For more than 60 years, the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS) has educated and empowered supply chain professionals. But in 2018, APICS launched an even larger end-to-end supply chain organization, the Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM).
Over the past few years, we’ve seen more logistics professionals finding seats at the C-suite table. This trend, along with supply chain digitization, prompted the creation of ASCM. The organization is passionate about the supply chain’s role in business and wanted to share this message via top-tier business publications and their readership. INK decided the best way to gain this level of attention was to tie ASCM’s industry knowledge to broader issues and markets – like tech and retail – regularly covered by top-tier business media.
INK provides insight into emerging topics and uncovers opportunities for us to become the voice of record.
Abe Eshkenazi
CEO, Association for Supply Chain Management
Laying the Foundation with Trade Media
INK had helped APICS become the go-to industry resource by achieving repeated success with trade publications. ASCM wanted to mirror this success but with top-tier media. But as the savvy marketer knows, it’s not easy to achieve this kind of coverage.
Supply chain touches every industry and INK wanted to convey this impact to media and prove how ASCM could provide transformative insights. INK guided ASCM on what made the launch newsworthy. Instead of inconsequential rebrand elements, we wanted to focus on the substantive, like ASCM’s purpose. We developed a media strategy and storylines to compel top-tier journalists to listen to the organization’s news and perspective.
Reaching the C-Suite
INK set out to make ASCM’s story relevant to the media and their executive readers. We tailored pitches to introduce ASCM as a source for data and unique perspectives, bringing credibility to a variety of subjects. Instead of going with a traditional phone interview approach, we brought our pitches to the media directly. Our desk-side briefings made it easier for media to say “yes” to our requests. Speaking with media in-person also allowed us to make a more convincing case for ASCM and its breadth of relevant insights.
INK and ASCM also developed a corporate-focused landing page to support the media tour. We then promoted the content through a social media campaign designed to reach the corporate audience and drive website traffic.
Relationships and Knowledge to Build On
Connecting with top-tier media in person allowed us to illustrate ASCM’s value more effectively. Our desk-side media tour and corporate social campaign made the kind of impact ASCM hoped for and provided invaluable insights to drive future marketing strategies.
By analyzing social results, we improved audience targeting, optimized campaign goals per content, and reduced the overall cost per ad – all of which will make ongoing social campaigns more effective. By building and executing a highly-targeted strategy and looking for ways ASCM could provide value, INK took what could have been a traditional launch announcement and turned it into a platform for building media relationships and awareness within the C-suite.
