Sugar Bowl Case Study

Activist Investing | Supporting Engine No. 1’s Proxy Campaign Against ExxonMobil

Challenge

Engine No. 1 was in the process of launching their firm when they approached Haystack in late 2020 to support them with a proxy fight against ExxonMobil ($XOM), one of the largest corporations in the world and the largest in the oil and gas industry. What Engine No. 1 lacked in brand influence, they made up for in the collective experience of their leadership team.

This campaign could be classically described as David vs. Goliath. Investing the full weight of Engine No. 1’s available budget created ownership of only .02% of ExxonMobil’s shares, so they needed to craft a campaign to appeal to a large yet specially-targeted audience and spend tactfully. A significant factor in meeting the objective was connecting directly with investors (retail and institutional) on social media. Sugar Bowl accepted the challenge.

Results

Using our collective resources, we dominated the digital landscape. High impressions and click-through rates on social assets demonstrated our effectiveness in sharing campaign messaging.

In an unprecedented outcome that surpassed our expectations and made front-page news, Engine No. 1 won three out of four board seats in the election. The collective team shared a special moment when those results were called out.

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Approach

Sugar Bowl joined forces with Haystack’s search and web teams. Together, we collaborated with lawyers, analysts, and others to create an activist investor campaign with the objective of championing new members onto ExxonMobil’s board of directors and ultimately creating positive change for climate protection.

We were highly prescriptive not only with budget but also with ad spend and placement. Engine No. 1 had the connections to reach institutional investors. So Haystack focused on reaching, engaging, and informing all retail shareholders.

We segmented audiences by the number of shares held, geography, and other identifiers for targeted messaging of values-based clean energy and dividend information. For example, we geofenced ExxonMobil’s headquarters as a target audience to deliver unique messaging to their leadership and employees. This allowed us to leverage multiple platforms, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, and Stocktwits, to reach multiple target audiences and appeal to both sides of the political spectrum.

Results

Using our collective resources, we dominated the digital landscape. High impressions and click-through rates on social assets demonstrated our effectiveness in sharing campaign messaging.

In an unprecedented outcome that surpassed our expectations and made front-page news, Engine No. 1 won three out of four board seats in the election. The collective team shared a special moment when those results were called out.

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