Case Study Origination (CSO)

Activity available under: Marcoms Accelerator, Content Creation, Media Communications and Marketing Management services.

Scope: up to 1,600 words

Credit value: 20

NOTE: We do not offer Case Study Reworks as a service – i.e., we do not accept someone else’s interview notes or transcripts as a starting point.

Description

Case studies are becoming increasingly popular as marketing tools in these days of ‘show, don’t just tell’. A case study recounts, in detail, how one or more of your services/products – or your services and the products of a supplier (if you are a distributor) – helped a customer.

Emphasis is placed on how the products and/or services produced end-user benefits, and in this respect the case study might even quote your customer’s customer, and third parties. Facts and figures, such as cost/time savings, are given where possible to quantify those benefits.

Definition

‘Origination’ means much (but not all) of the copy is written from scratch. Background material may be referred to during the writing process (i.e. background reading/research) and reproduced word-for-word in some cases (to guarantee accuracy/consistency).

Compared to originating an article, far more time is allowed for interviews and approvals (because more stakeholders are involved).

The Process

You are responsible for seeking permission from your customer, your customer’s customer (if applicable) and third parties (if applicable) that the case study can proceed in principle, before we can commence work on this activity.

In this respect we have a ‘feasibility form’ you would part complete before forwarding to your customer. The form also seeks agreement from your customer that high resolution photography will be made available, and explains how we set about the interviews, drafting and approval processes.

We will interview at least one of your colleagues (e.g., the Account Manager or Sales Engineer), typically two people within your customer’s organisation (to capture the operational and engineering aspects of the story) and possibly an end-customer or third party.

The material will be produced under strict version control and, towards the end of the process, you will be asked to approve a specific draft version or supply an amended version that will be taken to be fully approved.

The Deliverable

This will be a Word document with embedded low-resolution images and high-res images as accompanying files. The case study, as IP and in its Word document format, is yours to use as you see fit; e.g. place on your website, include in a newsletter and/or to offer to a publication.

Additional

If more words are required, the draw will increase by 1 credit per additional 100 words. We can create graphics and images for the case study (see Artwork) and we can also source stock images/photography at cost.

If you are engaged under our Media Communications or Campaign Management service, both of which provide a Communications Office, we can offer the case study to a trade press publication on your behalf.

Note: we do not offer case study ‘reworks’ as activities as we insist on conducting all interviews and background research ourselves.

Last updated: 31st March 2026