British Gas Business provides energy to the business customer, from small and medium up to large industrial and commercial organisations. It is the largest supplier of its kind in the UK.
Strategy
Companies are under pressure to use less energy, reduce energy costs, increase efficiency and comply with new EU Directives and legislation. This is why BGB invested in a new energy management offering called Energy360 – a suite of products and services designed to help clients meet these challenges, and promised to help them reduce energy costs by at least 10 per cent.
The launch of Energy360 was a bold and unexpected departure for British Gas Business – they were the first energy provider to also offer an energy management service.
Objectives of the campaign
To create awareness and generate new business within energy management services market – more specifically:
- 5 per cent awareness amongst corporates
- 25,000 unique visits to website
- win £1m new written business
- generate lead pipeline worth £10m
All objectives were for the first 12 months.
The target audience
Energy managers and decision makers largely within large corporates [defined as having more than £500,000 annual energy spend]. It was identified that the three main energy drivers for energy management were cost, legislation and CSR.
All businesses are burdened with the responsibility to reduce cost especially over the last year with the recession. Energy360 offer consultancy and products that focus on guaranteeing cost reduction for businesses by a minimum of 10 per cent which was not an offering businesses were faced with previous to the launch of Energy360.
With the launch of the CRC (Carbon Reduction Commitment) Energy Efficiency scheme, Energy360 recruited a team of specialists made up of existing BGB expert staff and staff with previous backgrounds of working with the Carbon Trust to ensure they were placed and knowledgeable about the scheme itself to be sure they could position themselves as the experts when it came to addresses CRC legislation.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – all businesses are moving towards a green agenda and being seen to be socially aware is always good to have on your credentials. Energy360 helps businesses to identify where they can indeed make savings which can save them money and contribute towards a greener future.
Media, channels or techniques used
Media used included both online and offline advertising in a “vertizontal” strategy that used a carefully selected combination of industry-specific and general titles and sites over a six-month period.
Physical events were also seen as particularly important in the launch of a new service to get first-hand contact with the target market.
A combination of continuous site optimisation, PPC, keyword research and link building was also used.
The campaign platform was defined as the “Unexpected”. This meant both that it was surprising that a major energy supplier would offer energy management services, and the service itself went beyond the usual offering in the market.
This message was communicated by:
Online and print advertising, using an interactive creative approach where the message expanded in an unexpected way. For example, press ads invited the reader to fold the page to reveal an unexpected message.
Events: Energy360 launched at Sustainability Live in May 2009, with a themed stand that focused on idea of bespoke solutions – again, an innovative offering from a management services company. This idea was supported by an equally refreshing offer of a ‘smoothie’ for visitors to the stand.
Website: used to clarify offering and as a destination for lead generation.
Search/PPC/web optimisation strategy
Launching of three bespoke products as part of Energy360 Design: the design style used throughout was bold and distinctive to mirror the ‘unexpected’ theme, whilst complementing the British Gas Business corporate style.
Timescales of the campaign
Launch: May 2009 at Sustainability Live, NEC.
Inserts & other launch comms: April 2009
Online & offline advertising: April-June 2009, Sep-Nov 2009
Promotion of individual propositions staggered throughout the year. Incremental development of website ongoing.
Strategic reviews: July and Dec 2009
Client testimonial
“The launch of Energy360 was key to the ongoing success of British Gas Business and the work that Base One delivered to launch the product smashed all targets that we had set. To fully succeed in a market in which we had not operated in before meant that we had to build awareness and credibility. This was achieved within six months and has formed a stable foundation from which we are now able to build a substantial business. I have no doubt that the distinctive creative and messaging approach developed by Base One was instrumental in this success.” John Williams, acquisition manager
“Our key challenge was to launch a major new service from BGB by creating awareness and preference on a limited budget and in short timescales. We really had to think about how best to reach key decision makers. The degree of targeting we achieved was truly outstanding and undoubtedly was the major contributor to an outstanding set of results.” Neale Phillips, head of marketing and online
