The Challenge
A carbon emissions tracking software company for large enterprises. While operating in a crowded market, yet completely invisible, with DR 21, only 1,800 monthly visitors, and no media presence.
They faced a problem with authority. Well-funded competitors like Watershed and Persefoni already owned media coverage and significantly stronger authority. The client had no relationships with climate tech journalists and no published research to offer them. The founding team had genuine deep expertise in carbon accounting but no public profile, no bylines, no conference presence, no thought leadership that journalists could reference.
They needed to raise a Series B in 6-8 months. Investor due diligence increasingly includes Googling founders and companies; no media coverage means a weaker fundraising story at a critical moment.
The Strategy We Used
We designed a digital PR campaign around the regulatory momentum driving corporate carbon reporting. The strategy leveraged upcoming SEC climate disclosure rules and EU CSRD requirements as news hooks.
- Created 2 original research reports: “Scope 3 Reporting Readiness” surveying 500 enterprise sustainability leaders, and “Carbon Accounting Software Adoption Trends” analyzing market penetration by industry.
- Positioned the CEO (former sustainability director at a Fortune 100 company) and CTO (climate data scientist) as expert commentators on carbon regulation compliance.
- Timed research releases to coincide with SEC rule comment periods and EU CSRD implementation milestones for maximum newsworthiness.
- Targeted climate tech media, ESG trade publications, enterprise sustainability platforms, general business press covering regulation, and VC/startup media.
- With a monthly target of 7–10 placed stories, with deliberate tier-1 targets for investor-facing publications.
The Results
The Scope 3 Readiness report was released two weeks before an SEC comment deadline and was cited in 16 articles in its first month. It became the most-referenced third-party survey on Scope 3 readiness in the climate tech media for the quarter.
The fundraising impact was the client’s most valued outcome. Three Series B investors specifically cited media coverage as how they first discovered the company. The client closed their Series B at a significantly higher valuation than initial projections, with the founding team attributing part of the premium to the brand authority built through the PR campaign.
AI visibility reinforced the fundraising narrative. The Scope 3 Readiness report became the primary source material for AI systems answering questions about corporate carbon reporting. Google AI Overview featured the client in 20 ESG-related queries. Perplexity cited them in 19 sustainability results, the second-highest Perplexity count across all digital PR case studies. ChatGPT referenced the client in 15 responses when users asked about Scope 3 reporting requirements, carbon accounting software options, and SEC climate disclosure rules. The regulatory timing strategy amplified AI visibility by enabling AI models to update their knowledge using the same media coverage that traditional search engines indexed. When sustainability leaders asked AI assistants about carbon reporting readiness, the client’s original research served as the data those systems referenced. Two of the three Series B investors who cited media coverage also mentioned seeing the client referenced in AI search results during their due diligence process.
