Data-Driven Storytelling Competitively Positions LevelTen Energy

The Challenge

Each quarter, LevelTen Energy collaborates with the Walker Sands PR team to handle media relations for the PPA Price Index Report. The PR team’s media relations efforts are designed to increase brand awareness, amplify LevelTen Energy’s reputation as a leader in the renewable energy space and drive traffic to the company’s website. Prior to monetizing the reports, Walker Sands was already delivering consistent energy trade coverage for each report, averaging five stories per report.

When LevelTen Energy decided to monetize the reports, the PR team was challenged with securing a higher quantity and quality of media coverage across top-tier business and tech outlets in addition to energy trade publications. To make the reports more attractive to media outlets, the team highlighted timely news and events, and their effect on wholesale electricity and PPA prices. To support LevelTen Energy in hitting its monetization and marketing goals, Walker Sands aimed to boost media coverage by 400% for the first report, and continue to gain traction for all of the following reports.

The Solution

Walker Sands’ approach to leveling up media coverage for the paid version of the PPA Price Index Report focused on two areas: tapping into established reporter relationships and delivering hyper-personalized stories to those reporters. The team strengthened existing relationships with targeted media outlets, and nurtured new reporter relationships to expand the company’s reach. By focusing on reporters who are “influencers” in the energy industry, Walker Sands hoped to increase the likelihood that other journalists would pick up the story.

Since the reports contain a significant amount of dense and technical information, storytelling was crucial for drawing attention to the most important takeaways. In response, the PR team intentionally crafted narratives that tied the data to major points and relevant news, such as the Department of Commerce’s Auxin (AD/CVD) investigation and the Inflation Reduction Act, to make the reports easier to digest for reporters.

The team also worked with LevelTen Energy to add media-worthy content to the survey portion of the report as a way to capture reporter interest. Specifically, in the first monetized report, content focused on how developers were responding to growing uncertainty in the energy market due to the war in Ukraine, a topic the team knew would appeal to trade publications. In addition to pitching to media outlets, Walker Sands suggested LevelTen Energy include sponsored content in a key trade outlet, Canary Media, to guarantee launch-day coverage.

Throughout the year, the team nurtured key reporter relationships by routinely inquiring about their coverage plans and providing reporters with pre-embargo alerts about the reports. This effort paid off, especially with the third monetized report, when the team secured embargoed interest and media interviews a full month before the report’s release date.

The Results

In 11 months of promoting LevelTen Energy’s monetized PPA reports, Walker Sands surpassed both the yearly total coverage KPI by 178% and the data-driven placement KPI by 420%. Walker Sands consistently secured more than 10 media placements in the first week following the release of each quarterly report.

Every quarter, our team gained coverage for LevelTen Energy in top-tier outlets, including Axios and S&P Global Market Intelligence, and key trade outlets like Utility Dive, Environment + Energy Leader and Renewable Energy World. The high stakes first report also surpassed the goal of 20 placements. LevelTen Energy received nearly 30 placements in the first month following the report’s release, with an impressive 50% of these placements in top-tier outlets.

This level of coverage remained consistent throughout the year. In 11 months, LevelTen Energy received 101 data-driven media placements. Overall, this partnership has expanded LevelTen Energy’s list of friendly reporters and solidified the company’s credibility with top-tier outlets like CNBC, TechCrunch and Bloomberg.

At Walker Sands, our clients are our partners, and our long-standing partnership with LevelTen Energy is a testament to the impressive results that are possible when we work collaboratively with clients to generate creative solutions capable of helping them achieve their goals.