Catapult Network Strategic Communications and Social Media Case Study

Intro

The Catapult Network sits at the centre of nine sector-specific Catapults, supporting high-tech innovation across industries including offshore wind, satellite, high value manufacturing, energy systems, digital, infrastructure and healthcare. Its role is to help businesses access cutting-edge research and development facilities, innovation ecosystems and specialist expertise, supporting new ideas from concept through to market adoption.

Since 2021, Leopard Co has supported the Catapult Network with strategic and tactical communications, helping the organisation engage stakeholders, coordinate activity across the network, and communicate the value Catapults add to the UK economy, employment, sustainability and society.

Challenge

The Catapult Network’s priority was to engage stakeholders across central and local government, business, research, academia and industry, helping these audiences understand how cutting-edge technology is making a difference to society, places, jobs and the UK economy.

A key communications challenge was the need to coordinate updates, stories and activity from across nine individual Catapults, then translate those updates into clear, consistent and engaging content for external audiences.

Alongside this, the Network needed a more effective approach to social media, with Leopard Co first appointed in March 2021 to create a strategy that would maximise the effectiveness of its social channels.

The brief also included a creative challenge: to develop an animated video format that could be updated twice a month with imagery and text, giving audiences a clear and digestible summary of Innovate UK Catapult Network updates.

Solution

Strategic communications

Leopard Co developed a functional communications strategy designed to create more efficient and impactful routes for showcasing the value of the Catapults. This work helped the Network communicate its contribution to the UK economy, employment and sustainability in a more joined-up way.

A central part of this approach was the creation of an intranet using Monday.com as a collaboration platform. The aim was to streamline communications, reduce email traffic, and make it easier for teams across the Network to share important information, resources and assets.

To support adoption, Leopard Co created simplified branded boards, supplementary guides and drop-in sessions, helping users become comfortable with the new approach, including those who were unfamiliar with Monday.com.

Always-on social media and stakeholder engagement

Leopard Co refined the Catapult Network’s social media strategy with a focus on quality over quantity, helping drive stronger engagement levels from priority audiences.

This included the creation of monthly editorial calendars featuring key cross-Catapult themes, alongside stories fed through from the nine individual Catapults. Leopard Co also developed a tiered stakeholder targeting strategy, identifying key individuals to engage with through Catapult Network content and regularly updating this to reflect government reshuffles.

The programme was supported by a reactive, always-on news monitoring service. Leopard Co identified topical stories where the Catapult Network could contribute as a thought leader, including Net Zero plans, COP, UK government announcements, and research and innovation developments.

The team also flagged national events such as National Apprenticeship Week, Science Week, National Engineers Week and Women in Science Day, creating timely copy to boost the Network’s digital presence.

Creative and animated content

To support the content calendar, Leopard Co’s in-house Studio created a suite of templated graphics to accompany reactive social content. This gave the Network a consistent visual identity while allowing content to be produced efficiently around topical moments and stakeholder priorities.

Leopard Co also developed an animated round-up video format for LinkedIn. The process began with immersion in the Catapult Network’s brand guidelines, followed by storyboard development to give the client a clear visual reference before the first bi-monthly animated video was produced.

This created a repeatable template for sharing regular Network updates in a clear, concise and engaging way. The format became a staple part of the Catapult Network’s content calendar.

Wider brand and marketing support

Beyond the core communications and social media brief, Leopard Co also supported the Catapult Network with wider strategic and creative projects. This included redesigning the Catapult Network’s prospectus and supporting the transition of the brand to Innovate UK Catapult Network.

Impact

Leopard Co’s work helped the Catapult Network build a more robust communications strategy, driving engagement with key audiences across government, business, research, academia and industry. It also created a more effective platform for communicating activity and impact from across the nine individual Catapults, as well as Innovate UK.

The social media programme delivered strong organic growth. The initial 2021 KPI was to grow LinkedIn from 5,000 to 6,600 followers, which was exceeded in just five months.

The LinkedIn audience later grew by 227%, reaching 16,396 followers through organic growth, while X reached 31,900 followers.

Engagement also outperformed typical expectations, with the highest engagement rate to date reaching 5.3% on X and 6.8% on LinkedIn.

The programme also supported around 2,000 annual interactions with target stakeholders, including MPs, industry organisations, Innovate UK, government departments and agencies such as the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the UK Space Agency.

The animated round-up video became a top-performing content format and a regular feature in the Network’s calendar, giving audiences a snapshot summary of key updates in an efficient and visually engaging way.