How Pega Launched an Award-Winning Branded Journalism Magazine in 120 Days | Videogame Tech

4 months earlier than its January 2022 debut, GO! Journal was solely an concept.

The content material group at Pega thought {a magazine} may work effectively as a pure extension of the model’s profitable Way forward for Work content material marketing campaign.

Nobody on the group knew journal publishing, however that didn’t cease them.

Two weeks after they pitched the thought, GO! Journal moved ahead. Impressively, the group stayed on schedule and printed the digital and print variations of the now award-winning journal as deliberate.

“In hindsight, it was ridiculous and loopy, however wonderful that we managed to do it,” says Nick Lake, senior director of world advertising at Pega.

That formidable content material venture was one of many causes Nick was not too long ago named 2022 B2B Content material Marketer of the Yr.

GO! Journal is the publication the tech world didn’t understand it wanted, in accordance with Pega’s Content material Advertising and marketing Awards submission. Subjects coated within the inaugural situation cowl themes vital to the model and its potential clients: automation journeys, IT unicorns, citizen builders, find out how to lead higher, inclusivity within the workforce, decoding the bias of AI, and Pfizer’s frictionless drug-development venture administration system.

GO! took high honors for finest new publication design and finest general design. The venture additionally earned finalist honors for finest new print publication, finest general editorial, and finest distribution of a know-how publication. The group’s Tech Tendencies 2025 report earned a finalist nod for finest use of authentic analysis in content material advertising. Way forward for Work earned finalist mentions for finest B2B branded content material marketing campaign and finest built-in content material advertising program (print/digital).

However the GO! story started a number of years earlier than its quick-to-market debut.

Taking a brand journalism launch from idea to published in four months felt ridiculous, crazy, and amazing, says @NickLake1 via @AnnGynn and @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

At first

When Nick joined Pega 4 years in the past, the corporate didn’t have a devoted content material advertising program. “We had numerous content material, however we didn’t have any sort of construction or course of or governance round it,” he explains.

It fell to Nick to develop a program and deal with the problem drawback. His first step? Conduct a content material audit. He discovered Pega wasn’t totally different from many firms – many of the content material produced didn’t get used.

Underneath Nick’s management, that’s all modified. Content material doesn’t get created if it doesn’t serve a goal. And that goal should align with Pega’s technique and messaging.

“The standard of a corporation’s thought management content material is essentially the most seen illustration of the model. It’s what potential purchasers make selections primarily based on,” he says.

By organizing and constructing a strategic content material group, Nick helped others within the firm acknowledge how essential content material is to the enterprise. It acts because the gasoline to energy the model’s go-to-market packages.

And Nick’s function? “Generally, my job is to be a artistic individual. And typically it’s to be a site visitors cop (to the remainder of the group),” he says.

A strategic content team is critical to business – it’s the fuel that powers go-to-market efforts, says @NickLake1 via @AnnGynn and @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

Pega challenges the standard

Powering the corporate’s advertising isn’t a easy feat. The model’s low-code, AI-powered decisioning and workflow automation platform competes for patrons towards high-profile, big-name manufacturers with larger budgets. “As a challenger model, Pega must do issues otherwise and present up otherwise,” Nick explains.

On the similar time, the content material market is noisier than ever. “The pandemic was an enormous wake-up name. Organizations needed to speed up their transition to digital advertising,” Nick says. “The bar has gotten increased over the past couple of years.”

So Pega adopted a test-and-learn mentality to assist it zero in on content material that breaks via the noise. “We’ll strive issues. In the event that they don’t work, we’ll fail quick. But when they do work, we’re going to double down,” Nick says.

One of many group’s first tries got here within the type of Pega’s Way forward for Work report, primarily based on the corporate’s authentic analysis. When that labored effectively, Pega spun off gated stories targeted on area of interest audiences with the Way forward for IT, Way forward for Operations, and Way forward for Advertising and marketing. This fall, they’ll add the Way forward for Buyer Service to the content material ranks.

These aren’t your customary state-of-the-nation stories, which cowl what’s occurred or taking place at the moment. As an alternative, they illuminate what 3,000 senior managers and frontline IT employees say they anticipate will occur – and what to do about it.

The Way forward for Work content material marketing campaign works effectively, attracting the audiences Pega values and incomes nice engagement from these readers.

Go for GO!

The success of Way forward for Work gave the content material group the credibility to strive GO! Journal, which is localized for six international areas.

Assembly the formidable launch timeline took collaboration and creativity in drawback fixing.

Nick employed a contract managing editor with journal expertise (and a community of world-renowned journalists on the prepared) to guide the content material. She shortly put her connections to work on the journal’s function tales.

These tales embody interviews with many Pega purchasers. “We wished to ensure that we had a terrific voice for purchasers via this journal,” Nick says.

However the group knew that each one work tales and no enjoyable would make GO! a boring learn. So the journal additionally consists of horoscopes and different gentle content material (like find out how to make a stress ball).

An in-house artistic group created the content material’s sturdy visible id. Additionally they developed a thematic design system so every web page unfold may work by itself digitally and circulate collectively for the print journal.

Inventive expertise alone received’t get {a magazine} from concept to publication in 4 months. Nick credit Pega’s advertising venture supervisor (Kate Sutherby) for making certain all of it got here collectively so shortly. “We would have liked somebody with that basically strong set of venture administration abilities to assist us hit that deadline,” Nick explains.

Placing the content material to work

Shifting the needle on model consciousness and engagement via content material is barely half the job. Nick acknowledged the necessity to allow salespeople with the content material, too.

GO! Journal’s data-driven views on what’s taking place and the place the market’s heading give the gross sales group a method to showcase the Pega distinction in shopper conferences.

“Hopefully, these purchasers or prospects are extra inclined to work with us as a result of they see we’ve acquired insights to convey to the desk – a extra consultative method,” Nick explains.

Pega opted to print 1,500 copies of the inaugural GO! Journal to be used in gross sales conferences. “It’s about getting the journal into the palms of salespeople and gross sales enablement kits … Should you’re bodily giving it to them, it’s a visual reminder of the model and the energy of the model,” he says.

It additionally distinguishes Pega’s content material from many rivals’ all-digital method.

Powering forward

Constructing a strategic content material advertising program at Pega wasn’t an in a single day success. However it’s been impressively fast. From the technique applied only some years in the past to the four-month GO! Journal launch, Pega is discovering its content material not solely is used but it surely’s a key differentiator in a crowded market. It additionally stands tall throughout the group.

“What began as a group to create content material and a construction round that content material is now a hub group within the advertising group. We’re the engine home,” Nick says.

Cowl picture by Joseph Kalinowski/Content material Advertising and marketing Institute