September highlights: Mastering global campaigns, stealing the AEO narrative, and keeping the C-suite sharp and ‘on message’
Whether coordinating PR across multiple continents, synchronizing content for the era of AI search, or putting your top executives in front of the press, absolute message control is everything.
As we leave the July/August silly season in the rear-view mirror, B2B companies are hitting the accelerator pedal in the race to the end of the year.
The IBA team has been hard at work to ensure our clients are on top of their messaging in an extremely busy end to Q3! Here’s a look behind the scenes at how we’ve been helping our clients master their global narratives this month:
1. An international campaign in full flow
For marketing leaders, controlling a company message globally while running PR campaigns in multiple countries can be tricky. Even more so, when companies employ double-digit numbers of agencies to manage their presence in each country. Every additional new agency or office in a new country introduces the opportunity for broken telephones to dilute messaging!
For IBA and the marketing leaders we work with, “think global, go local” has always been the mantra. But that doesn’t mean appointing a new team or agency in every country! Our data movement client has been reaping the control, coverage, and cost rewards from the campaigns we run with them across North America, and four geographies in Europe.
September saw the coverage total surpass 40 placements! This was achieved through a mix of centrally created news announcements – a big aviation customer win + primary research – and thought leadership pieces on moving manufacturing data in real-time and how new architecture helps make AI usage more efficient to ease data center load.
All localized, translated, and placed by the IBA Pitch&Place team.
Takeaway 1: “Going local” doesn’t require a local agency in every country – just a single, focused team capable of protecting and projecting your message locally.
2. Owning the theme – topic atomization across all channels
But winning in today’s content saturated B2B world isn’t just about visibility in geographies. New Semrush data found visibility in the age of AEO is less about winning individual prompts and more about owning an entire topic – and the good news is there are thousands still up for grabs! Forrester states: “AEO is fragile as it sprawls across IT, social media, PR, paid media, brand marketing, and more. Brands need consistent messaging across all channels for AI search success.”
This means PR, social media, and content/digital marketing teams need a joined-up approach if they are to steal these topics! IBA has been practicing what it preaches with our asset investment planning and management software provider. At the core of the campaign is its new utilities regulation capability, empowering infrastructure leaders to dynamically align their capital plans with shifting legal rulings so they can quickly and accurately defend every dollar they invest to regulators and consumers alike.
The IBA and client marketing teams have been mobilizing on this topic across all channels. Already the first placements are in for a thought leadership article bylined by the client’s SME, who has also just taken part in a huge U.S. power association podcast to discuss the same topic. The client’s marketing team has been busy creating blog, white paper, and webinars material – which we’ve been amplifying on social.
Takeaway 2: Consistent messaging atomization across channels is the key to owning the narrative and winning the AEO race or as communications theory says: the same message from more than one source is more readily believed!
3. Media training to keep the C-suite sharp
B2B marketers can be running tight international campaigns, with key topics in all the right channels – but it only takes one bad executive statement to bring it all crashing down. Loose lips sink ships!
That’s why IBA has been taking the C-suite back to basic communication theory and media training for our connected worker platform client ahead of its major user conference in Orlando.
Led by our team of former editors and media engagement specialists, the session gave the executive group a look behind the curtain at how journalists actually make decisions. The comprehensive workshop guided executives through the architecture of different story shapes and equipped them with actionable techniques to navigate any type of interview.
They’re now fully prepared to steer conversations effectively, handle difficult questions, and deliberately position the company as an undisputed thought leader in their market!
Takeaway 3: A thoroughly briefed, media aware, and on-message C-suite is a vital piece of the message control puzzle.
Bringing it all together
If there’s one key takeaway from this month’s client activity, it’s that a fragmented PR and marketing approach no longer cuts it. True B2B influence requires a centralized messaging strategy, synchronized channel execution, and executives who know exactly how to deliver the core message under pressure. When all of those elements align, the results speak for themselves.
Jamie Kightley is Head of Client Services at IBA International.
