Client: Mobilityways
Sector: Transport PR, Environmental PR, Green issues, Net Zero Carbon Targets, Media Relations, Media Outreach, HR and Management Trade Coverage(for SEO)
The challenge:
To promote brand new zero carbon commuting brand Mobilityways which was set up by its parent company, the Liftshare Group, to stimulate larger businesses to encourage their staff to commute in a more sustainable way when they return to the office post-pandemic.
Mobilityways had just launched a service which is able to calculate the Average Commuter Emissions Level (ACEL) of workforces by collecting real-time ‘travel to work’ data from workers via its mobile app. It uses its analysis of this data to help employers to stimulate staff to explore greener commuter options such as car sharing, walking, cycling, or using public transport. As staff make new choices, Mobilityways is then able to report on ACEL improvements to sustainability chiefs to support their Scope 3 audits.
Mobilityways uses existing government emissions averages for different modes of transport published by Defra and multiplies these by the number of employees using each mode of transport and by the DfT’s up-to-date average commute distance figures, to create its ACEL score which can then be benchmarked against ACEL averages by sector. Mobilityways then works with those responsible to work out a plan for reducing commute emissions to ensure declared corporate Net Zero targets can be met.
What we did:
Miles Clayton worked with both the commercial director and communications manager of Liftshare to agree a comprehensive news content package designed to optimise media coverage for Mobilityways’s very first ‘Commuter Census’ which it conducted via an online survey sent to more than 350,000 of its free mobile app users during April 2021.
Miles Clayton’s team at Agility PR produced a total of four different news stories: the first was linked directly to the National Census 2021 which had been completed exactly a month before and had missed an opportunity to capture post-pandemic commute intentions.
The second news release was aimed at the directors and senior management of medium and large-sized companies across the UK. The third was written to get the attention of sustainability chiefs of public and private sector enterprises.
A final version was created to obtain East Anglia regional news coverage as Liftshare is a significant employer in Norwich which is also the base for several key regional newspapers and magazines.
Having gained approval on these press release versions, Miles Clayton advised on obtaining some early evidence and third party commentary from early adopter clients. Several were identified by the sales team and Miles was able to write up customer quotes and a mini case study for two major public sector customers which were used to strengthen the story.
The result:
Highlighted coverage included regional business director magazine UK Director Magazine and HR trade titles – the HR Director and HR News. A total of 14 pieces of news coverage were logged by mid-May when this media outreach campaign ended.
Quote from Basil Choudhry, Commercial Director at Mobilityways:
“Miles Clayton provided a good deal of useful free advice around how to approach a market research-led PR campaign to support the launch of Mobilityways’s planned launch back in November 2020. This helped inform the work we did to create our Commuter Census. We were impressed with how quickly Miles was able to make sense of the myriad of findings we gathered, turning them into newsworthy stories which formed the platform for useful, highly targeted media coverage for our new brand.”