Bord Gais launched a teddy bears' feast of TV advertising yesterday when it unveiled a £1 million promotional campaign for its winter schedule.
Taking its cue from Cable News Network (CNN) newspeak, Gas Network News features the Bord Gais bears of "50-50 Cashback" fame, revamped as puppet TV anchormen and providing the latest updates on gas news. The State-sponsored body announced the new TV campaign as part of a £9 million development plan to increase customer numbers by 18 per cent from the current 272,000 to 320,000 by 2000.
Mr Paul O'Shaughnessy, head of gas trading and marketing, said that the piped distribution network which covers 70 per cent of the Republic's urban homes was a fixed cost. The company's customer base has grown by of 44 per cent since 1992, while its pipe network goes from Dublin to Cork and Limerick, taking in many of the towns in between. Bord Gais has completed 11 advertisements featuring the bear puppets and expects to build on the concept for its spring and summer campaigns.
Ms Kathleen O'Sullivan, advertising and promotions manager, said the new round of advertising was a major offensive on the market. Its updates would tell people about sales offers, provide news about new towns on the pipe network and give information on Bord Gais. She said that the concept was based on the idea that short, snappy news programmes made an impact on viewers. The Bord Gais bears were launched as cartoon characters in 1987.
Mr O'Shaughnessy said that while semi-state bodies did not have a good image, Bord Gais was an aggressive, successful commercial company. "We are paying the State £412 million in dividends." He added that a plan was before the Government to extend the pipeline from Limerick to Galway.
