Multiverse faced scepticism when marketing its AI training offer to financial services buyers. Its response combined targeted brand creative with coordinated sales outreach, rather than relying on conventional lead generation. Reported results included 94% account engagement and £4 million+ in pipeline revenue. The case offers a practical argument for account-focused investment, although those figures don’t establish a universal growth formula.
Financial services scepticism made positioning the priority
Multiverse needed to address doubts about AI adoption and the value of training. Generating contacts alone would leave that positioning challenge unresolved.
Working with Radish, the company developed “Real AI Direction” for selected financial services accounts. Humour highlighted the risks of using AI without skilled human supervision. That creative choice connected the training offer to a specific concern, giving sales a clearer proposition to discuss.
For demand leaders, the strategic implication is straightforward. Account selection can focus spending, but the message still needs to address why those buyers might resist purchasing.
The campaign illustrates how brand work can support commercial priorities within a defined audience. It also challenges the assumption that precise targeting requires narrowly functional creative.
Targeting Connected the Message to Sales Activity
Multiverse used several coordinated tactics to reach its chosen accounts:
- Custom messaging accompanied personalised content experiences.
- Digital out-of-home advertising appeared near major financial services headquarters in London.
- Direct mail supported coordinated sales activity.
- Engagement indicators informed the timing of outreach.
These elements gave the creative a route into account conversations. Their strategic value came from connecting audience exposure with follow-up, rather than treating each channel as a separate deliverable.
Propolis ABM and Demand Generation expert Robert Norum argues that increasingly self-directed buying requires earlier engagement across buying groups. He advocates concentrated targeting to develop awareness and trust among priority prospects without funding equivalent coverage across the entire market.
That is an expert interpretation, not a measured outcome from this campaign. It nevertheless explains the positioning logic behind reaching accounts before direct sales discussions begin.
Earlier exposure may help a supplier enter consideration. The available campaign results don’t establish when individual buyers formed their preferences.
Reported Outcomes Support the Case, With Limits
The reported Multiverse results were 94% account engagement, £4 million+ in pipeline revenue and 2,252% ROI. The campaign also received Gold for Best Account-Based Marketing Campaign at the 2025 B2B Marketing Awards.
Those figures provide a concrete commercial basis for examining the approach. They connect targeted activity with account response and pipeline, rather than reporting reach alone.
The limits are equally relevant to investment decisions. No calculation details accompany the ROI figure, and the account engagement definition isn’t specified. The pipeline figure also doesn’t establish how much became completed sales.
A successful example supports further consideration of this operating approach. It cannot establish that targeting alone caused the results or that another organisation would reproduce them.
Build the Next Programme Around a Commercial Hypothesis
Marketing leaders can use this case to frame a more disciplined account strategy. The useful combination is a defined audience, a relevant positioning challenge and sales activity connected to engagement.
One practical step is to agree the priority account list with sales before developing campaign creative. Connect that list to pipeline goals, then define account engagement and the basis for calculating returns.
This makes the commercial proposition easier to evaluate without stripping distinctive ideas from the work. Multiverse’s reported performance supports testing coordinated account investment; budget expansion still requires evidence linking engagement to realised revenue.
