E.ON adopts ‘humorous’ tone to engage on ‘dry’ subjects
E.ON is looking to engage people in what it says can be the “dry subject” of energy efficiency with a series of humorous advertising and online initiatives.
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The nationwide push, created in partnership with DLKW, launches this weekend (12 October) to trumpet the energy provider’s online hub where customers can compare bill prices with one another.
It is being spearheaded by two separate TV ads featuring homeowners comparing home appliances – a TV and a fridge – to those of their neighbours, with each one more outrageous than the last.
The humorous scenarios are a shift from the utilities firm’s recent efforts which adopted a more straightforward tone to promote energy efficiency. The changes stem from the company’s wider “Reset Review” to appear less remote to customers.
E.ON unveiled the online hub last week (1 October) and said at the time the campaign would position it as an “innovative solution” to encourage “positive behavioural change”.
Anthony Ainsworth, sales and marketing director at E.ON, told Marketing Week: “Our strategy [addresses] how we become a trusted energy partner. [The campaign] is an evolution of our previous strategy it is about engaging people in what can be a dry subject.”
Social media promotions will support the ads with the business working with bloggers to generate user-generated energy saving tips for the platform. E.ON is also partnering with cinema chain DCM to serve branded content and competitions to people via the latter’s dual-screening mobile app.
The online push forms part of E.ON’s growing commitment to emerging channels, which has seen it allocate 40 per cent of its annual marketing budget on digital media in 2013 compared with 20 per cent last year. The number is set to rise next year as the it looks to expand its mobile offering.
The energy provider is banking on the online hub to help differentiate itself from rivals as the sector’s biggest players look to launch more insight-driven and digital-focused marketing strategies to get closer to customers. Last month for example, British Gas unveiled plans to build a family of energy saving products around connected devices in the home.