The results
- 1,300+ executives, ministers, secretaries and SOE leaders researched and approached across two campaign waves - Papua New Guinea first, then the wider Pacific
- 451 connections opened at the very top of the region’s org charts - a 34% acceptance rate at minister and CEO level
- 430+ personalised after-connect pitches - every opener custom-written from the prospect’s profile, then Dr Aila’s authority message
- Email layer: addresses hunted prospect by prospect - 250+ personalised executive emails sent, with Day-3 follow-ups running on both channels
- 114 responses logged - 50+ interested and warm leads among sitting secretaries, CEOs and managing directors
- The map: 14 nations across Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia - anchored on PNG’s economic core, from Port Moresby to Mount Hagen
True success depends on leadership alignment and disciplined change execution - not just technology.
- the conviction in every message sent
About EvoLead
EvoLead is a boutique Australian consultancy delivering enterprise-wide digital transformation across complex organisations - ERP, HCM, CRM, EAM and WFM programmes, cloud, data, automation and AI, all wrapped in integrated change management. Its promise: Transform. Evolve. Sustain. The practice is led by Dr Aila Rudd, a Director with 20+ years across APAC - including 18 months leading major ERP and HR reform across Papua New Guinea.
That PNG track record was the unlock: real reform experience, in-region, at national scale. It needed to reach the people who commission that work - and they don’t answer ads. They answer peers.
Two corridors of power
One audience runs the governments and state enterprises. The other runs the boardrooms. Both got the same respect: proof first, pitch later.
🏛️ Government, SOEs & development partners
- Ministers, secretaries & deputy secretaries - across PM’s department, Treasury, Finance, Health, Education and ICT
- State-owned enterprises - Kumul Consolidated, Kumul Petroleum, Air Niugini, PNG Power, Telikom PNG, PNG Ports
- Development partners - World Bank, UNDP, ADB, IFC, DFAT and JICA country leadership
- Provincial governments - NCDC, Morobe, East New Britain and the Highlands
🏢 Corporate boardrooms
- CEOs, CFOs, CIOs & CHROs - the executives who own transformation budgets
- Banking & finance - BSP Financial Group, Kina Bank, ANZ PNG, Nambawan Super
- Resources & energy - ExxonMobil PNG, TotalEnergies, Santos, Ok Tedi, Newmont Lihir
- Telecoms, logistics & retail - Digicel PNG, Telikom, Steamships, Lamana Group, CPL
How we ran it
- 1. Two-wave audience build - 1,300+ leaders mapped and qualified: PNG’s government, SOEs and corporates first, then out across the Pacific
- 2. Authority-first positioning - Dr Aila’s 18 months of PNG ERP and HR reform led every message: proof before pitch
- 3. AI-personalised openers - every after-connect message and email opens with 200-230 characters written specifically about that leader’s work, then the same disciplined body
- 4. Email discovery - addresses hunted per prospect, and an executive email layered over every LinkedIn thread that went quiet
- 5. Day-3 cadence on both channels - LinkedIn follow-up and email follow-up, tracked to the day
- 6. Status discipline - response, interested, warm and conversation logged per leader, wave by wave
The territory, mapped
Few agencies have run executive outreach across the island Pacific. This campaign covers it deliberately - the markets where transformation budgets are growing and competition for attention is almost zero.
What made it work
In the Pacific, transformation is bought on trust. The audience is small, senior and close-knit - so every word had to be personal. A custom opener that proved we’d actually read their work, an authority message built on real PNG reform, and a polite two-channel cadence that respected their office. At minister and CEO level, 34% accepted - and 114 wrote back.
You can’t cold-pitch a Secretary of Treasury. But a director with 18 months of PNG reform behind her - that’s a conversation, and 114 of them answered.
- Saeed Ali, Campaign Manager, AISH