International IPO roadshow

Simplifying a deep technology story for institutional and general investor audiences

Arm first changed the world by fueling the smartphone revolution and is now omnipresent in 99% of mobile devices. Through a strategic shift towards market-specific solutions, it has built the most pervasive CPU architecture in history and is an essential supplier to leading chipmakers, foundries, and manufacturers globally.

Our Investor Communications team was a strategic partner to Arm on its roadshow video and across short-form cutdowns and social media content, providing scripting, video production and video editing support.

We provided planning and logistics, developed fully branded meeting spaces to enhance Alibaba Group’s international profile, and delivered a series of celebratory listing day events for the company’s ultra-high profile IPO.

Our team had to be flexible enough to accommodate and flawlessly execute a constantly changing roadshow schedule, with two teams of management and advisors on the road for parallel tours of meetings and events with investors prior to the listing.

The dynamics fueling demand

The IPO roadshow video brought Arm’s story to life through a powerful first-person narration, complemented by striking footage, testimonials, graphics, and sound design. As Arm CEO, Rene Haas, plainly put it, “Everything today is a computer”. The opening placed a spotlight on the proliferation of consumer and commercial products, data centres, and AI that is fuelling a near-insatiable demand for chips. Detail-rich motion graphics provided audiences with context on the rapid development of target markets. Impassioned testimonials from customers Nvidia, AWS, Mercedes Benz, MediaTek, and Raspberry Pi reinforced the information presented. Data points on Arm technologies and financials provided added support for the investment rationale.

Complementary short-form videos & social media cutdowns

Arm’s unprecedented attention generated by the IPO created a need to educate audiences beyond investors. During the planning and development of the roadshow video, we simultaneously created complementary short-form videos and social media cutdowns to reach a wider audience. In the days leading up to pricing, a company overview video played on the corporate website, and following the IPO went live on the IR site for visitors new to the story. The short-form video was also played for guests onsite at the Nasdaq on listing day. In addition, we created 15- and 30-second cutdowns for use on social media platforms to help generate buzz. Following the IPO, this content also served as the basis for additional video cutdowns used globally for events and in ad spots across media platforms.

For the audience

Arm is at the foundation of the semiconductor industry. As the brain of the computer, the CPU is the starting point. Arm is an industry-leading supplier based on performance and power efficiency. More than 15 million software developers to date have created applications and systems on Arm CPUs. From decades of development, an estimated 70% of the world’s population currently uses products containing Arm technologies. The roadshow video helped put into perspective for both retail and institutional investors just how critical the Arm brand and its products are to nearly every piece of technology used on a daily basis.

For the brand

Arm’s roadshow film served as a touchpoint to a growing retail investor audience who the C-suite didn’t have the opportunity to meet with. For those institutional investors the team did meet with, the video served as a pre-education tool, leaving more time for deeper questions and conversations in face-to-face meetings. It was also viewed by financial media in advance of the listing, providing important context on the company. Among all who watched, it served as an opportunity to humanise the management and show – not tell – how Arm is a disruptor in the industry.

Arm raised $5.2 billion in its eagerly awaited IPO for a market valuation in excess of $60 billion and was the largest IPO transaction in 2023.

At its trading debut, massive interest and demand for Alibaba led to an opening price of $92.70, resulting in a market cap of $230 billion (more than Facebook, Amazon or eBay). Alibaba traded up over 30% on its first day of trading.