Strike Social Brand Awareness Campaign

The Challenge

Strike Social’s AI technology optimizes YouTube advertising more efficiently than any human media buyer ever could. Despite this impactful innovation, however, Strike Social’s target audience wasn’t fully aware of the software’s potential to replace old-fashioned media buying (which relies heavily on spreadsheets and guesswork).

The lack of brand awareness was also impacting Strike Social’s sales pipeline. The company needed to generate more leads in order to set up meetings with big brands and agencies. Once the company’s salespeople were in front of prospects, they knew the technology would sell itself.

Strike Social tasked Walker Sands with generating more media coverage about the long-ranging implications of AI in advertising and the superiority of this one-of-a-kind YouTube software. The goal was to boost brand awareness and move more prospects through the sales funnel.

The Solution

Walker Sands took a three-pronged approach to building awareness around Strike Social’s YouTube media-buying solution:

• Company news
• Newsjacking
• Quarterly data reports

Thought leadership served as the foundation for each focus area. Walker Sands developed a thought leadership matrix, mapping executives to specific perspectives on the future of the industry, how technology affects advertising and the implications of AI for brands and agencies.

The team generated recurring bylines for each thought leader and pitched these experts for commentary on industry news and events. Walker Sands supplemented these efforts with data from Strike’s Social’s platform, underscoring the need for AI in media buying.

While all of Strike Social’s executives hold a strong vision for the future of advertising, Co-Founder and CEO Patrick McKenna’s outlook is particularly bold: AI will take media buyers’ jobs, so the industry should prepare now. Walker Sands used this perspective as a key angle for much of its media outreach efforts.

The Results

After 11 months, Walker Sands tripled Strike Social’s media coverage by securing more than 100 placements in several top-tier outlets, including:

• CNBC
• Inc.
• Adweek
• Digiday
• Huffington Post
• Forbes

At the same time, Strike Social’s web traffic increased 105 percent, while its domain authority increased by five points. Best of all, the company’s share of voice increased in rank, from No. 6 to No. 4 out of 11 competitors.

“I am very proud of these results, and we have you to thank for helping get us here,” Strike Social’s marketing director shared. “Your team has always been proactive, patient and, quite simply, a pleasure to work with.”