Building a Thought Leadership Platform for ICON International
What We Did:
When Jaine PR partnered with ICON International — a decades-old media-backed financial solutions company with deep client relationships but virtually no public-facing communications infrastructure — the mandate was to build from the ground up. Over two years, we developed a full messaging platform, oversaw a complete rebrand and website relaunch, and transformed a LinkedIn channel dominated by job postings into a thought leadership engine reaching CFOs, CMOs, and agency decision-makers. We launched The ICON Outlook newsletter, executed media outreach that reached a potential audience of 139.4M+, and established ICON as a conference presence at Cannes Lions and Possible — hosting four client events at major industry conferences, a first in the company's history. Across every channel, the strategy was the same: turn ICON's decades of expertise into a communications asset that works as hard as their financial solutions do.
What We Saw:
LinkedIn following grew 20%+ with a 15% average engagement rate sustained since 2025 — 5–15x LinkedIn's typical B2B benchmark of 1–3%.
Generated 105K impressions and 15,708 clicks (13.28% average CTR vs. LinkedIn's 1% benchmark) across 33 posts in Q1 2026.
A single principle-based media buying POV generated 2,313 impressions, 25 reposts (the most in ICON's LinkedIn history), and an 8.21% engagement rate.
Media announcements distributed to 641 outlets reaching 139.4M+ potential readers, with top placements in Yahoo Finance, AP News, The Street, Morningstar, and KTLA.
LinkedIn directly driving 121 tracked website referrals in Q1, confirming the owned-channel strategy is converting to business intent.
