Project Description

How Morton Waters’ marketing and PR strategy for UBY drove up website traffic by 90% in the US alone and boosted LinkedIn page views by 65%, increasing UBY’s brand visibility in its target markets of the US, Canada, Australia and the UK.

• New LinkedIn followers up by 77%
• LinkedIn reactions to posts up by 113%
• UK website traffic from organic social up by 33%
• LinkedIn impressions up by 174% for key UK sales director
• Introductions to key industry contacts, which led to opportunities to bid for active projects on the UK
• Thought-leadership coverage in New Civil Engineer

Before Morton Waters

UBY, a construction monitoring technology startup created within Bouygues Group’s Corporate Entrepreneurship cell, had experienced huge success in its native country of France and wanted to launch its offering in four English-speaking countries – the UK, the US & Canada, and Australia – where it recently established local teams.

To break into these markets, the UBY team knew they needed a marketing and PR agency with local expertise and an in-depth understanding of the construction landscape to manage their international launch programme. As leading specialists in this space, Morton Waters Communications was the natural choice.

The strategy

We started with a deep dive into UBY’s existing position in the marketplace, with customer research and a brand positioning workshop with the in-market teams. Insights gleaned were then used to inform and develop key messaging for the company and its solutions, tailored for each market. We also undertook customer listening in the UK and Australia to test messaging, explore buyer motives and identify key market insights.

What we did

We began work on a three-month marketing and PR campaign, with activities tailored to maximise impact and reach in each four countries.

Social media to develop brand awareness

Building UBY’s social presence in the four territories was key to achieving a targeted and powerful international launch. Activity included social media campaigns on UBY’s pages, including LinkedIn posts and newsletters, and we also worked with UBY’s sales directors to raise their individual profiles in their assigned territories with consistent and targeted social media outreach and bespoke connections made each month. The success of this programme saw us extend activity to include the wider sales teams in the UK and US & Canada as well.

Email marketing campaigns were activated to target existing and potential customers.

Thought-leadership content and PR to enhance reputation and influence key Tier 1 decision makers

Thought-leadership content was vital to establish UBY as the expert within its field and to raise the company’s profile in each territory. We developed a thought-leadership programme for UBY with website content, PR placements, and across social – all content tailored carefully to each market.

Based on client interviews, we identified UBY’s USP and crafted an eBook which combined thought-leadership insight with details of UBY’s unique product offering to build awareness of their solutions.

In addition to thought-leadership, we used our expert knowledge of the built environment media landscape in the UK, US & Canada and Australia to launch tailored PR outreach programmes, beginning with market specific press release highlighting UBY’s launch and followed by article placements, including in New Civil Engineer (read here).

Event support and marketing materials

Presence at industry events can help raise a company’s profile and attract leads; we provided strategic, advisory marketing support to ensure the UBY team maximised the opportunities afforded by event attendance.

For London Build 2023 we provided the UBY UK team with ongoing support, attending planning meetings, guidance on stand design and connecting the sales team with our trusted print suppliers to provide the marketing materials for the event.

Support for the UK, US & Canada and Australian sales teams included social media support and bespoke email signature designs to promote involvement in the lead up to events, and the development of marketing collateral, including brochures for UBY’s range of solutions, translating and updating existing case studies, and developing flagship case studies in the US and Australia. Marketing materials were tailored to each territory, and we also produced a case study video for use in the US market.

Client testimonial

“UBY is a French technology provider for the construction industry, intent on increasing our footprint in English-speaking countries. As such, we needed a local marketing and communications agency with expert knowledge of construction, strong industry references and the capacity to help us land more impactful messaging with customers in the UK, Australia, the United States and Canada. Morton Waters was warmly recommended by a colleague for whom Michelle and Charlotte had worked in the past.” Frédéric Brandt, CMO, UBY

If you are interested in finding out how the team at the award-winning agency Morton Waters can help you with your marketing and PR needs, get in touch with us at info@mortonwaters.com or give Michelle Morton or Charlotte Waters a call on 01892 956470.