How do you grow a professional body's chartered membership when the audience already knows the brand?

The brief

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RIBA wanted to bring architects who could become chartered members to its landing page and onto the enquiry form that starts that process. The brief covered a UK campaign in two phases in 2026, 12 February to 30 April and 14 May to 31 July, plus a Southeast Asia strand in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia from 4 June to 17 July.

What we planned

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We split the audience by geography, London against the rest of the UK, and by status (chartered individuals, chartered practices and a retargeting pool), so each group's response could be read on its own. Member testimonial films were the creative spine, running across social and later into video, built on brand and intent search terms, with broader generic terms tested alongside them.

How it ran

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Phase 1's reporting gave us two clear steers for Phase 2. The reporting showed which search terms converted, so we shifted the Phase 2 budget to them and paused the broader generics. Bing and display were rested. The testimonial videos were out-engaging every other creative, so we added YouTube in flight, carrying the same three films to a new, video-first audience.

What the reporting showed

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Google Search click-through rose between phases, and impression share on the retained keyword set climbed, so the campaign now captures most of the available high-intent auction. LinkedIn click-through improved over the same period, and YouTube's view rate confirmed the testimonial films work as well in a video-first environment as on social. Reporting also showed that pricing-intent searches converted hardest, so fee and benefit messaging carried the search creative. In Southeast Asia, where branded search demand is still building, Google Demand Gen drove reach.