Winner: Weber Shandwick & Ricoh Americas Corporation—Reshaping a B2B Brand Through Content Publishing
Traditionally thought of as a hardware-led print and imaging company, Ricoh is transitioning to a services-led model with a focus on information technology services. To do so, they needed to pivot with a new corporate storyline to reshape perceptions of Ricoh. Working closely with Weber Shandwick, Ricoh developed a core narrative that defined how they wanted to interact with customers—“making information work for you,” embodied in a term they coined: Information Mobility. A key challenge would be driving message penetration to their target audience of strategic and IT decision makers in a landscape where they had lacked influence and had low brand awareness. Ricoh needed to establish a sphere of influence through thought leadership by providing content that was helpful, relevant and useful as they entered a new market.
Ricoh and Weber Shandwick conceptualized and developed a content hub and editorial strategy that established Ricoh as a leader by providing unbiased and educational content to their target audience. Subject matter experts from Ricoh as well as key influencers in the space would provide authority and legitimacy to the site by developing content that was engaging and useful. Since the launch, the site has seen almost 9 million visitors, and engagement metrics like time spent reading, return visits and follow-up actions are all trending positively. Social amplification has generated more than 43,000 shares of site content.
Honorable Mentions
- 5W PR - VideoBlocks
- iMiller Public Relations