@marketingmag
THE TRUTH ISSUEExecution: Because a program
like this has never really been done
in Australia, it needed a bit of space
to explain the how, the why and
the impact. Powershop customers
would sign up to the ‘Curb Your
Power’ program, then when it looked
like the grid was going to need a bit
of breathing room – the Australian
Energy Market Operator (AEMO)
would notify Powershop – they
would receive a message letting
them know a ‘Curb Your Power
event’ would be occurring soon. If
participants managed to curb their
usage by a certain amount they
would receive a $10 power credit to
redeem on their next bill – targets
were dependent on the type of
user, whether the user was a
business or residential one, whether
the user had solar panels installed
and so on. Powershop would also
send out tips and examples of
ways to decrease power usage,
particularly on hot days.
Powershop used EDMs
(electronic direct mail) to its
database as its key channel for
recruitment. This meant it could
provide videos on why people
should be involved, how they could
take part and what the impact
would be. It also used a lot of blog
posts – some of which talked about
the company’s trial ‘curbs’, where
Powershop would ask staff to do
challenges, experiment and report
back with how they managed to
curb their power, then document
that in blog posts. Online content
was key in terms of recruitment;Powershop also used digital and
social to target current customers,
which had the nice effect of
scooping up new customers along
the way.Challenges
One challenge for the Powershop
team was that they had no idea if
they would be able to pull it off. The
program relies greatly on being able
to measure a baseline of someone’s
energy usage, and also being able
to measure during a particular time
period. How do you fi gure out if
someone has curbed their usage
by 10 percent? Then how do you
make sure that they actually did it
and it wasn’t a false negative? And,
of course, how do you make sure
that participants that do reach their
target are rewarded appropriately?
So the data behind the scenes
was incredibly maths-heavy and
involved some really complex
data science – relying on weather
calculations and average energy
usage calculations etc.
Powershop also wanted to make
sure people knew what they were
doing and how to curb power safely.
That last thing it wanted was for
someone who really needed to rely
on energy to be healthy to take part
in this.Results: The recruitment objective
was to get 10,000 Victorian
households and businesses to sign
up to Curb Your Power – which the
campaign ended up surpassing.
As a group over the summer therewere three power-curbing events.
During them the program provided
16.8 megawatt hours back to the
grid, which is the equivalent of four
average households’ energy for the
entire year.
Of those that did sign up to the
program, 65 percent of participants
managed to achieve their targets.
In terms of reducing usage by
10 percent, not everybody was
able to do it – either because they
weren’t there or because they didn’t
take part during the events. After
each event, Powershop sent out a
survey to see why people decided
to participate. The response was
overwhelming: people wanted
to help the grid. The assumption
was that most people would say
‘because I wanted the saving on my
power bill’, but upon looking into
it, Powershop discovered that its
customers genuinely liked being part
of a group that was doing good. The
money was a nice high-fi ve at the
end, but not the primary driver.
As the weather heats up,
Powershop is now planning its
next Curb Your Power series of
events. Running a randomised,
controlled trial for the recruitment
phase, Powershop is testing fi ve
different messages in sample
markets to further drill down on the
best way to engage people in the
program. What’s the best incentive?
Is it money? Is it the greater good?
Instead of some fi nancial incentive,
would people be interested in having
their reward be a charity donation
where Powershop chips a bit in too?
We’ll see.