Energy Saving Week 2009

Q: What is the purpose of Energy Saving Week?

A: Energy Saving Week is designed to promote energy saving action among householders through a concentrated programme of events across the UK, via a range of partner organisations and the Energy Saving Trust's network of regional advice centres.

The aim of Energy Saving Week is simple: to help consumers learn how they can reduce their carbon footprint and show how significant savings can be made in money, energy and time by making a difference. At the Energy Saving Trust we understand that time and money is something most of us do not have an abundance of.

For more information or to be involved in the week contact Abigail.Gibson@est.org.uk

Energy Saving Week 2009

This year’s Energy Saving Week took place from 19 – 25 October 2009.

The theme was WASTE and looked at how we can waste away our money, energy and time through bad habits in the home. Each day was assigned a mini- theme, highlighting top tips for key areas of business for the Energy Saving Trust.

Monday: Launch Day
Tuesday: Warmer Homes Day
Wednesday: Smarter Driving
Thursday: Switch off/Turn Down
Friday: Buy Better Day

The aims of the week were:

• To drive mass awareness of Energy Saving Week, the Energy Saving Trust and Act on CO2 across audiences (consumer etc)
• To drive traffic to the Energy Saving Trust’s advice service (website and helpline)
• To raise the profile of our regional network of advice centres i.e. localised knowledge
• To drive media cut-through and awareness of the Energy Saving Trust and the campaign key messages in the Devolved nations and in the regions

PR objectives for Energy Saving Week were to:

• Create over 25,000 calls to the network
• Create 9,000 hits to the unique ESW page on the web
• For the spend create over £2million worth of coverage
• Reach 65% of the UK adult population

Target Audience
This year our focus has been to maximise our regional reach and heavily focus our efforts on local media. Our secondary audience was to continue to target the national press and reaching out to both tabloids and broadsheets to speak to a mass audience.

Key activities
We commissioned a National and Regional survey ‘Green IQ Test’. This was the first time that the Energy Saving Trust have interviewed both adults and children and created a robust insight into family habits in the home.

Coverage
The survey press release, was equally strong for Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and English regions and had pick up in the national and regional press. Key coverage includes: GMTV, Daily Telegraph, Daily Star, Press and Journal, Scotsman, Daily Record, Daily Mirror NI, Irish Daily Star

Home Truths Campaign
Families across the UK, were signed upto create a compelling and creative report on how they waste energy in the home – using a video camera the child would observe, film and interview their family about their wasteful habits. An Energy doctor would perform a Home Energy Check and let each family know what local grants were available.

Coverage
The campaign itself was an incredible success, the local media absolutely understood the campaign and we had a number of large full page features on families across the UK talking about their experience and what they had learnt. Key coverage includes: Sunday Herald 4 page spread, ITV Anglia News, BBC Radio Essex, BBC Radio Wales, Belfast Telegraph, numerous regional pieces,

Wales
Over 30 pieces of media coverage were secured in Wales across a range of daily and weekly newspaper titles and local broadcast. To launch Energy Saving Week a photocall took place with Assembly Members from all four parties at the National Assembly building in Cardiff Bay. All AMs posted their photo and the press release on their websites and have been promoting it with local media in their constituencies.
The team also worked with the Welsh Assembly Government’s teenage Climate Change Champions to help encourage the Welsh public to lead a greener and more environmentally friendly lifestyle.

Northern Ireland
The campaign was tremendously successful in Northern Ireland and saw the Energy Saving Trust make it’s first ever appearance in the sports pages of the media.
One of the families recruited for the ‘home truth’s’ campaign was that of Ulster and Ireland Rugby Star Ryan Caldwell. Speaking ahead of his son’s investigation into the Caldwell families’ energy habits, Ryan said he was used to challenges on the rugby field, but this is a whole new ball game.
The Caldwell Family featured twice on the ‘On your behalf’ programme on Radio Ulster. The campaign received widespread support from government representatives and MLA’s and featured on the front page of the Northern Ireland Assembly website and NIdirect, the official government website for Northern Ireland citizens.
During Energy Saving Week the ESTac received over 170 calls per day compared to an average daily of 70.

Scotland
In line with the national 'Home Truths' campaign, Scottish advice centres worked closely with local families and their 'waste detectives' to uncover wasteful behaviours in the home. The Strathclyde & Central advice centre was particularly successful in their efforts with an East Kilbride family, this resulted in a substantial supplement on the story in the Sunday Herald.

The main Energy Saving Week PR push from the Scottish office was themed around eco-driving, one of their largest national campaigns. The eco-driving business road show campaign was launched to coincide with Energy Saving Week and the first two large scale employee engagement events took place in North East Scotland during the week. Over 1,500 employees were reached with the eco-driving message as a result of these events. The road shows had strong coverage in the regional press; papers such as The Courier, The Press and Journal, and local radio support on Tay FM and Northsound.
Mike Thornton, Director of Energy Saving Trust Scotland was featured in a 'mouthpiece' article on 'addressing the damaging affects of climate change' in the Evening News. In this piece Mike was our spokesperson on the opinion that “Motorists can help the environment by eco-driving”.