The Energy Systems Catapult (ESC) works to accelerate the transition to a decarbonised energy system. As part of a project focusing on local area energy planning, they wanted to engage members of the public to get their thoughts on the preferred way to heat their homes and help Local Authorities understand how to make their area zero carbon. This online consultation is part of a wider ESC project with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), which aims to be carbon neutral by 2038.

We developed a high impact, targeted social media campaign for roll out across the 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester using hyperlocal messaging to inform and attract residents to take part in the online consultation. Each borough campaign ran for four weeks. Our deliverables included an ‘asset pack’ featuring eye-catching and thought-provoking graphics for each borough, Impact messaging using everyday conversations about energy were used to normalise and add humour to the Zero Carbon conversation and provide cut through. We managed and optimised the social media channels to maximise the effect of the paid budget, and worked with the communications teams of each borough to help cross promote the campaign, to drive each engagement and click through

We planned social media campaigns, including content creation and graphic design services to devise creative assets for roll out in each borough. We worked with the ESC team to develop clear, simple and consistent messaging and undertook AB testing so we could understand what motivates people to make changes, drivers included improving their community, home improvement and wanting to do something practical about the climate crisis. We used insights from the early campaigns to
inform subsequent ones.

To date, six Local Authority campaigns have been completed with four scheduled for early 2022. The campaign has driven 55,478 visits to the consultation site at an average CTR% (Click through rate) of 4.25% and proved to be a highly cost effective way of engaging large numbers of the public with an
average CPC (Cost per click) of just £0.19. The Facebook UK CTR% average = 0.90% and Facebook UK CPC average = £0.79 Our campaign has significantly outperformed previous energy related engagement campaigns with an 11 times increase in CTR% and 4 times more cost effective.