Crowdhelix is a software and networking business that enables academics, companies and innovators across the world to join together to create research and innovation strategies, access funding programmes, and deliver cutting-edge projects.
The challenge
The Crowdhelix leadership team undertook an internal review of their communications, and concluded that they didn’t match up to the business’ sector-leading status. Efforts to reach new customers weren’t sufficiently tailored or targeted, and communications didn’t encapsulate the business’ entire offering. They also inadvertently alienated some customers by assuming preexisting knowledge about research funding programmes.
With a major platform relaunch and the release of €80bn of EU research funding approaching, Crowdhelix brought in LOCK to overhaul their communications strategy.
Our solution
We helped Crowdhelix create the clarity it needed to communicate with impact. Working with the co-founders, we immersed ourselves in the business and its sector in order to fully understand the intricacies of its environment and its three very different customer segments.
We then honed Crowdhelix’s overarching key messages to ensure they were accessible to all three audiences, no matter their familiarity with this landscape. We then developed specific messaging for an integrated promotion campaign targeting prospective customers, clearly articulating the business’ offer and the benefits of Crowdhelix membership in ways that would resonate with each segment.
The result
“We engaged LOCK to provide strategic communications expertise in support of the re-launch of our platform, and of our communications around it. We were particularly interested in honing our overall messaging to ensure that it was coherent, polished, and critically offered value to our clients who are well-versed in R&D funding as well as to those who are less familiar.
LOCK's experience and methodological approach proved extremely valuable. The entire team was impressed by their ability to rapidly and comprehensively understand our complex industry. They then provided clear guidance and credible action plans for the specific steps we should take in order to achieve our strategic communications goals. We greatly valued LOCK's implementation of a strong methodology, their grasp of the key issues, as well as their general understanding of the complexities of our sector and the needs of our community.
The first concrete output of this work has just been released in the form of a video animation, and we are already seeing a positive impact both in terms of engagement with the content and in enquiries regarding our platform and services. However, LOCK's contribution has also provided us with a more long-lasting benefit, in that the re-framing of our core messages can now be propagated as refinements across all of our future marketing efforts.”