Let’s face it: Most advertising is boring. There’s a reason for that. And utility-industry advertising—that is, advertising for electric companies and gas companies and water companies and the like—is often extra boring.
Which is weird to us. Because, when you think about it, what in your life is cooler than electricity? Flip a switch and night becomes day. Push a button and a panful of brown goop becomes chocolate cake. Plug a TV into a wall and watch Seinfeld whenever you want (requires Netflix subscription).
We think that stuff is exciting—and we hope we’ve communicated our excitement over all the years Well Done has worked in the energy business. In case you’re wondering, it’s been 13 years so far. We think things like saving energy and informing people about renewable resources are too important for boring marketing. Here’s a quick look at what has been, for us, a shockingly great experience.
Help Us Sell Less of What We Make
We’re used to getting strange requests from clients. But the one we’ve been helping our friends at Wabash Valley Power Alliance (WVPA) for a long time with is a truly weird one.
We started working with Wabash Valley Power back in 2009. Our first assignment: Help them communicate ways to save energy and money via their Power Moves program to more than 325,000 members of their 23 member rural electric cooperatives.
Yes, you read that right: members of members. Wabash Valley Power is owned by 23 local nonprofit electric companies in Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, giving them more buying power on the wholesale market for electricity—and enough demand to generate some of their own. So WVPA is an electric company in the background.
Rather than develop 23 different Power Moves websites, we designed one website, customizable for each cooperative. PowerMoves.com is full of rebate offers, incentives, and energy-saving advice for homeowners and businesses alike.
Since we started, we’ve done a little bit of everything for Power Moves, and for Wabash Valley Power: ad campaigns, award-winning annual reports, even wall graphics for their beautiful Indianapolis headquarters. We’ve helped them launch their Co-op Solar program, developed economic development campaigns, and a lot more.
And our work with Wabash Valley Power naturally opened a bunch of other doors…
Get Creative for the Co-ops
All of Wabash Valley Power’s 23 member co-ops need to communicate directly with their members, too. Part of our Power Moves work has always been customizing ads and radio spots and bill stuffers and other materials for the co-ops. But we’ve also done a lot of work directly with a number of Wabash Valley Power member co-ops. For example, we built websites for NineStar Connect and Boone REMC. We designed environmental graphics for Hendricks Power. And we developed a website for Indiana Electric Cooperatives, an association of all 38 of the state’s rural co-ops.
Then our experience went from regional to national. We recently helped the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, a group of more than 900 American electric co-ops serving 42 million people and more than 20 million businesses, developed strategies, tactics, and clear messaging aimed at telling the cooperative energy story to a millennial audience.
Generating Even More Interest
Well Done’s energy-industry experience extends beyond the nonprofit co-ops themselves to the organizations that buy, sell, and generate energy. We created a website and developed a number of digital year-in-review pieces for Prairie State Energy Campus in Marissa, Illinois. We recently started working with ACES—a national leader in trading energy with clients across the country—to develop clear messaging for members and customers.
It’s a business that’s continuing to evolve in the face of demand for solar energy, electric cars, and more efficient, environmentally friendly ways to power the world. And contrary to how it might look in most advertising, we think it’s pretty exciting.
All of which is to say—all things being equal—if you’re in the energy business and you think your communications might be a little boring, you’re probably right. Contact us at info@welldonemarketing.com. We’d love to put a little more electricity in your life.