's website. It was strong material and the work behind it was significant — but it was sitting on lek.com as an article and reaching almost no one. The brief was to do something about that.
WHAT I DID
Designed and led L.E.K.'s first sector, digitally enabled, multi-media/channel, multi-country campaign — built around the same research, but reformatted, redistributed, and instrumented across the channels that consumer-sector buyers actually meet content in.
Same insight, more entry points: a downloadable survey report, infographics designed for social and email, a social-led video, an advertorial in tier-one press, a webinar, conference appearances, a press programme, and an email programme into the L.E.K. database. The campaign ran across the UK, US and Australian Consumer, Industrial and Transport markets.
WHAT WAS NEW ABOUT IT
Three things, none of which existed at L.E.K. before this campaign:
• A sector-led, multi-channel campaign architecture that other practices could replicate.
• A multi-country distribution model — same insight, three markets, with regional adaptation.
• A measured and instrumented marketing system — channel-level metrics back to a single source of truth.
Inflation Resilience - LEK Consulting
Multi-channel campaign on consumer and Operations & Performance research — UK · US · Australia.
THE CHALLENGE
A second cross-sector research programme — this time looking at Operations & Performance (O&P) responses to inflation. The challenge was to take a piece of work that crossed multiple practice areas and land it as a single, coherent commercial campaign that boards and CFOs would actually engage with.
WHAT I DID
Built the campaign around the research findings as the anchor and added an interactive layer: an Inflation Calculator that turned the analysis into something a CFO could plug their own inputs into. From there, a full multi-channel rollout — landing page, reports, infographics, calculator, webinar, advertorial, press, social and email — designed to perform inside the first six weeks and then keep working.
WHAT WAS NEW ABOUT IT
• Tier-one press placement on a the topic — moving L.E.K.'s research into mainstream business press.
• An interactive Inflation Calculator sitting alongside the report — turning insights into a tool.
• Six-week launch sprint with measured engagement at every stage of the funnel.
Operational Due Diligence (ODD) - L.E.K. Consulting
Capability campaign — landing page, special report, infographic, case studies, webinar and tier-one press interview.
THE CHALLENGE
L.E.K.'s Operational Due Diligence offering is a partner-led capability sold into financial sponsors and strategic acquirers. The brief was to take a sophisticated, partner-driven service and build an end-to-end campaign that reached the M&A and private equity audience with credibility and depth — and gave the partners a body of work they could point at in conversations.
WHAT I DID
Built the full campaign system around the ODD proposition.
• Anchor landing page — "How Operational Due Diligence Can Create Lasting Value" — with skip-to-report and skip-to-webinar entry points.
• Special report — "Operational Due Diligence: an integrated approach to understanding, quantifying and evaluating operational performance."
• Infographic — "From Insight to Impact: Why Operational Due Diligence Matters" — with the Dynamic Value Bridge as the central visual model.
• Case-study series — including "Laying the Foundations for Industrial Transformation" and "A Smart Scaling Approach Aligning Industrial Capacity" — sector-specific proofs of the offering in action.
• Webinar.
• Tier-one press interview — keynote interview "The power of operational due diligence" in Operational Excellence magazine, featuring three L.E.K. partners (Claudio Molinaro, Sebastien Beausoleil, Tom Marshall).
WHAT WAS NEW ABOUT IT
• A partner-led capability translated into a visible, multi-asset campaign — credibility for the practice, a sales tool for the team.
• A central visual model (the Dynamic Value Bridge) that gave the offering a single, repeatable explanation across formats.
• Tier-one press placement of three named partners — converting the campaign into an external thought-leadership moment.
Rebrand and Global Fund Distribution - Castlestone Asset Management
Castlestone Asset Management — 2010 to early 2011. A complete brand and marketing system, two fund launches, and a tier-one press programme.
