Success Metrics
- Secured 6 earned media placements, with 2 business press placements in Yahoo! Finance and Forbes’ CFO newsletter
- Achieved an estimated 96 million total reach across business and trade publications
- Generated Certinia’s highest website traffic spike of 2025, driving 6,856 direct sessions – a 52.5% increase over the second-highest increase
- Secured approximately $225,000 in earned media value based on based on comparable paid media (CPM) rates
- Established Certinia’s CFO as thought leader backed by data that appeals to C-Suite-level business press audiences
Certinia is at the forefront of the AI transformation in the professional services industry. As the industry’s leading global provider of AI-powered Professional Services Automation (PSA), the company continues to invest in both product innovation and executive thought leadership.
Following the success of International Services Week and its second annual Global Service Dynamics report, Certinia expanded its communications strategy to reach financial and business audiences. The company aimed to elevate its thought leadership beyond traditional PSA conversations and secure visibility in tier-1 business and CFO-focused media outlets.
Market Volatility Driving Demand for Predictability
In 2025, professional services organizations faced mounting pressure from economic uncertainty, rising AI investment expectations, increasing operational costs, and growing demands for predictable revenue growth. Firms were under increasing scrutiny from both customers and investors that required them to demonstrate measurable business outcomes, stronger retention, and sustainable long-term performance.
At the same time, conversations around customer success (CS) were shifting, with some leaders questioning the necessity of dedicated CS teams altogether. Others doubled down on retention and expansion strategies as sales cycles lengthened and competition intensified.
Amidst this market volatility, Certinia wanted to strengthen its executive visibility with finance and enterprise audiences. The company needed a differentiated, data-backed asset that could:
- Demonstrate executive-level market expertise
- Support sales and marketing conversations
- Strengthen credibility with CFOs and enterprise leaders
- Create a repeatable thought leadership and media engine
Turning Earnings Data into Executive Thought Leadership
10Fold partnered with Certinia to develop the 2025 Public Market Pulse Report, a proprietary research initiative designed to examine how customer success (CS) and net revenue retention (NRR) correlate with business performance across publicly traded professional services organizations.
The project combined primary and secondary research methodologies, analyzing:
- More than 4,000 quarterly earnings reports
- Over 430 public companies
- Earnings data spanning January 2022 through June 2025
Using AI-powered text and sentiment analysis, the 10Fold team tracked how companies discussed CS and NRR during earnings calls, then mapped those discussions against stock performance before and after earnings announcements.
The data proved 10Fold’s hypothesis:
- Growing mentions of CS and NRR demonstrated that these metrics are of critical importance to C-suite and investors.
- Organizations that discussed their strategies for CS and customer-oriented strategies drove higher investor confidence, resulting in higher stock prices.
Early feedback sessions with business reporters at Forbes and Bloomberg helped 10Fold understand what would resonate with CFO-focused audiences. Those conversations shifted the positioning from PSA software research to a broader executive-level business story centered on:
- Revenue predictability and investor confidence
- Cross-industry customer retention trends
- CFO and board-level priorities
- The growing “customer success maturity gap” between market leaders and laggards
This positioning strengthened the relevance of the research for business press audiences and improved the likelihood of broader media engagement.
Results: Executive Visibility at Scale
The campaign became one of Certinia’s most successful thought leadership initiatives of the year and established a repeatable framework for turning proprietary data into high-value business press visibility.
The campaign positioned Certinia’s CFO as a credible, data-backed voice in conversations around customer retention, operational maturity, and predictable growth.
Key Results included:
- 6 earned media placements, 2 business press placements
- Coverage in Forbes CFO, CFO Dive, CFO.com, Yahoo Finance, and additional trade publications
- Approximately 96 million in total audience reach
- Certinia’s highest website traffic spike of 2025, driving 6,856 direct sessions and increasing traffic by 52.5% over the next-highest spike
- Approximately $225,000 in earned media value based on comparable paid media (CPM) rates
The Public Market Pulse Report did more than simply generate media coverage. It helped Certinia own a larger market conversation around how customer success and retention strategies directly influence financial performance and investor confidence.
The campaign also demonstrated how proprietary research can strengthen B2B thought leadership, especially when paired with executive storytelling and data-driven media strategy.
Instead of relying on a traditional vendor survey, the campaign used a more sophisticated research methodology grounded in earnings-call analysis and sentiment tracking. The findings reinforced a broader market trend: organizations aligning customer success, professional services, and revenue retention strategies are increasingly strengthening both operational and financial performance.
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Read the full Certinia case study to learn how integrated communications strategies can turn original research into business impact.