An illustrative integrated marketing communications case from the Financial Services sector, anchored on Brand Strategy & Positioning.
The challenge
The brand at the centre of this case faced a familiar problem: an integrated audience, fragmented internal teams, and a measurement system that rewarded channel-level activity instead of business outcomes. The starting brief was narrower than the actual problem — a recurring pattern in IMC engagements — and reframing it was the first piece of work.
The integrated approach
The program led with Brand Strategy & Positioning, but used it as a connective tissue rather than a standalone tactic. Earned and owned channels were planned together with paid; creative was developed once and adapted across formats; and measurement was reset around a small set of business KPIs that the whole team could move.
What changed in the operating model
The most consequential shift was internal: a single planning cadence replaced parallel channel reviews, a unified brief structure replaced the bespoke briefs each agency was used to writing, and reporting collapsed onto one dashboard. The work that the audience saw was the visible output of those operating-model changes.
Outcomes
The campaign delivered measurable progress on the business KPIs the team had agreed up front. As is typical of integrated programs, the most durable wins were not the ones in the launch press release — they appeared in the months after, as the new operating model continued to compound.
Lessons for buyers
- Treat the brief as a hypothesis, not a contract.
- Invest in the operating model before the creative work.
- Pick the smallest set of KPIs you are willing to defend in a board meeting.
- Plan earned, owned, and paid as one program from day one.