013 Bronze Financial Services and Utilities

Client Yorkshire Water

How did the campaign make a difference? This campaign contributed towards a change in customer behaviour by increasing awareness of internal flooding risks. This contributed to a reduction of 12% in internal flooding incidents, helping Yorkshire Water meet its regulatory target of fewer than 423 reported incidents for the year.

What details of the strategy make this a winning entry? Yorkshire Water has invested £180m into reducing the risk of flooding both inside and outside homes, over the last five years. The challenge was to develop a fully integrated campaign, based on customer insight, to reduce the number of sewer flooding incidents caused by disposal of items such as nappies, sanitary towels and fat in toilets and sinks. Blockage hotspot areas were identified, and the number of people living there was compared with the number of blockages to produce a ranking score. Experian Mosaic data was used to identify the demographics of those customers. From this two key customer profiles were created, to select the most appropriate targeting, channel choice and messaging. The channels were radio advertising, door drops, bus T-sides, six-sheet outdoor, advertising on shopping trolleys and online advertising. High-impact creative showed blocked pipes and flooded bathrooms and kitchens, linking behaviour with its effects. In a schools outreach programme, children were given a free fat recycling kit. Media activity used relevant stats on sewer flooding, and gave journalists the opportunity to see what blockages looked like. Yorkshire Water also refreshed customer letters and created new leaflets for technicians.

How did creativity bring the strategy to life? Past experience showed that consumers would be more likely to change their behaviour if cause and effect were closely linked. The creative played heavily on making consumers aware that household flooding could happen as a direct result of their actions, showing bulging waste pipes and graphic scenes of flooding, as pipes are often unseen by consumers. Alliteration and rhyming was used to ensure copy made an impact across all channels, especially radio advertising. The aim was to create a degree of shock and disgust at the potential outcome, while staying in line with Yorkshire Water's brand values.

Results Yorkshire Water met its regulatory target of fewer than 423 internal flooding incidents. Campaign recall was 22% in the targeted areas. The number of people claiming to have seen/heard advertising rose from 17% to 33%.