CLIENT : ALECTRA UTILITIES CORPORATION
Converting customers to e-billing.
Campaigns / Digital Campaigns / Creative / Media Planning
The Challenge
Twenty-five percent of Alectra customers had already registered for paperless e-billing. The next wave of registrants would be harder to convince than these early adopters. This was exacerbated by a time fraught with uncertainty and hardship posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Insights
Our market research uncovered new insights relevant to our goals:
In 2020, consumers were more attuned to how brands demonstrate social responsibility and impact.
According to a global Edelman study, customers expected brands to help address community challenges posed by COVID-19.
Four in five Canadians prefer donating to charities with local impact.
Some of the social services most impacted by COVID-19 in Ontario included health services, food security, housing/homelessness and mental health.
The Work
We centered the new campaign around these insights, reflecting the changing customer mindset. We created a two-pronged incentive to encourage e-billing registration. It included a chance to win “free electricity for a year” to help offset new financial stress due to the pandemic.
Plus, we proposed the Frontline Fund as our charity of choice — a consortium of regional hospital foundations that supports essential frontline health workers. To ensure we reached customers via their preferred media, the campaign was rolled out in a wide variety of digital and traditional channels, including targeted emails, print/digital newsletters, online ads, social media and more.
The Impact
33,874 paperless e-bill signups after 15 weeks in market - 10% over our target goal - 477,000+ emails deployed with a higher-than-0average 51.5% open rate and 6.25% click-through rate - 34,722,249 total impressions.