Attracting the best scale-up technology CEOs to Frog Capital for investment.

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Frog Capital is a growth equity investor specialising in European scale-up software companies. Through their unique Scale-Up methodology supported by their Operating Partner program, Frog Capital focuses on specific sector themes to select and work with rapidly growing scale-up CEOs.

Before partnering up, Frog were active on relationship management, delivering genuine, high-quality events and had a reasonable web presence. But after our initial scoping and assessment work, it was clear that there was significant room for improvement – particularly in the areas of strategy, productisation of key activities, off-line marketing, social media and coherence between all market-facing activities.

“The team revealed major potential for improvement, from strategy and messaging through to day-to-day social content,” Mike Reid, Senior Partner at Frog Capital, tells us. “They highlighted market perceptions of us that we hadn’t realised, let alone started to address.”

Frog wanted to in-source senior level marketing expertise with a partner who bought into the Frog DNA, and one that could integrate as part of the Frog team.

The Scale-Up methodology.

Frog’s work with their investee companies was extensive and developing rapidly. We recognised this as a unique proposition in the competitor landscape and used it as the basis for the refreshed marketing approach. This strategy would create a brand that stood out within the investment marketplace and immediately resonate with the right clients.

We led the creation of the “Frog Capital Scale-Up methodology” branding, and supported the Frog team to scale this process. This was established by producing detailed underpinning content that described Frog’s model of scaling rapidly growing companies successfully. By targeting the strategy towards the CEO, this positioned Frog in the market in a unique and confident way. CEO dinners were also introduced to further establish Frog’s methodology and expert position practically in the market.

A stand-out investment brand.

“We had experts in the field and a well-established process but lacked the tools and the infrastructure to get that across in the market,” Mike recalls. “The team skilfully implemented a strong content plan, structured social media campaigns and blogs to communicate our market-leading methodology and our individual stories. By speaking to our operators in the Frog team, they were able to create genuine and consistent content that highlighted our expertise.”

Our communication and branding strategies succeeded in presenting Frog’s identity to the market and had significant impact on the audience. Thought leadership and social content performed extremely well with Frog’s clients – in particular, Twitter impressions rose exponentially by 1134%, and the “Letter to my CEO Self” blog, which included well-known names such as Brent Hoberman, gained 300% more page views than any other content.

What next?

Frog’s market leading methodology and CEO dinner events continue to thrive and function as expert examples in the industry. As Mike explains, “The team’s strategic expertise, guidance, passion and involvement in operational delivery has undoubtedly helped Frog become recognised as one of the up-and-coming leaders in our field.

“Ultimately, the team acted as an extension of our own and their passion for our business was a key element in our success. Their marketing strategy created an infrastructure that enabled us to take our business to the next level and, because of that, I’ve recommended them to a number of portfolio companies. They really are expert marketing partners for technology firms looking to establish themselves and grow.”