The client 

Fora, having merged with The Office Group, offers flexible workspaces designed to accommodate diverse work styles, providing private offices and communal areas that cater to businesses of all sizes. With over 60 distinctive locations across the UK and Germany, they emphasise flexibility with three-month minimum term agreements and all-inclusive monthly billing. 

Members benefit from amenities such as meeting rooms, gyms, cafés, co-working spaces and roof terraces, whilst having a commitment to sustainability through use of 100% renewable electricity and zero waste to landfill policies. By focusing on creating environments that empower individuals to work in their unique ways, Fora aims to redefine the traditional office experience. 

The challenge 

When we joined forces with Fora, our first major challenge was executing a seamless merge of The Office Group and Fora brands, for which The Office Group was a longstanding, highly recognised and regarded brand in the B2B office space. The rebrand of the two merged brands had the aim of becoming a holistic, inclusive and vibrant brand that redefined the modern workspace. This required a detailed plan, with brand awareness at the forefront, alongside account restructuring for all existing ad activity.

There were many risks to mitigate, including confusion around the new brand, the loss of brand equity established by The Office Group and creating activity from scratch with no historic data to learn from for demand generation activity, meaning we had the challenge of making a big impact quickly, so as to not harm the wider company profits. 

Aside from the rebrand work, Fora have also had to navigate a highly competitive space, against the likes of Regus and WeWork, by ensuring their USPs were conveyed, allowing them to take more share of the market, fill office space and grow their building portfolio in order to grow revenue each year.

Having a presence in both the UK and Germany meant flexing our approach in the two territories based on differing budgets, office space availability and levels of brand awareness. We also had to consider having quite a localised approach, considering the product is physical space, that is aligned with the ever-changing hybrid working environments and commuter behaviours in the target territories.

What we did 

Our partnership with Fora began with a significant restructuring of their digital ad accounts to ensure comprehensive coverage of their office spaces. Given that The Office Group was well established, we presented an extensive risk assessment to anticipate potential fluctuations in leads following the initial merge. It was important we were transparent in communicating the potential for lead drops, however ultimately we achieved a sustained increase in leads with no decline post-merge.

We prioritised advertising higher-value office spaces, carefully considering the diverse range of services offered by Fora. This strategic shift was fully implemented slightly later on, and we paused lower-value services like meeting room bookings to focus on maximising lead quality and value. Our primary objective was driving new customer acquisition through targeted Search efforts. We faced aggressive competitor bidding, causing high costs for branded search terms and pivoted to successfully increase impression share for non-branded keywords, maintaining cost efficiency.

To elevate brand visibility, Fora’s campaigns targeted London commuters through digital out-of-home (DooH) and traditional out-of-home (OOH) advertising at key train stations and underground routes, primarily in London. Advertising placements in publications such as the Financial Times reinforced Fora’s appeal to businesses and freelancers.

Our Search efforts have been reinforced with additional digital campaigns including Performance Max, Display YouTube, Demand Gen and Paid Social campaigns, all playing their part in a comprehensive media plan that has leveraged our partnerships with numerous media suppliers and our in-house expertise across all Paid channels. The creative strategy was centred around promoting Fora as a young and modern brand that is more than just an office space, but as a tailored experience that redefines flexible work for office-goers.

The results

Through our strategic efforts and data-driven decisions, our collaboration with Fora has achieved measurable success to date, positioning them at the forefront of the flexible workspace market.

Since the start of our partnership we have gone from strength to strength, with highlights from our quarterly business reviews showing up to a 64% increase in enquiries for the UK year on year, with a 52% reduction in cost-per-acquisition, showing great efficiency and the overall impact of how a strong brand awareness campaign, particularly for a brand really re-establishing itself post merger, can influence the lower funnel metrics.

Despite usually being quite a lull for most B2B businesses, Fora’s first December with Hallam was the best December Fora had ever seen as a business, setting up the following for continued success and growth. 

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