Positive energy for life and a 100% increase in awareness

Copenhagen’s energy utility company, KE, is only marketed in the larger Copenhagen metropolitan area, so you may not have heard about the campaign that increased awareness from 32% to 64% in just one year. If not, here is your chance.

KE enjoyed a monopoly status as a utility company for most of its existence. Customers could not choose their energy company, because there was no other choice. At the same time, utilities are, as a category, a low-interest area for consumers, in large part because electricity, water, heating, gas and drainage are invisible, taken for granted and generic. Consumer research conducted before the branding process was initiated showed that KE was perceived as bureaucratic and not very innovative. But they ranked high on credibility. It all added up to a tremendous branding challenge.

Brand strategy

Given this background, we devised a brand strategy that spoke both to consumers' rational and emotional sides. We appealed to their rational thinking with the slogan "Your multi-supplier", meaning that KE supplies its customers with five key utility services: water, heating, gas, electricity and drainage.

To appeal to their emotions, we created a concept called "Positive energy for life", which was anchored in the values KE shared with its customers.

We made a conscious decision not to describe KE's superiority; rather, we presented a realistic picture of how people live in Copenhagen, in little everyday stories filled with intimacy and warmth.

The media vehicles used for the campaign included television, cinemas, newspapers, and a special "Environment and energy" magazine distributed to households three to four times yearly.

Art director Morten Angelo

The creative strategy

Our creative strategy, both for visuals and copy, was developed within a tight framework. The primary focus was on people; more precisely, people living in Copenhagen. We strove to create an atmosphere of peaceful harmony in every image and text, in order to reflect the sense of security KE provides in the everyday lives of people as a multi-supplier.

In 2001 we produced a series of adverts to establish KE as a multi-supplier of energy. The series was intended both for internal and external audiences. With the help of the well-known Danish actor Bjarne Henriksen, who played the role of Lars from the company, and the director Susanne Bier, the series accomplished all its goals.

Poetic adverts

In 2002-3 we launched three television adverts (click below to see them) to present "Positive energy for life". They all generated an extraordinarily positive response.

One of the most poetic moments occurred in the advert depicting two young people who are reunited with a kiss in a cascade of water under the water faucet in the kitchen. There was light humour in another advert about a new father who is taken aback by a friend who puts his baby's bottle in the microwave and then pours the warmed milk in his coffee. But the scene that raised the greatest awareness was one in which two immigrants are shown taking a shower together to save water. It received critical acclaim in the press and praise from our clients for being the first commercial to take immigrants seriously as people rather than clichéd taxi drivers or grocery-shop owners. This was the start of a whole series of adverts that has since been shown on television, communicating specific messages by way of a unified KE mood and style.

We also used many of the scenes in the adverts in selected print ads and brochures to create brand familiarity. But regardless of the medium, all the advertisements feature "ordinary" people in recognisable settings. A clear and consistent style in all the advertisements ensures the highest levels of awareness of KE's brand.

KE movies