Rarely does a team get to create something as wonderful as the new Mercury brand – especially in a category famous for conservatism and customer apathy.
NZ’s electricity retail market is consistently one of the world’s most competitive. Churn runs at 20%, and it’s hard to stand out in a crowded commodity categorydominated by price and discount-based competition.
Owning a strong brand is critical.
Mercury Energy and its parent Mighty River Power were well-established, trustedbrands – but were regarded as traditional and old fashioned. They wanted tomodernise and create a single brand that would change people’s minds about whatan energy company could be.
Changing the logo wasn’t going to cut it.
A brand to stand for something more emotive, change behaviour, and leave NewZealand a better place needed to be built. One that “inspires New Zealanders toenjoy energy in more wonderful ways”.
That’s Mercury: Energy Made Wonderful.
On 29 July, a multi-channel, multi-layered campaign was launched to establish andreinforce the new brand purpose, identity and personality, stand out from thecrowd, and reinvigorate the business.
This was achieved through a range of initiatives that:
· “Inspire” – e.bikes, electric vehicles (EVs), sponsorships
· “Reward” – Free Power Days, Airpoints, partner deals
· “Make It Easy” – GEM, My Account, a world-class website
Early results were extraordinary – meeting or exceeding objectives in incrediblyshort order:
· Reducing churn – creating Mercury’s biggest gap vs marketaverage since 2010
· Increasing online traffic
· Dramatically turning around declining customer numbers
· Getting thousands of customers to claim a Free Power Day, and toregister for Airpoints
· Stabilising customer satisfaction
· And boosting staff engagement.
Wonderful!
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