Walker Sands Takes Away Three Top Awards at 2018 PRSA Skyline Awards
Alex Yeadon
Last week, we were honored to be recognized among Chicago’s top PR agencies at the PRSA Chicago Skyline Awards. PRSA nominated Walker Sands for three campaigns from 2017, which included our work for CloudCraze, Strike Social and Hyperwallet, and we were thrilled to take away the highest achievement at the awards, a Skyline, for all three!
The Skyline Awards is an event we look forward to attending every year as they recognize and celebrate the admirable work of our clients and teams. We are so proud of our team members for all their hard work and dedication to these projects, and we continue to be grateful for the opportunities we have to work with these industry-leading companies.
Here’s a recap of the campaigns we were recognized for last week:
CloudCraze content and demand gen
Our demand generation program for CloudCraze, a B2B commerce platform, took home the Marketing Business-to-Business Skyline Award. Built on Salesforce, CloudCraze powers enterprises like AB InBev, Coca-Cola, GE and Kellogg’s, but it struggled to reach its target audience through traditional sales methods and keep prospects engaged. Walker Sands strategized and implemented a multifaceted plan with a goal of increasing demand for CloudCraze.
The integrated strategy consisted of web, SEO, content marketing and PPC to drive qualified leads. This involved the creation of an ROI calculator, dozens of new pieces of content and a robust strategy for promotion. The program was highly successful, resulting in a 51 percent increase in web traffic, a 100 percent increase in form submissions and $2+ million in new business in H2 2017. View the case study here for more info.
Giving thought to the artificial intelligence conversation for Strike Social
The Executive Communications Skyline Award went to the Strike Social team for their thought leadership program. Strike Social uses artificial intelligence to help brands optimize ad placements. Because its innovative use of AI was so new to the market, it needed help educating prospects on the use and technology itself. The Walker Sands team formulated a bold thought leadership-driven program, highlighting the founder’s belief that AI would upend the advertising industry and eliminate the need for human media buyers in the near future.
The program resulted in a 3x increase in media coverage volume when compared to years prior (99 placements, including Digiday, Adweek and the Huffington Post). During the 11-month period, web traffic increased by 105 percent and domain authority increased by five points. Best yet, share of voice increased in rank from six out of 11 competitors to four. Strike’s marketing director shared: “I am very proud of these results, and we have you to thank for helping get us here. Your team has always been proactive, patient and, quite simply, a pleasure to work with.”
The Hyperwallet Marketplace Expansion Index Report
The final award of the night went to the Hyperwallet team, winning the New Digital Platform Skyline Award. Fueled by successes like Uber, millions are joining the marketplace economy as “gig” workers. Enter Hyperwallet, who provides a way to pay those workers anywhere in the world. Hyperwallet needed Walker Sands’ help to showcase its technology and position itself as a leading authority on payouts and the gig economy. The result was the Marketplace Expansion Index, a comprehensive guide to the best countries for expansion.
The 2018 Marketplace Expansion Index was developed to assist digital marketplace platforms operating in the collaborative, gig and sharing economies gauge the expansion readiness of 36 countries. The first report of its kind, the index aims to provide a data-driven approach to global expansion by accounting for factors that are unique to this newly evolved business model.
In just one month, Walker Sands secured 30 placements in top technology (betakit) and finance (PYMNTS) publications around the world, totaling more than one million impressions. LinkedIn ad impressions exceeded 500 million. Most importantly, the report was downloaded more than 200 times by some of Hyperwallet’s top prospects, including Amazon, eBay and Rakuten.
Overall, it was a great night for Walker Sands. We want to congratulate all our team members, and we are looking forward to the PRSA Chicago Skyline Awards next year!