The Northern Ireland Housing Executive is the second largest public housing authority in the UK, with a Province-wide responsibility for the public and social housing agenda in Northern Ireland.
Since April 1996, the Housing Executive has also been the Home Energy Conservation Authority for Northern Ireland.
What did our client need to achieve?
In its role as Home Energy Conservation Authority, the client needed to educate and inform the householder on the practical steps which can lead to significant energy savings (including financial savings) in the home, thus leading to a more environmentally-aware lifestyle and a quantitative improvement in Northern Ireland’s performance against EU statutory targets.
How did we help them achieve it?
Working closely with the UK-wide Energy Saving Trust, we developed a deep understanding of current behaviours and the potential physical and psychological drivers to greater energy efficiency in the home. Interestingly, we uncovered a shift from a ‘What’s in it for me?’ stance to a more enlightened ‘What can I positively do?’ attitude. Such shift encouraged us to develop propositions which could genuinely educate and empower the individual.
Against this backdrop we developed the core creative proposition – The power to save is at your fingertips!, which was met with enthusiasm in pre-campaign testing.
Using a mix of TV, radio, outdoor and digital, the campaign broke in the autumn and was sustained over the winter months when people are most focused on how much they’re spending on their energy bills.
The campaign comprised two phases – an awareness-driving phase to raise the profile of energy efficiency in the home, then a ‘do-ables’ phase which provided information on the simple things people could do at home to cut their energy bills.
How do we know it worked?
Initial phases of the campaign were prompting a most encouraging 34,000 contacts with Executive and Energy Saving Trust Advice Centres; this has now risen to a staggering 70,000+ contacts a year via the Freephone mechanism.
The power of an engaging idea with a strong call-to-action.
