Captains of Industry » Renewable Energy

EnerNOC: Helping Manage Energy More Intelligently

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:18:29 +0000

EnerNOC, a leading energy management company, enlisted Captains’ help in creating an engaging video to tell their story. Deployed in a new customer center as well as online, the video combined interviews with senior management and images of energy-hungry corporate facilities to clearly define their value proposition. This video and others by Captains is helping to build awareness of EnerNOCs services, and generate more qualified sales leads.

Alteris Renewables Corporate Website

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:52:30 +0000

Alteris Renewables, the leading installer of solar and wind energy systems in the Northeast, hired Captains of Industry to design and develop a new website to better match their lead-generation goals and unique corporate culture. The challenge was to create a website that made Alteris look like the innovative, high-growth company that they are, while capturing their passion for renewable energy. Captains created a new look and feel for the site, defined a user-flow to generate more sales leads from residential, commercial, and school customers, and built the site on the easy-to-use WordPress content management system, giving Alteris the freedom to make updates and changes to their site on their own. Additionally, Captains created a media center for the site to help give a glimpse into what renewable energy means to different people, incorporating various customer and employee testimonial videos.

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The Invisible Solar Tipping Point

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:23:09 +0000

By Ted Page, Captains of Industry
People have been wondering for years when the magical tipping point for widespread use of solar energy will arrive. Here’s the good news: From a financial perspective, solar now makes sense (at least in many states), so the right elements are in place for solar to take off. The bad news is that nobody knows the facts. A lot of people have wanted to live a greener lifestyle with solar energy, but they’ve been waiting until the costs came down, and they’re still waiting. What they don’t know is that thanks to generous federal and state subsidies, and the drop in the cost of solar panels themselves, the payback on a solar installation can be immediate.

In many states, including Massachusetts, homeowners can go solar by paying a modest up front fee and leasing their solar panels, so they only buy the actual solar power generated by the panels – but for LESS MONEY than they’d pay the utility. Hmmm. Go solar without the high up front cost, start saving money right away, lock in a low rate. Why wouldn’t we do it? The answer is that many of us would, if we knew more. Most homeowners in areas like the Northeast are not aware that the region has enough sun to make solar energy work, and not aware that they can save money on their electric bills with solar. The financial tipping point is here, but it’s invisible. What’s urgently needed now is education, not marketing. We have to make it easy for people to learn that going solar right now makes economic sense, so they can finally live the solar lifestyle they’ve always wanted.

First Wind Corporate Website

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:00:39 +0000

First Wind (formerly UPC Wind) is a leading North American wind energy company. In this crucial time of climate change and high energy prices, their challenge was to speed the development of wind farms so the company could expand its efforts more rapidly—while countering the myths propagated by anti-wind groups, and appealing to key stakeholders in the wind farm approval process. Captains of Industry and First Wind decided to begin from the most basic level: developing a new name, a new logo, and overhauling their communications strategy, crafting a new brand image and more focused messaging. We developed a new website incorporating video testimonials, plus print literature to be used at the local level. In effect, we took numerous individual wind farm projects and helped transform them into one large, unified brand. This enabled First Wind to communicate consistent messages, tailored to their diverse audiences, each of which have to be on board to make a wind farm a reality. The result? First Wind’s project development and approval process has been accelerated, and their profile increased: when CNNMoney did a search to find the leader in wind energy to interview for a feature story, they picked First Wind. It’s another example of how good web content is at the core of organic search engine optimization.

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Carbon-Neutral PGA Sponsorship

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:40:48 +0000

Constellation Energy is one of the largest energy companies in the United States. To demonstrate their commitment to fighting climate change, Constellation sponsored the first ever carbon-neutral senior PGA golf tournament. Constellation came to Captains for help in finding creative ways to get the word out about their sponsorship, and get tournament attendees engaged in finding ways to reduce their carbon footprints.

Instead of relying on hackneyed appeals to “be green”, we decided it was important for the creative concept to be rooted in the game of golf itself. Being golfers ourselves, we’re familiar with the history of the game and its dedication to preserving the honor of the game as well the course. The theme – It’s the Right Thing to Do – was employed in a commercial and course signage, while a print ad used a golf theme to illustrate ways to reduce carbon footprints. Feedback from Constellation, from the CEO on down, was extremely positive, and the event was a big success.

