CASE STUDY: ENERGY / MOBILITY
Ample
VSC helped Ample change the perception on battery swapping by unveiling its second generation swapping station that provides a full charge in 5 minutes.
CASE STUDY: ENERGY / MOBILITY
Energizing Battery Infrastructure
Ample is accelerating the transition to electric mobility through modular battery swapping, a universal EV charging solution in which depleted batteries are replaced with charged ones in 5 minutes. Ample's stations are as fast, convenient, and cheap as gas and can be deployed in an entire city within weeks.
Our goal was to help Ample introduce a second generation (V2) of its battery swapping station design with the ultimate goal of driving awareness among automakers to consider the technology to power EV fleets. VSC has been the agency of record since the company’s public debut in 2021 and was responsible for the PR of its first-generation station.
Strategy and Tactics
We reached our goal by introducing “5-minute lego-like EV battery swaps,” an EV charging method that is 5x faster and 10x cheaper than fast charging. In our messaging, we highlighted the intentional design changes that Ample’s co-founders implemented with the new station. For example, the V2 station marked Ample’s expansion beyond small passenger cars with the new capability to support larger delivery vehicles like sprinter trucks. This is a major unlock for delivery fleets (the Amazon and UPS’ of the world) as we’ve been able to streamline the drive-thru design so it’s more user-friendly.
Ample had already been in market since 2021 and major outlets like the NBC Today Show, Techcrunch, Business Insider, Forbes, CNBC, CNBC (again), and Bloomberg had covered the company. We needed to make sure that our next PR splash moved the needle beyond the outlets we’d earned for our first generation, V1 station.
We did that by hosting a high-touch demonstration event at Ample’s warehouse in San Francisco. We invited 70 investors, automakers, energy companies, policy makers and EV partners. In addition to reporters representing Forbes, Fortune, Canary Media and GreenBiz, we invited YouTube and TikTok Influencers. This was the first the company had engaged EV-influencers and we sourced, analyzed, negotiated and managed the logistics to have each one come. The influencers produced entertaining and engaging content that promoted Ample to their wide array of followers.
The Results
The morning after the swapping event, the PR embargo lifted and we secured 48 online stories, totaling 1.2B UMVs and 13 influencer posts that reached 1M potential social viewers in less than 2 weeks. We submitted the work to Fast Co and TIME Magazine and the company was named a 100 Most Influential Companies of 2023 and a Fast Co Innovation by Design Winner.
In the months after the V2 swapping station demo event, Ample closed deals with new automaker customers such as Mitsubishi Fuso and Stellantis. In sum for 2023, we earned 376 original stories that reach over 5B in UMVs. Some stories include: TechCrunch, CNN, Cleantechnica, The Verge, Forbes, Fortune and many more.
