Leading a New Category in Climate

Challenge

LanzaTech is the first carbon capture and utilization company to go public, but the company and its category are often left out of the media and policy conversations around carbon management — overshadowed by more expansive funding and legislative backing of buzzy carbon removal startups. LanzaTech’s carbon recycling story needed to be more visible in climate discussions, and the role of its larger category in accelerating a circular carbon economy needed better understanding among key commercial and policy stakeholders. 

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Strategy

Mission North centered our strategy on defining the carbon recycling category, with LanzaTech as its visionary yet pragmatic leader. We evolved the company narrative to appeal to investors and partners by communicating LanzaTech’s unique value as an immediate bridge solution for carbon-intensive businesses across the value chain—from industrial emitters to CPG brands that use carbon for their products. We developed an integrated communications strategy to reinforce their technological and commercial achievements with waste carbon, including launching the company’s Re:Carbon blog to add context to their work and message to specific audiences. We used this first-hand content to more deeply engage traditional media, showcasing LanzaTech’s compelling characters by deepening the go-to spokesperson bench with their policy and science leaders, including former fossil fuel executives that had now shifted to climate tech.

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Impact

Through high-impact media coverage in the U.S. and Europe (e.g. Economist, WSJ, Newsweek) and prestigious award wins (e.g. TIME Climate 100), LanzaTech’s differentiators, urgency and impact are reaching fresh audiences. The CEO’s op-ed in The Economist became a powerful manifesto on the circular carbon economy, and we used a paid LinkedIn campaign to expand its reach—driving 1.3K clicks and 187.3K impressions with important commercial and policy stakeholders like Apple, L’Oreal, Dow, and USDA. LanzaTech is putting itself front-and-center in innovation conversations through activations like this Washington Post Live event. Amidst the noisy backdrop of carbon management, we are broadening understanding of the carbon recycling category and positioning LanzaTech as the mature pioneer and definitive category leader.