Freshfields: ‘Navigating CFIUS’ content campaign
A strategic thought leadership content campaign pegged to a ‘real world’ hire and live news issues – planned, produced and published inside four weeks
the challenge
Freshfields tasked Speak with creating a broadsheet-quality content campaign, pegged to the recruitment of a top US government official to its mergers and acquisitions (M&A) practice. The campaign aimed to help the Magic Circle law firm take ownership of national security issues arising from cross-border transactions.
What’s more, the firm challenged us to embed our newsroom approach to content creation in just four weeks – from briefing to go-live with the first multimedia story package of this transatlantic content campaign.
“Speak’s content campaign helped Freshfields take ownership of a crucial service area in a crowded market”
what we did
We undertook extensive competitor research and workshopped with Freshfields to understand its business, audience, channels and goals. We used our editorial insights to create a time-limited content campaign that would position Freshfields as a ‘thought leader’ in the M&A space, taking ownership of cross-border national security issues.
After briefing our dedicated newsroom team, we reached out to expert legal writers who would help elevate our content. From two short interviews and a photo shoot with the firm’s new hire, Aimen Mir, we produced multiple assets demonstrating Freshfields’ sector-defining M&A offer – and created additional written, video and photographic content positioning his expertise within the wider national security context.
the outcome
We launched a high intensity campaign cutting through the noise on national security and differentiating Freshfields from competitors as a thought leader in the space. In every piece of content, we highlighted the “inside knowledge” of the internal workings of US government that Mir brought to the firm.
Our content helped increase awareness of the new partner – with both Aimen Mir and his former employer, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), showing a spike in Google searches during the period of our campaign. Mir was approached for comment by both the Financial Times and The New York Times during the same period. Our stories were also used in the Freshfields Digital Quarterly aimed at the firm’s clients.
By turning highly technical subject matter and inside access into a range of impactful and engaging stories, our content allowed Freshfields to take ownership of a strategic global service offering, helping it stand out in a crowded marketplace.