Powering up B2B PR for Wolseley Infrastructure
Learn how we took Wolseley Infrastructure’s media presence from zero to more than 3million in three years – solidifying the brands as trusted leaders in the utilities and civil engineering sectors.
Challenge
Wolseley Infrastructure — home to specialist utility brand Fusion Utilities and civil engineering leader Burdens — had no PR support in place. With ambitious growth plans in the pipeline, the brands turned to Leopard Co with a brief to ramp up their media presence and strengthen their position as industry leaders.
Solution
We devised a strategy that would make Wolseley Infrastructure synonymous with industry expertise – zeroing in on the issues that matter most in their target sectors and making sure they consistently led the conversation.
At the heart of our approach was harnessing Wolseley Infrastructure’s expertise to create PR content that was rich in insight and authority. Working closeley with the business’s technical teams, we built an editorial calendar around key talking points within the utilities and civil engineering sectors – such as climate change, digital transformation and workforce development.
This meant we were primed to pitch to target publications, such as Plant & Civil Engineer, Installer Magazine and Builders Merchant News, with thought leadership articles, technical features and reactive commentary.
A sharp news sense was critical to this brief, and we closely monitored national events that could impact the built environment sectors to develop timely, unique angles. For example – when there was a spate of flash floods across the UK, we pitched a story around the water drainage methods that could combat the increase in flooding caused by climate change.
Alongside thought leadership articles, we secured people profiles, business-led news and product announcements – resulting in a high-quality and diversified PR output.
In tandem, we integrated wider marketing tactics that bolstered our PR efforts, including a LinkedIn employee advocacy project, which comprised a profile audit of all senior teams and sales departments to assess their current online presence, followed by an in-depth training session on best practice LinkedIn usage.
Impact
From zero PR presence to a consistent, high-quality media profile within target trade publications, our work successfully established Wolseley Infrastructure’s brands as trusted, credible voices in the utilities and civil engineering industries.
Across our three-year partnership, we secured 57 items of media coverage within target trade publications – with more than 50% of the output comprising original, thought leadership content.
Our PR reach climbed to more than 3million people, increasing both Fusion Utilities and Burdens share of voice amongst key trade audiences.
Our LinkedIn training proved valuable to the Wolseley Infrastructure team with great feedback across the board and a significant uptake in LinkedIn usage for new business leads and industry connection.