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Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) is a leading developer of commercially viable technology and projects that generate clean, predictable power from river, tidal, and deep-water currents. Based in Portland, Maine and operating projects in some of the most robust and sought-after tidal energy and river current sites in the United States, it is the only company in New England and the Maritime provinces of Canada – and one of the few companies in the world – to generate electricity from ocean currents without using dams or impoundments.

As ORPC prepared for the launch of the Energy Tide 2 (ET2) – the largest ocean energy device ever deployed in U.S. waters – at its tidal power site in Cobscook Bay off the coast of Eastport, Maine, the company selected Calypso Communications to develop and implement a tailored communications plan to elevate awareness, drive potential investor interest, and demonstrate industry leadership.

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Calypso developed key messaging that demonstrated ORPC’s rapid growth trajectory, unique site development model, and proprietary technological developments, placing particular emphasis on the importance of tidal power as a viable renewable energy and the company’s first-to-market advantage. The messaging equipped ORPC with consistent language that effectively supported and exemplified the company’s leadership position. Calypso then collaborated with ORPC to establish and foster relationships essential to communicate its story of growth and technological advancements and elevate its position in the ocean energy industry. Calypso developed and leveraged media relationships in local, industry, and national press to maximize opportunities and positive press coverage, increasing ORPC’s positive exposure among potential financial investors, legislative leaders, local influencers, and its host community. The agency also engaged third party spokespeople to validate the ORPC story and provide additional industry insights that support tidal energy as a significantly viable renewable energy.

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Promotional Brochure - Design by Calypso

Through proactive outreach focused on ORPC’s technological developments, Calypso created opportunities for positive press in targeted industry and local media, reaching key influencers and potential investors to position the company for future growth. Renewable Energy World, highlighting the challenges many companies face in order to bring the ocean energy industry to commercial scale, cited ORPC as a leader in technological advancements and demonstration projects like the ET2 in its industry profile, “Ocean Renewable Energy Has Huge Potential But Not Without Giant Hurdles.”

“We are in this for the long haul…we knew that we needed to find a really strong, strategic partner that has some financial strength,” the June 2009 article quoted ORPC President and CEO Chris Sauer. “You have to be able to do it all. If you want to be successful in this industry, you need to understand the whole package of project development. This is not just about a technology.”

In addition to Renewable Energy World, Calypso secured coverage in New Energy Finance, R & D Magazine, Greentech Media, as well as the Quoddy Times, Portland Press Herald and Bangor Daily News, among others. Renewable energy bloggers, including Brandon L. Southall and Dan Gordon, continue to discuss the company’s technology.

ORPC’s ET2 demonstration project was recently tested and performed at design capacity, generating 60 kilowatts of electricity. The next generation of the company’s ocean tidal technology already in development could have up to one megawatt of capacity, enough to power 300 homes. ORPC plans to connect its commercial-scale technology to the Bangor, Maine Hydro Electric Grid in early 2011.

Social media – the production, consumption, and exchange of online information through social interaction – promises users a world of instant awareness. For business owners, it offers unrestricted exploration, research, and relationship building without the economic, cultural, time zone, and sales-cycle restraints of traditional business marketing. And it’s here to stay.

Choosing whether or not to engage social media to grow your business can have mythical implications. Calypso works with businesses of all sizes to determine when (seldom if) to integrate a social media strategy into the marketing and sales mix. In doing so we often have to overcome the familiar inertia of more traditional sales and marketing practices. This inertia can have real opportunity costs.

The realities of social media’s power have rapidly outpaced the mythologies of the Internet. In a famous earlier myth, Odysseus chose between a hard but virtuous future of adventure and an easy life of pleasure on an island (with the alluring nymph Calypso). He finally opted for tradition over temptation, shunned the goddess, challenged Poseidon, and made his way home to family and fame. Today’s choice by any business to adopt social media isn’t quite as epic and doesn’t answer to Mt. Olympus, but suddenly the temptations (mostly financial) are more persuasive. The seductively targeted, 24/7, Web-driven customer relationships afforded by online strategies promise a far better course for adventuring businesses than many traditional marketing channels.

