When we began working with Tower Cold Chain in September 2021, the specialist temperature-controlled packaging company had ambitious plans for growth.
Alongside its commercial objectives was a longer-term ambition: to build the profile and brand equity of the business with a view to a potential buy-out within five years.
To support that ambition, Tower Cold Chain needed to strengthen its reputation internationally and become more visible to the audiences that mattered across the pharmaceutical, life sciences, airline and third-party logistics sectors.
Our strategy was built around one central principle: consistent visibility needed to be matched by credible evidence of Tower Cold Chain’s expertise, growth and relevance to its markets.
Rather than relying on individual product announcements, we developed five strategic content pillars covering products, industry themes, geography, customers and corporate activity. These gave the programme a consistent framework while allowing communications to respond to subjects including risk, sustainability, last-mile delivery, scalability, regional growth and customer experience.
The approach also recognised that Tower Cold Chain’s reputation would be built across multiple touchpoints. Earned PR content was therefore supported by owned and paid LinkedIn activity designed to build the company’s network and reputation.
Over the following three years, we established a sustained international communications programme targeting the publications and audiences that mattered to Tower Cold Chain across pharmaceutical, airline and 3PL markets.
Media relations combined company news with thought leadership, while targeted content allowed Tower Cold Chain to demonstrate expertise on the issues shaping its customers’ world. The programme secured more than 800 items of global media coverage, including 46 placed thought leadership articles.
The international nature of that influence was important. Coverage extended across relevant media in different geographical markets, with PR activity deliberately targeting publications read by pharmaceutical, airline and 3PL audiences.
One example was the launch of Tower Cold Chain’s US Centre of Excellence. The campaign generated 31 strategically placed stories across US, European and Asian pharmaceutical, logistics and aviation media. Coverage subsequently led to an invitation to appear on the FreightWaves podcast and as well as an invitation from BritishAmerican Business to enter its awards. Tower went on to win its Transatlantic Growth Award for UK SME Growth & Investment in the US.
Alongside media relations, we used owned and social content to build a direct audience for the brand. From around 1,500 LinkedIn followers in December 2021, Tower Cold Chain reached 4,663 by December 2024, representing 3,163 additional followers and a reported 209% increase.
Between October 2023 and September 2024 alone, organic LinkedIn activity generated 173,000 impressions, 10,954 clicks and 5,063 likes from 144 posts, while adding 1,023 followers.
The communications programme delivered measurable growth in Tower Cold Chain’s visibility and authority:
But the bigger measure of impact was what happened to the business itself.
Tower Cold Chain had set out to build its brand equity with the ambition of achieving a buy-out within five years. In 2024, three years after Nielsen McAllister began working with the company, Tower Cold Chain was acquired by Cold Chain Technologies.
A five-year ambition had been achieved in three – and we are proud to say that the new owner recognised our value and retained our services.
"The Nielsen McAllister team worked hard to understand our business, people, and culture, and have no doubt contributed to our growth strategy. We saw Nielsen McAllister as wholeheartedly part of our global team, proactively engaging with all functions and departments across our global footprint. Tower valued the pride that NMPR demonstrated, often constructively challenging our ideas to get the best result for Tower’s wider strategic objectives. Nielsen McAllister’s culture reflected Tower’s business values. The team were approachable, accountable, and reliable, supported by a good sense of humour - these attributes collectively ensured we developed and achieved our mutually agreed goals.”
Nick Gilmore, Global Head of Sales and Marketing, Tower Cold Chain