How do you make the energy sector attractive to media?

Ben Palmer, Senior Account Manager at BIG Partnership, looks at how businesses in the north-east of Scotland can tell their stories to the right audience.

The energy sector in the UK supports roughly 1.48 million jobs, around 1 in every 25 people across the country. That’s 1.48 million people, 1.48 million families and 1.48 million stories. Each and every one of those individuals will have a tale to tell about their professional career.

Energy can be a hard story to sell to media, though headlines of the impacts of domestic and global politics on household bills are as commonplace as ever. Negative stories generate negative headlines and those types of stories don’t need to sell themselves to outlets in the same way that a corporation launching a new product might.

But there are important, often more positive stories than bills shooting up, that need airtime too: the technologies driving the energy transition, the research being undertaken that’s shaping the future of the sector, the work being done to ensure that the country’s energy transition is successful. Robert Gordon University’s latest report which warns that the north-east of Scotland risks losing thousands of high-value jobs and critical skills is one excellent example of that.

For those of us in the energy sector – and particularly those of us in this region, who are only too aware of the financial pressures facing the industry – there is a challenge to make such narratives attractive to media. How do you tell a story in a way that cuts through to the audience you actually want to reach?

In our case, the audience is often the Westminster government, whose Energy Profits Levy is widely blamed for the accelerated downturn in the North Sea oil and gas sector and consequently a lack of investment in renewables.

While it may be a story we’re familiar with, the tale of the so-called Windfall Tax is one dogged in numbers: a 78% tax rate, the end of which if brought forward could increase tax receipts from £32.9 billion to £48.6 billion, according to OEUK. It’s important stuff but as a journalist once said to a colleague: tell me what’s interesting, not what’s important.

For journalists, what they really want to hear about is the people behind the sector.

Of those 1.48 million, there will be engineers, offshore workers, supply chain personnel and communities that all have stories which are interesting. But how do you bring this to life?

Consider A Town Called Bruce, a campaign designed by my colleagues at BIG which told the story of a town called Bruce, 200 miles north-east of Aberdeen in the North Sea. It’s not a town, obviously, but rather Serica Energy’s Bruce platform, a collection of individual stories brought together on one structure which will be familiar to others across the basin.

Or look at how Dales Marine launched its recruitment drive for new apprentices earlier this year. Interviews with Energy Voice showcased the skills they have learned, their commitment to the sector and why they believe the apprenticeship puts them on a steady and successful career path. Comments directly from source to press without the corporate spin which journalists loathe.

The energy sector has a plethora of stories to tell, but in the wider mainstream news spectrum, it can often be overlooked. Geopolitics, crime and culture may all be ahead in the pecking order but even these serve as a reminder of what’s key to making them intriguing: people are at the forefront of the narrative in each.

If you work in the industry and want your story told, start with your people. Not the megawatts, not the tax rates, not the transition targets. The engineer who came offshore after 20 years in manufacturing. The apprentice who turned down a university place. The supply chain business keeping a community employed. Those are the stories media will take, and they’re the ones that reach the audiences that matter.

If you’d like to talk to BIG about how we can help to solve your business challenges, please get in touch.