PRSA

NRG Energy is a longtime pioneer in advancing the conversation about innovative, sustainable energy sources such as solar and electric car charging. The company wanted to position itself as a progressive energy leader taking steps to revolutionize the energy industry, elevate the visibility of CEO David Crane and engage media to showcase the power of sustainable energy choices to a broader audience. 

Working with Golin, the company found inspiration from content marketing and news generation studies identifying the importance of content ownership, and key features needed for a brand journalism website. Among their findings:

• According to TekGroup, 98% of journalists say it’s important for a company to have an online newsroom.
• The Content Marketing Institute says 80% of business decision makers prefer getting company information through articles as opposed to ads.
• The Content Council reports that 90% of consumers find custom content useful and 78% believe that organizations providing such content are interested in building good relationships with them.

This research reinforced the importance of NRG placing its content into a single destination. As a result, Golin’s objectives included:

• Developing relevant, engaging content to educate audiences and tell NRG’s story
• Acquire new readers through integrated, multi-channel promotion
• Drive influencer engagement and social share of content.

Golin developed a news hub, NRG Power Perspectives (NPP), where NRG and its executives could make and break news. The brand was now able to showcase company stories and multimedia in a user-friendly environment, and the site debuted in July 2014.

To ensure that NPP showcased the complete story of NRG’s business portfolio, Golin developed a thematic content calendar and oversaw site analytics and driving traffic to the hub. Content created included CEO David Crane’s “Letter to the Next Generation,” a manifesto to students about the effects of climate change; Guest posts from partners, including the governor of Vermont, Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Walton; a live-stream from the groundbreaking for NRG’s new headquarters in Princeton, NJ; and NRG’s side of the story when a national news organization filed an inaccurate report from the company’s Ivanpah solar facility.

Results included:

• Internal stakeholders across NRG recognized NPP’s storytelling power, resulting in 93 posts, surpassing Golin’s original goal by more than 190 percent.
• More than 144,000 page views, with notable spikes around major announcements
• A series of content syndication campaigns placed NPP articles in 120+ publications, including Slate, CNN and ABC News, driving more than 59 million impressions to NPP
• Leading industry trades, including Greentech Media, Renewable Energy World, POWER Magazine and SolarWakeup, shared NPP content directly to their followers.

For more information, click here: https://bit.ly/2018anvils.