Empowering customers: Electric Ireland’s sustainable marketing journey through the energy crisis

Guiding brands through tricky times is nothing new for Lisa Browne, head of marketing and customer insights at ESB. The UCC graduate started her career with Tipperary Natural Mineral water, back when the idea of buying bottled water was still met with skcepticism.

She moved to Irish mobile phone network provider Eircell, in the mid-1990s, when the company was advancing mobile communications with innovations such as text messaging and pay-as-you-go phones.

She then joined Bank of Ireland, where she led the sponsorship function, before moving into direct channels for phone and online banking.

Browne moved to ESB in 2008, at a time when the utility was at the early stages of developing its sustainability strategy.

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In 2012 she was part of the team behind the launch of Electric Ireland, which was required to become a separate entity from ESB. This meant building a new brand from scratch for its retail energy supply business.

The move reflected deregulation of the electricity retail market, that saw ESB, previously a monopoly, having to compete to supply electricity to residential customers for the first time ever.

Establishing the new Electric Ireland brand created unique challenges due to the reputation and awareness of the ESB brand since its inception in 1927.

Then there was the timing. Electric Ireland was developed and launched in the midst of a financial crisis, a recession, and growing alarm about climate change.

All of that informed the thinking behind the brand.

“What we wanted to do was set up an organisation that would move people from seeing ESB as just their bill, to a company that would be the energy solutions expert that provides advice, demonstrates care, and would be customer-first in terms of understanding and anticipating the needs of customers,” she says.

Customer and staff research helped identify the changing needs and expectations of energy customers, including the role an electricity provider could play in creating a cleaner and sustainable energy future.

For us, everything starts with what can we do to help our customers. What do they need to know, what information can we give them to help them?

—  Lisa Browne, ESB

“We carefully crafted the brand name Electric Ireland to reflect pride, confidence and resilience, ensuring its suitability for the future,” she explains.

Mammoth rebrand

Rebranding its assets was a mammoth task that included everything from bills to the website, to advertising. For the first year, most of the work was were done on a dual branding basis, to help customers to understand the change, “and to tell the story of what we were trying to do for the future,” she says.

One of the key ways in which Electric Ireland brought the brand to life was through sponsorship, becoming a sponsor of Team Ireland for the London Olympics in 2012.

It was a huge success, enabling a less-than-one-year-old brand to reach awareness levels of 86 per cent.

Today, Electric Ireland has over one million customers, a major achievement in a highly competitive market.

“We put customers at the centre of everything we do in terms of providing value, through our price plans and loyalty programmes. We help customers manage their energy consumption, providing them with tools such as our net zero hub to provide them with information, products and insights to help save energy and reduce bills,” says Browne, who points to the roll-out of Electric Ireland’s smart meter plans as a case in point.

As a retailer, Electric Ireland is in the unusual position of actively encouraging its customers to buy less, but in doing so is helping them to reduce costs, helping Ireland to reach its net zero targets, and ultimately helping the planet too.

It’s a complex marketing message, and one made even more so as a result of the energy crisis, a consequence of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Crisis communications

The approach Electric Ireland takes to all its marketing communications is to first figure out how best it can serve its customers, at any particular time and in light of any particular circumstances.

“For us, everything starts with what can we do to help our customers. What do they need to know, what information can we give them to help them? The last two and a half years have been incredibly difficult for customers to accept and understand. Energy prices were of huge concern for people living their day-to-day lives,” she says.

At ESB we are driven to make a difference by supporting our customers and the communities in which we work, and sponsorship is a great way to get into the hearts and minds of consumers

—  Lisa Browne

“We made significant efforts to assist our customers by providing support, establishing a hardship fund administered by charities St Vincent de Paul, MABS [Money Advice and Budgeting Service] and Alone. We allocated €5 million to this fund. Additionally, recognising the impact on our customers, we chose to forgo our profits at the end of 2022 and returned €55 million in the form of a €50 credit to each customer.”

Electric Ireland’s advertising at the time was centered on being relevant and helpful. “In difficult times, everyone says you have to build brands and keep them alive, but what’s really important is that you don’t do anything frivolous or irritating that could negatively impact customers,” she says.

Electric Ireland used its budget to promote solutions such as its Customer Care Hub, which helped people to better manage their bills. It also promoted a new initiative, Net Zero Hub, which is designed to help empower customers to use energy more wisely.

It promoted relevant products, from solar to smart meter plans and EV chargers, all of which would help customers reduce consumption and save money. “We were really active, but it was very much in terms of conveying relevant information to consumers,” she explains.

“There was no question of going quiet because at the time, energy was the biggest news story. It was talked about on the hour, every hour. It was everywhere. We went from a category that was low interest to one of high interest. But out of that there is always an opportunity to start telling people about the future, and about the things we are trying to do to help them both in terms of their energy consumption and of giving them back more control as well.”

Shining a light on sponsorship

Sponsorship still plays a huge role for Electric Ireland, including its support for GAA Minors, and Darkness into Light, the annual walk and fundraising campaign for the suicide prevention charity Pieta House.

“At ESB we are driven to make a difference by supporting our customers and the communities in which we work, and sponsorship is a great way to get into the hearts and minds of consumers. With Darkness into Light, ESB has always been about creating a brighter future and bringing light and comfort into people’s lives,” she says.

“It’s about understanding the passions and interests of your consumer. If you can find a way of getting involved with something they care about, it has a very positive effect on your brand – not just in terms of recall but active engagement, and making sure they like you, that they feel you are relevant, and in terms of building loyalty.”

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