Challenge

Smart Energy GB’s raison d'être is to get everyone in Britain to recognise the valuable role smart meters can play in creating a greener energy system for the country. But smart meters are a complex topic.

How do we create the link between getting a small box that measures your energy usage with the fight against climate change against a backdrop of confusing application processes and differing offers from energy companies?

Smart Energy’s audience is essentially everyone – from single person households to families and even small businesses, so we needed to find one overarching creative idea that could be tailored for individual audiences…

And what’s something all Brits love to talk about? The weather!

Insight

Research showed that a huge chunk of our audience wasn’t aware that the Great British weather had so much untapped energy potential. With Cop 26 on the horizon this was the perfect time to help them make the connection.

Solution

By harnessing Brits fascination with the weather, our aim was to engage our audience in a meaningful conversation about how weather equals renewable energy, and how smart meters are the link that allows us to tap into this resource.

Our approach helped us take smart meters out of the ‘domestic’ and into the ‘heroic’, highlighting the role they can play in allowing the nation to harvest clean energy from the Great British Weather.

We engaged surfers and windsurfers – sports people well aware of the power of the wind – to shine a light on Britain’s vast renewable riches and explain the case for smart meters in an easy to understand, tangible content-rich way.

Naturalist Chris Packham bolstered our package with a piece of stand- out video content, delivering both mass appeal and scientific credibility, as he posed as a weatherman explaining the power of the great British Weather in creating clean energy.

A Weather Energy Report compiled by Dr Tim Forman of the University of Cambridge revealed the nation’s windiest and sunniest locations to engage media at a local and national level.

Results

Over a thousand pieces of coverage including seven national news hits, excellent broadcast including TV News, BBC Cymru, Sky News Breakfast, BBC Radio Scotland) with OTS of over 60 million. Our hero WeatherWatch video content had over 100K views on Chris’s channel alone, with 5.8% engagement rate.

Impact on audience and installations will be measured in the next quarter.