Delivering Your Innovation Story

MISSION-CRITICAL COMMUNICATION Strategic Thinking Whitepapers

Delivering Your Innovation Story mm

WE HAVE A CULTURE OF INNOVATION. THEY NEED TO SEE HOW WE STAND OUT. Our innovations and expertise are our biggest assets. But in a rapidly changing world of innovation, it’s a challenge to get clients, shareholders and end

Innovation drives your company.

You need a strategy to deliver your innovation story.

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Engage your audience to meet steep challenges.

WHITEPAPER

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AUTHOR DR. MARK T. MEALEY SENIOR COMMUNICATONS ADVISOR STRATEGIC THINKING COMMUNICATIONS PUBLISHED OILWEEK MAGAZINE ONLINE DECEMBER 2013

DELIVER YOUR INNOVATION STORY.

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eaders in the oil and gas industry recognize that innovation drives the industry, so they necessarily live in a world of change.

Innovation produces business challenges because it is inherently disruptive.

Since your competitors are also innovators, you have to compete against their innovations in an always-shifting landscape. Your employees, your shareholders and stakeholders, your clients and your potential customers never stop having to adjust to keep up. It is difficult to get the signal through the noise.

So the business problems caused by innovation are inextricably linked to communication problems.

If your company is driven by innovation, then you need a strategy to deliver your innovation story clearly and persuasively into this world of change.

INNOVATION DRIVES THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY The myth that the oil and gas industry is a relic from the old, low-information economy of the past was

IT ALL MAKES SENSE TO YOU Now it needs to make sense to your audience.

never convincing, says Dr. Marvin Fritzler, the Chair of the Alberta Research and Innovation Authority.

“The reality is that the oil and gas industry is a high-information, innovation-driven industry characterized by rapid technological change,” he insists.

Two innovation stories from the WCSB make this point very clearly.

Only thirteen years ago, the vast reserves of oil sands too deep for surface mining might as well have been on the moon, with zero commercial viability. Then Foster Creek tipped into positive cash flow, in 2002.

You live in a world of innovation and change. How will you make your innovation story stand out clearly and persuasively?

Less than 10 years later, in-situ recovery methods accounted for approximately half of all the oilsands production in Alberta, almost 80 percent of Alberta’s proven oil reserves, and the bulk of Canada’s reserves. Picking the lock on in-situ bitumen quadrupled North America’s oil reserves and anchored Canada’s economy in the last recession.

Just ten years ago, Canada’s proven natural gas reserves were in steep and apparently terminal decline, falling from 100 trillion cubic feet in 1986 to 56 trillion cubic feet in 2005. New drilling and fracking technologies caused estimates for

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recoverable natural gas in the WCSB (as opposed to proven reserves) to more than double or triple over previous estimates, to as much as 947 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas.

With supply ballooning across North America, the economics now depend on market innovations on the demand side, including LNG exports and the displacement of coal in power generation.

Advances in both tight oil and tight gas production have already transformed hydrocarbon bearing tight shale and sandstone from a practically valueless bunch of rock into a multi-trillion dollar resource over the space of just a few years.

Each of these innovation stories is also a story about big, bold business challenges, with well-publicized, outsized economic and political implications.

And telling these stories clearly means facing big, hairy communication challenges.

INNOVATION CREATES BUSINESS AND COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES Oil and gas companies in every segment of the industry differentiate their businesses on the strength of their expertise, innovations and technologies. Some distinguish themselves by their culture of constant innovation.

One example is Hallmark Tubulars, a company that differentiates itself with an innovative business model to source and supply oil country tubular goods through integrated services and through its culture of innovation.

Henry Ewert, the president of Hallmark, argues “there is more innovation happening in oil and gas than people realize. Technology is moving very quickly, and a lot of the technical innovation is being led by the smaller companies including both production and service companies.”

Marc Johnson, VP Sales and Marketing at STEP Energy Services agrees that “the oil and gas industry is in a constant state of change.” STEP Energy Services is an oilfield services company that specializes in coiled tubing and

pumping services for the deep horizontal well market. STEP innovates to make coiled tubing technology more efficient, reliable and valuable to its clients.

Despite the advantages they bring, innovation and technological advances create a host of business challenges because innovation and new technologies constantly change the game.

Internally, you face a constant challenge in on-boarding and training, in order to help your team understand, master and explain your innovation.

Externally, since the whole industry is characterized by change, your innovation story competes with a myriad of other stories to be heard. Your innovation story is likely connected to environmental hot buttons, and the whole industry faces steep political challenges—in local communities, inter-provincially and internationally. There are so many ways in which the signal can get lost in the noise.

Because you have created a new business model, service or product, your target customers need to understand how your innovation helps them achieve their objectives and create value—a core business problem.

Companies that differentiate on innovation and technology need effective communication strategies to meet the business problems that are inseparable from their innovation story.

DELIVER YOUR INNOVATION STORY EFFECTIVELY What you need to communicate and how you need to communicate both depend on your business objectives—why you need to communicate. Since your situation is unique, you need communication solutions that are unique to your company.

