Getting Too & Remaining… ‘at the Forefront’
Strategic Software Brand-Building
How a decision to prioritise the highest levels of quality in terms of communications, brand-experience and raw appeal allowed Altia to strategically build their software brand with ’SOCEX’ and take it to ‘the next level.’
Brief
Altia Solutions are a rapidly growing, VC-backed, UK-based software company. The organisation’s products supports investigators in both the private and public sectors.
As part of a raft of brand, marketing and culture-led activities, the ambitious scale-up company had decided to create and host a new national forum. They wanted to create an opportunity for the country’s most influential minds in law-enforcement to come together, meet and discuss the most pressing issues of the day.
As a long-term marketing partner of Altia, we were delighted to be given the opportunity to take responsibility for all things brand, marketing and communications. A role that we would hold for close to half-a-decade.
In summary, we were asked to support the ambitious scale-up aspirations of Altia’s leadership team.
Results
Over 5 years and 7 conferences, our work contributed to an incredibly successful ‘conference series’ and ‘national forum’ on behalf of the Altia leadership team. The results of this are as follows…
– The undoubted success of the initial event and subsequent expansion of the event format to multiple events per year.
– The recognition of the new national forum as the no-1 event of its type ‘nationally.’
This supported the scale-up aspirations of the main ‘Altia’ brand. This resulted in…
– An improved standing for Altia amongst ‘key influencers’ and ‘high-level decision-makers’ in law-enforcement.
– A strengthened brand position for Altia within the sector.
(Important leverage for a company that would go onto make a number of acquisitions in forthcoming years.)
– The newly formed consideration of Altia as ‘thought-leaders’ within their sector.
– New partnership opportunities for Altia with other brands in law-enforcement.
– Improved overall employee/supplier satisfaction for those attending SOCEX.
– Increased shareholder value for Altia investors on-exit..
How These Results Were Achieved?
The outstanding results were achieved by ensuring ‘SOCEX’ was always at the forefront of ‘best-practices.’ This meant being extremely innovative with the development of the initial identity, the brand-experience for delegates and with the marketing of the events themselves. We also enacted a bold vision and used some ‘entrepreneurial flair,’ later on in the process.
Services Used
Brand Strategy | Strategic Communications | Integrated Marketing | Brand Positioning | Brand Partnerships/ Sponsorships | Brand Experience | Vision-Shaping | Brand Activation | Budget Planning | Campaigns | Event Marketing | Thought Leadership | Creative Direction | Branding | Graphic Design | Digital Design | Design for Print | Copywriting
Our Collaboration in More Detail
These are some of the highlights of this approach…
Using the Power of ‘Storytelling’
The whole event series was given the most professional of professional edges with a series of potent stories revolving around the brand and various identities.
The forum’s name SOCEX was inspired by the Scottish ‘Entrepreneurial Exchange.’
While the initial brand mark would reflect the historic coming together of local, regional and national police-forces.
Standardising ‘The Essentials’
Vital efficiencies were made overall several years by standardising key communications. Items such as brochure templates, hero images and deck-slides all had high-quality creative frameworks underpinning them – allowing for exceptional time savings whilst maintaining a quality edge.
“When Altia decided to develop and be the lead sponsor of the ‘SOCEX’ conference and the 10th annual ‘Keith Hughes Awards,’ THE LOFT worked closely with us, and the event management company, to produce the unique branding for each of the events. They delivered excellent work within tight deadlines and the results were commented on very favourably by many of the attendees.”
Ian Watson, Managing Director of Altia Solutions, Chief Sponsors and Founding Partners of SOCEX
Selling ‘The Vision’
Each event was given greater credibility with several iconic hero images, crafted, to showcase the main themes of the event.
“SOCEX, Serious and Organised Crime Exchange. As a concept, the Conference title can spring up many images — whether coming from the dark world of blockbuster thrillers or gritty police dramas on TV. THE LOFT managed to capture the seriousness of the subject matter being discussed across the two-day conference while providing a document which will have a life long after the conference itself, capturing the core elements of the event in such a way that attendees and their colleagues will return to it as a vivid reminder of what took place.”
Martin Jack, Managing Director of Think Different Events and Co-Founder of SOCEX
Facilitating ‘a Better Conversation’
The events themselves got better for ‘delegates,’ with a range of measures introduced over several years.
The most significant of these was the inclusion of ‘high-level thought pieces’ into conference communications.
These created a more informative and involving conference experience for attendees.
Widening The Circle
We were able to reduce the costs and expand the scope of events by bringing a number of strategic partners on-board.
Introducing ‘a Human Touch’
Great efforts were made to ensure that Altia maximised their involvement with SOCEX.
Each year we ran ‘side-by-side’ marketing campaigns.
One of the most successful initiatives was the distribution of ‘The Altia Times.’
Dialling-In ‘Succession’
Easier ways of working were the result of a real and concerted effort to build ‘succession’ into SOCEX.
With more partners coming on-board and people involved in communications – a number of simple documents were created to minimise friction and harmonise working relations between all parties.
Painting a Brighter Future
Finally, a number of ideas were shared by ourselves into how the event series could be expanded digitally and internationally. These ideas would play a critical part in the future of SOCEX, particularly with Altia’s leadership teams desire to exit in the near future.
“THE LOFT was an integral part of the Altia story, we worked together for many years and they were instrumental in creating our global brand. They contributed to countless projects, worked across the entire organisation and provided real support throughout our business journey as a growing company.
They were a tremendous help, particularly in the earlier years, when our company’s growth was at its most rapid and things were changing every day. They supported then, as they always have done, by contributing to the company’s strategies with great energy, insight and creativity. Always grounded in the commercial realities of what we were doing and always with the bigger picture in mind.
Good fun too, highly recommended.”
Ian Watson, Co-Founder & CEO of Altia Solutions
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