On average Kiwis spend six minutes with their power company a year, so it was decided to make these six epic minutes.

Normally power companies interrupt people with telly ads and, most annoyingly, by banging on their doors at dinnertime to make a sale. No one likes it, so that had to be changed, even though these are traditionally the most effective ways of generating new business. This campaign revolutionised communications in this sector by truly empowering customers in the channels where they have a voice.

Consumer research¹ confirmed what we all know: 81% of us hate doorknockers, the other 19% just tolerate it. It’s so last century, so in a move to prove their clients were consumer champions, the company policy was changed to ban doorknockers. This then became the new marketing strategy.

To hero Energy Online’s future focus, all offline, old school communications were banned. As an online company, they wanted to own this space by concentrating on higher quality, engaging consumer channels to give people brilliantly simple energy powered by passionate people.

To live, breath and prosper online, global best practice rules also had to be lived and breathed by:

• catch attention in the first four seconds.
• create strong brand recognition.
• creatively engage in a space where people can click away or destroy your credibility in an instant.

The creative approach was brilliantly simple. Instead of just saying “get rid of doorknockers”, they proved it.

The campaign was kicked off with a real-world demonstration: a gargoyle doorknocker was replaced with an actual person. So, when unsuspecting doorknockers approached and knocked his face, they got a lot more than they bargained for. The gargoyle sprung to life and got rid of the doorknockers on behalf Kiwis across the country

Risky? Yes. But the results speak for themselves:

Best quarter growth in the brand’s 15 year history and more than 12 times the quarterly growth of the previous year.²

¹ Porter Novelli, Perceptive Research, April, 2014
² Electricity Authority New Zealand, monthly data