Maersk’s 2025 Digital PR: 3.5x ROAS Success

To do digital PR right for supply chain reliability, you need transparency, real expertise, and a consistent message. When Maersk kicked off its “Working through a New Normal” campaign in early 2025, the goal was simple: prove it was a steady hand in a volatile market. This was a strategic play to shape perceptions and deliver real value, a solid blueprint for how big companies can use digital channels to build trust when things get chaotic.

Campaign Overview: “Working through a New Normal”

The “Working through a New Normal” campaign ran for six months, from January to June 2025, on a total budget of $750,000. The whole point was to tackle the constant uncertainty in global supply chains by showing Maersk as a thought leader and a problem-solver, not just another shipping company. Our strategy was all about proving our expertise with data-packed content, executive insights, and practical advice for businesses trying to manage disruptions. We were shooting for a real lift in brand sentiment and, most importantly, more qualified sales inquiries by demonstrating how Maersk gets ahead of complex logistics problems.

The metrics we set were ambitious but clear. We aimed for a cost per lead (CPL) under $150, a return on ad spend (ROAS) of at least 3x, and a click-through rate (CTR) over 3.5% for our content. With a projection of 15 million impressions, we were targeting a 5% conversion rate from a person reading our content to becoming a qualified lead. Hitting those numbers meant we had to use multiple channels and really get inside the heads of our audience: supply chain directors, procurement managers, and C-suite execs in manufacturing and retail.

Strategic Pillars and Content Approach

The campaign was built on three pillars:

1. Data-Driven Insights: We launched the “Global Supply Chain Index,” a proprietary quarterly report that dug into indicators like shipping capacity, port congestion, and geopolitical risk.
2. Expert Commentary: We got Maersk executives in front of the right people through interviews, op-eds, and webinars on places like LinkedIn News and in major industry publications.
3. Solutions-Oriented Case Studies: We created content showing exactly how Maersk helped clients solve specific supply chain problems, focusing on new tech and integrated logistics.

Our content mix was heavy on long-form articles, interactive graphics, and quick video explainers. For instance, we published a deep dive in March on how the Suez Canal expansion was affecting transit times, and it got a ton of attention. We didn’t run from the complex stuff. We broke it down into something people could actually use. That level of detail is what separates real thought leadership from generic content marketing. You have to earn attention by being genuinely useful.

Targeting and Distribution Channels

Our targeting was surgical. We basically lived on LinkedIn Marketing Solutions because its B2B targeting is so good, letting us zero in on the exact job titles and company sizes we needed. We also built custom and lookalike audiences from our own customer data. At the same time, we made deals with key trade pubs like Journal of Commerce and Supply Chain Dive for sponsored content and newsletter spots to get in front of an audience that was already warmed up. We used programmatic buys via Google Ad Manager for wider reach, but we kept the demographic and firmographic filters tight to avoid waste.

Email marketing was our main tool for lead nurturing. If you subscribed to the “Global Supply Chain Index,” you got early access to the reports and invites to exclusive webinars. This layering ensured our best content got to our most interested prospects, and it let us segment them based on what they did. For example, if someone downloaded three or more papers on resilience, they were automatically dropped into a nurture sequence that highlighted Maersk’s risk management services.

Creative Approach and Messaging

We deliberately kept the creative for “Working through a New Normal” calm and authoritative and avoided any alarmist tones. The visuals were clean and modern, using a lot of data visualizations and abstract network graphics instead of the usual container ship photos. Our core message, “Predicting the unpredictable, together,” really clicked with an audience that was sick of being reactive and wanted proactive strategies.

One of the most effective things we built was an interactive tool on the campaign landing page. You could plug in your specific supply chain headaches, port delays, customs problems, fuel costs, and it would spit out tailored recommendations and point to relevant Maersk services. It demonstrated our capability through its utility. The fact that the average user spent over three minutes on it tells you it was providing real value.

Our messaging always circled back to Maersk’s integrated logistics, pushing beyond ocean freight to talk about air, warehousing, and inland transport. This well-rounded view was what set us apart for businesses looking for one partner to handle everything. To make it real, we used client testimonials that focused on hard numbers, like improvements in efficiency or cost savings.

Performance Analysis: What Worked and What Didn’t

Overall, the campaign blew past our expectations. The average CTR across all channels was 4.2%, easily clearing our 3.5% target. This was mostly thanks to our data-heavy content on LinkedIn, where posts about the “Global Supply Chain Index” got CTRs as high as 6.1%. We also beat our CPL goal, coming in at $135 instead of $150, which proves the targeting and content were right on the money. We ended up with 18.5 million total impressions, well over our 15 million goal.

The “Global Supply Chain Index” was a monster hit. According to eMarketer, B2B buyers are leaning more on proprietary data, and our index became a key resource in the industry. It generated over 5,000 media mentions and helped drive a 15% lift in brand sentiment among logistics pros, which we measured with third-party tracking. You just can’t buy the kind of credibility that earned media gives you.

But it wasn’t all perfect. We tried some short-form video ads on Instagram early on. They got impressions, but the conversion rate to the website was weak compared to other channels. We learned that the B2B audience there just wasn’t ready to click through for deep thought leadership from a video in their feed. We quickly reallocated that budget to LinkedIn video ads, where the professional context made all the difference. You have to be willing to pull the plug on something that isn’t working, even if you were excited about it.

Optimization and Learnings

We were tweaking things constantly over the six months. A/B tests on ad copy and landing page designs were always running. We found out, for instance, that headlines with “risk mitigation” did 18% better than headlines about “efficiency gains” in the first quarter, which just shows you where the market’s head was at. We also got smarter with our retargeting. If you read our thought leadership, you’d later see ads for specific Maersk solutions with testimonials and a clear CTA to book a consultation. That retargeting segment alone converted 8% of prospects into qualified leads, smashing our 5% goal.

Diving into the user journey data, we saw that people would almost always consume several pieces of content before they were ready to talk to sales. This confirmed how important it was to have a full funnel of content, moving people from awareness (our Index reports) to consideration (webinars) and finally to decision (case studies). We adjusted the content calendar to make sure there was a steady drip of the right info for each stage. The final cost per conversion from a content view to a qualified lead was $1,687, a great number when you consider the deal sizes in enterprise logistics. The campaign’s overall ROAS landed at 3.5x. This wasn’t luck. It came from a solid plan, constant measurement, and being able to adapt based on real-time data.

Future Implications for Supply Chain Brand Communication

This campaign convinced me that for complex B2B sectors like logistics, authentic, data-driven content is the only way to do digital PR effectively. Brands that actually help customers understand their own problems will always win against those that just shout about their services. The days of just listing your capabilities are over. Now you have to prove your expertise and build trust with every piece of content you publish.

What’s next? I’m betting on more interactive content and AI-powered personalization. Can you imagine a tool that changes its content recommendations based on a user’s company size, industry, and even current geopolitical risk exposure? Getting hyper-relevant info to a decision-maker at the exact moment they need it is going to be huge. The connection between digital PR and sales enablement tools will also get tighter, making sure every article and report helps accelerate the pipeline. This campaign proved that thought leadership isn’t just a marketing line item. It’s a strategic investment in your brand and your competitive moat.