Energy, Innovation and CEOs

 

Challenge

Under the auspices of the Bipartisan Policy Center and ClimateWorks Foundation, a group of seven CEOs (including Bill Gates of Microsoft) planned to announce a new effort to promote federal government funding on energy research and development. Beyond the obvious interest in the bold-faced name participants (which also included GE’s Jeffrey Immelt, Xerox's Ursula Burns and venture capitalist John Doerr among others), the group wanted help developing and executing plan for a Washington, D.C. event.

 

Response

Ben and his agency colleagues developed a multi-track plan to include development of video assets, a new website and an aggressive media outreach program leading up to a press conference featuring the CEOs to be held at the Newseum just off the National Mall in Washington. The team had four months to pull everything together – including interviews with the CEOs for the videos and planning for a press conference with business leaders representing well-known corporate leaders.

 

Result 

The video assets included individual interview segments (all shot, produced and finalized by Ben’s team) and a summary video that later helped the campaign win several industry awards. The press conference was attended by a standing room-only media and partner audience that yielded extensive media coverage and attention from target audiences on Capitol Hill and in the Administration. Six months after the event, the campaign was cited in a Washington Post story for its effectiveness.