Christine Wilson, the Marketing and Communications Manager at STEP, points out that “companies must also determine the most efficient medium through which their value proposition can be most effectively communicated. Where are your clients and how will they hear your message most effectively?”

One way to think about the

many possible channels to deliver your story is to distinguish between: • Channels you own (like websites, email and newsletters); • Channels you share (such as social media channels or tradeshows); • Channels you purchase (like paid industry media or press releases over newswire services); and • Channels where you earn entry (such as news features highlighting your innovation).

Delivering your innovation story effectively requires a whole set of consistent strategies that reach your target audiences across several channels.

There is no way to count all the possible channels available, but it’s useful to mention three that are particularly effective in delivering an innovation story.

Annual reports are designed to demonstrate the value of your company to its shareholders, but they have a wider reach. Henry Ewert points out that “the annual report really is a marketing document. It reaches the shareholders. But it also reaches potential partners for the company as well as our customers and community stakeholders.”

If you differentiate on innovation, then your annual report must tell your innovation story, demonstrating that your innovation creates value, and explaining how it does so. Annual reports, annual reviews and corporate resumes can be built to deliver your innovation story to the particular audiences that you need to reach. Then you can broadcast them strategically on multiple channels.

Tradeshows present another valuable opportunity to deliver innovation stories. Frame your tradeshow presence as an opportunity for your potential clients to find answers for their biggest problems. Use several channels before, during and after the tradeshow to understand and connect with your audience on their issues. This approach earns you a hearing for the stories that show how your innovation has addressed their challenges.

WHITEPAPER

Presenting at tradeshows projects your company as an industry leader that builds innovations and technology to meet the current challenges of your target market. This goal is more difficult to achieve than simply building a glossy display, but the potential return on investment is much higher.

Third, oil and gas companies are discovering that whitepapers are a flexible and powerful way to target segments of their audience by providing them with information they value.

Whitepapers address a focused audience near its point of pain, using words, images, video and infographics to deliver innovation stories with clarity.

Since your innovation or technology is by definition new, it probably needs to be explained.

Whitepapers are an excellent way to explain complex industry problems and new technologies with clarity, and to tell the story of how you have already tackled those problems.

You can publish whitepapers on platforms that target specific industry segments. They can be a crucial part of your website, product landing page and social media strategy. You can link to whitepapers from your annual report or from a press release, and send them directly to particular customers or to segmented, qualified lists.

Marc Johnson sums it up: “companies must successfully bring innovation and new technology to the forefront, and truly understand how to communicate the value proposition of that technology, to grow and survive in this competitive marketplace.”

As Ewert puts it, “what sells are not the claims that you can do something, but the stories that show you have done it.”

If your company is still around to tell its story, then it probably has a great innovation story to tell. You need to reach your market and key audiences with your innovation story. You can do that by matching your story with innovative and flexible communication strategies to deliver it. ST

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Meet your mission-critical business objectives. Engage your audiences to meet the steep challenges that you face.

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ou have steep challenges. And a significant part of every business challenge is the need to engage your key audiences effectively.

Your objectives dictate that you engage clearly and persuasively on the channels that matter to your audience. Any deliverables you require—a crucial speech or presentation, a key report or whitepaper, a web or mobile asset, a one-off special project— must be designed to achieve your objective with maximum impact.

EARNED TRUST Persuasion requires trust, whether your audience is inside or outside of your company. And trust doesn’t come from a silver-bullet message or a perfectly executed communication strategy.

You earn trust from consistent actions over time. Trust flows from what you are as a company and who you are as a person.

The foundation for trust: the value you have already created and continue to create for your clients, shareholders and stakeholders.

STRATEGIC THINKING We help you establish and grow earned trust by engaging with your audiences. Strategic Thinking specializes in tailored communication solutions to meet steep challenges.

Tell us about your challenges. Our experience and partnerships with our flexible approach allow us to tackle critical projects—so you can meet your key objectives.

MARK T. MEALEY, STRATEGIC THINKING MARK@STRATEGICTHINKING.CA

403.605.4095

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED Some recent Strategic Thinking projects that achieved missioncritical objectives for our clients.

Natural Gas industy whitepaper that is changing the way industry leaders think about accomplishing major facility projects.

Highly rated, provocative expert presentation package at a prominent natural gas industry conference. Deliverables included speech coaching, editing, and Powerpoint production.

Comprehensive corporate resume for an international oil and gas engineering and fabrication company. Effective statement of the corporate value proposition.

Profiles of five business units, including case studies and major project profiles. Exceeded expectations and met their schedule: 9 weeks from sanction to delivery of English version.

Project management of Russian and Chinese versions.

Global Petroleum Show tradeshow package for a 600 ft2 display.

Included delivery of 7 video presentations, print materials, and all graphic displays on a super-tight schedule. Company recognition: this was the best, most effective tradeshow they had ever done.

Complete website re-do. Delivered a complete re-write of the website for a small, rapidly growing designer and fabricator of oil and gas processing facilities, meeting the objective of projecting brand quality to match the achievements and capabilities of the company.

Comprehensive overhaul of the marketing packages for a sales organization. Client evaluation: “These marketing materials are easily equal or better than those of our best compeitors.”