Creative marketing promotes energy efficiency in California

Green Power Girl presents the winner of LADWP's "Coolest Looser" contest, a 1940s Servel so packed with ice that the owners no longer remember what's inside. The contest encouraged LADWP customers to retire their inefficient old refrigerators and freezers. (photo courtesy of LADWP)

Perhaps it is only natural that in the home state of the world movie capital, two municipal utilities have discovered that a little showmanship can go a long way in spreading the word about energy efficiency.

California's recent energy crisis raised public awareness about the importance of conservation and renewable energy, but it left individuals wondering exactly what they could do to prevent "Energy Crisis: The Sequel." The GreenLA program of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Sacramento Municipal Utility District have risen to the challenge with clever promotions for new and established programs.

Customers vie for title of 'ugliest refrigerator'

GreenLA launched its Refrigerator Turn-In and Recycle Program in January 2003 to encourage customers to get rid of their old spare refrigerators and freezers. The utility picks up and recycles old units, and offers a free six-pack of energy-saving compact bulbs as an incentive.

To generate coverage and exposure for the new service, LADWP sponsored "The Coolest Loser" contest. "A typical press event seemed too ordinary to garner much media," explained Walter Zeisl, GreenLA communications director. "An 'ugly refrigerator contest' packed a lot of visual punch. And everybody loves a contest."

The utility joined up with KFWB, a local CBS-affiliated radio station, to search for the oldest, ugliest, most inefficient refrigerator in its service area. "We had run advertisements on their station in the past, so we had an existing relationship with them," noted Zeisl.

The station was an active partner, running ads for the contest, accepting entries via post and e-mail, promoting the contest on its Web site and providing judges. Listeners from all over KFWB's broadcast area tried to enter the contest, but participation was limited to LADWP customers. Entrants were finally narrowed down to about 100 eligible contestants.

Stellar panel judges fridge

The final competition took place at a new shopping complex in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. Marsha Penhaker, Energy Star manager from the Department of Energy, and several local media figures were among the judges who chose the "Coolest Loser" refrigerator. Judges based their decision on appearance and condition.

Sacramento Kings player Gerald Wallace (center) helped plant a tree at the home of a lucky SMUD customer, Bryan Bramlett (right). All participants signing up for SMUD's free Shade Tree program were automatically entered in a contest promoting the long-running program. The 6-foot-7-inch Wallace helped the winner break ground to plant his first free SMUD shade tree. (photo courtesy of SMUD)

And the winner was a 1940s Servel, so frozen over in the freezer compartment that the owners, Mr. and Mrs. John DeSantis, had no idea what was in it. Second place went to an early 1970s Kenmore model, and a 1940s General Electric model took third prize. The grand prize winners received a new, energy-efficient 19-cubic-foot refrigerator. The runners-up took home restaurant gift certificates and compact fluorescent bulbs.

Stories about the "coolest loser" appeared on TV and radio and in general and industry press, and the coverage caused a spike in program awareness. GreenLA is still scheduling pickups of entrants' refrigerators and has received many more calls from customers since the contest. "People now realize that their old refrigerators, especially the extra ones in their basements and garages, are wasting energy and costing them money," Zeisl stated. "We couldn't have asked for a better launch for the Refrigerator RETIRE program."

Hometown team supports energy efficiency for better community

An old-fashioned beauty—or rather, ugly contest—may turn heads in Los Angeles, but SMUD found that the shortest way to the heart of a sports town is through a beloved team. "As a community-owned utility, we were looking for an outreach project that really connected with our customer base," said Advertising and Promotion Supervisor Tammy Beckner. "Our basketball teams, the Sacramento Kings and Monarchs, are enormously popular and the owners, Maloof Sports and Entertainment, are very active in the community, so it was the perfect partnership."

A series of cross promotions for the Kings' 2002-03 season began with a campaign to encourage residential consumers' use of compact fluorescent bulbs. Print ads featuring players, and announcements made during games took the message directly to consumers who might have overlooked a billing insert or newsletter article.

Those who subscribed in January and February to SMUD's HomePowers in-home electrical repair service were entered in a drawing for a trip to a Kings' away game in Portland, Ore. For a small monthly fee, HomePowers covers the repair or replacement of home electrical components that fail due to normal use. "The drawing brought a valuable service to our customers' attention and provided an incentive to make the call right away," recalled Beckner. "It was a very popular promotion that attracted more than 3,000 new subscribers in the first two months of the year."

The Kings tie-in gave an exciting new twist to Sacramento Shade, one of SMUD's longest running programs. For more than a decade, SMUD and the Sacramento Tree Foundation have been planting free shade trees near homes, businesses, schools and parks to help lower customers' summer cooling bills. This spring, Kings player Gerald Wallace helped plant a tree at the home of the lucky winner of the "King in Your Court" contest.

The utility's partnership with the basketball team is still relatively new, but Beckner noted that the community response has been very positive. The additional radio, print and Internet exposure haven't hurt the programs, but beyond coverage, she said, "It reinforces the message that SMUD, the Kings, subscribers and fans are all on the same team."

Retail partnerships garner green power attention, subscribers

Teamwork and partnerships were key in helping SMUD sign up more than 19,000 customers for its six-year-old Greenergy renewable energy option. A March promotion giving free Kings/SMUD basketballs to new enrollees added 800 subscribers to the already successful program.

"Retail partnerships have also been very good for bringing in new customers, too," said Jim Burke, Greenergy program coordinator.

The "Give a Little, Get a Latte" promotion with Starbuck's Coffee brought in 1,400 new green power customers and a 2002 Green Power Beacon Award for innovative marketing materials and themes. The campaign awarded customers who signed up for Greenergy with a $15 gift card from the coffee chain.

More than 3,000 customers made the move to green power during two separate promotions with Jamba Juice, offering five free smoothies to new subscribers. "We look for partners who are active in our service area, can deliver 250 or more sales, have an environmental policy and a demographic that matches our customer profile," Burke said.

Determining who the customers were and what they wanted was Burke's first step when he first undertook the job of marketing the Greenergy program. "It reached 1 percent penetration pretty quickly after starting up in 1997 and then leveled off," he recalled. "That's common for green options."

Research revealed that the pricing of 1 cent per kWh confused customers. "Most people don't have any idea what that means on their electric bill," Burke pointed out, "so we switched to a flat rate."

For $6 more added to their monthly electric bill, customers receive all their power from renewable fuels. A 50-percent option at $3 a month is also available. Customers are usually required to make a minimum 6-month commitment to receive promotion incentives.

Price wasn't the only issue, however. "Customers made it clear that they wanted SMUD to bring more renewable power on-line," said Burke.

The board of directors responded by committing to match 40 percent of the revenues received from Greenergy price premiums and plow that money into new sources of renewable power generation.

Those changes, helped along by innovative marketing, made the municipal utility's green power program the fifth largest in the nation by number of customers enrolled, according to a study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. After all, customers don't buy a promotion — they buy a product that gives them something they want or need. Marketing just opens the lines of communication by asking what the customers want, and letting them know that you've got it — with a little flare and imagination for good measure.