The Next Drivers of Strategic M&A

The Next Drivers of Strategic M&A positioned global law firm, Eversheds Sutherland, as strategic thought leaders by revealing the new triarchy of business imperatives driving mergers and acquisitions: talent, tech and trade.

Man Bites Dog set out to identify what the next business drivers of strategic value were going to be and how strategic M&A could unlock that value and drive future business success.

To do this, we conducted opinion research with 1,200 business leaders across Eversheds Sutherland’s priority sectors in 16 markets worldwide to reveal the new business imperatives driving strategic M&A: talent, tech and trade.

This new ‘M&A Triarchy’ is driving the next M&A market, with more than seven in 10 business leaders identifying these factors as the key levers of growth and core to their future business strategy.

Brand and reputation was identified as the most valuable attribute in a target by dealmakers across all sectors, with 68% of business leaders stating that brand and reputation would significantly increase the valuation of a prospect. While leaders are mindful of ESG, it emerged surprisingly much lower on the value scale.

Thanks to this proprietary research, Eversheds Sutherland’s Partners were able to set themselves apart from competitor M&A market commentary and instead share the business story at the heart of M&A – backed by hard data and expert insights. The campaign enabled Eversheds Sutherland’s Partners to have business conversations with their clients and prospects that extended beyond legal aspects of M&A, to discuss how M&A can satisfy an organisation’s strategic demand for talent, technology innovation and trade expansion, including the type of deals a client might benefit from and the potential challenges they could face.

The campaign was launched globally with a suite of content assets including an authoritative whitepaper report authored by the Man Bites Dog team and a series of social assets. Eversheds Sutherland held a dedicated conference – Strategic M&A: The Next Drivers of Competitive Advantage – with a series of panel discussions informed by the research findings.

The campaign secured more than 1,250 pieces of media coverage in publications across the globe, and 10,000 relevant website hits. The launch conference attracted over 150 high-value attendees from a variety of sectors, leading to follow-up conversations with key prospects. Further events in Amsterdam, Dublin, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, New York and Paris engaged over 1,000 attendees, and the campaign generated over 500,000 impressions across priority social media platforms.

The campaign had a significant revenue contribution, helping Eversheds Sutherland to grow its global reputation for insights as well as expertise. The firm’s corporate Partners were encouraged to initiate business conversations based on the research findings with their contacts, securing over 250 meetings and intermediary exchanges that resulted in more than 2,000 interactions overall.