Aedgency is a pan-European performance marketing specialist headquartered in Barcelona with over 12 million opt-in users on the Continent. AxiCom has been agency of record for the company in five countries in Europe – UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

In late 2008 the company’s management identified a need to expand its behavioural targeting engine and expertise to the UK market in a high profile way, given its position as Europe’s most lucrative online advertising market.

The Challenge

At the point of launch Aedgency had no existing UK business, and those UK press who were cognizant of the potential for online advertising were general hostile to ‘targeting’ per se due a series of controversies in the media around unauthorised use.

The Strategy

A two-pronged approach was recommended: initial activity would centre on introducing the Aedgency concept to the press and other influencers while the company was attempting to establish its opt-in business model. The second line of activity was to leverage the profile of the Aedgency Founder Vincent Labey using his reputation as an outspoken and opinionated industry figure to generate awareness.

AxiCom held a communications workshop with Aedgency’s senior management team to establish a set talking points and key messages that would position Aedgency as the acceptable face of targeting and Vincent Labey as an industry thought leader.

AxiCom put together a series of contributed articles that it would place in a range of the digital marketing industry’s most widely read titles on a regular basis.

The Result

Aedgency opinion pieces and contributed articles appeared in newsletters, print and digital marketing hubs on a monthly basis; these included iMedia Connection, Technology Weeklyand Netimperativewhich served to establish Labey’s name and the Aedgency brand as market players.

In follow up Labey was asked to comment on relevant industry trends in influential titles  (and key UK press targets) such as Revolutionand New Media Ageand was also invited to present at UK marketing event ad:tech London.