The built environment and construction sector account for 38% of global carbon emissions. Holcim, a global leader in innovative and sustainable building solutions, is on a mission to change this and accelerate the transition towards net zero.
Over 3 years together, we’ve grown Holcim’s LinkedIn to:
The challenge
Audiences define brands by the stories they tell. To change perceptions on a large, global scale involves a big shift in communication – the topics, the approach, and even the language you choose.
Holcim wanted to expand beyond product-focused communications and position itself as a global leader in innovative and sustainable building materials, leading the transition to net zero with science-based targets, through circular and decarbonised construction.
The company’s Global Digital Communications team was looking for a partner that could seamlessly embed themselves within their team and culture. They needed to have a shared understanding of the company, its messaging around sustainability, and reliably produce high-quality content at very high volumes that reflected that messaging.
Your ability to integrate into our team, coupled with your industry knowledge and organizational skills, have been instrumental in our success. It has been an honor to work alongside such talented individuals. You've taught me a lot.
Laura Suzanne
Employee Communications Manager at HOLCIM
The solution
By applying the principles and tools that grew the World Economic Forum's digital audience into the millions, The Content Engine revolutionised Holcim’s approach to content.
From November 2021 - March 2024, we bolstered the efforts of the Global Digital Communications team with high volumes of quality content, covering campaigns, events, and thought leadership at the highest level. The Content Engine team helped create a voice for Holcim’s senior leaders, writing regularly for their CEO, their former Head of Communications (and now CSO) as well as various other global leaders.
We ran a newsroom-style operation to ensure a steady flow of impactful, channel-specific ideas and content on a daily basis. To shift the general sentiment, we created outside-in content that would align Holcim’s stories with the global sustainability agenda. Instead of rediscovering ‘innovative new building materials’, Holcim told stories of Roman history inspiring present-day sustainability efforts, looking at their work through a storytelling, sustainability lens.
To ensure continuous improvement, The Content Engine provided in-depth analytics and regular reporting.
A personalised analytics dashboard for Holcim corporate social media accounts showed real-time individual and average performance metrics such as reach, impression, engagements and follower growth for every platform, campaign and post.
We used this to understand what worked, what didn’t, and how their content strategy should change in response. Holcim’s media team regularly accessed these dashboards to track all campaigns and related post-performance in real time. Together we adapted the dashboard to better complement Holcim’s own analytics and support their growth.
From Day 1, it was clear that The Content Engine is miles ahead of other agencies working in this space. From strategy to tactics, short-term turnaround to long-term planning, The Content Engine delivers every time.
Alice More O’Ferrall
former Global Head of Digital Communications at HOLCIM
The Impact
Through publishing high-volume, high-quality content, Holcim’s reputation as a sustainable leader was cemented.
After a year of working with Holcim, the average number of times a post was shared by social users grew by 30%. In that time, our strategy more than doubled the number of average impressions (from 12,000 to 26,000) and engagements (500 to 1,200) per post.
Holcim’s LinkedIn following grew from 678,000 to 900,000+ over just two years, a growth rate that is twice the industry average for accounts with 100k+ followers. This growth was reflected across all social channels, with an average annual follower growth rate of ~15% on LinkedIn, compared to the 2024 average of ~2%.
In 2023, The Science Based Targets Network selected Holcim to be one of seventeen global companies to pilot the world’s first science-based targets for nature – the only one in its industry. Holcim was also recognised at COP28, receiving two awards for its global carbon capture leadership and technologies.
Holcim has embedded our content processes into their team to help them continue producing high volumes of high-quality, brand-building content. By creating social media templates for visual and video content, we have equipped the team for long-term success.
