Earth Equity News

Danish Wind Turbine Maker Launches $100 Million Ad Campaign in the U.S. By Yuliya Chernova, Dow Jones, August 25, 2008. "[Wind turbine company] Vestas is advertising in the New Yorker magazine [though] the company [isn't expecting] you to put its hundred-ton machines on your shopping list. Instead, the world's largest seller of wind turbines sees the need to raise Americans' awareness of wind energy's potential. To that end, [it has] budgeted $100 million for the next two years to bring its 'Vestas, No. 1 in Modern Energy' campaign to U.S. living rooms, [CEO] Ditlev Engel [said]... This is the first year that the company has come out with consumer-targeted ads that will run in print, online, on the radio and on television. 'We want to show people: Here's technology you have but don't use,' Engel said.... [The] American Wind Energy Association ran radio spots last year asking voters to contact their representatives about specific issues relevant to wind. But the campaigns from Vestas and T. Boone Pickens, who... is reportedly spending $58 million on [his consumer awareness campaign], have a broader message. 'We want people to take wind into the equation.' The U.S. campaign coincides with Vestas' push to expand in the country. The company, whose headquarters are in Randers, Denmark, is investing EUR200 million into additional turbine and component manufacturing facilities in Colorado. The move is driven by... a belief that the U.S. wind market will grow rapidly, the opportunities created by the cheapening dollar, and the rising freight costs that make shipping large machines across the Atlantic more expensive."