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How to Get Free Prime-Time News Coverage By: Susan Gilbert, President & CEO What better way to capture the public’s attention than appearing on a popular TV talk show, making the 6:00 o’clock news or being the headline in the morning paper? That’s what some media-savvy utilities are finding they can do as a result of record-setting energy prices, increasing concerns about global warming, and the impending high winter heating bills. And if you know how to play the game, you can get it for FREE!
Oprah Covers Duke Energy House Call Program
Let’s look at “Timely.” A year ago, who would have believed energy efficiency would make it to Oprah’s couch? Nobody. But in 2007, Duke Energy’s House Calls program was featured on Oprah tied to an Earth Day theme (April 22). In their story, viewers nationwide were introduced to a program available to Duke Energy customers in Kentucky and Indiana where they can receive a free, on-site energy audit and a kit containing energy saving products for their home. The program asked eligible Duke Energy customers to visit their website to learn more and take advantage of the program.
One clear advantage of sending people to the website is you now have an automatic log quantifying the airing’s impact. And while search engines and web crawlers can skew the recorded “Visits” to a webpage, a spike on the day of or day following news coverage can pretty much be attributed to the media mention.
Read more about the Oprah Show here - PDF format Now, how about something that interests -- or even frightens people (like high energy bills). You’ve probably heard headlines like, “Homework found to cause cancer—details ahead.” Then when finally you hear the full details, they reveal that upon further investigation, homework was not linked to cancer after all. For our industry, attracting attention usually involves helping people save money, and the fear-factor of unusually high bills serves to heighten interest. But unlike the homework story, your energy program will deliver results on the headline’s suggestion. Both elements appeared in a headline story on Channel 12 in Duke Energy’s service territory where they again brought the TV spotlight to the utility’s House Call program. This segment opened with one news anchor announcing, “There is a lot of interest in energy prices today with crude oil hitting a record $85 per barrel.” (Good use of Timely, item A.) To which his co-anchor responds, “And this is adding to consumers’ fears they will face record high prices this winter to heat their homes. (Good use of fear of high costs, item B.) We particularly enjoyed the woman reporting live from the customer’s home when she accessed APOGEE’s HomeEnergyCalculator™ on the Duke Energy website, from the home computer, to see how much money she could save by lowering her thermostat this winter.
“When it comes to saving on utility bills, it’s important to know the specifics for your home. It’s called the HomeEnergyCalculator and it’s on the Duke Energy website." "We type in the variables, click Calculate, and see how much this family would spend. In most homes, the lion’s share goes to home heating. In this case, 65 percent. And to see the savings for changing thermostat settings, just lower them to see the savings.”
Scooping the competition. Every reporter wants to be the first on the scene to bring you the story details. We saw this back when we conducted a continuing-education-accredited Realtor® Training Program for TVA (“Using the Energy Factor to Sell Homes”). Several TV stations and newspapers sent reporters to cover the events based on our calls to the news desks to let them know the training was attracting record-breaking attendance and mentioning that other local stations and publications were sending reporters. You are reminded of this motive every time you hear, “And in a story you’ll hear only (or first) on Channel X…” Reporters, news producers and editors pride themselves on getting you the news, and getting it first, so help them out.
Be prepared to capture the impact. As you begin planting the seeds for getting cost-effective media coverage, don’t forget to do some prep work back home to be sure you can quantify impacts and are prepared to respond. Measuring impact just means having baseline metrics monitored, like visits to the website tracked with web analytics or calls on the program’s 800 line logged so that increases in volume can be tracked. Being unprepared to respond is immortalized by the Microsoft commercial a few years back where a group of young entrepreneurs sat around a table in their cramped, start-up office waiting to see the results of their web storefront launch, and they hear click…… click…… click..click. click and then an endless barrage of clicks that takes their website down. Mass media exposure can have unexpected consequences, so be prepared with an emergency plan in case demand is higher than predicted. Media’s needs, media relationships and quirky personalities. Look at what you are promoting through the reporter’s lens. What makes your offer timely? What makes it of broad, general interest, how does it address people’s fears, and are you ready for people to respond in large numbers? And, don’t forget to leverage the personal relationships your company’s media folks have fostered over the years. These relationships can often make the difference of whether or not a media outlet will run with your story. And, if you happen to be lucky to have quirky, eccentric but top-notch energy expert on staff, you may also be able to sell a story by humanizing it through this person.
As Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers says, energy efficiency should be run as a business. And in any business, when you can increase impact without commensurate increases in expenses, that’s a good thing. You too can leverage your media coverage by looking for opportunities where timing, interest factor and competitive edge play to your advantage. |
News You Can Use!
Web Self Service for Utilities Conference Submit your website for review
Presents: Reaching the Next Generation Dec. 11, 2007 10:00 AM Pacific Helping Customers Go Green Jan. 16, 2008 2:00 pm Eastern
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Kids Korner Goes Greener By: Kathy Hart, Director of Communications
Energy education has long been a part of APOGEE’s Web content, especially with the launch of our Kids Korner Web module in 1996. Since then, Kids Korner has appeared on more than 200 utility websites, reaching well over a million school children. Now, for the first time, Kids Korner directly addresses Climate Change and Global Warming – topics surprisingly familiar among today’s kids thanks to Hollywood and politics. Responsible Energy Use Has Always Been Green
Addressing a Hot Topic: Global Warming
APOGEE’s new “green edition” of Kids Korner addresses the hot topic of global warming head on. Its menu of topics is divided into short sections designed for easy understanding.
APOGEE’s Kids Korner subscribers can elect to upgrade to the new Green Edition at no extra cost, or remain with their current subscriptions. Contact your representative for more information or call Karen Morris 770-270-6501 |
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Innovative Application Pre-empts High Bill Calls By: Everett P. Perkins, Jr.
APOGEE has developed an innovative on-line application for residential customer self-service that is designed to pre-empt calls to the call center. The goal is to provide key information to the customer in a readily understandable manner to:
This new application was designed and implemented based on usability studies and specific customer feedback. The application is linked to the billing history, saves the customer profile (for ease of future use), and presents a robust analysis in straightforward terms.
This application, called Customer-Facing BillingInsights™, uses APOGEE’s proprietary AuditMation™ Energy Analysis System (AMES), a sophisticated home energy use analysis tool. Because of the power of the AMES algorithms, customized for recent actual local weather
CF-BI provides an easy to follow step-by-step process for inputting a home profile and completing the analysis. Just as in a recipe, the instructions are numbered for quick execution. A residential customer would log into CF-BI from their billing account on their utility website. Once they click the link for CF-BI, they would fill out the individual attributes to describe their existing home. Most of the attributes are filled in using drop-down windows. Once done, the customer would press “Analyze my Electric Bill”. This action brings together the customer’s electricity bills, actual local weather data for the past year, and a smart analysis of the home based on the customer’s profile. The result is a summary display of critical information designed to answer their billing questions.
First, the information display shows the user their bills in the context of the actual weather. Weather is the biggest determinant of changes in the bill. Seeing this can alone address many customer billing questions and assure them their bill is correct.
Next, the customer sees at the top some custom suggestions for how this customer can reduce energy use and cost based on their specific circumstances and home profile.
Finally, the application answers at least three major customer questions:
It is the experience of our customers that carefully designed applications that support customer self-service actually reduces utility costs by taking the burden off the call center and other related resources. CF-BI is specifically designed with this goal in mind. In the near future, this application will be available in a commercial format as well. |
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Congrats to 2007 ACE Award Winners!
By: Karen D. Morris, Marketing Manager
APOGEE’s had the privilege and pleasure of watching the energy industry and online technology evolve at lightning speed over the past 14 years. We’ve witnessed some of the most innovative online applications spring from ideas generated by our own forward-thinking customers. So to give credit where credit is due, we present APOGEE’s Customer Excellence (ACE) Awards each year to recognize these individuals and their contributions.
This year's winners are...
Presented at APOGEE’s 14th Annual Web Conference, this year’s winners circle includes 10 energy professionals who stand out among their peers in the categories of Excellence in Customer Service, Web-Based Activity, Creative Marketing, Conservation & Stewardship, and Innovation. Excellence in Customer Service:
Best Web-Based Activity:
Most Creative Marketing:
Outstanding Conservation & Stewardship:
This year APOGEE dedicated its Innovation awards in memory of Gary Bunce, a long-time energy professional whose pioneering spirit and innovative thinking helped move the industry forward. His 20+-year career in energy efficiency consulting, training and customer service and marketing management included tenures with leading utilities such as FPL and Walton EMC.
Innovation:
Congratulations!
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