“The Pod has essentially become our marketing department. I know I can trust them to deliver – I know if the Pod works with us on a project they will know exactly what we and our customers are after, know exactly what we need and have the tools, knowledge and expertise to deliver. This has given me back roughly two days a week - meaning I can attend more Industry meetings & workshops, engage with my customers more regularly, and spend my time developing the decarbonisation programme, without having to worry. The partnership with the Pod has really accelerated the success of the Xoserve Decarbonisation programme, long may it continue!"
Xoserve
Bringing the gas industry together towards decarbonisation
Xoserve holds a unique position at the heart of Great Britain’s gas industry. As a Central Data Service Provider, Xoserve is a not for profit organisation and impartial custodian of Great Britain’s gas data. It provides essential services that support the reliable running of the gas market. This includes providing accurate and timely information to businesses within the industry and, crucially, the facilitation of cross-party collaboration.
The brief
When the UK Government set its sights on net zero, Xoserve recognised that it could play a valuable role in supporting energy industry transformation. Thanks to its impartial position, it could help bring disconnected stakeholders with disparate agendas together to work towards a shared goal: the creation of a carbon-neutral energy system.
There are currently some incredible projects underway aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the network and finding low-carbon alternatives to natural gas for heating and heavy-industry. Xoserve wants to raise awareness of the importance of these and, wherever possible, bring people together to accelerate net zero progress.
Our approach
Research revealed that there was no central place for cross-industry collaboration among the stakeholders Xoserve wanted to engage. At the same time, informal conversations told us that there was an appetite for knowledge-sharing and timely information on industry events and milestones.
To ensure communication would be well executed, The Marketing Pod began by conducting detailed interviews with gas industry stakeholders. From there, we were able to build a set of five gas industry personas: large energy suppliers, sustainability-focused suppliers, distribution network operators, metering providers, and independent gas transporters.
Once these were verified by Xoserve, we began shaping a muti-channel communications plan to execute across owned and shared channels, including a new Decarbonisation Knowledge Centre. This would act as a central hub to host resources, new content, and dates for the diary. The plan also included regular industry forums, enabling stakeholder involvement on an ongoing basis.
Communication took a supportive tone, providing accessible expert opinion and breaking down complex technical information into easy-to-digest formats. Written comms were repurposed into visual and engaging content including infographics, videos and the popular DecarbDiscussions podcasts.
All content was shared across the new Decarbonisation Knowledge Centre, a monthly DeliveringDecarb newsletter and a comprehensive social media calendar for the main Xoserve profile and the personal profile of its CEO, Stephanie Ward.
To maintain engagement, we also leveraged earned media, engaging with key industry titles to achieve editorial coverage, and networked with industry influencers to amplify content on social channels.
Our early stakeholder research included details on each audience’s preferred means of communication and business interests. This helped us shape the Xoserve Decarbonisation Knowledge Centre, which hosts:
- The monthly DeliveringDecarb newsletter – including notable news and policy milestones
- DecarbDiscussions – Xoserve’s podcast, hosted by Xoserve’s Decarbonisation Strategy Lead, Victoria Mustard
- Regular blog posts by Xoserve experts and guest contributors
- Updates on ongoing and future decarbonisation projects
The results
The Marketing Pod produced a wide array of valuable assets, including:
- Stakeholder mapping
- 1 explainer video
- 5 podcast episodes
- 10 blog posts
- 12 monthly newsletters
- Promotion of forums for stakeholder groups
- Monthly social media content for both Xoserve and its CEO, Stephanie Ward, with tailored content for LinkedIn and Twitter
- 3 pieces of editorial content
The results were overwhelmingly positive and the campaign successfully grabbed the attention of the gas community:
- LinkedIn followers increased from 6348 to 7325, with the most popular posts receiving 230 clicks and over 80 reactions.
- The Decarbonisation Knowledge Centre attracted 3999 page visits, with a 163% increase in visits from Sept-Oct 22.
- DecarbDiscussions was downloaded by 559 listeners across 19 platforms.
- Editorial content reached 103,000 potential readers.
Editorial content reached 103,000 potential readers.
3999
Page visitors
103,000
potential readers
Pod services used
Copywriting
Design
PR
