Explained: KBR’s innovative carbon footprint software campaign drove a stellar ROI

The huge potential of CleanSPEND was recognized—the challenge was how to effectively promote it in an industry awash with messages around sustainability.

Clear, Commercially Aligned Objectives

KBR acknowledged that this would be far from a click-to-buy marketing campaign. It needed to ensure the benefits of CleanSPEND could be clearly explained to the audience before they would even consider placing a sales enquiry.

To achieve this, two key objectives were set:

• Create thought leadership presence through a PR campaign generating 5 pieces of quality editorial coverage in tier one media titles leading to a reach of 300,000.
• Create 20 marketing qualified leads, leading to 3 sales qualified opportunities.

Strategy – Researching and Defining the Audience

Working closely with energy companies, KBR knew that big offshore projects are particularly challenging to assess in terms of GHG emissions, over their whole lifecycle. This is due to the extraordinary scale and complexity of these projects, which together with the high number of specialist suppliers involved, makes accurate assessment of carbon emissions very difficult.

Historically, these measurements have been desirable although their accuracy has not been regarded as essential. But the energy sector, with its key role to play in meeting global net zero targets, is subject to more scrutiny as regulations and tax regimes become more stringent.

Dialogue with existing customers revealed a marked shift toward more accurate and robust emissions measurement. This shift is being driven by the fact that every measurable trend indicates that accurate reporting of projected GHG emissions will become mission critical over the medium term.

Working with this insight, the marketing team defined the strategic proposition: Forward thinking carbon analysis.

Delivery – Applying Innovation and Creativity

The CleanSPEND offshore energy lead generation campaign combined the following elements:

• An epic creative idea
• A seminal whitepaper
• A campaign landing page
• An editorial PR campaign
• A LinkedIn advertising strategy

The Epic Creative Idea

The strategic proposition of ‘forward thinking carbon analysis’, came from a clear insight showing that existing methods of assessing emissions are seen as outdated. Sustainability can be seen as a complicating factor and there is a feeling that data is not always credible. KBR sensed an opportunity to draw a line in the sand, with CleanSPEND offering a first-of-its-kind solution that can make carbon monitoring a help rather than a hindrance.

Against this background, the creative team crafted a standout concept called ‘clear on carbon’. The key visual shows an offshore installation suspended in a clear cloud, reflecting the all-encompassing measurement and cloud-based nature of the CleanSPEND offering.

The Seminal Whitepaper

The whitepaper formed the content centrepiece of the campaign. Titled: ‘Carbon cognitive: Turning guesswork into quantitative emissions modelling and representation’, this seminal work laid out the problem and the benefits of KBR’s unique solution.

The Landing Page

The whitepaper was housed on a bespoke campaign landing page on the KBR main website. This enabled visitors to download the asset, which was gated with a data capture form, prepopulated with data from LinkedIn.

The PR Campaign

The PR team pitched an editorial article based on the whitepaper and received an overwhelmingly positive response from editors of the offshore energy industry’s top media titles. This was achieved through smart tactics, targeting tier one titles leveraging the media’s fervent interest in the sector’s two biggest issues: digital transformation and the net zero roadmap. The article was published by seven outlets including KBR’s three most important targets: Offshore, Offshore Engineer, and New Civil Engineer. Some placements included a link to the landing page.

LinkedIn Advertising

Sponsored content ads targeted prospects by industry, job title, and geography. Some of the ads linked to the campaign landing page while others served the whitepaper directly gated by LinkedIn lead gen forms.

Results

The results have been excellent—exceeding SQL numbers and values to deliver a very healthy campaign ROI of 60:1.

Ready to get your work recognized on a global stage? Enter The Drum Awards today. Need more inspiration? Read our Award Winning Case Studies.