Challenge
Both high-growth tech companies and established enterprises face a common risk: their marketing efforts can become disconnected from the core problems their customers are trying to solve. This disconnect leads to misallocated budgets, underperforming campaigns, and internal teams working hard—but not always in the right direction.
Two organisations—one a Silicon Valley database scale-up, the other a global technology leader—faced this challenge in different ways. Both needed to realign their marketing strategy, structure, and storytelling to focus on solving real customer problems. Only then could they use their resources—budgets, talent, and time—more effectively.
Solution
At the heart of both transformations was a strategic shift: moving from inward-looking planning to problem-led alignment.
For the scale-up, we worked closely with senior leadership to define a new category that reflected the evolving needs of their enterprise clients. The brand became a rallying point internally, helping teams—from marketing to product to HR—focus on how they were enabling customers to overcome complexity at scale.
For the global enterprise, we brought together siloed disciplines to build a shared understanding of the business problems customers were facing across key sectors. From there, we helped reframe campaign planning around issue-based narratives that aligned with both IBM’s capabilities and customer impact priorities.
Impact
✅ Clear internal alignment around the problems that mattered most to customers
✅ 30% YoY revenue growth driven by more focused and relevant messaging
✅ £10M+ in earned media from campaigns that hit the mark with external audiences
✅ Increased resource efficiency by reducing off-strategy activity and duplication
✅ Strengthened collaboration between marketing, sales, and product teams
✅ Elevated internal engagement as teams could see the link between their work and real-world outcomes