The Institute of Directors (IoD) supports, represents and sets the standard for thousands of UK business leaders through its membership program. But the IoD faced a challenge, as it was struggling to build sustained engagement with business leaders and to be seen as a trusted source of information for the business community.

Our challenge was to deliver a content approach that would engage one of the UK’s most demanding (and hard to reach) audiences. Our answer was a content strategy that placed the business leader in the driving seat – choosing where, when and how they accessed IoD’s content. We partnered with the IoD’s internal comms team to create Director magazine, a bi-monthly premium publication and online content platform, that opened the doors of the institute to its members. By creating a custom publication, we were able to display the breadth of the IoD’s activities, insights and thought leadership. Each issue brought the world’s most highly regarded business figures, from Mary Portas to Dambisa Moyo, and thought leaders like Simon Sinek, to the desks, backpacks and coffee tables of more than 55,000 IoD members.

We repurposed magazine content, with some additional commissioned elements, into easy access articles, features and films for digital channels. We also encouraged the audience to contribute user-generated content to online debates. These became content-based communities where ideas and invaluable insights into trending issues could be shared.