To elevate BCG’s visibility and credibility in the rapidly shifting Gen AI landscape among a C-Suite audience, the strategy was rooted in timeliness, access and authority. Instead of offering static whitepapers or generalized opinion pieces, the solution was to build a dynamic video series that could evolve throughout the year—mirroring the pace of Gen AI’s impact on the real world.

The series, Future Forward: Human Potential in the Gen AI Era, launched in January 2024 immediately after the World Economic Forum in Davos—establishing BCG as a first responder to major global conversations. Each episode was strategically timed to coincide with major milestones in both the AI discourse and the WSJ editorial calendar—including Journal House at Cannes and WSJ Tech Live—ensuring the series remained at the center of emerging business, ethical and societal debates surrounding AI.

Research showed a gap in actionable AI leadership content—C-Suite decision-makers wanted perspective beyond the hype. They craved examples of how AI was being deployed successfully, what pitfalls to avoid and what future-readiness really looks like. Each episode tackled a distinct theme—from AI-powered personalization to enterprise-scale deployment—and featured not just BCG experts but industry leaders from L’Oréal, Penske’s Sherry Sanger and futurist Azeem Azhar, reflecting how cross-sector collaboration drives innovation.

The campaign culminated at WSJ Tech Live 2024, ensuring that BCG remained a visible, vocal presence at every major milestone in the year’s AI conversation. The WSJ Tech Live sponsorship was designed to drive commercial outcomes through BCG executives meeting with C-Suite and other targets on the ground.

The strategy ensured BCG stayed consistently relevant, delivering authentic thought leadership with real-world applications and reaffirming its position as a Gen AI authority from the World Economic Forum to WSJ Tech Live.

The creative ambition was to craft a story-led content experience that merged the gravitas of the latest data-rich research and IP on GenAI with the journalistic credibility of the WSJ for a C-Suite audience. Each of the five video episodes was designed to feel current, credible and cinematic—leaning on striking visuals, editorial-quality filming and natural, unscripted dialogue between thought leaders.

The storytelling premise was deceptively simple: bring together one BCG expert with one senior external stakeholder in a 1:1 fireside format. This created a sense of intellectual intimacy and avoided the overproduced, overly corporate tone common in branded AI content. Interviews were moderated by WSJ Custom Content editors and anchors (e.g., Phillipa Leighton-Jones and Raakhee Mirchandani), bringing rigor and neutrality to each exchange.

The episodes included:

• Harnessing the Power of Gen AI – filmed at Journal House Davos with BCG CMO Jessica Apotheker
• Personalizing the Consumer Relationship with Gen AI – with BCG’s Leila Hamidou and L’Oréal’s Othman Bennis
• Driving a Future-Ready Transportation Sector – with Penske’s Sherry Sanger and BCG AI global lead Nicolas De Bellefonds
• Deploying AI at Scale – a data-driven talk at WSJ Tech Live with Vladimir Lukić
• Beyond the AI Maturity Curve – a wide-angle reflection on ROI and future-of-work with Sylvain Duranton and Azeem Azhar

Design elements and page layouts within the WSJ content hub were refined to reinforce BCG’s premium brand image: full-screen immersive video players, minimalist typographic treatments and subtle AI-inspired motion graphics. All videos were also mobile-first, ensuring they resonated across C-suite devices and were optimised on-the-go consumption.

By framing the conversation through real business challenges and cross-industry perspectives, it invited audiences to think beyond the AI headline and into long-term potential. The content earned attention, not just impressions, with audiences that matter, including an astonishing 30% of the C-Suite.

To reach time-starved decision-makers and future-forward stakeholders, the amplification strategy focused on precision, prestige and placement. The campaign was anchored by a custom content hub on WSJ.com, supported by a full-stack paid media plan optimized for B2B impact.

Each video episode was also supported by:

• 5x sets of CIU (Client-Initiated Unit) display ads—contextually aligned and designed to mirror WSJ editorial aesthetics
• 5x sets of social promotional assets, optimized for LinkedIn and X to spark conversation and credibility within our networks
• 5x sets of 15- and 30-second pre-roll video ads, served before related editorial content on WSJ.com’s Video Center and throughout the Dow Jones network, ensuring strong brand adjacency and audience relevance

To deepen relevance, timing was essential. The launch episode went live immediately after the WEF Davos summit, capitalizing on peak interest in executive AI perspectives. Subsequent episodes were launched to coincide with key editorial themes and moments in the Gen AI news cycle, reinforcing BCG’s voice-of-the-moment positioning.

The crescendo was a live-stage speaking opportunity at WSJ Tech Live 2024, where BCG doubled down on its presence. WSJ Tech Live promotions—including homepage features and direct email to WSJ’s technology subscriber base—drove traffic back to the content hub, where previous episodes were accessible.

This multichannel strategy ensured visibility with both scale and precision. The campaign didn’t just follow Gen AI discourse—it actively helped shape it, making BCG’s point of view synonymous with the future of AI in business.
In addition, teaser videos were produced and hosted on bcg.com (linking to the WSJ video hub), as well as on the spokespeople’s and clients’ social media channels. This ensured a cohesive 360° amplification strategy that tapped into an additional organic audience.

The campaign exceeded all KPIs and reached the target C-Suite audience:

93% of respondents rated the videos “excellent” or “very good”, beating WSJ’s B2B benchmark by 7 points. Respondents praised its quality (95%), relevance (90%) and design (88%), with three in five strongly agreeing it enhanced their understanding of AI and made them more likely to visit BCG’s website.

The program generated 64,123 page views—128% of the goal—and 2,023 hours spent on-site, with an average session time 2.5x the benchmark.

Key Video Metrics:

• 131,170 quality views (2x goal)
• 51% completion rate (34% above benchmark)
• 4:22 min average view duration, 3x the YouTube benchmark
• 1,058,964 total video plays, more than 16x the contractual goal
• 14.3% hub engagement rate, 36% above benchmark

Audience Reach:

• The campaign achieved 22.2 million ad impressions and reached 7 million unique users across WSJ, Barron’s, MarketWatch and the Dow Jones network.
• Off-platform, it reached 1.9 million users via YouTube and LinkedIn, with strong traction in the U.S. (61%), India, Japan and UAE.
• 67% of traffic came from mobile and the audience included 30% C-suite and 27% senior decision-makers (BCG’s target).Business Impact:
• Brand lift studies showed a +10-point gain in favorability, with BCG rising to #1 in both favorability and consideration—surpassing Deloitte and Accenture.
• Perception of BCG as a leader in AI-driven business solutions jumped +15 points, the top KPI across audiences.

Following the campaign, BCG expanded the video series for 2025, citing its impact on visibility, perception lift and pipeline momentum.

The event delivered 15 strategic bilateral meetings for BCG, demonstrating commercial impact
BCG’s spokespeople and clients expressed high satisfaction, citing the “extremely high production quality” (Jessica Apotheker). BCG’s Vlad Lukic commented: “What we did at WSJ Tech Live, I want to do again for future paid media events.”

The Hub

Personalizing the Consumer Relationship with GenAI

Beyond the AI Maturity Curve: The Big Picture