With the world’s preeminent energy conference cancelled due to the pandemic, MHI decided to create a virtual event in its place.

CHALLENGE

In early spring of 2020, just eight days before its scheduled kick off, CERAWeek was cancelled due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 and rising health concerns. As an influential player for many years at the world's premier energy gathering, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) needed to quickly and effectively pivot to ensure that participants and potential customers could still access industry leadership, insights, and opportunities — but safely. 

INSIGHT

After moving to a digital-only approach, we began research to understand our audiences’ online preferences. We found that MHI’s most critical audiences are 31% more likely to use LinkedIn and are highly engaged with business news and trade publications. From MHI’s historical marketing efforts, we knew that 76% of leads previously generated were from thought leadership content. This cemented our strategy to leverage thought leadership content that provided an industry-level view as the cornerstone of the program.  

IDEA

Knowing we needed to break through increasing digital noise around the canceled event, we focused on a diversity of channels and direct targeting. We created an account-based marketing campaign leveraging editorial content centered around a long-form eBook alongside utilizing industry content partnerships. For the final step of the campaign, we launched a live webinar event built on the long-form eBook and companion content. The event featured a round table discussion with MHI executives, along with other partners in the energy industry including academia and customers.

The campaign included integrated efforts across digital, owned and social activities, spanning six months. In the end, MHI effectively turned a one-week trade show into an extended online activation, delivering high-quality industry information and driving results among unprecedented times.