Case study / Marketing & Advertising

How we helped Freshwater Creative book meetings with CEOs of $10M+ companies

A full-service creative agency that used to win projects by pitching in contests. We built a system that puts them straight in front of CEOs at $10M+ revenue companies. $1.7M+ in pipeline, ten months and counting.

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5:46

"The quality and the quantity of the meetings we're getting is honestly phenomenal."

Sam Douglas Head of Strategy, Freshwater Creative

$0 In pipeline

0 Qualified leads

0 Months and counting

A full-service creative agency building strategy, branding, websites and campaigns for ambitious brands.

Industry

Marketing & Advertising

Headquarters

United States

Company size

11 to 50 employees

// The challenge

Winning by pitching contests.

Freshwater Creative had built a strong reputation, but new business at the $10M+ company level depended on referrals and on entering creative pitch contests. There was no direct path to the buyer.

Pipeline ran on referrals

Every meaningful new account traced back to a warm intro. Growth was capped by the size of the team's network, and there was no way to predict next quarter's pipeline.

Winning meant winning a contest

To land creative projects at larger companies, the team often had to enter pitch contests against multiple agencies. High effort, low conversion, zero pricing power.

No public buying signals

At the $10M+ company level, there are no funding announcements or growth triggers that point to a CEO ready to hire a new agency. Standard outbound signals do not exist.

// The approach

A lead magnet built per prospect.

CEOs at $10M+ companies do not read cold emails. So we did not send them cold emails. We sent them a personalized teardown of their business and their main competitor before we ever asked for a call.

// 01

Setup & deliverability

Multi-mailbox sending stack across Google Workspace and Outlook
Per-domain warm-up, SPF, DKIM and DMARC configured cleanly
Daily inbox placement monitoring across seed accounts
Volume scaled around quality, not raw email count

// 02

Data & targeting

Clay-built ICP filters: $10M+ in annual revenue, target verticals only
LinkedIn and Google enrichment to identify the CEO or top-of-house decision maker by name
Manual qualification on every account before contact: industry fit, headcount, growth signals
No public buying signals available, so the qualification work happened at the company level

// 03

Messaging & personalization

A personalized microsite built for every single prospect, not a template
Each microsite featured a tailored competitor analysis specific to that CEO's company
Messaging positioned Freshwater as the industry expert, not the agency asking for time
Value delivered upfront, before any ask, so the call was a continuation of the conversation

// The results

A pipeline at the executive level.

Six months in, $1.7M+ in qualified pipeline. Ten months in, the partnership is still running, with CEO-level meetings landing every week.

In qualified pipeline

Qualified leads generated

To $1.7M in pipeline

Ongoing partnership

Decision-maker targeting

Target company revenue

// The outcome

From contest pitches to CEO conversations.

Freshwater Creative now has a direct channel into the executives they want as clients, instead of competing in pitch contests to maybe get noticed.

Over $1.7 million in qualified pipeline built in the first six months
197 qualified leads generated, with CEO-level decision makers in the room
Ten months of ongoing partnership and still scaling
A personalized microsite warming up every prospect before the call
A repeatable system for landing meetings at $10M+ companies
Time previously spent on contest pitches reclaimed for actual creative work

// Key takeaways

What made this work.

// 01

Value before the ask

CEOs of $10M+ companies do not have time for cold pitches. Delivering a real, personalized teardown before asking for a meeting changes the entire dynamic.

// 02

Competitor analysis as the wedge

Showing a CEO exactly how their main competitors stack up made the meeting unmissable. The lead magnet pre-sold the value of the call before it ever happened.

// 03

More effort in, more out

High-effort outbound to a small set of CEOs outperforms volume at this level. The ratio of effort to results compounds when you put in the actual work.

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