THE CHALLENGE
Castlestone Asset Management was a boutique BVI-based asset manager with real investment IP — particularly in precious metals, gold and emerging markets — but a brand and marketing system that hadn’t kept pace with the firm’s ambitions. CEO Angus Murray (ex-President, Macquarie Bank USA) wanted to take the firm into the global IFA, fund-manager, family-office and wealth-adviser market with two priority fund launches: a Next 11 emerging markets fund and the Aliquot Gold & Precious Metals Equities Fund.
WHAT I DID
Led the work end to end: a new visual identity and brand system; a marketing strategy with positioning, audience definition and a fund-flow calendar; and full launch toolkits for both new funds — brochures, factsheets, commissioned imagery, sales presentations, online and print advertising, email and events. The PR programme worked the trade and consumer financial press in parallel, securing coverage in the Financial Times (a profile of Angus Murray, 22 May 2011), Investment Week, Money Marketing, Hedgeweek, Trustnet, International Adviser and FinanceAsia, with Asset TV carrying founder interviews to the UK IFA audience.
WHAT WAS NEW ABOUT IT
• A consistent visual identity across the firm, its funds and its founder — the same firm reading the same way in a brochure, an FT profile or an Asset TV interview.
• A fund-flow calendar that tied marketing rhythm to commercial rhythm — campaigns scheduled to where the sales conversation actually was.
• A press programme that put the founder and the firm in front of the audiences they needed to reach — Financial Times to specialist trade press to broadcast video.
Crisis communications during FSA action - Castlestone Asset Management
External communications · stakeholder management · brand integrity · Late 2011
THE CHALLENGE
In July 2011, the FSA opened an investigation into Castlestone Management. The firm’s UK listed funds were subsequently wound down through the autumn. The marketing function had days — not weeks — to pivot from a growth-stage launch programme into a crisis-communications operation: managing external communications with press, advisers, investors and distribution partners through a fast-moving and unprecedented situation. The brief was no longer to grow; it was to preserve trust and run a clean process.
WHAT I DID
Led external communications throughout the action, working alongside the CEO, legal counsel and the operations team. Direct journalist relationships in the FT, Investment Week, Money Marketing and Citywire — proactive, consistent press handling rather than damage control. A proactive adviser communications programme into IFA, distribution and channel partners through the regulatory action and into the wind-down. Investor communications timed and worded to keep confidence stable. And an internal coordination layer across the C-suite, sales, distribution and operations — single source of truth, single brand voice.
WHAT WAS NEW ABOUT IT
• Communications inside a live regulatory frame — every external statement designed in parallel with legal and compliance counsel.
• Crisis-grade speed — comms decisions made and executed within hours, not the typical weekly campaign rhythm.
• Stakeholder breadth — running press, adviser, investor and internal communications simultaneously, as a single integrated function.
THE CHALLENGE
The brief was to translate that into a campaign that introduced the new SICAV to a wider European adviser audience under the BMO brand, around the strategy's five investment factors, and through a compliance frame that respected both the new parent's standards and the regulatory environment of every country it sold into.
WHAT I DID
Built the campaign architecture around the five investment factors — value, momentum, low volatility, size and growth-at-a-reasonable-price (GARP) — as the central message, so the same idea travelled cleanly across every channel and into every conversation. From there, a full multi-channel rollout: web, outdoor display, brochures, online and print advertising — each format designed to lead with the same five-factor story and reinforce it through a consistent visual system. The brochures became the sales toolkit for Rob Thorpe's UK and European intermediary sales team; the outdoor and print took the message into the financial-press audience; the web hub anchored the whole programme for advisers wanting to dig deeper into the methodology and Erik Rubingh's systematic-equities track record.
WHAT WAS NEW ABOUT IT
- A single messaging architecture — five investment factors, one repeatable story — that the sales team could carry into adviser conversations without paraphrasing it into nonsense.
- A design system engineered for compliance from the start — every format built to clear the regulatory frame on the first read, across multiple European markets.
- A campaign that respected the product's complexity and the manager's pedigree while keeping the message simple enough for an IFA to repeat in a thirty-second introduction.
