‘Energy isn’t very sexy’: Why EDF is partnering with Coronation Street to drive discussion
The energy provider is embedding its brand within the soap itself to promote its sustainability initiatives.
EDF is launching a partnership with British soap opera Coronation Street to promote its new money-saving challenge through a mix of media, content, and in-show storytelling.
The ‘Sunday Saver Challenge’ sees EDF offering its customers up to 16 hours of free electricity on Sundays for using less energy during peak weekday times.
The campaign promoting the challenge will be integrated into the soap in a number of ways, including an EDF-branded van, bus shelter, and Pod Point EV charging station, as well as an orange house on the eponymous street. Characters in the show will also discuss issues around sustainable energy and saving money.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQWlEGmYMfM
“By raising the profile of the discussion in such a relevant programme it means that people put it at the top of their agenda rather than waiting until contracts end or prices rise,” explains Nicola Collins, senior brand manager at EDF.
Described as a “first-of-its-kind” collaboration, the work will be supported by a six-week multi-channel campaign across TV, VOD, digital, social and out of home.
“We gave [Havas] a difficult brief to bring in new, innovative channels and look at different opportunities so that we could meet our objectives away from traditional advertising and doing the same thing that we have always done,” says Collins.
When we look at our targeting and those who are actual EDF customers, there’s a big overlap and a big crossover with that Coronation Street audience.
Nicola Collins, EDF
The collaboration comes with benefits for both brands and at a time of increasing interest in sustainability communications. The ad will be part of ITV’s Climate Content Pledge to normalise climate action through mainstream content, as well as supporting Ad Net Zero’s ‘Every Brief Counts’ pilot which pushes for sustainable behaviour to be embedded into content to raise awareness.
“The key thing is raising the discussion point because energy isn’t a very sexy subject,” admits Abi Ward, deputy managing director at Havas Media UK.
Ward explains that since storylines from the soap are so often based around real-world issues, it was a natural collaboration. “We felt like there was a really great connection, not only from a target audience perspective, but from a lot of the subject matter that the street talks about,” she adds.‘Clamouring for change’: EDF on building a brand for all target audiences
In fact, Collins is happy to admit that the sustainability conversation generated has to be bigger than EDF itself.
“It’s not just about EDF — although of course we want our brand to be associated with it — but about the measures and the difference you can make,” she says.
She adds: “As a country, we do need to balance and make this change if we’re going to get to Net Zero by 2050.”
Targeting and measurement
Of course, the most pertinent question is, why Coronation Street? Was there not a more dedicated climate programme that would have suited the brand better?
“We did have a number of options, but we all felt that Coronation Street would be the most relevant,” explains Ward.
Despite the fact that everyone uses energy, the soap was found to have the most effective audience for EDF thanks to its primarily over-40s, ABC1 audience.
Collins adds: “When we look at our targeting and those who are actual EDF customers, there’s a big overlap and a big crossover with that Coronation Street audience.”How E.ON repositioned as the ‘un-utility’ energy company
Integrating the Sunday Saver Challenge into the world of Coronation Street also puts the initiative in front of non-EDF customers, as well as spreading the word to EDF customers who may not have heard about it.
The scheme was initially rolled out to a small group of customers to understand reasonable energy thresholds and conduct research on how to best communicate this message with customers.
“We have looked at remodelling, we’ve looked at communication, we’ve looked at simplifying the language,” explains Collins.
Since the Sunday Saver Challenge itself is measured by customers having a smart meter, measuring the success of the campaign is straightforward for both EDF and Havas, an uptick in smart meters.
As a country, we do need to balance and make this change if we’re going to get to Net Zero by 2050.
Nicola Collins, EDF
However, both EDF and Havas are realistic about the fact that longer-term behaviour change will take time to come into effect, and therefore they will need to ramp up brand awareness metrics to support this.
For Collins, the goal moving forward is simple: “What we want to do is strike absolute behavioural change so that we’ve got enough energy on the grid for the long term and for everybody,” she concludes.
