Insight
The Egypt Consortium for Energy Conservation Initiative (consisting of Shell, British Gas, Apache, The Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and The Egyptian Ministry of Electricity) wanted to convince people that everyone has a role in solving the problem including the government, the citizens and the corporation.
Yet at the same time, it did not want to load people or to make them feel threatened that they will be forced to dramatically change their lifestyle. Consequently, it focused on telling them that small things matter and that by applying minor changes to their consumption habits, they will be able to solve the energy problem in Egypt.
Seeing is believing. The strongest way people can react is by seeing for themselves the current situation and what the small changes can do to fix it.
Strategy
Mindshare’s strategy was based on the insight that in order for people to change their behaviour and be receptive to the governmental campaign to be launched, they must see that everyone around them is part of the movement. The agency wanted to create a tool that results in immediate reduction in energy consumption, turning the whole population into advocates, not targets, acquiring and maintaining strong top of mind and share of thought levels.
Execution
Mindshare created a media first in Egypt that created massive buzz and resulted in the topic being the talk of the town. CBC, the top rated TV stations, approved the idea of superimposing a power meter on the screen that measured in real time the consumption levels and would warn the public (when in red) to reduce their consumption. It was a media first because there was never such an ongoing graphic element placed on the CBC screen other than their channel logo.
Later, the agency managed to have it adopted by another channel, and it was a topic of discussion not only by word of mouth but across all media. A copy was also made specifically to explain how the power meter works to gain credibility, trust, and to get people to act accordingly.
Results
Business Results: The annual target was to reduce energy consumption by 4% by end of December 2014; it reached 3.72% reduction in just 3 months (Source: The Egyptian Electricity Observatory Report July 2014).
Communication Results: The movement has been adopted across 11 stations, 38 different programmes on TV & radio, with a total of 1,420 free minutes of 1st runs, with at least one rerun, equalling to a total of $2.28m of free exposure (Source: IPSOS STAT / Statex Jan - July 2014). The free campaign reached more than 72% of Egyptians with 3,417 rating points. The campaign was well received by over 180 members of the Egyptian and foreign media, generating over 140 pieces of coverage (Source: IPSOS STAT / Statex Jan - July 2014).
Social Media in 8 weeks:
- Facebook: 150,000 fans with organic reach of more than 1 million and a total page reach of 25 million. The page was visited 122,000 times with an average engagement rate of 4% - this is higher than Egypt’s average engagement rate by 1% (Source: Belma32ol Facebook Insights Report July 2014).
- YouTube: The video content produced achieved 591,000 views with 17% organic views (Source: YouTube Analytics).