Our challenge

Xydus is a digital identity verification firm provider of work-related digital services including facial recognition and biometrics for employees, job leavers and job seekers.

COVID-19 boosted the need for digital identities helping Xydus enter hypergrowth, increasing revenues 600% in one year and propelling the UK company to the Deloitte Fast 50 list of rapidly-growing tech star companies. Despite its commercial growth, prior to engaging with Positive, Xydus was almost completely unknown to the media, with only a few sporadic hits in fintech and HR media.

After enlisting Positive, Xydus secured over 60+ top tier media hits in just six months, across a range of verticals and national press. including interviews with The Times, BBC, and Bloomberg.

However, the most impactful campaign was Positive’s multi-pronged approach to highlight ignorance of the UK’s Right to Work Laws

Our response

“The UK’s new digital Right to Work (RTW) legislation approached and Xydus wanted to increase awareness of how customers could use it to stay complaint with UK employment laws.

Sales conversations with prospects demonstrated a surprising level of ignorance of the new laws and the potentially huge penalties for non-compliance, including potential jail time for directors.

Positive recognised the huge potential impact as these laws affect all UK businesses. Despite this, the UK media was ‘radio silent’, making this a perfect opportunity for Xydus to establish itself as a leading voice across the UK on RTW. But it wasn’t going to be easy. With billion dollar competitors, this niche player was going to need something special to make a splash.

To gauge just how widespread ignorance of RTW was, Positive advised Xydus to conduct research with UK decision-makers. Xydus’ management team was hesitant, but were persuaded to strike ‘while the iron was hot’ to hit the news agenda. The research, conducted by a third party with strong Government-related credentials, was deployed one month ahead of the law changes. The research study results exposed widescale ignorance among business decision makers.

+ Half of UK businesses were unprepared for the deadline

+ 82% were unaware non-compliance could result in jail time

+ 72% wrongly believed standard UK driving licences complied with RTW
rules

With this, we had all we needed to make a killer release and media splash…

The results

The release and research took the press by storm. Xydus immediately landed across its number one target, the UK’s top HR titles such as Personnel Today and HR Review.

However, the momentum carried the story far wider. After the exposure of widespread ignorance, law firms began drafting advisory articles for clients, citing the research. Xydus was featured three times in online law resource, Lexology, which 900 legal firms subscribe to.

From there, UK Government officials were forced to wade into the conversation. The DCMS and Home Office rushed to clarify aspects of the law which were evidently poorly understood. The campaign reached over 11 million readers prompting discourse on widely misunderstood and misrepresented laws.

This boosted Xydus’ reputation, sales, and saved countless companies from compliance nightmares.