An energy company with traditions in oil refinement speaking of climate change doesn’t sound right and would not cut through clutter, but be held contradictory and easy to dismiss. Nor were there resources enough to buy desired exposure. Credible, third party influence was identified necessary in initiating the public discussion needed to further affect decision-makers of Neste’s prospect companies. Social platforms would allow earned build of reach.

Proprietary research showed even B2B heads to be human and use social media. In such channels, video was shown to have most impact, along with native advertising in industry publications. Prospects’ were segmented, their media habits studied, and contents tailored to match. Spoken-word artist Prince Ea was partnered with to be the spearhead of communication and to propagate the message. Study was conducted to understand Prince Ea’s audiences from the most promising colour schemes to tone-of-voice, to squeeze out every bit of efficiency.

The campaign took flight on April 20th, 2016. At intervals, Prince Ea released evocative videos designed to resonate with his following, native in style and future-focused: technology, sustainability and education. The videos solicited discussion and participation in the project through ideation, while appealing to human emotion and rational reasoning.

Paid media gave the sharing of videos its initial push, and distributed tailored content to segmented prospects by programmatic display and on Facebook, while smart targeting was applied to match content with identified audience interests in relation to the campaign theme. Already-exposed audiences were re-contacted for further engagement on the campaign site: pitch in new product ideas and vote for and discuss existing ones.

Native ad placements on select premium tech/IT/business publications directly addressed prospect company heads, also in a non-intrusive manner. PR means aided in influencing similar publications and other influencers and bloggers writing of sustainability and renewables.

The campaign exceeded its objectives.

Business:

- Neste's brand value grew by 44.7% to 618M€ (October 2016 YoY, BrandWorxx).

- Neste's share value grew by 35.7% during the first six months (Bloomberg).

- In September 2016 IKEA announced it had joined forces with Neste to take leadership in renewable, bio-based materials, and invited other companies to join the initiative. This is evidence of the campaign impact and the direction of future outcomes in all concreteness.

Media:

- The campaign saw more than 900 news articles published (the target being 25), 547M earned video views, and 500 000 B2B deciders reached with branded content.

- The website saw visits from 218 countries, and more than 1.1M in traffic (137% against the target).

- All major bioplastic companies, major government offices (i.a. the White House), universities (MIT, Harvard, Stanford), global companies (Google, IBM) and potential clients (DHL, FedEx, GM) visited Neste.com.