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Saint-Gobain Off-Site Construction
Frontier PR put multi-national construction giant Saint-Gobain in the room with hard-to-reach industry leaders to discuss the future role of off-site construction in social and affordable housing. This delivered an invaluable learning opportunity as well as great media coverage and marketing content.
The Challenge
Saint-Gobain wanted to engage with key social housing stakeholders to better understand their perception and experiences of off-site construction, while also raising awareness of Saint-Gobain as a solution provider.
The Frontier PR Solution
Frontier PR developed a pair of industry roundtables bringing together some of the major figures in social housing. Each event was facilitated by an industry insider and captured on video and in print for use by our exclusive media partners and published on Saint-Gobain’s own digital channels.
Who is Saint-Gobain Offsite Construction?
Saint-Gobain has been at the forefront of materials innovation for over three centuries, employing around 168,000 colleagues in more than 75 countries, with a turnover of more than £50billion annually.
With a mission to Make the World a Better Home, Saint-Gobain Off-Site Solutions constructs build systems and component parts in purpose-built factories under strict quality-controlled conditions, which are then delivered to construction sites, optimised for quick and simple assembly.
The company harnesses its unique knowledge and experience of construction systems to create high performance, energy efficient buildings.
How Frontier PR Delivered Engagement and Knowledge
Because of its unrivalled knowledge of the social housing and construction sectors, Frontier PR was uniquely placed to create the two roundtable events, working with Saint-Gobain to develop the structure and themes, while handpicking two specialist housing media partners that would guarantee coverage.
Our ace card was Frontier PR’s relationship with key figures in affordable housing and the housing media, a group of stakeholders that Saint-Gobain had limited to access to.
For the Manchester roundtable we partnered with Place North West, the region’s leading property publisher and events organiser, to stage the event and create a guest list, inviting attendees from some of the area’s most high-profile housing related organisations.
For the London event Frontier PR took on the organisation of the event, venue and the guest list, tapping into our strong connections with social housing providers in the South East,
Frontier PR’s reputation in the sector meant that we could personally invite great attendees, knowing that we could achieve a good spread of voices from different organisations that would bring varied experience and important opinions to the roundtables.
It also created great networking opportunities for Saint-Gobain and all the other attendees. Both events were filmed and turned into insightful videos used by our media partners, Place North West in Manchester and Housing Digital in London, for their in-depth coverage of each roundtable.
The Results
Saint-Gobain Off-Site Solutions’ team met and built deeper relationships with around 20 leading figures from social housing.
The knowledge and insight gained from the attendees, both in terms of the challenges they face in delivering affordable housing, as well as their experiences and opinions of off-site construction, was valuable intelligence for Saint-Gobain that will help shape its future strategy in the UK.
Exclusive coverage in media key housing titles
First hand industry intelligence
A bank of impactful marketing and social media content
By partnering with Place North West for the Manchester roundtable and Housing Digital for the London event, Frontier PR was able to secure exclusive, detailed coverage of both events with leading publications reaching Saint-Gobain’s target audience.
The inclusion of video in the media coverage added a depth and personality that really brought the topics covered to life, while also driving Saint-Gobain’s own digital communications.
Finally, after both roundtables had been completed, Frontier PR authored a white paper for Saint-Gobain entitled How Should Off-Site Construction Be Part Of The Affordable Housing Toolkit.
The paper summarises the two events, explores the major themes, from planning and sustainability through to the benefits off-site solutions could play for social housing in the UK, quoting the expert attendees.
In conclusion, the whitepaper features some key findings that Saint-Gobain believe will help shape and develop the sector in the future. The final document will be available for download from Saint-Gobain’s website.
Chris Griffiths, Marketing Manager, Saint-Gobain Off-Site Solutions
“Frontier PR understood our requirements and developed a creative and compelling multifaceted communications campaign that not only met those objectives, but it also provided us with a much greater understanding of the UK market.
“This was a collaborative project where Saint-Gobain Off-Site Solutions was involved in the roundtables, so we could meet some great people, giving us access to valuable knowledge and market insight, as well as creating excellent coverage and communications collateral.”