Today, personal social media usage is staggering, with more than 500 million active members of Facebook alone, approximately 90 million “tweets” on Twitter per day, and 24 hours of YouTube video uploaded every minute. But while individual consumption is optional, well-planned B2B social media strategies are becoming ‘must haves.’ And although traditional sales tactics still have value and face-to-face meetings are almost always preferred, your customers won’t wait for these meetings to evaluate your products, weigh your competitors, and assess public opinion about you and your industry. Just consider a business environment in which:

• 51% of active Twitter users follow companies, brands, or products on social networks;
• 50% of the Fortune 100 uploads an average 10 videos a month to YouTube accounts;
• 79% of the Fortune 100 uses at least one social media platform to communicate with customers;
• 65% of the world’s top 100 companies have Twitter accounts, and
• According to a national survey, 89% of reporters and editors use blogs for their research, 65% turn to social media sites, and 52% consult microblogs like Twitter or Tumblr.

So whether your business targets corporate, industry, or media consumers, ignoring B2B social media strategies and failing to recognize their potential can lead to serious miscalculations; recall IBM Chairman Tom Watson and his declaration in 1958, “I think there is a world market for about five computers.”

A thoughtful, well-executed B2B social media strategy can deliver a number of benefits, such as social proof – extracting external measures of your firm’s, or industry’s, image or success from social network platforms. It can provide significant exposure, engaging you and your audience with the credible transparency of millions of grass roots conversations. Meanwhile, paid and sponsored advertising on these sites can be highly targeted to your consumers. And the functions that drive inbound marketing results, such as search engine optimization or SEO, are distinctly accelerated by the professional use of social media.

To get started, make sure your business clearly outlines its social media goals. These may include revenue, membership, reputation, market share, or other objectives. Once identified,

• Content is always king, especially online; determine how relevant, engaging information will be consistently acquired and generated by your team.
• It’s not expensive to do right but it’s also not free; dedicate the adequate resources and appropriate people to maintain your site and manage your social network interactions at a high standard.
• Decide which online channels will most effectively reach your audience.
• Technology is the gateway; ensure that you have a robust, effective, and well written website that supports and enhances your social media strategy, and
• Make ROI a key metric; fully integrate your social media efforts into your sales, growth, and CRM initiatives.

For B2B marketing, social media is no longer a “nice to know,” it’s a “need to know.” Properly designed, well managed, and creatively applied, social media can make a discernible impact on your business goals. It can also serve as a fast and effective tool in responding to diverse crises, handling employee or labor issues, addressing fast-moving investor issues, and quickly adapting to sudden changes in buyer and stakeholder demographics.

Carefully evaluate the potential for B2B social media as an essential element of your company’s strategic marketing program. It will prove to be a seductive, but sustainable, strategy that will keep you from drifting aimlessly in a sea of competition.

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Logo

Next Solar, S.A., a vertically integrated, environmentally responsible solar panel manufacturer with a groundbreaking technology, needed to accurately communicate its competitive advantage and burgeoning leadership position in a highly fragmented and saturated space. The scope of the project began with the task of making the argument to keep the current corporate name or conceive a new one to set Next Solar apart from its competitors, first in Europe, then in the Middle East, the United States, and Asia. In Europe alone, over four hundred names are registered to companies in the solar industry.

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Styleguide

Calypso developed a messaging platform to identify the key differentiators of Next Solar, conducted a thorough communications analysis of the competitive space, and researched case studies to solidify a case for changing Next Solar’s name. These strategies combined with interviews with key Next Solar executives defined an attribute base by which possible names could be measured. Numerous creative brainstorming sessions resulted in a name that not only sounded innovative but met all the branding criteria to ensure smooth identity development.

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Stationary

In order to build a comprehensive brand identity around the newly dubbed Heliosphera, Calypso refined messaging for use in the company’s marketing collateral, created a new tagline, designed a corporate logo, and wrote a graphics standards manual detailing the proper use of the branding elements for multiple purposes and across any medium. The resulting brand identity of Heliosphera is unique in its messaging, its global appeal across divergent international audiences, and its look.

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The cover to 2009 Annual Review

Articulate, through research, writing, visual design, and strategic investor relations, a value proposition for a privately held global power company with a defined acquisition/exit strategy. Calypso advises Babcock Power on a market-driven approach for deploying this proposition to a broad universe of potential suitors, including industry shareholders, passive investors, institutional investors, customers, partner and competitor companies, and employees.

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Calypso created a perennial platform for Babcock Power to characterize its growth, present positive and aggressive governance policies, unveil distinct competitive advantages, and explain its differentiating management skills to an increasingly selective investment community. Calypso integrated the Babcock Power brand by designing and developing print advertising, electronic, and direct mail marketing campaigns and trade show displays.

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The annual report campaign successfully completed its first year and entered its second in a planned 5-year campaign toward client’s corporate exit goals. Calypso designed and deployed the corresponding direct mail campaign, which yielded an unprecedented 4% response rate and effectively increased the organization’s database and lead generation capabilities.