Project Management Institute - Best Marketing - B2B Campaign

Company: Project Management Institute, Newtown Square, PA
Entry Submitted By: Ketchum
Company Description: Project Management Institute (PMI) is the world's leading association for those who consider project, program or portfolio management their profession. Through global advocacy, collaboration, education and research, we work to prepare more than three million professionals around the world for The Project Economy in which work, and individuals, are organized around projects, products and programs.
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Marketing – Business to Business

Nomination Title: Project Management Institute Helps Professionals Thrive in the New Work Ecosystem

Specify the date on which this campaign or program was launched: March 12, 2020

PMI announcedit was offering several digital training and skill-building courses — at no cost — to help people upskill/reskill during stay at home orders. Then we shifted focus to the organization, offering advice for how businesses can train themselves to be more “gymnastic” and prepare to deal with the next VUCA event by focusing on improvisation, business agilityand rebuilding.

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/pmi-offers-free-project-management-courses-during-covid-19-quarantines/
https://www.fastcompany.com/90529468/challenging-times-calls-for-businesses-to-embrace-this-one-multi-faceted-skill
https://www.ft.com/brandsuite/project-management-institute/projecting-future-success-the-pivotal-role-of-agile-project-management-in-the-new-work-ecosystem.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/businessreporter/2020/06/22/rebuilding-business-why-organisations-need-to-adapt-to-change/#43fa79c7181a

The team created and launched several new communication channels to support New Work Ecosystem themes, and appeal to different audiences, including: The PMI Official Blog, a new PMI-owned platform specifically designed to share executive perspectives; Unplugged, a forum for the CEO to share video messages of empathy and perspective; The Center Stage Podcast, a career development podcast focused on the strengths of virtual teams and cross-functional project-based work; and The Knowledge Initiative: an external networking group including members of PMI’s Global Executive Council companies.

https://www.pmi.org/about/blog/navigating-disruptive-change
https://www.pmi.org/the-project-economy/center-stage-podcast

In March 2020, Project Management Institute (PMI), the world's leading association for the project management profession, recognized that it was in unique position with a vital duty. Like everyone else in the world, our organization was navigating the social disruption of a global pandemic in real time. But as project management experts, we brought a level of expertise that was crucial for operating in a world of rapid change we often characterize as “VUCA” – volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous.

PMI had its own datarelated to organizational and team success, pulled from its annualPulse of the Professionreport, a global survey of project professionals and senior organizational leaders. The key takeaway from the research is that organizations can create future-ready talent by prioritizing skill building, specifically technical proficiencies and digital skills, in addition to leadership skills such as empathy, communication and emotional intelligence. The data showed most organizations place an almost equal emphasis on developing leadership skills as they do technical skills (65 percent and 68 percent, respectively).

https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/pulse-indepth-tomorrows-teams-today-11941

These skills – what we call Power Skills – were already vital to the challenges of business in a pre-COVID world. As 2020 unfolded, they became even more essential to supporting the rebuilding and recovery. With this insight we created a singular playbook for complex times: “The New Work Ecosystem.”

Reacting immediately to global pandemic protocols, we moved not only our staff but our entire model virtual, from professional development courses and networking opportunities to certification training and exams to our extensive chapter and volunteer network.

We then created New Work Ecosystem, a thought leadership initiative with clear strategies and tools, empowering people to execute by understanding the most effective ways of working during the current challenges. It would help them build change-critical power skills to drive large-scale change and help them build the business acumen to understand the implications of their work on their organization and society.

The initiative began simply, offering tips and advice across LinkedIn and traditional media coverage, before moving focus on the role that project management plays in making virtual teams of the future a success. We quickly evaluated what perspective and resources already existed and packaged them into advice-style pieces on subjects as varied as virtual meeting best practices, remote team bonding and productivity and how to manage virtual teams. PMI announced it was offering several digital training and skill-building courses — at no cost —to help people upskill/reskill during stay at home orders. Then we shifted focus to the organization, offering advice for how businesses can train themselves to be more “gymnastic” and prepare to deal with the next VUCA event by focusing on improvisation, business agility and rebuilding.

https://www.businessinsider.com/rules-for-holding-successful-virtual-meetings-with-employees">
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danabrownlee/2020/04/08/use-these-4-daily-habits-to-promote-remote-team-bonding/#2c1605c5127f
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danabrownlee/2020/04/16/this-is-how-remote-teams-stay-productive/#129117cf36b7
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/business-reporter/managing-change-new-work-ecosystem/
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/pmi-offers-free-project-management-courses-during-covid-19-quarantines/

Goal: Build PMI association membership and retention, attracting talent to the project management industry and forging relationships with new organizations and professionals.

-The association ended January 2021 with approximately 655,000, members (up more than 25,000 members from January 2020) – part of a growing community of more than 300 chapters in 208 countries/territories.
-In the first week after release, more than 8,500 people took one of the free online e-learning courses – Agile in the PMO, Business Continuity and Project Management for Beginners – and thousands more have completed the courses since.
- Through these programs in specific, PMI has awarded the community more than 35,000 Professional Development Units (required tomaintain certification status) at no cost.
- From March 2020 to January 2021, there have been a more than 200,000 course enrollments across all of PMI’s digital offerings.

Goal: Build visibility for PMI and the industry.

Generated more than 2,000 placements and 5 million potential impressions in target business and trade media from March 2020 - January 2021

-The volume of traditional and social mentions of PMI grew 169% YoY
-The campaign earned 6.8K engagements on social
-Achieved 93% message inclusion in traditional media and 77% on social media
-Between May 2020 (when the blog started) and the end of 2020, two of the top three posts were related to NWE content, resulting in approximately 5,000 total unique visitors