DATA-DRIVEN PR - APPLEYARD LEES

OBJECTIVES

• Use data-driven insights to position Appleyard Lees as experts in green innovation
• Highlight specific Appleyard Lees’ patent attorneys for their expertise
• “Achieve mentions” for the firm in business media
• Increase traffic to Appleyard Lees’ website via search and direct visits

CONTENT MARKETING AND PR STRATEGY

1. Research and write a report about global “green innovation”

Green innovation – i.e. companies investing in patents for environmentally-friendly technologies – was a fertile space for the firm to inhabit and a market likely to become important to Appleyard Lees’ clients.

Therefore, the concept was a report based on published patent data showing how companies are investing in technology areas –including energy storage (e.g. electric vehicle batteries), bioplastics production/recycling and environmental farming and food production – and including interpretation and insights from Appleyard Lees’ patent attorneys.

2. Selecting the most pertinent green technology areas for the report

By reviewing the United Nations’ 17 sustainability goals for areas where technology innovation would be essential and cross-referencing with the OECD’s sustainable development goals and the World Intellectual Property Office report into green patents.

3. Media relations

Metamorphic PR researched the visibility of green innovation stories and identified that each technology was covered primarily in university researchers’ academic papers and technical media. This meant that – to obtain wider recognition among business media – Appleyard Lees’ campaign would require content equally intelligent, insightful and accessible.

Also, Metamorphic PR actively monitored the agenda of the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference to pinpoint live issues hitting the news agenda and referenced them where relevant in the green innovation report.

CONTENT MARKETING AND PR ACTIVITY

The Report

The creation of Appleyard Lees’ 10,000-word Inside Green Innovation: Progress Report 2021 involved:

• Multiple interviews with patent attorney experts
• Creating iterations of each section based on new input and feedback from the attorneys and other reviewers
• Identifying relevant commentary from other industry sources and publications to place the data and commentary in the broader context of global, environmental issues
• Ensuring the language in the report was clear and accessible for experts and non-experts alike.
• Shaping the report’s findings so that Appleyard Lees’ analysis of the data demonstrated the firm’s professional knowledge and expertise; offering advice relevant to companies innovating in green technologies.

Media relations

This involved:

• Extracting the most compelling findings to develop news stories for each industry sector addressed in the report: energy, plastics, farming and food production.
• Identifying media – both UK and international – relevant to each sector.
• Drafted and distributed news releases.

Metamorphic PR advised the client that a media relations campaign following shortly after the COP26 conference would capitalise on the media appetite for related stories. Therefore, the report was published and media relations activated within two weeks of COP26.