Building a smart, sustainable content ecosystem

Helping a global leadership firm show up online the way they do in real life

When your reputation is global, but your content doesn't match (yet) 

Cultivating Leadership helps senior leaders at global organisations like Google, Microsoft, and Oxfam confidently navigate complexity. But while their impact was felt in boardrooms around the world, their digital presence hadn’t kept pace. 

Their website was hard to navigate. Social, email, and PR content felt disconnected. And without a clear strategy, keeping up consistent communications became near impossible when consulting work got busy (which it always did). 

They didn’t just need marketing. They needed a content ecosystem, something that would clarify their purpose, strengthen their brand voice, and support consistent storytelling across every channel. Oh, and it had to flex with the rhythms of a growing, decentralised global team of consultants. 

Shaping a system that supports business growth 

We partnered with Cultivating Leadership not only to design a content strategy but also to roll up our sleeves and build it with them: 

• Aligning their messaging with their purpose 

• Supporting individual consultants with LinkedIn thought leadership and blog writing 

• Writing website copy alongside an international project team 

• Developing messaging and templates for marketing campaigns for new leadership courses 

• Establishing a regular, engaging email comms schedule 

• Driving local PR efforts in Aotearoa, New Zealand 

• Training and supporting in-house team to build capability and coordinate efforts more sustainably with less reliance on external support 

We didn’t bring a one-size-fits-all plan. We created a responsive framework that could flex with Cultivating Leadership’s rhythms and help them show up consistently with purpose. 

The results: Less effort. More impact. 

With a scalable content ecosystem, Cultivating Leadership’s marketing efforts are now more consistent, effective, and easier to manage. Over ten months, Cultivating Leadership experienced: 

• 80% increase in website traffic from organic social 

• 3,787% increase in website traffic from email marketing 

• 72.5% increase in monthly reposts and 14.18% growth in LinkedIn followers, largely thanks to more of their consultants actively sharing and contributing to thought leadership 

• A special B Corp announcement email achieved 29.85% open rates (vs. 21.5% benchmark), and a 20% click-through (vs. 7% benchmark) 

• Internal team members with the knowledge and tools to coordinate marketing efforts. 

• A new website that clearly articulates who they are and the services they offer 

• New business growth into India, directly attributed to an email lead, thanks to stronger content, clearer structure, and better cadence 

Now, Cultivating Leadership has a scalable system that works with them to amplify what they do best, at scale. 

Our markets and context have evolved, and we needed to rethink how we market both our global business and the individuals connected with us. We turned to Brainchild for support in this journey. Over the past two years, we’ve run a series of experiments and initiatives that have not only improved our digital presence but also helped grow our internal capability. 

It’s been a pleasure working with Brainchild in a truly collaborative way. They’ve been committed to our aspirations and have seamlessly integrated with our other partners to help shape how we show up in the world. 

Jim Wicks 

Global Managing Director