We grounded our campaign in FT research, which showed that C-suites over-index 8x on content about AI and cyber security, but also 7x on sports-related content. Our strategy? In order to show how Box supports high-stakes leadership, we should engage the audience during their working hours, but through a key passion: sports.

We developed “Leadership, beyond the boardroom”, a content-led campaign combining business insights with lifestyle moments that naturally engage the target audience. The duality was deliberate, mirroring blurred boundaries between professional and personal life, and meeting C-suites where their attention is already high.

The core campaign objectives:

• Raise awareness of Box as a thought leader in AI and content management
• Explain the concept of unstructured data in a simple, engaging way
• Drive attention and recall among senior decision-makers
• Position Box as a brand that “gets” how business leaders think today

Our decision to create a hero piece – a short animated explainer video – was grounded in audience insights: time-poor leaders respond better to concise, visual formats. Alongside this, we developed two thought-leadership articles and amplified the campaign through premium placements across FT channels, including sponsorship of “FT Scoreboard”, multi-format editorial content dedicated to the business of sport. This addition of editorial content helped build brand awareness for Box during our readers’ personal time, and ensured the brand was unmissable during their experience across the FT.

By blending performance and creativity, the campaign challenged traditional B2B norms and helped redefine Box’s brand in the minds of senior business readers.

To stand out among a time-poor audience, the campaign needed a bold creative centrepiece. We delivered that with an animated explainer video: a deceptively simple, metaphor-led story about the chaos of unstructured data.

Visually playful and tonally witty, the 90-second video uses narration to guide viewers through how BoxAI brings structure to chaos, helping companies unlock insights, mitigate risk and accelerate decision-making. The concept was rooted in clarity but brought to life with a playful charm – designed to make a complex idea not just understandable, but also memorable.

This approach achieved two goals:

• High comprehension – even for non-technical viewers
• Emotional resonance – tapping into the universal feeling of being overwhelmed by information

The video was hosted alongside two co-created written articles:

• How companies can use generative AI to unlock the latent power of business content
• How cyber security is evolving in an AI-driven world

Together, this content suite reflected Box’s role at the intersection of innovation, security and productivity.

But we didn’t stop at business content. To further elevate Box’s brand, we integrated with FT Scoreboard, the FT’s business of sport channel. Box sponsored high-performing editorial videos – including one focused on the data revolution in football – and extended its messaging into content that C-suites were already watching and engaging with at scale.

The result? A campaign that felt premium, intelligent and relevant, as well as creative, friendly and distinctly human.

Our amplification strategy was designed to deliver both reach and precision. We deployed a layered approach:

1. FT.com premium placements

• Homepage roadblock + native partner content slot
• Targeted display across tech and leadership content
• Contextual placements alongside articles on AI, cloud and the future of work

2. Social media (LinkedIn & X)
Using demographic and behavioural targeting, we reached C-suites and BDMs in the UK and US. We excluded low-performing job titles and refined by industry and company size. Twitter (X) targeted users interested in tech, AI and innovation; LinkedIn used job seniority filters to engage decision-makers directly.

3. Retargeting and optimisation
We used real-time reporting to adapt creative and media – pausing low performers and reallocating spend to the top-performing assets.

4. Scoreboard sponsorship
Box was aligned with some of the FT’s highest-performing editorial video content in 2024, from the Olympics to the Euros. This provided brand association in a lifestyle context, leveraging the FT’s data showing that C-suites consume sport content 7x more than the average FT reader.

5. Cross-platform consistency
All creatives – from video to display to social – echoed the look and feel of the animated explainer, creating a unified and recognisable campaign identity.

In total, we delivered:
9.2m+ impressions across FT.com and social
399k video views on FT Scoreboard content
18.5k partner content page views (+37% above target)
28% C-suite engagement – 87% above FT benchmark

This campaign outperformed expectations across every key metric.

Awareness and engagement

• Page views 37% above target
• Average attention time 33% above FT benchmark
• 224+ hours spent with Box content

Audience quality

• C-suite and BDM readers 28% and 29% above benchmark respectively

Media performance

• Scoreboard videos: Views 196% vs target

Brand impact

• Strong uplift in user awareness and consideration of Box
• Action intent from those who saw Box’s content saw an uplift of 330% compared with those who were not exposed