Winning hearts and minds

The lighting industry has witnessed a dramatic transformation in recent years and continues to change rapidly. The significant energy savings that can be achieved through energy efficient LEDs means that ‘lighting’ has shifted from being a commodity product to a strategic asset, a key contributor to an organisation’s energy and carbon reduction programmes.

With this has come a need for lighting manufacturers such as GE Lighting to re-position its offer from a seller of lighting products to a strategic partner – and to extend its messaging to a whole new audience of finance directors, sustainability and energy managers and the C-suite audience – engaging the entire target market at a higher level.

Illuminated Minds sought to engage this audience through a collaborative approach, whereby its target audience was also its contributors. It provided a credible, independent platform for journalists, customers, influencers and industry professionals to share knowledge and ideas.

A comprehensive content schedule was developed and managed by CIB. Working with GE Lighting’s central-European agency, the team drove topic and theme ideas by keeping a close eye on market trends and developing news stories. The team also highlighted key areas from within GE Lighting to develop into original content – this resulted in a number of white paper summaries, infographics, key customer insights and live event updates being published on the site.

Social media was used as a key support to the Illuminated Minds blog. Using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in a multichannel approach has not only increased the reach and traffic of Illuminated Minds but has strengthened GE Lighting’s position as a source of industry leading ideas and expertise. Leveraging key contributors’ names and profiles, social media has been used as a starting point for the conversations and discussions expanded upon on Illuminated Minds.

In the first half of 2015, the six months following its launch, Illuminated Minds published 37 posts receiving more than 17,800 views and GE Lighting’s Twitter account grew from 3,297 followers to 4,067.