(images courtesy of FCB New Zealand)How does an electric company stay competitive in an environment where most providers are fighting for customers month-to-month?
Mercury faced a challenge in a category where monthly costs often trump brand loyalty, and their market share was declining. Recognizing that losing salience would be a big problem, Mercury didn’t go for the quick promotional offer to win over customers, but decided to focus on the long-term.
eaming up with agency partner, FCB New Zealand, Mercury set out to inspire and engage an often less engaged audience by reminding New Zealanders just how amazing electricity is and the power of what it can do.
Enter “Energy Made Wonderful,” an integrated campaign that made Mercury’s invisible product tangible to customers by demonstrating its benefits via electronic bicycles. With a creative strategy designed to inspire customers and employees alike, Mercury transformed the way customers thought about energy. In addition to creating successful partnerships with electric bike suppliers and retailers, the company ultimately increased customer retention, acquisition and staff engagement in a short period of time.
“Energy Made Wonderful” earned Gold in the Best Strategic Thinking category and also took home the biggest award of the year – the Grand Effie – at the 2017 Effie Awards New Zealand Gala, where FCB New Zealand was also named Most Effective Agency of the Year.
We asked David Thomason, Chief Strategist at FCB New Zealand, to share more about the insight behind “Energy Made Wonderful” and how they effectively inspired customers, lowered their churn rate, and went on to win the Grand Effie. Read our interview with Thomason below.
Tell us a bit about your Effie-winning effort, “Energy Made Wonderful.” What were your objectives for the launch of the new brand?
DT: Electricity is (or was) a very, very low-interest category. Most people don’t want to spend much time thinking about it, yet most brands try to appeal through rational arguments and detail. Success depends firstly, and simply, on being familiar and salient. So, particularly because this was a new brand, top-of-mind awareness was the priority. Second was likeability. We wanted Mercury customers to feel good about their choice of energy provider. We wanted New Zealanders to have a sense of what Mercury was all about, i.e. their point of view and purpose. Mercury’s leadership team are passionate about improving life in New Zealand, particularly in terms of being free from a dependence on imported energy. This was central to our solution. Lastly, and key to achieving all objectives, we needed a very strongly branded campaign that included unique, new ownable Mercury properties.
What was your big idea? What was the insight that led to it?
DT: Firstly, we articulated the new brand in terms of a purpose; “To inspire New Zealanders to enjoy energy in more wonderful ways.” That’s a big promise that requires commitment well beyond making some ads. It was an immediately differentiating starting point, because energy marketing had long been about price or clean generation. Our key insight was to appreciate that new electricity-driven technology was rapidly changing our lives and our world in very dramatic and exciting ways, but particularly in terms of transport. Mercury could give that an important boost, and be remembered and loved for their role.
How did you bring the idea to life?
DT: Any time energy companies talked about new technology they tended to talk about a distant utopian future that was far from attainable, and more like some sort of sci-fi story. We wanted to focus on something that was real and accessible to all, but yet to really take off.
Bold focus was key. There were numerous innovations we could support, but we knew singularity would help us achieve the necessary scale and fame. We chose electric bicycles as an ideal symbol of our brand purpose – something that had multiple benefits not just to users, but the country as a whole. We then designed a large integrated campaign that would inspire New Zealanders and make it as easy as possible for them to start riding an electric bike.
This included everything from a TV campaign showing e-bikes literally making the world flat, and introducing the tag line “Energy Made Wonderful”, through to partnerships with bike retailers giving Mercury customers discounts, and a Mercury e-bike trailer touring the country so people could try them. Engaging context-based executions included mobile, where tilting the device demonstrated the “hilly made flat” idea, and public carpark barrier arms where we could remind frustrated drivers that parking is never a problem with an e-bike.
Importantly, throughout it all, strong new branding elements were holding everything together, including the distinctive yellow Mercury bike. This “fluent device” instantly made an invisible product tangible.
What was your biggest challenge in bringing your idea to life? How were you able to overcome that challenge?
DT: Considering how large and comprehensive this campaign was, it happened relatively smoothly. It helped that everyone involved, including the Mercury board and CEO, had an exceptionally strong and consistent sense of what we all needed to do – and why. Everyone was excited, and committed to the campaign. Of course, there were numerous practical considerations, ranging from building a trailer that would carry e-bikes around the country, to creating a helpful online presence to help customers choose the right one. The TVC required some slight exaggeration, with competitive road cyclists having to ride rather slowly in order for our e-bike actor to casually pass them on a hill.
What was the biggest risk you took throughout the process of planning and launching “Energy Made Wonderful?”
DT: We knew that cycling, or cyclists, could be a very controversial issue. There is often an “us and them” mentality when it comes to sharing the road, which is currently being exacerbated through the building of cycle-ways at the expense of road width and car parks. Everyone in New Zealand drives cars, and only a small percentage of adults commute on bikes, so we had to make sure we weren’t seen as promoting something annoying.
We had to carefully consider the cultural timing of this, i.e. bold, but not too bold. We also had to get the campaign tone right, reinforcing a strong sense of Kiwi independence, and adding a PR strategy that kept perceptions as positive as an initiative with so many upsides deserved.
What is the biggest learning you’ve taken away from this effort?
DT: Focus, focus, focus. Commit wholeheartedly to one big idea and you can make sure it’s great, and that everyone sees it repeatedly. Multiple executions and channels – of course. But brand fame is so much easier with one large, very specific and tangible idea that can run across years rather than months. Too many modern marketers try and do too much, too quickly, on too small a scale.
Is there anything else we should know about “Energy Made Wonderful?”
DT: The Energy Made Wonderful thought is here to stay because it works so well for all audiences. In the energy sector, this ranges from engineers to corporate partners to government to call centers to consumers. Having a strong central brand thought and famous campaign makes every conversation easier. Just wait until you see what we’re doing next with that thought.
David Thomason is Chief Strategist at FCB New Zealand. In addition to earning the Grand Effie, FCB New Zealand was named Most Effective Agency of the Year at the 2017 Effie Awards New Zealand Gala.
