AMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE
ENERGY SECURITY
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Mobilizing Energy Citizens
Anybody here know what energy security is?
This was the biggest challenge the American Petroleum Institute (API) faced entering 2024. At the beginning of the year, Think Big launched a campaign for API that would effectively communicate its commitment to energy security as a strategy to recruit valuable advocates.
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01
The Challenge
Think Big was tasked with communicating API’s commitment to energy security and recruiting and mobilizing advocates (Energy Citizens) who were passionate about it, but not many average Americans know what it is. This campaign marked new territory for API, which required Think Big to develop and test messaging completely from scratch, without any existing metrics or research to build upon. Our team would have to (1) determine the best messaging to communicate what energy security is and why it matters. 2) Utilize this messaging to acquire and cultivate high-value individuals as advocates for API and the organization’s preferred energy policies.
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The Approach
We approached the blank canvas surrounding Energy Security with an advertising strategy informed by deep insights into the audiences that we were targeting and driven by testing and optimization. Leveraging the audience insights we were able to craft messages that triggered key motivation factors of our audience that we layered into multiple ad types (Video, Animated GIFs, Carousels, Static) and launched them on both trusted lead generation platforms and untested, new platforms to API.
The strategy was built on the basis of adaptability. We were able to shift budgets and swap creative in and out as we watched the performance with our live advertising dashboard. Our team utilized various in-platform targeting features to build look-a-like audiences and retargeting pools to maintain low cost-per-lead but strong performance.
The Results
In 6 months, we were able to optimize and reduce the overall CPA by 83%. After adding in additional segmentation, we saw an ~11% increase in female impressions and a ~30% increase in impressions from other demographics.
After optimizing the campaign to utilize conversion pixels, we saw performance jump from 164 conversions/month to ~1,750 conversions/month for a 967% increase.
DATA STAT #1
50k
New "Energy Citizens" generated for API
DATA STAT #3
967%
increase in monthly conversions
DATA STAT #2
83%
reduction in the overall cost-per-conversion through optimizations and learnings
DATA STAT #4
+40%
increase in reach to key demographics
