Metan Ltd. is a marketing and promotional company for Icelandic bio-methane located in Reykjavik. The company was incorporated in 1999 and between 2000 and 2009 the number of vehicles running on bio-methane in the capital area increased gradually to 120 but by then the total fuel usage amounted to less than 10% of the production capacity via collection of biogas at the local landfill site. With two service location and cost savings of 40-50% compared to the price of petrol, along with the environmental and social benefits, the hope had been for years that the municipalities as well as private fleet managers, operating vehicles within the capital area, would soon fully utilize the initial production providing for the opportunity to increase production further by use of other sources. But more was required.

In July 2009 Metan Ltd started a new marketing campaign directed at citizens/households, schools and universities, policy makers, local and regional authorities, transport and car sales companies, the media, as well as financial institutions and the scientific community. By the end of 2010 the number of vehicles running on bio-methane in Iceland had increased by over 300% from 120 vehicles to close to 400. Today, forecasts indicate a great increase in demand for bio-methane in Iceland and the number of vehicles using the fuel reaching close to1000 by the end of the year 2011.

In short the marketing effort can be described as a bottom-up multi level approach in the sense that special effort was made to create a synergy of interests and inputs from different stake holders and opinion leaders addressing the need for socially responsible change in transportation. The new marketing approach called for an analysis of the form providing for the fact that less than 10% of the production capacity of bio-methane was used in the capital area. Results called for the need to bring the bio-methane message through a storm in order to establish a new norm for the product to perform in the market. Resistance to change is a well known fact and when combined with a systemic change that will affect various business interests one could expect to run into all forms of challenges and misinformation at different levels that needs to be approached, corrected and communicated at all levels of the decision making process including the public. In our case challenges in all forms had to be met.

In December 2010 a bill was passed by the parliament of Iceland (Althingi) reflecting a system change in taxes and duties on motor vehicles, fuels and transportation that brought to light the holistic benefits of replacing fossil fuel with bio-methane in Icelandic transportation.

No matter how good a product is or how socially responsible it is to use it, instead of something else, one has to fight for any share of the market in an effective way and reevaluate regularly the strategy in doing so. When throwing the javelin as far as one can physical attributes like strength, speed, acceleration, agility and coordination are very important but only to the extent of how good one is in positioning the javelin at time of powerful release and how well the positioning of the javelin matches the external conditions in the air after release. Marketing of bio-methane in a small country like Iceland might be considered easy compared to doing so in municipality, city or country with a population of millions. Yet it might be argued that it might even be harder to get through, all the same level of resistances to change, in a small country then a large one. The nature of challenges to be met and overcome in Iceland are presumably quite similar in shape and form as in a much larger country, and the numbers of root players, throwing their spears in the decision making process of a systemic change, is likely to be very similar regardless of market size. Our experience of a bottom-up-multi-level-marketing-approach for the bio-methane message might easily be replicated in a larger market and might be of great use in positioning the case for bio-methane under different external conditions. The Cinderella story in the fuel-system exchange history in Iceland might bring an excellent case for what is achievable. By the way, very few throwers throw further than they think.