Removing Carbon for Good: Launching Elimini to the World
The most credible climate change organization acknowledges any pathway to stay within 1.5°C involves carbon removals (CDRs). However, the space is nascent (in terms of both sales and deliveries) and critically in need of scaling up quickly to meet that goal. It will take many actors coming together (policymakers, potential customers, investors, and the general public) to make this possible.
That is why Drax, a leading renewable energy company, launched ‘Elimiни’. Elimini’s aim is to build that critical coalition and make CDR a reality at scale through bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) technology. However, successfully launching Elimini required cutting through the noise and educating people with varying levels of expertise.
Our marketing objectives were extremely ambitious: 1) Lay the foundation for rapid, category-leading brand awareness; 2) Position Elimini as the leading CDR innovator among the “named target audience”; 3) Build trust and traction through key strategic partnerships; 4) Drive traffic to our website to facilitate deeper education and drive conversations.
We also sought to activate targeted account-based marketing (ABM) experiences to engage target accounts directly, driving face-to-face engagements and pipeline. Our primary success metrics: reach and engagement across those target accounts and the revenue pipeline.
Strategic Insight
After extensive market analysis, key insights became clear: in the still nascent CDRs market, inertia is the enemy, driven by uncertainty about the technology. We needed to prove to our audience that Elimini is a credible leader in CDRs. And because CDR solutions are big-ticket investments with long sales cycles, we needed to create a sense of urgency while doing this.
Bringing it all together, we needed to prove that Elimini was the one to partner with to meet the urgent need for CDRs now and truly help tackle climate change.
Creative Concept
Our answer to the strategic challenge was our Big Long Idea, ‘Removing Carbon for Good.’ This idea encapsulated the permanence of our solution and its broad, positive environmental impact in a single line. By partnering with Elimini, you are removing excess carbon dioxide from the air permanently, and you are making a meaningful impact toward staying within 1.5°C.
We brought ‘Removing Carbon for Good’ to life through our visuals and messaging that used punchy, appealing, and easy-to-understand communications to convey the urgency of real, practical solutions to tackle climate change (rather than empty, long-term promises and platitudes). This creative elevated the conversation beyond technical terms to make it more emotionally engaging, and it was provocative, encouraging our audience to truly lean forward and pay attention.
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This concept would enable us to change and lead the conversation around CDRs, positioning Elimini, its coalition, and BECCS technology as one critical piece of solving the climate crisis.
Execution
We launched when the whole world was watching — during NYC’s Climate Week. Amid the cacophony, Elimini rose above with high-impact placements, including Times Square OOH, targeted OOH and DOOH, elevator ads in key markets, and invitation-only events. The goal: rapidly drive awareness by leveraging cut-through assets and channels to establish Elimini as the leader in CDRs. This was supported by targeted TV, streaming video, and audio, while top-tier media partnerships, like the Wall Street Journal, established Elimini as a credible voice.
Our brand-to-demand strategy integrated Elimini’s website with Eloqua and 6sense. Within 6sense, we built Elimini’s ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) using firmographic, technographic, and behavioral data to identify and dynamically target accounts showing intent and buying signals aligned with key topics and product terms.
Always-on campaigns were dynamically activated within display and LinkedIn media, with relevant messaging and content designed to pull targets into the buyer funnel. As targets show more interest, they’re automatically remarketed with the next buyer/messaging sequence. Email nurtures in Eloqua were sequenced to orchestrate simultaneously, ensuring a truly omnichannel experience.
Search and content syndication supported the funnel, with content such as websites, papers, reports, webinars, and blogs driving demand and building a pipeline of in-market opportunities.
Results
The product launch made massive strides toward our goals in its first 10 weeks:
- 11 carbon dioxide removal deals with 8 companies
- 95% of target accounts reached, with 26% engaged — a key success metric
- 44,500,231 impressions generated
- CTRs at 3x the benchmark
- 35% aided awareness in brand tracker
- 53% favorability toward Elimini in brand tracker
Ultimately, a consequential weapon in the war to forestall climate change has been raised high.
Not only did we succeed in creating an incredibly successful product launch, but we’ve built a framework for success for Elimini into the future. We established an integrated go-to-market approach — connecting paid, owned, and earned media with strategic partnerships and account-based marketing — to provide a seamless brand-to-demand experience (BDX). This is sure to be a catalyst for success going forward.
We now have a unified framework for where, when, how, and to whom to communicate through this BDX framework. That means our messages, creative, content, media, targeting, and data are perfectly aligned now and into the future.
Through the website’s Eloqua and 6sense connections mentioned earlier, we can use account-level and buyer-level insights to target accounts and orchestrate full-funnel campaigns. We can continue to develop the right creative and content to feed those campaigns, and this in turn will feed the continuous growth of our pipeline and, ultimately, our business.
The campaign’s innovative strategies, impactful creative, and measurable results highlight Elimini’s effective market entry and rapid brand establishment. By addressing the urgent need for practical CDR solutions to help tackle climate change, we not only launched a new product but also positioned Elimini as a leader in the CDR industry. The integrated go-to-market approach and high-impact placements ensured significant market engagement, making this launch a standout example of strategic product introduction.
The campaign’s impact went beyond business metrics; it changed the conversation around CDRs and highlighted the importance of BECCS technology. By creating a sense of urgency and educating our audiences, we helped drive meaningful action toward combating climate change. The recognition and trust we built among key stakeholders and the broader community are testaments to the campaign’s success and our commitment to making a positive impact.
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