Murray McIntosh is a specialist consultancy with three key and highly specialised brands covering policy and public affairs, water, and embedded, electronics & electrical engineering. While the firm had worked with BlueSky PR for several years on its content and social media strategy, its water-focused brand, ‘Water by Murray’ was looking to expand its footprint within the domestic UK industry at a time of extreme stress and when the sector as a whole was under the spotlight at a national level. It also wanted to raise its profile within the water sector and get on the radar of more clients and candidates.
BlueSky PR had worked with Murray McIntosh for several years on its content and social media strategy and recommended to the Water by Murray brand leadership that the firm produce a high-level industry report to capitalise on the growing scrutiny and focus placed on the water industry. We recommended that the report should be based on a major survey of water engineers to better understand their views on the market, and what motivates them, as well as gaining a better knowledge of their drivers and the factors that draw them to specific roles and employers.
We drafted the questions and launched the survey over a three-week period, with the data gained forming the basis of the Water Industry Labour Report. The content was then published on the Water by Murray website and was followed by a targeted media campaign that focused on securing press coverage within the water press, in publications read by engineers and hiring decision-makers. This campaign was based on squeezing value out of the report content with the data enabling BlueSky’s team to develop a series of different media angles that targeted different portions of the market.
The report secured coverage across the water and engineering press, including in the top five most read specialist publications within Water by Murray’s target markets. It resulted in 29 pieces of highly targeted coverage, along with feature articles and interviews with the likes of Water Magazine for some of the brand’s key spokespeople. Equally, it also provided valuable marketing collateral for business development and outreach efforts, and helped Water by Murray to achieve its goals of raising its profile with engineers and decision-makers. The organisation is now looking at similar approaches for its two other brands.
“We’re delighted with the impact of the Water Industry Labour Report, and it’s helped to cement our position as a leading recruiter in this space, as well as raising our profile with our target markets. It’s also been useful in starting conversations with previously hard-to-reach organisations and has given us valuable material for our outreach efforts. We have partnered with BlueSky for several years now on social media and content activity, so working with them to produce and promote our report was an obvious choice. BlueSky PR led the development and launch of the initial survey and then managed the work from the production of the report, through to the media outreach campaign, and we couldn’t have been happier with the work they’ve carried out.” - Adam Cave is Managing Director and Founder of Murray McIntosh