Organization:
The National Insulation Association (NIA) is a not-for-profit trade association representing manufacturers providing thermal insulation, insulation accessories, and components to the commercial, mechanical, and industrial markets throughout the nation.

Since 1953, the northern Virginia–based association has been the voice of the insulation industry and is dedicated to keeping the commercial and industrial insulation industry up to date on the latest industry trends and technologies.

Challenge:
The NIA senior management, board of directors, and affiliate members, such as Dow Chemical, Johns Manville, and Pittsburgh Corning, wanted to reach beyond their core NIA membership to deliver the message of energy savings that properly insulated facilities could deliver.

Properly insulated and steam managed industrial facilities such as oil refineries, manufacturing plants, and power plants could also save millions of tons of carbon emissions annually. Most industrial facilities in the United States are more than fifty years old with antiquated insulation and steam management, and with new technology could be refitted more effectively and with less cost.

Solution:
To reach beyond the core membership and deliver the message of energy savings to a larger industrial construction audience, we initially focused on the traditional association media platforms that had evolved over the tenure of the organization.

A basic association publication had been developed over the years starting from a print newsletter format that was distributed only to the membership.

The organization had just purchased a very expensive database system to manage their association membership. While the database was adequate to meet the simple association membership needs, it was not adequate to build a resource guide or to create a complete demographic profile of the national industrial construction community the association served.

Over a period of eighteen months we transitioned the association communications platform to a trade publishing group that distributed important energy savings information beyond the association members to the industrial construction community.

We refocused the editorial content of the trade journal and industrial construction resource guide to meet the expanded needs of the larger industrial facilities audience.

We also created, built, and managed a database system that was designed to deliver expansive demographic profiles of the entire industrial construction community including facilities, corporations, vendors, and contractors. This would allow the association to better understand the community it is serving.

In line with the development of the new trade publishing group we created a new association publication delivering information to the NIA membership and the potential membership. The publication was constructed to deliver not only association information but relevant public policy issues related to the association and the lobbying efforts being done on behalf of the NIA membership.

Results:
One of the most important results of the trade publishing group transition was that senior and executive management at industrial facilities beyond NIA’s membership now subscribe to the different media platforms being developed. The average annual operating cost for each of these individuals to maintain their facilities is $300,000,000. To build a new industrial facility averages ten billion dollars. A properly insulated and steam managed industrial facility can save millions of dollars annually.  

NIA was able to create a national energy audit training certification program because of the income being generated by increased advertising and marketing sales and the expanded communications platform created by the newly developed trade publishing group.

Also, because of the expanded communication platform, NIA increased their membership considerably for the first time in many years. The editorial staff of the publication was asked to be on the editorial board of the Department of Energy because of the new synergy and added value being created by the publishing group for NIA.