Citizens Energy Group
If you own or rent a home or building in Central Indiana, there is a good chance you’re a Citizens Energy Group customer. As a public utility and public trust, Citizens Energy Group faces a unique set of communications challenges including customer outreach, utility education, emergency information, and community engagement initiatives. To stay on top of their messaging and better serve customers, Citizens continually receives customer survey feedback. Year after year, month after month, customers rank “ways to save on their bills” as the thing they want to hear about most. Citizens turned to CVR to create a campaign with that could educate customers and capture the community- and customer-focused nature of the brand.
All IN YOUR WAYS TO SAVE
Sharing Ways to Save Tips with Humor and Understanding
We answered by developing a campaign centered around the key customer ask and embodied by a fun-loving spokesperson with a light-hearted sense of humor, “Ways to Save Man. ”In the early days of campaign, “Ways to Save Man” was the ultimate hype-man, celebrating the little things customer could do around the house that could make a big difference on their bill. Over the years, “Ways to Save Man” has evolved into a game show host, a social media darling, and boots-on-the-ground interviewer who tests local utility users’ knowledge. “Ways to Save Man” shows consumers that there are ways to manage their bill through conservation and by making them feel good about doing it. The multi-media campaign included broadcast and connected TV, YouTube, Meta, out-of-home, and even a splash of print. Increases in customer satisfaction and unaided recall confirmed that the campaign was breaking through the clutter while changing habits and attitudes.
CVR went all in by simplifying messages through a single lens. With “save” intentionally in his name, “Ways to Save Man” and the campaign signals that the audience will learn or celebrate a money-saving tip, while the character helps them have a good time while doing so.
Reached an all-time high ad awareness of 64%
in the last 3 years with this campaign outpacing our goal of 50% awareness. And research indicates that customers who are aware of the advertising are more satisfied with the utility by 5 or more basis points.
