The Background
SSE Airtricity’s sponsorship of “DIY SOS The Big Build” went far beyond a media buy to become a truly integrated partnership
that allowed SSE to crack a difficult communications challenge and do some good along the way. This campaign won the Best Use of TV Sponsorship award at the 2024 TAMI Awards
The Challenge
SSE Airtricity is known as a seller of electricity and gas – a progressive one, but still just an energy company. A new part of the business; providing retrofitting through their new “Generation Green Home Upgrade”, was still something of a side-show. However, this service is a key priority for the business, both because of the commercial opportunity it represents and the alignment it provides with the brand’s twin strategic priorities of supporting Ireland’s green energy future and being present in Irish communities.
The level of difficulty in the task was high;these upgrades had yet to reach the mainstream so driving consideration at all, was a challenge, consumers lacked knowledge of how the process worked, the brand was known as an energy provider, not a ‘builder’ and the offering is complicated, with lots of moving parts, and involves off-putting concepts like ‘BER’ and ‘grants’.
OMD had to help SSE to teach, convince and sell – all to a consumer who knew little about the service, and cared less.
The KPIs were therefore set out in three parts:
– Drive awareness of the service.
– Establish trust in SSE as a leader in this space.
– Deliver sales leads to the SSE Airtricity website and call centres.
The Strategy
Have you ever heard the phrase “When you’re explaining, you’re losing”?
OMD and SSE were in danger of developing a whole load of ads of clubbing consumers over the head with a message they didn’t want to hear. A list of reasons to upgrade wasn’t going to cut it. They needed to find another route. So the strategic priorities became:
Show through stories rather than tell through ads
Soften the message by showing real human experiences
Move from rational to emotional drivers
In all technical senses, OMD knew that TV sponsorship could likely deliver what they needed, but the level of difficulty in their task was high, and a typical sponsorship couldn’t do everything they needed.
They needed to push past sponsorship into real integrated partnership and needed a trusted collaborator, producing content locally, who would not just provide relevant storytelling, but would provide the tone that they needed to surround their storytelling; human and emotive.
DIY SOS The Big Build on RTE 1 was identified as the perfect property. Not only is it a well-loved home-grown property show, but it also has a huge emotional impact on the audience through the showcasing of community values, one of SSE Airtricity’s core brand pillars.
The Plan
The DIY SOS Sponsorship plan consisted of 3 elements: Sponsorship, Integration and Support
- Sponsorship. “SSE Airtricity Generation Green Home Upgrade” was the main sponsor of DIY SOS: The Big Build, Series 4.
Each episode had between 32% – 37% SOV and it had second highest average share % for Individuals in 2023 for the duration
of the series at 34.5% (TAM/RTE 2023) reaching over 325,000 adults 15+ over the 4 weeks. The series also delivered 96,000
streams on the RTÉ Player.
- Integration From the start, SSE Airtricity committed in good faith to supporting the partnership across all touchpoints both on and off air- meeting RTÉ and the production company to better understand how SSE Airtricity could be an integrated partner to the series.
The whole company bought in with employees volunteering on the builds, SSE Airtricity experts supporting the retrofitting of the homes and SSE Airtricity suppling all energy equipment necessary to ensure the renovated homes were of the highest BER standards and offering the families involved a year’s supply of free energy.
- Support As part of the sponsorship, SSE Airtricity developed bespoke 10” and 7” second stings to top and tail the ad breaks and the
show itself. These stings also ran as ads across Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok and YouTube targeting home / décor/ DIY content, reaching
an already engaged audience who may be thinking about updating or renovating their home. The team also went on-set and filmed a cache of b-roll and behind the scenes content from the building sites to be delivered through SSE’s social channels.
The Results
This sponsorship started out as a solution to deliver on brand and sales targets but became so much more. Thanks to SSE Airtricity’s full commitment to ensuring the sponsorship was reflective of what they stand for as a brand which is to support communities in building a greener future it became a hugely successful partnership that changed the lives of multiple families. A truly rewarding result. In just the 4 weeks that DIY SOS The Big Build ran for SSE Airtricity saw positive improvements across both brand and business objectives.
- Spontaneous Awareness of Home upgrade services increased from 56% (Q1 Jan to Mar) to 67% (Q2Apr to Jun).
- 47% felt the sponsorship improved their perception of SSE Airtricity.
- 49% would consider an energy upgrade in the next 2 years and 51% would have confidence in SSE Airtricity completing the
upgrade
- The quantity of customer leads increased by 17% in the 4 weeks of transmission and 9% in the 3 weeks that followed
transmission compared to the previous period.
“We were immensely proud to sponsor and participate in RTE 1’s DIY SOS: The Big Build Ireland Season 4. This sponsorship allowed us to showcase the green energy solutions we offer. More importantly, it allowed us to directly support some very important home retrofits for worthy families with Baz, builders, community members and our own SSE Airtricity team of volunteers. It was more than a sponsorship – it was a true partnership”. ”
Mags Greally, Marketing and Brand Manager, SSE Airtricity
Credits
Brand:
SSE Airticity
Media Agency:
OMD
Supporting agencies/teams:
RTÉ Media Sales
Motive
Award:
TAMI Awards Winner Best Use of Sponsorship 2024