How an industry question became Raft's sales pipeline

Raft knows AI in supply chain better than almost anyone. The Loadstar knows how to reach the industry. The idea was to put the two together and build something the market would genuinely want — with pipeline for Raft as the reward for the value it created.

Raft's expertise shaped the questions; The Loadstar's independent voice turned the answers into a study people actually wanted to read. It ran as one connected arc: turn our audience into respondents, turn their answers into authority, then turn that authority into pipeline.

We asked the audience

Over two weeks we surveyed The Loadstar's readership on the state of AI in supply chain — executives from the world's leading freight forwarders, 3PLs, carriers and their shipper customers. 235 responded, and 86.3% were manager-level or above.

We built the authority

Our editorial team wrote The State of AI in Supply Chain independently, led by the data — 16 pages on AI maturity, ROI, adoption barriers and trust, with a foreword from Raft's CEO. Because the findings stand on their own, the association meant far more than a branded whitepaper ever could.

We turned readers into sales leads

We promoted the report for four weeks through the channels our audience trusts — placements across 65,000+ registered readers, dedicated emails to the 21,000 who take our daily news, and our News in Brief podcast. Readers exchanged their details to download it, and every lead went straight to Raft.

The four-week promotion drove 352 downloads. In the weeks after it ended, another 212 arrived — owned, opted-in leads that cost nothing more to acquire. That's 564 first-party leads to date, and climbing, with 55.1% of respondents VP-level or above.

Why it worked

• Borrowed trust beats bought attention. The Loadstar's readers shape buying decisions and engage with our journalism in a way no ad unit reaches — which is why 86.3% of respondents were manager-level or above.
• Independence is the point. Because the report is genuinely ours and genuinely independent, being attached to it lends real credibility a branded whitepaper can't.
• Value outlives the campaign. 212 leads generated within weeks of the initial promotional period ending — first-party contact deleivered straight to Raft's sales team, at no extra cost.

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