Business Challenge
E.on needed to improve their share of the utility market. Awareness of e.on as an energy supplier was not a problem but differentiation was.

In line with the unveiling of their new range of environmentally friendly solar and storage products to customers in Europe, e.on needed a new campaign to communicate this shift in business strategy to core and new customers.

E.on needed to be considered as the ‘un-utility’ brand to and in turn re-engage a disengaged audience, giving them a reason to believe in the brand.

Business Context
E.on was known as pretty standard utility brand, with that came the commonly held poor perceptions associated with the sector and the ‘switch up’ effect that followed (loss of customer loyalty).

Before our partnership, they’d always focused on acquisition / price / brand awareness related campaigns. This got lost in the clutter of those ‘same-old’ utility brands, failing to build the brand and bring consumers in.

The audience didn’t perceive e.on as different from other energy suppliers or a likeable company.

Business Objective
To influence how people perceive e.on and become a distinct brand in a highly dense energy category through:
1. Shifting brand perception through promoting e-on as an enabler of amazing solutions (not just the supplier!)
2. Build awareness and consideration of e.on as an energy solution provider
3. Build awareness and interest in e.on Solar Energy and Drive (electrical vehicle solutions) as a proof point of their amazing solutions

With just 16% of the public (UK, Populus) viewing the energy sector in a positive light, e.on had an averse audience to try and turn around.

We needed to uncover what mattered most to the public to make the audience view e.on more positively and build brand.

Speaking to consumers on the issues that matter to them was the first step. E.on needed a diffentiator – moving from a perception that energy companies don’t operate in public interests to one that do.

Everyone uses power, so in this field anyone who is not a customer is a potential customer. This open field makes it all the harder to stand out.

Our insight showed that people are giving value to brands that help to shape their future and provide them with innovative solutions equalled with environmental responsibility.

E.on are innovators providing solutions that help for a better and more sustainable tomorrow such as Solar Energy, and their electrical vehicle charger – e.on drive.

By focusing on communications that tell these product stories, we would be able to excite our target audience who want to see brands balancing their pursuit of profit with the protection of the environment they operate in.
To shift perceptions of the brand and increase consideration, we set out to influence how people perceived e.on .

Through a brand stories content strategy we positioned e.on as a purpose-led brand focused on energy supply, renewables and energy networks.

Business

• Shifted perceptions of e-on as simply a supplier of energy to one of amazing solutions by 94%.
• Generated a massive brand uplift in campaign markets:
  UK(146%)
  DE(199%)
  IT(443%)
  CZ Rep(251%)
  SE(100%)

Media

• 100M views of the video content (Gorillaz partnership) reaching 78M people.
• 56m views of video content (e.on Drive campaign)
• Influencer content has reached to a potential follower of 26M and generating 460K social engagements with an ER of 2%
• The e.on Drive campaign has hit almost 2M engagement (social actions&link clicks) making clear progress to e.on becoming a considered brand and making e.on a likable brand.

Client testimonial
“We are delighted with the performance of our campaigns last year in collaboration with Vizeum. They used their expertise to help drive delivery of challenging targets to shift brand perception and engagement, driving innovation and optimisation at ever stage”. (Renze Lowrie, Brand Campaigns Manager, e.on)