Hydrogen Engine Center, Inc.

Situation

Algona, Iowa-based Hydrogen Engine Center, Inc. (HEC) designs, manufactures and distributes flex-fuel internal combustion engines for the industrial and power generation markets. The engines are capable of running on a multitude of fuels, including hydrogen, gasoline, propane, natural gas or ethanol. HEC, whose stock trades as HYEG.OB on the OTC Bulletin Board, produces engines that can fill the demand for cleaner burning power sources required by today’s industrial marketplace.

PR Action:

HEC retained H&A in March 2006 as its North American public relations firm of record to focus upon media relations, tradeshow PR and raising overall awareness of the company among investors, customers and opinion leaders. H&A wrote, distributed and pitched news media materials about HEC’s products, sales, investor information and North American distributor network. When HEC held its annual meeting of stockholders in May 2006 and dedicated new manufacturing facilities in July 2006, H&A helped plan the events and encouraged media to attend and write feature stories.

Results:

Associated Press (AP) was among several media that attended the annual meeting, and produced a story and photos for the AP wire. The story was picked up by thousands of media nationwide, including ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and newspapers in the top 100 U.S. markets.

The dedication event was covered by seven additional media.

H&A also placed a second AP story about HEC’s plans for an innovative ammonia-fueled engine which was picked up by thousands more media nationwide.

Total news coverage during the first year included approximately 30,000 placements worldwide and produced a return-on-investment greater than 70:1.