New Hampshire
NHSaves
Challenge
& strategy
NHSaves® was seeking to elevate brand awareness and attract the customers of its four supporting utility companies (Eversource, Liberty, New Hampshire Electric Cooperative and Unitil) to take part in energy-saving initiatives.
While the NHSaves program had been around for more than two decades, it had increased, aggressive goals that needed marketing support to build traction as the leading source for energy savings and efficiency.
EVR developed an integrated brand marketing campaign to better clarify the mission, drive awareness, drive increased participation in NHSaves programs and promote environmentally responsible behaviors in support of a three-year energy-efficiency promotion plan. This campaign helped position the NHSaves brand and programs as valuable to New Hampshire communities.
Tactics
A new visual brand identity was designed along with messaging and a brand platform, and all were integrated into annual campaigns driven by diverse media channels, unique content and digital strategies. The existing website was refreshed to enhance and enable a better user experience. Social media channels were optimized and revitalized to increase engagement by adding more video, animation, quizzes and interactive 360° content. Public relations efforts were utilized to provide fresh content and increased exposure in tandem with media buys.
Rebranding
Market understanding of the brand purpose was increased with the introduction of a brand descriptor (“Your Source for Energy Efficiency”) and a new logo mark. A progressive brand color palette, visual and verbal identity, design system and messaging were also created. Extensive brand research guided the entire development process.
Media presence
To help drive brand awareness, EVR deployed an integrated media strategy leveraging both traditional and digital channels. The annual campaigns included a strategic mix of radio, paid search and display ads, Facebook, Pandora, print, YouTube, Instagram newsfeed ads and boosted social posts.
Results
Since the launch of the refreshed brand campaign, website sessions have doubled across the board, with the aid of both paid and organic marketing efforts. Channels such as Pandora, YouTube and programmatic native and display were ideal for building brand awareness via their low average cost per impression and hyper-targeted delivery. The 5.5M+ impressions aided in increased brand awareness, resulting in over 40,000 clicks and nearly 2,000 high-opportunity actions on the website, including rebate requests. Community building on social drove engaged traffic to the website and increased the number of Facebook followers by 33% over the previous year. In addition to traffic, site engagement has also increased: Time on site is up 13% while the overall bounce rate has decreased 22%.
