Apex Group

A campaign to raise awareness of their pioneering ESG Ratings & Advisory Service

APEX ESG CASE STUDY COVER 01B

Apex Group Ltd., is a global financial services provider with 45 offices worldwide and 4,000 employees.

They provide a single-source solution enabling the delivery of an extensive range of services across the full value chain, to asset managers, capital markets, corporates and family offices.

The Brief

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) metrics are now three central themes for measuring the sustainability and positive impact of an investment or business.

Pressure from investors, employees and customers alike means that ESG factors have become critical metrics for success, with allocators now investing in companies based on their ESG profiling. Regulatory developments, alongside demands to reduce risk and to produce superior returns, is driving ESG into the mainstream.

We were tasked to develop a campaign to raise awareness of Apex’s pioneering ESG Ratings & Advisory Service, with the aim to position Apex as a leader in ESG data to the private equity space.

Our deliverables were to develop the campaign theme, creative format and content for execution across paid media and digital advertising, social media, UX and UI copy for key pages on the website, e-marketing assets, SEO optimisation, with consultancy on LinkedIn campaigns and AdWords.

Our Response

We had to move fast. As the first of its kind, we needed to get maximum awareness before Apex’s competitors began to create similar services of their own.

Private Equity managers are the main target for this campaign as there is a strong demand for accessible and trusted ESG data in the private markets – a secondary target is for any company in the private markets.

We needed to establish a clear messaging proposition and to this end we reviewed all materials on the service and facilitated a Q&A workshop with the service team. We needed to avoid green-washing and have a strong and simple message that clearly positions Apex as the leader in this space.

The messaging proposition would then drive the creative concept delivered as a digital ad, ESG web content and banner, with social media application.

APEX DIAGRAM

In parallel to the main campaign we supported Apex on delivering a LinkedIn campaign to highlight the results of their poll on how valuable is ESG data to institutional investors.

Linkedin poll

 

 

 

We also worked closely with their social media team to develop more targeted LinkedIn campaigns, with additional research and consultancy on competitors’ use of AdWords.

The Outcome

Our positioning strategy brought clarity to their product goals, that of delivering robust and independent ESG data from private markets to private equity companies. Independently assessed ESG data on their portfolio companies, prospective portfolio companies, to the business owners and to investors. Benchmarked against sector peers, international standards, and UN SDGs.

Apex ESG Rating & Advisory service collects, evaluates and reports ESG data on private markets through comprehensive and independent analysis – in short, Apex unlocks the, until now ‘hidden’, ESG data within private markets.

But more than providing purely a score of a private company’s ESG rating against their sector, competitors or current global disclosure standards. The Apex team’s passion is to support and improve a company’s approach to E, S, and G. By encouraging behavioural change through driving capital flow towards improved ESG performance and, if required, providing a strategic road-map for the ESG improvement of companies to deliver a better world.

We developed and reviewed with the Apex ESG team a number of potential creative concepts, assessing the balance between accessing private market data and the tailored solution given to enhance ESG credibility. Between the cutting-edge technology of Apex’s ESG platform and the close relationship offered from the Apex ESG team.

APEX STORYBOARD

 

The agreed concept was then developed into an animated digital ad and a LinkedIn ad. The Apex group website was undergoing a total refresh and we worked with their web team to develop UX, UI and copy for the ESG page within the website, plus a link image on the website’s home-page carousel. Our research on SEO keywords surrounding ESG helped inform Apex’s new webpage’s organic ranking on search engines.

 

 

APEX WEB BANNER

Read more about the Apex ESG Ratings & Advisory Service at:
https://www.theapexgroup.com/apex-esg-ratings

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