Mer is an EV charging company backed by Statkraft, Europe’s largest renewable energy generator. The energy it supplies to its EV charging network is 100% renewable. Mer chose Resonates to raise and consolidate its brand awareness as it started its journey in the UK marketplace.
Stephanie Salguero Head of Marketing Mer UK
After its first year operating in the UK, Mer UK started the search for a partner to provide integrated marketing, PR and communications support. Our brief was to build Mer’s brand within the EV, transport and energy industries.
With key milestones to announce, including new partnerships, the rapid extension of its charging network and the acquisition of its fleet charging arm, Mer wanted to position itself (and its EV charging solution) as the trusted, simple EV charge point operator of choice.
Resonates first took Mer through an exercise to develop core messaging for its different target audiences. This provided us with a firm foundation to plan and develop content and identify opportunities for press activity, at a time when Mer’s UK operation was growing rapidly.
Enhancing Mer’s brand, and positioning its leaders as an authoritative voice in a crowded UK charge point operator market, was our core deliverable. We used a range of media to amplify Mer’s message to local authorities, councils, commercial landowners, businesses and EV drivers. This included press releases, bylined feature articles, interviews, blogs and articles for sharing on social media profiles. We also created a dedicated media pack for local authorities.
In our first six months working together, the Mer brand reached over 1.9 million people through 69 pieces of coverage. By the end of our second six months, this had grown to 160 pieces of media coverage in the press. By the end of year two, we had built on these foundations and grown this success to 260 pieces of coverage.
As Mer’s business expanded – organically as well as through partnerships and acquisitions – the workload and pressure on the marketing team also increased. In Resonates, Mer had a trusted partner who was able to share the workload and act as an extension of Mer’s marketing operation. This included providing media and PR guidance to onboard Mer’s new content executive when the company expanded its internal resource.
Most recently, we hosted a messaging workshop for Mer’s marketing team and key senior management stakeholders. Our collective discussions generated ideas around how Mer can translate its USPs into communications objectives, and delivered a refresh of the topics Mer can talk about to demonstrate expertise and thought leadership in the industry. We also supported with competitive analysis, and a messaging and tone of voice audit.
As Mer’s long-term PR partner, Resonates and Mer continue to work together to strengthen its position in the fleet and depot charging space. We independently research and suggest angles and ideas for feature articles that complement the topics discussed in Mer’s inaugural podcast, ‘Fleets EVolved,’ and consistently land coverage in Mer’s tier 1 industry publications.
We support Mer in building the profiles of its thought leaders, facilitating comments in topical discussion across the media and identifying opportunities to provide expert opinion and analysis on current sector news items.
“I had faith in Resonates’ ability to handle our press and content activity whilst I built up Mer UK’s marketing capability. They often come up with innovative, different uses for content and are on hand to offer support and advice to new members of our internal team. They are a key partner for us and share our sustainable beliefs and culture.” Stephanie Salguero, Mer UK’s Head of Marketing.
“Resonates were really good and came to the interview well researched and their output was spot on. It’s a valuable article and the process to make it was super easy.” Giles Benbow, Mer UK’s Head of Fleet Transition
