Let’s start by setting the scene. What is RWE? It stands for real world emissions, the gases and particles emitted by vehicle combustion engines when operated under real-life conditions.

RWE has applied to light duty vehicles (LDVs, such as cars and small vans) and heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs, such as lorries and buses), for certification purposes, for several years.

A new legislation came into force in 2019 requiring that non-road mobile machinery (NRMMs) be subjected to in-service monitoring (ISM). NRMMS seldom if ever use roadways. Examples included diggers, quarry vehicles, canal barges and snowmobiles. ISM requires the use of a portable emissions measurement system (PEMS) because a) you can’t get something like a digger into a test laboratory and b) the monitoring must be performed under normal operating conditions. HORIBA is the leading supplier of automotive tests systems, and its PEMS is a product called the OBS-ONE. Knowing that NRMM emissions monitoring would entail taking the OBS-ONE off-road, and into environments in which high vibration levels, shocks and bumps, dust, moisture and temperature extremes are all too common, the company developed the OBS-ONE-RE (where RE stands for rugged enclosure) to protect its highly accurate and sensitive equipment.

Role Play

We were asked to support HORIBA UK’s 2020 RWE campaign with the provision of content for their website (including video scripts) and a press release to announce the OBS-ONE-RE. We were given a top-level brief regarding the overall objective of the web content – in terms of target audience and which HORIBA products and capabilities should be highlighted – and were introduced to product specialists and the company’s regulations expert.

From the outset, we knew this was going to be a story-telling exercise and that we had to quickly get up to speed with RWE regulations and the monitoring equipment needed to monitor emissions. But that was a good thing. We were in the same boat as the NRMM OEMs, and it’s never a bad think to see things from the potential customers’ perspective.

We were fully onboard as a team member and included on all planning and progress-reporting calls throughout the entire process; from voicing early thoughts/ideas to the website (with videos) going live. Some calls had personnel joining from three different HORIBA sites (two in the UK and one in Germany). Between these calls we were interviewing individuals and doing lots of background reading.

For the web copy and the video scripts we made sure we were answering the kind of questions OEMs must be asking themselves. What are the regulations? How do they differ for LDVs, HDVs and NRMMs? How do they differ in different regions? What do they require I do? How do I do it?

This thinking took as down the route of presenting Challenges and Solutions (implemented as tabs on the site).

From initial brief to website launch (with videos) this part of the project took less than six weeks.

With the site in place, we then set about the outbound marketing – namely the press release for the OBS-ONE – to start drawing traffic. Sent to the editors of carefully selected trade press publications, the press release spearheaded HORIBA UK’s move into the NRMM PEMS market and the news was picked up by publications focussed on environmental issues as well as publications focussed on heavy equipment for quarries etc. The OBS-ONE was also recognised for its innovativeness by a publication focussed on design solutions.

Most recently we have made two industry award applications on behalf of HORIBA UK – one in relation to the OBS-ONE-RE as a product, the other nominating the person most responsible for the product’s design.

The results (so far) of this great collaboration can be found here.