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First Wind Posters

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:20:26 +0000

First, imagine power as limitless as the sky.

First Wind, a leading American wind energy company, has local offices in the towns where their wind energy projects are planned or in operation. They needed a way to tell the story of clean wind energy to people visiting them, and help dispel anti-wind myths. Captains created a series of posters that got to the heart of what wind energy is all about: energy independence, clean energy, and economic revitalization.

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I will eat my shorts for a solar energy account

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:00:56 +0000

How do you land business from a solar energy company? Start a blog and threaten to eat your shorts on YouTube.

Captains of Industry has years of experience in renewable energy, but thanks to the economic slowdown in early 2009 landing a solar account was proving to be a daunting challenge. One day Captains’ creative director, Ted Page, blurted in frustration, “If we don’t land a solar account this year I will eat my shorts!” Thus was born the Solar Shorts blog, with a video in which Page pledged to actually eat his shorts and put the video on YouTube unless the company landed some solar business. To launch the site, Captains reached out to friends and colleagues through social networking channels such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. The result? Emails and blog posts from around the world starting coming in immediately after the site went live, and within 2 weeks Captains had started its first project for the largest solar installer in the Northeast. The blog was featured in the Boston Business Journal. Renewable Energy World online magazine provided free web banners to promote the blog. And the videos have been seen throughout the solar industry. It’s another example of how good web content (in this case a funny video), combined with social networking can deliver terrific results on a budget.

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Alteris Solar Direct Mail

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:40:06 +0000

Telling the story of solar energy to consumers.

Alteris Renewables, the largest solar installer in the Northeast, came to Captains when they needed to launch an innovative new solar program in Massachusetts. Instead of paying a fortune up front for a solar installation, households could in effect rent the sun. Homeowners put down just $1,000, and pay every month just for the clean energy produced by their solar panels, instead of buying the panels outright. The mailer, showing how easy it now is to be green, helped build the Alteris brand in the state and draw potential customers to a seminar on solar energy.

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First Wind branding

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:09:36 +0000

Making a wind energy company look like the billion dollar company it would become.

UPC Wind came to Captains when they needed to establish a whole new look for the company that would take them to their next level of success. Through a strategic process that involved brainstorming with their senior management, Captains established a new brand, with a new name, logo, tagline, and graphic design, that’s helped them become one of the top wind energy companies in the United States. Their tagline (Clean Energy. Made Here.) gets across everything they’re about in just four words, while the new name and image conveys a sense of credibility and innovation.

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Deepwater Wind Corporate Website

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:46:00 +0000

Deepwater Wind’s website, along with the whole look and feel of their new brand, conveys a sense of credibility and technological prowess. The use of photography to show beautiful shoreline vistas, uncluttered by offshore wind turbines, reinforces the fact that only Deepwater Wind has the technology needed to locate wind turbines far off the coastline where visual impact won’t be an issue for shoreline communities. And the tagline, “Clean energy is just over the horizon,” drives home the vision of unlimited energy that’s within our reach.

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Deepwater Wind branding

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 19:10:26 +0000

Winergy, an offshore wind energy company, was up against entrenched competition in bids for offshore wind projects. Due to Captains’ years of experience in renewable energy communications, we were selected to help them revamp their messaging and brand in order to better position them for success. We analyzed their competition, and the mindsets of key stakeholders in the wind farm project approval process, and in the process completely overhauled the way they communicated their unique technology: wind farms in deep waters far off the coast – where the turbines were practically invisible from the shore. A new name and logo strengthened their appearance as a credible and financially solid company, while a new tagline – “Clean energy is just over the horizon” – conveyed their unique advantage over traditional offshore wind farm technology. Within a few months after the rebranding effort, Deepwater Wind beat numerous competitors to win a bid for a large offshore wind farm in Rhode Island.

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First Carbon Neutral Senior PGA Tour Event

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 14:48:27 +0000

Constellation Energy, a leading supplier of energy products and services, sponsored the first ever carbon-neutral senior PGA golf tournament. As both avid golfers and environmentalists ourselves, Captains of Industry decided to create a commercial that celebrated the honor and sportsmanship of golf as a metaphor for environmental stewardship. By reducing their carbon footprint, tour participants not only protected the green, but also the game’s heritage for the Jack Nicklaus’s and Ben Hogan’s of the future.