Our role:
Three years ago, the OpenADR Alliance appointed Origin Comms as its first PR agency to help raise the profile of the Alliance in the UK and Germany, attract new members and promote the OpenADR standard (which allows electricity providers to communicate demand response signals to customers) in Europe.
As a global industry alliance of over 200 members developing and championing the OpenADR standard, the Alliance had specific requirements for its PR, including:
- An agency that can understand often highly technical information and effectively communicate it to the media, providing valuable insights, advice and best practice
- Creative thinking, capable of translating product or technical concepts into topical and engaging content
- Flexibility to work on different formats, including blogs, articles, social posts, press releases, member interviews at industry and OpenADR events and more.
Our strategy:
We continue to build a reputation for OpenADR through credible thought leadership in the form of opinion articles and industry commentary, focusing on energy, engineering, technology press, and sector-specific publications in the EV, transport, renewables and HVAC sectors.
Working closely with the OpenADR team to pioneer issues in a noisy industry, we have successfully tapped into new interesting and timely subjects like the growing demand for energy from data centres driven by AI.
Using our budget smartly, we repurpose these topics across the two markets for different media and in different formats, from articles and commentary to interviews and blogs.
While regular news has been a challenge, we fill the gap by creating momentum stories to highlight OpenADR Alliance successes and growth. This includes new members, product milestones and collaboration with industry bodies, regulators and policymakers, notably the Department of Energy Security & Net Zero in the UK, EEBUS in Germany, and Smart Energy Europe (smartEn), which lobbies for energy flexibility as part of the transition to clean energy.
Our goal is to be seen as an integral part of the team, trusted by both the client and member companies. We play a proactive role with members, scripting and filming video interviews at industry events, writing Q&A-style blogs and use cases, and ensuring we are visible on monthly marketing working group calls.
What success looks like:
OpenADR’s willingness to discuss critical issues like the impact of increased electrification on the grid and weaknesses in EV charging infrastructure helps us to position them industry thought leaders.
We also challenge the client to think differently and outside of their default technical focus, tapping into emerging trends like vehicle-to-grid technology, virtual power plants and AI to help us tackle hard-to-reach journalists and audiences.
Despite the challenge of limited news, we’ve turned this into a positive. In the last three years, just six releases have generated 45% of all media coverage. This message is clear: less is more!
Impact:
PR activity has generated close to 200 pieces of coverage across media in the UK and Germany. We worked closely with journalists to strike a balance between profiling OpenADR as an important industry alliance and delivering engaging and thought-provoking opinion.
Some of the top hits include Electrical Engineering, Electrical Times, Energy & Sustainability Solutions, Transport Operator, Energie & Management, Erneunerbare Energien, eMobilitytec, Smart Infrastructure, Smart Energy International, New Energy World, and many more.
While this is impressive enough, we have also delivered:
- 50 opinion articles to date, representing 25% of our overall coverage.
- 10 interviews (video, podcast, and online) published, with Smart Buildings Magazine, Illuminaire, EM360, TechDay, Industrial News and 50,2 published in the last six months.
- Interviews with over 20 members at major industry events, including ENLIT Europe and OpenADR User Conferences in London.
- 22 blogs written for the OpenADR Alliance website
- Regular speaker slots for the Powered On Live events, including the 2025 event keynote.
Rolf Bienert, Managing & Technical Director, OpenADR, is our primary point of contact for OpenADR. He says, “Origin Comms has become an invaluable extension of our team over the past three years. They not only grasp the complex technical nature of our work but consistently translate it into clear, compelling stories that resonate across our key markets. Their creativity, strategic thinking, and deep industry knowledge have elevated our profile in the UK and Germany, delivering results far beyond our expectations. Thanks to their efforts, OpenADR is now firmly positioned as a thought leader driving the conversation around energy flexibility and the transition to clean energy.”