Technology transfer marketing
Every tech transfer office has a backlog it cannot get to.
In 2019, Idaho National Laboratory hired the first full-time marketing specialist in any DOE national laboratory technology transfer office: Andrew Rankin. He built the lab’s marketing function from nothing and ran it for six years. The table below is what it produced.
Measured at Idaho National Laboratory
2019 → 2024
| Measure | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Outbound licensee leads, per year | 13 | 1,075 |
| Qualified licensing opportunities | baseline | +355% |
| Patent licenses executed, per year | 3 | 16 |
| Technology one-pagers, per year | 37 | 136 |
| Hours to build a licensee target list | 25 | 4 |
Leads measured 2019 to mid-2024. Licenses 2019 to 2021. Opportunity and content figures compare the periods before and after AI-enabled process redesign.
Why an outside marketer
Three reasons a lab subcontracts this work
01 Track record
Six years inside the system
Marketing a DOE laboratory portfolio is not the same job as marketing a product. The buyer, the readiness level, and the deal structure are all unknowns. Rankin Marketing has done this work at a national laboratory, with measured results.
02 No approvals
No headcount, no tooling review
A dedicated marketer is a headcount most offices cannot get. An outside subcontractor needs neither. The lab provides approved public technology information. Rankin Marketing supplies the entire marketing stack, outside the IT approval cycle.
03 Accuracy
Every claim traced to a source
Each statistic is checked three ways: that the source exists, that it supports the specific claim being made, and that its scope has not been stretched. A laboratory’s credibility is never spent on an unsourced number.
Methodology
I2M: Innovation to Market
Five stages that carry a technology from disclosure to adoption. Built inside a national laboratory, for laboratory technology, and refined across hundreds of campaigns.
Market discovery
Identify the problem the technology solves and what the market uses to solve it today. Sometimes the competition is a spreadsheet. Sometimes there is none.
Position and plan
Value proposition, differentiation, ideal customer profiles, and messaging built per segment. A startup and a multinational are not sold the same technology the same way.
Technology-market fit
Assess readiness. Is this ready to license, co-develop, or still in need of research? Name the barriers: cost, scale, integration, regulation.
Go to market
Targeted, personalized outreach at volume. Commercialization managers equipped for the conversations that follow. Every rejection reason recorded, because it improves the next campaign.
Impact
Track what actually happened. Real outcomes become the proof that markets the next technology.
Background
Andrew Rankin
Before 2019, Idaho National Laboratory had no marketing function. Commercialization managers evaluated inventions, made patent decisions, managed relationships, and found their own leads. There was no process, and few licenses.
He was hired to build one. He created the lab’s first marketing function, then hit the ceiling every solo marketer hits, and rebuilt the work around AI rather than headcount. Output rose several times over while the office added nobody.
He now leads global product marketing for a B2B technology company, where he designs content systems that treat purpose fit, technical accuracy, and citation integrity as separate quality gates. Rankin Marketing brings that discipline to laboratory portfolios.
- Recognition
- Early Career Professional of the Year, 2020. DOE Technology Transfer Working Group.
- Selected speaking
- AUTM National Webinar. AUTM West Regional Meeting. DOE TTWG Fall Meeting. AUTM on the Air podcast.
- Education
- MBA, Idaho State University. B.S. Marketing, Utah Valley University.
- Company
- Rankin Marketing LLC. Idaho registered small business. Idaho Falls, Idaho.