Standing out in a crowded AI market: SCAFFOLD PR case study
SCAFFOLD PR case study
Client: SCAFFOLD, an AI training platform founded by Marc Lewis, Dean of the School of Communication Arts
Sector: AI, advertising and creative industries, professional training
Services: Launch PR, press release writing, thought leadership, media relations, campaign reporting
Markets: UK and Europe
Duration: Two months
The challenge
SCAFFOLD launched into one of the busiest beats in business media. New AI products arrive every week, each making a new claim, and editors had long stopped treating novelty as news. SCAFFOLD had no funding round to announce, no big-name customer to point to and no event to tie the launch to.
What it did have was its founder. Marc Lewis has spent years developing creative talent as Dean of the School of Communication Arts, and built SCAFFOLD around a clear view of how AI is changing the way people learn their craft. That point of view gave the launch something to say that other AI products could not.
SCAFFOLD brought me in to run its launch PR and turn that point of view into coverage. This PR case study outlines how I did that.
Two audiences, one founder
Marc’s name carries weight in advertising and creative education. The product is an AI training platform, though, which put it in front of technology and business buyers who had not heard of him.
A story built on Marc’s reputation would have landed with the creative press and meant little to the tech buyers. A story about the product alone would have left out what set SCAFFOLD apart.
The approach
One launch, written two ways for two sets of readers, backed by a run of thought leadership articles under the founder’s name.
Two versions of the announcement. Two press releases were written from the same set of facts. One told the creative industry how the next generation of talent gets trained now that AI does much of the entry-level work. The other told technology and business readers about building skills and preparing a workforce for AI. Each went to its own list of journalists
Articles under the founder’s name. Seven original articles were written for Marc (though not all of them pitched), each matched to a specific publication. Subjects included the shift from maker to director, why AI training is teaching the wrong thing and what happens to an industry that automated its own apprenticeship. Those that were pitched went to the relevant publications as exclusives. Two were published (The Drum and Creative Salon)
The key foundations – for everything
Knowing who was writing about what. A running list tracked which journalists were actively covering AI and creative training, and where, so pitches went to people already interested in the subject rather than to a generic media list.
One set of facts. Both releases and every article drew on the same facts, so the creative and business versions of the story never contradicted each other.
The results
Fifteen pieces of coverage plus social shares and a newsletter inclusion, in addition to connecting Marc with the UK’s leading podcast and audio industry membership body.
Publications
Bylined articles
Combined audience
Estimate views
Nine titles: The Drum, Creative Salon, Performance Marketing World, IT Brief UK, eCommerceNews UK, CMOtech UK, Technology Reseller, Eureka Magazine and Complete AI Training
Two bylined articles in the advertising trade press. The Drum ran Marc’s argument that AI raising everyone to a 7 out of 10 was never the win the industry thought it was, then shared it with its 215,000 followers on X and again on Threads. Creative Salon ran his piece on what happens to an industry that automated its own apprenticeship
The best performing article of the campaign. The Creative Salon piece reached an estimated 8,480 views and was shared with it's 10,000+ followers on LinkedIn
Three placements from one title. Performance Marketing World featured SCAFFOLD AI in its weekly round-up of new adtech, posted it to LinkedIn and included it in its newsletter to 12,500 subscribers
A combined audience of 723,000 and around 44,900 estimated views, with an average domain authority of 48 and a high of 89 for The Drum
AudioUK: Introduced and connected Marc with the team at Audio UK, leading to an invitation to share SCAFFOLD AI in a members-focussed webinar
Every piece earned. Nothing paid for
“It was a real pleasure working with Rob. I hope our paths cross again.” – Marc Lewis, Founder, SCAFFOLD AI
For advice and guidance on launching into a crowded market with no funding news to lead on, get in touch at rob@robphillimore.com.
To learn more about SCAFFOLD, visit scaffoldworks.ai
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