CLIMEWORKS AND VISEDO
How high-quality media attention can support global growth
CLIMEWORKS AND VISEDO
High-impact media attention can make all the difference to your business. It can put you on the map, position you as a serious industry player and build trust with your audience. Most importantly, it can be key in helping you realise your commercial goals. But gaining media attention isn’t easy. Every cleantech company wants it, not everyone can have it.
Getting into global titles requires time, patience and a structured approach to building your profile. In this story, we’ll walk you through that approach step-by-step, drawing on our experience with Climeworks and Visedo (now part of the Danfoss Group).
1. Build your story around your vision
The Financial Times is not going to write about you just because you are there. Without clear milestones, solid progress and plenty of third-party endorsement, you cannot hope for that kind of coverage. But assuming you have those elements in place, the most important ingredient may still be missing: the story. It may sound painfully obvious, but journalists write stories. You can help them to write yours by taking the time to really uncover your story and tie each commercial development into a compelling, bigger picture.
Both Visedo and Climeworks built their strategy around highly ambitious and inspiring goals: Visedo’s aim is to end pollution by electrifying heavy vehicles and machinery, while Climeworks plan to capture 1% of global CO2 emissions by 2025. Our initial work with Climeworks revolved around finding their why, which remained at the centre of their campaign. We used this vision as the inspiration behind their new brand, website and social media strategy, foundations that give the company legitimacy before taking their story to journalists.
2. Be prepared to put in the work
Forging good relationships with journalists takes time and persistence. Before you can even think about global titles you need to build solid PR foundations, starting with trade publications in your sector. These publications can be incredibly loyal and follow your company’s journey long term. They also build trust with more mainstream outlets and journalists. If you’re a journalist writing for The Economist or The New York Times, you have a healthy appreciation of brand reputation. So, you will look at the kind of coverage a company has already received and use that to influence your decision on following up.
With Visedo we spent several months working with industry media in each of their dedicated markets. This work contributed to a significant surge in sales enquiries for the company, as the customers they were targeting became aware of them through publications such as World Maritime News, electrive.com and Diesel Progress International. Later, we were able to secure coverage in The Economist for Visedo, thanks in no small part to the relationship we built with the journalist behind the scenes for over half a year before pitching to them when the time was right.
3. Make sure your goals fit your reality
This kind of coverage is not easy to achieve, and it won’t be the right target for every cleantech company. It’s important to tailor your marketing to your reality. If you don’t expect a regular stream of commercial developments to support news flow, then global PR probably should not be your focus. You may see far more results and sales from targeted and consistent coverage in trade publications. In some cases, PR itself may not be the right path. Unique, valuable content and thought leadership can be just as effective at building your audience and sharing your unique selling point with the world.
4. Reap the rewards
Our work helped Visedo gain headline coverage in mainstream outlets such as The Economist, The Telegraph, Quartz and Business Insider. The company’s CEO Kimmo Rauma also spread his visionary thinking to tens of millions of viewers by appearing on BBC Business Live. These impressive results over the course of just one year contributed to Visedo being acquired by the Danfoss Group, where we continue to tell their story today.
For Climeworks, the phenomenal global coverage we achieved in major publications like the New York Times, CNN, BBC, The Economist and The Guardian took the company from a ‘promising technology’ to ‘the Swiss startup that might just save the world’. Our campaign supported the company during investment raising, helped them develop relationships with major strategic customers and lay the foundations for engaging with consumers directly.
“All in all, our collaboration with Life Size Media has been vital in raising global awareness for carbon dioxide removal and in positioning Climeworks as one of the industry leaders in this new market.”
— Valentin Gutknecht, Communications Manager, Climeworks
