Workbooks CRM: Marketing Week’s Campaign of the Year

The client

Workbooks are the ‘no-bullsh*t CRM software for midsize businesses’. They are a B2B challenger brand in a field dominated by two key players, but pride themself on offering a more compelling alternative.

They emphasise transparent pricing and efficient implementation, with workshops to ensure the CRM is customised to clients’ needs before any commitment. They are recognised as the #1 CRM software for midsize businesses by TechRadarPro in 2025, and continue to focus on delivering essential features without unnecessary complexity, aiming to enhance sales, operations, and marketing campaign results for the businesses they work with.

Hallam partnered with Workbooks to create campaigns that would tell a compelling story, cut through the noise and engage their audience, educating and influencing users to have Workbooks on their “day one” list when choosing or switching their CRM provider.

The challenge 

The key challenge we faced was making a big enough impact with users in such a competitive space without having huge budgets, and actually convincing the right decision-makers to consider an alternative to a system that may be completely embedded within their organisation. 

This challenge required two key elements; a creative thread that would stop people in their tracks and a media plan to amplify the creative in front of all the right people, at the right time in the right places.

Workbooks initially approached us feeling dissatisfied with creative ideas from other agencies that just weren’t bold enough. As an underdog in a category dominated by two giants, both of whom have immense brand equity, they faced the significant challenge of standing out and being heard in a highly competitive market. Together with Workbooks we decided that a video would be necessary to be remembered and recalled by our target audience, but also to be an adaptable creative that could be reworked into many formats.

What we did 

Workbooks’ brief made it clear that they wanted a brand awareness campaign to reposition themselves as a company that could cut through the noise, despite not having the extensive budgets or brand recognition of their competitors.

Initially, the idea of mascots and being ‘underdogs’ was brought to the table, but as discussions evolved, we shifted toward a bolder, more distinctive creative concept. The turning point came when we saw Workbooks identify themselves as a “no bullshit” company, an ethos they upheld in every aspect of their business. 

This inspired the “No BS CRM” concept, which we developed into a full creative platform. The platform had an irreverent, tongue-in-cheek tone designed to grab attention without being offensive. Our messaging used a sliding scale of language, making sure it was adaptable across channels, whilst staying true to its bold identity.

The client embraced the idea of a creative platform, a unifying thread that could extend across multiple touchpoints, from their website to digital marketing and above-the-line activity. The “No BS CRM” platform anchored all campaign elements, strengthening brand cohesion and delivering a clear, memorable message. Workbooks’ holistic use of the creative across their business really accelerated its success.

The centrepiece of the campaign was a 30-second video ad, brought to life by our video partners. This video was strategically deployed across LinkedIn, Meta, YouTube and Display platforms, serving as the campaign’s primary attention-grabber. 

We also captured key scenes with a photographer on set, producing assets tailored for out-of-home (digital and print) placements and paid media ads. These visual elements, optimised for various Paid Media ads and the company’s website, provided additional opportunities for virality and engagement.

To execute successful ad campaigns for Workbooks, we developed a dual-market strategy tailored to budget constraints and audience specificity. In the UK, we prioritised maximising reach and awareness through strategic use of digital out-of-home (DooH) and out-of-home (OOH) placements at high-traffic AB1 railway stations during the mid-phase of a 90-day campaign. 

This was complemented by hyper-targeted LinkedIn ads for senior executives in business services, manufacturing, and logistics industries, leveraging TAL (target account list) targeting for precision. We extended reach through Meta campaigns focused on B2B decision-makers and predictive audiences, while YouTube and Display ads targeted CRM software decision-makers using keyword and Bombora segments.

For the U.S. market, we refined our targeting to Central Business Districts (CBDs) with high business service propensities, mitigating budget saturation. A robust testing roadmap allowed us to optimise audience engagement by varying formats, creatives and headlines. This tailored approach ensured effective engagement and awareness growth across key market segments.

The results 

This campaign was a testament to the power of collaboration. The client’s openness and involvement were pivotal; we held regular calls ensuring everyone, from our team to the client and video production partners, had a say. This collaborative spirit not only made the process enjoyable but also contributed to the campaign’s success. The creative platform’s riskier positioning paid off, generating leads, positive feedback, and heightened visibility for Workbooks in their industry. We also won Marketing Week’s Campaign of the Year which speaks volumes about how this campaign resonated with users.

Our paid media campaign for Workbooks has been really successful across both the UK and US markets. In the UK, we delivered over 75 million digital impressions, reaching 2.6 million unique users with a strong audience retention rate and a digital click-through rate. In the US, despite a larger market and more constrained budgets, we ensured Central Business Districts were the primary focus, and achieved over 1.8 million digital impressions and a unique reach of 424k users, with a digital CtR of 0.11%. These efforts contributed to a 33% increase in organic traffic to workbooks.com during the campaign, underscoring the effectiveness of our targeting and audience penetration in driving engagement and brand visibility.

On top of this, we have seen Workbooks’ Share of Search stabilise, after initially seeing a decline, plus the Workbooks.com as a domain has become more powerful since the campaign’s launch (+3 DR). Plus we’ve been delighted to see feedback from the CEO Of Workbooks in LinkedIn, expressing how our brand awareness efforts have funnelled down into high intent lower funnel conversations too.

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Just tell us what you want to achieve, and we’ll let you know what experience we have in your sector, and how we can help you. Alternatively, you can check out more of our work here. Our methodology has been successful in almost all sectors, delivering double and triple-digit improvements on average.