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Kyndryl Institute  ·  Two Point Technologies  ·  April 2026

Activation
and Ad Creative
Plan

How to take the existing budget, the existing content and LinkedIn to build a campaign that actually converts. The goal is 10,000 subscribers by end of year.

8 slides 30 / 60 / 90 day roadmap Budget: £86k / quarter
01 · The brief

The problem in one sentence

£86k
spent per quarter on paid media

Zero conversion path

Every pound goes into awareness boosting. The attention dissipates and the cycle repeats. There is no mechanism to turn impressions into subscribers.

6 fields
on the subscribe form

The form is the problem

First name, last name, country, company, job title, email — on a separate page with no benefit copy. It reads like a data capture exercise, not a membership offer.

10k
subscribers needed by end of 2026

Achievable with the right infrastructure

833 new subscribers per month. At a LinkedIn Lead Gen Form conversion rate of 12 to 18% for C suite audiences, the existing budget covers it if redirected correctly.

02 · Budget by funnel stage

Budget mapped to the funnel

Attract
~£39k / quarter · Q2 2026
Sponsored Content~£10k
Thought Leader Ads~£10k
Paid search (brand terms)~£19k
C suite feeds
Reach before asking. Build the audience that Educate and Convert work with.
Educate
~£17k / quarter · Q2 2026
Document Ads~£10k
Short form video test~£7k
CTR 0.4–0.6%
Warmest signal before conversion. Existing content only, zero new production budget.
Convert
~£30k / quarter · Q2 2026
Lead Gen Form campaigns~£20k
Retargeting~£10k
750–1,500
verified C suite subscribers / quarter · CPA £25–£45
Total ~£86k / quarter · Boosting eliminated · All spend tracked to CPA · Q2 2026
03 · The LinkedIn funnel

Three stages. One objective.

Attract
Get into C suite feeds. Build the audience before asking for anything.
Sponsored Content
Existing articles run as native posts targeting CIO, CTO and CISO by exact title and sector. No gate. Just presence in the right feeds.
CPM £8–£18  ·  5 C suite segments
Thought Leader Ad
Advisory board members post from their personal profiles. A post from Rita McGrath or Klon Kitchen lands as peer content, not brand advertising.
CTR 0.6–1.0%  ·  highest trust signal
Educate
Demonstrate depth and credibility. Give them a taste of what membership looks like.
Document Ad
Existing articles become swipeable in feed documents. The first two pages are free. Page three gates behind the Lead Gen Form. No new production required.
CTR 0.4–0.6%  ·  zero new content
Short form video
Panel footage cut to 60 seconds. The most compelling 45 seconds from any discussion — captioned, no intro, leading with the sharpest line.
View rate 15–25%  ·  existing footage
Convert
One tap to subscribe. Pre filled from LinkedIn. No friction, no external page.
Lead Gen Form
The primary conversion mechanism. Name, work email and job title pre fill from the user's LinkedIn profile. One tap to submit. 12–18% conversion rate for C suite audiences.
CPA £25–£45  ·  12–18% conversion
Retargeting
Anyone who visited the Institute and did not subscribe sees a second campaign at lower spend. Not an introduction — a direct reminder. Converts at 2–3× the rate of cold audiences.
2–3× cold conversion rate
04 · Ad creative formats

What each stage looks like in the feed

Attract
Sponsored Content
£8–18 CPM
Attract
Thought Leader Ad
CTR 0.6–1.0%
Educate
Document Ad
CTR 0.4–0.6%
Convert
Lead Gen Form
£25–45 CPA
KI
The Kyndryl Institute
14,200 followers
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Reach before asking. Existing article as a native post. No gate. Builds the audience for Educate and Convert.
RM
Rita McGrath, PhD
Professor · Columbia Business School · 92k followers
1d 🌐 Sponsored
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Peer credibility, not brand. Runs from Rita McGrath's personal profile. Lands as a colleague's view — not an ad.
KI
The Kyndryl Institute
14,200 followers
3d 🌐 Sponsored
The leaders do not just adopt AI — they ask what they are specifically ready to change. ...more
Expert
"Stop asking if you are ready. Start asking what you will change."
Rita McGrath, PhD · Columbia Business School
🔒 Full report for members
Join to read →
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A taste of membership. Pages 1–2 free in the feed. Rest gated. Zero new content needed.
KI
The Kyndryl Institute
14,200 followers
1d 🌐 Sponsored
Join the CIOs at HSBC, Siemens and Rolls Royce who read the Institute's briefings before their peers do.
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Three enterprises who moved from strategy to infrastructure in under 90 days — and what they did differently.
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Your details are filled automatically from LinkedIn
Full name Sarah Chen ✓ LinkedIn
Work email s.chen@hsbc.com ✓ LinkedIn
Job title Chief Information Officer ✓ LinkedIn
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By submitting you agree to the Kyndryl Institute member terms
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One tap. Three fields pre filled from LinkedIn. No redirect. 12–18% conversion for C suite.
05 · Benchmarks

What comparable platforms achieved

Language shift to "Join"

The Economist saw 40% above category average conversion after repositioning around identity over content.

Advisory board as primary asset

McKinsey Quarterly became the most cited management publication globally by leading with named expert credibility.

Exclusive access tier

TED grew membership 5× after making some content member only. Same content, different model.

38%
More subscribers after HBR simplified their form from full page to a two field contextual prompt
4×
Higher 12 month retention for Morning Brew subscribers who engaged in week one
a16z
Built 500K+ readers with no paid ads by routing every event and partnership through the same content channel
06 · The plan

30, 60 and 90 days

Month one

Fix and launch

Fix the foundations before filling the funnel. No campaign goes live until the website converts.

  • Website hygiene check — fix broken links and video crash
  • Change all subscribe language to join
  • Slim the form to two fields
  • Build five C suite LinkedIn audience segments
  • Brief first three Document Ad units from existing articles
  • Launch Lead Gen Form campaign at £15k test spend
  • Implement CPA tracking across all channels
Target: 200–400 tracked subscribers
Month two

Optimise and layer

Review data from month one. Add the advisory board layer and retargeting.

  • Reallocate budget to highest converting segments
  • Add advisory board names above the fold on homepage
  • Add end of article join prompts to all pages
  • Launch Thought Leader Ads from two board profiles
  • Cut existing panel footage into 60 second LinkedIn video
  • Launch retargeting campaign for site visitors
  • First CPA report to Kyndryl team
Target: 400–600 additional subscribers
Month three

Scale what works

Double down on what the data shows. Begin tracking subscriber to pipeline attribution.

  • Double budget on top performing segments and formats
  • Launch stat carousel creative from best content themes
  • Welcome email sequence: day 1, day 7, day 30
  • Homepage benefit strip — what members receive
  • CRM: subscriber to commercial pipeline attribution
  • Review against 10,000 end of year target and project forward
Target: 750–1,200 additional subscribers
10k
The bottom line

10,000 subscribers by end of 2026 is a plumbing problem, not a content problem.

The budget exists. The content exists. The advisory board is world class. But getting to 10,000 requires three things to change: the conversion path, the campaign architecture, and the visibility of data. None of it is expensive. All of it is deliberate.

Two Point Technologies  ·  Kyndryl Institute  ·  April 2026
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