Background

The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) is a Government Centre for Excellence, working to positively transform the capabilities of the process industries.

It provides expert help and guidance, specialist facilities and world leading research and development capability to assist the successful growth of process businesses.

CPI is one of the Government’s most successful Centres for Excellence, having attracted significant private sector investment and created unique commercial assets.

Cool Blue’s challenge was to not only create distinctive branding but also to gain the Centre early recognition as being a world leader in its areas of interest and expertise.

Strategy

Our strategy was to develop a brand identity that looked to the future and which had a global feel. CPI may have been a ‘start up’ but it was a powerful and authoritative start-up and needed to quickly establish this position.

We developed an innovative identity and a series of unique media opportunities and key stakeholder events, gaining the attention of funders and leading news, business and trade media from the UK and around the world.

One of these media interventions involved our suggestion to find a ‘world first’ fuel cell application to create an international news event by which to showcase CPI’s capabilities. As a result, the light house at Tees Mouth, one of the world’s busiest ports, was powered by a CPI fuel cell.

The media launch attracted journalists from international and national news channels. We held the event at sea, adding to a sense of rugged excitement and pioneering discovery.

Result

The BBC’s leading TV business news programme Working Lunch produced a dedicated programme focusing on CPI, while BBC News 24, Associated Press journalists, the Financial Times, The Times, the New York Herald Tribune, The Engineer and many other domestic and international publications, from around the world, covered the story, putting CPI firmly on the UK, European and global map for scientific innovation and excellence.

Over £1.3million of news coverage was secured from the fuel cell media launch, bringing CPI to the attention of commercial partners and strategic funding bodies.