Learn. Create. Test.

Opportunity

Dominion Energy Solutions was looking to increase the penetration of their natural gas offering in a portion of their mid-west market. In addition to increasing monthly new customer accounts, they also wanted to lower their acquisition costs. Dominion looked to Gain to provide a new communication approach to challenge against their existing communications in accomplishing these objectives.

Buyer Insights

With the initiative being localized to a portion of their mid-west market, we went to school on the people in the service area. Through online research, we developed a demographic and economic profile to put a “face” on the market. We used the profile and aligned it with the media consumption habits of those who shared similar characteristics. Lastly, we examined competitors in the area to develop a comparison to Dominion. All of the insights combined to provide us with the information we needed to develop our approach.

Strategic Planning

Based on the information gathered on the audience and market competitors, we focused our attention on combatting an individual’s inherent status quo bias. Our goal was to develop a communications strategy that would create a greater level of familiarity and trust with the Dominion brand by relating to the individual on a more meaningful basis. To do so, we tested a multi-touch, multi-appeal approach to drive interest in Dominion Energy Solutions as a provider of natural gas.

Communication Design

We developed a theme based on “Community” and Messaging Platform that would draw separation between Dominion and their competitors, as well as to build trust and understanding with our audience. The messaging appeals rotated through three different direct mail communications, leading with product benefits that would connect with the audience on an everyday level. We also used photography based on the profile we developed to add a sense of relatability to the communication. Through reputation and competitive pricing, we were able to separate Dominion from other service providers in the area.

Execution

We worked in conjunction with our client counterparts to manage the logistics of scheduling and production to ensure the communications were in market as planned and the campaign remained on strategy.

Outcome

The campaign results were in line with the control communication response rates. However, due to the campaign approach and messaging appeal rotation, the campaign drove 138% more responses than the control communication.