With the rise in eco-awareness, there also comes hesitation and mistrust of the change occurring. RG&E and their parent company reached out to us to help find a creative and impactful solution to help ease minds and change hearts to a more EVolutionized way of thinking.
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Avangrid and it’s child company NYSEG are electrical and gas utilities that service a healthy amount of Central and Western NY homes. They are one of the most prolific and well-known utility companies in the state and have been pushing to be seen as the most reliable in their services.
Project timeline
The campaign took a lot of brain matter to accomplish, but was, start to finish, such a great time. We had plenty of resources and were able to get any and all of our questions answered when we needed them so deliverables were produced on an efficient timeline.
my part to play
I worked in art direction and creative ideation for this project. Once final designs were picked by the client, I worked in the primary development of OOH and digital campaign media. I also assisted in finding film and voice talent for filmed shoots.
software
Avangrid approached the team to help solve a major issue — increasing and loud hesitation of the EV market. Electric vehicles, we found, came with a number of predispositional ideas and myths that needed to be remedied. Our job was to find where the major pain points of the general Western NY public about electric vehicles and create a multi-platform campaign to inform, myth bust, and excite their target audiences about the great new beginning that is electric vehicles and their awesome new electric grid support in their local areas.
Public relations played a key role in what direction we went with. During initial consumer research, many hits showed positive ideas towards EV, but we realized a great majority of consumers in the middle of the road when it came to the commitment of purchasing. While we knew we wouldn’t adjust the minds of the ones majorly against, we wanted to create a concept that attracted and convinced that great middle bubble.
After initial concepts, we and the client gravitated towards this 3D clay style of art direction, allowing for a unique and adaptable look for their brand. Using good accessibility and clever wordplay, we landed on a concept that lets the audience know that electric vehicles are going to be here EVentually and we’re here to help inform and guide on the journey.
In addition to our OOH and digital campaigns, we had a 15, 30, and 60 second ad placements – combining both our illustrative style and real world video to create an informative masterpiece.
NYSEG/Avangrid put a lot of faith into our idea and it paid off! Not only was it a blast to collaborate and learn more about the EV space, it came with great client benefits as well. The campaign drove to a “get the facts” page and ended up with 1.1 M statewide impressions of the full PR campaign, 18.3 M multi-channel impressions, and an overall 19 point increase in surveying consumers considering an EV purchase. Along with snagging a bronze in the Telly Awards, the head of Avangrid’s EV Program Marketing Team is also quoted as saying:
“[The team] quickly digested and presented valuable creative and media placement solutions for the NY integrated EV awareness campaign, while understanding the business need for results … everything was handled under one roof with a single point of contact and timely, accurate dashboard reporting. When flexibility or changes were needed, the team acted quickly and thoughtfully.”
This project was one of passion and a need to inform, and boy did we. There are few things I’d want to change over the course of this project other having more time to explore the concept and push the idea into the great future it has!