ELECTRIC VEHICLE CAMPAIGN

PROBLEM/CHALLENGE

Austin is currently working on a very aggressive climate protection plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build a more sustainable community. One of the City’s goals is to equitably reach net-zero community-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 with a strong emphasis on cutting emissions by 2030. A vital component to achieving this goal is the Austin Energy Electric Vehicles and Emerging Technologies (EVET) program. This program is developing a charging infrastructure network to help grow and sustain widespread adoption of plug-in electric vehicles throughout the Central Texas region, which will help the City with its carbon-neutral goal.

OBJECTIVE

Create a campaign that helps increase awareness and encourage adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). 

Target audience:

• 21-40 year olds

• Males/females in the Austin area

• Tech savvy

• Open-minded to new ideas and ways of doing things

• Like to have fun; want to be considered hip/cool

The campaign needs to have a shelf life of several years. Advertising should feature Austin yet it should have the potential of influencing on a national level. Components will be widespread. They will include print and digital advertising, out-of-home elements, social media, etc.

Use this refreshed identity to market the various umbrella components of the EVET program.

APPROACH

Research shows that the dominating demographic for EV purchases are white males age 50+. In general, electric vehicles are not enticing the younger market. This may partly be because millennials are waiting longer to drive and buying fewer cars than previous generations. It also may be because the general population thinks EVs are some weird, odd choice – that they don’t look like regular cars and that they come with compromises.

Research concluded that EV drivers actually enjoy a lot of benefits, many of which aren’t regularly communicated, like the fact that less moving parts (20 vs 2,000K+ in a gas vehicle) leads to less maintenance costs or that since their engines work through non-combustion means, they get 100 torque at zero rpm. It seems that people actually forget that electric vehicles are truly cutting edge technology.
 
Despite this, packing ads with stats doesn’t work because people won’t read them. People will probably see the ads are about EVs and move on. Why? Because EVs are seen as a weird, funky choice, and not in a cool way. 
 
BUT what if you could take this negative and turn it into a positive? What if you could exploit the fact that EVs, and thus EV owners, are different, are weird? Maybe they’re weird like Austin is weird? Maybe they’re Austin-cool?
 
So that’s what I’m trying to tap into with this campaign called “Your Electric Vehicle, the Ultimate Conversation Starter”. It’s not about showing a product because that would mean marketing a brand. It’s also not about trying to sell bonuses like hardware or applicable rebates. It’s not even taking the predictable angle of environmental impact. It’s about selling an idea, or a lifestyle. It’s about creating a bigger audience for EVs.
 
Electric vehicles will always be a niche market, but the cool hipness is the hook that entices people to learn more and helps shine a different light on EVs, eventually repositioning them as real, viable players in the transportation market.

The Process

My original concept was humorous and attention-grabbing. I used placeholder text with the idea that the campaign could grow and morph with the program. The stakeholder liked it for its edginess and long-lasting/far-reaching potential.

Taglines

Where does great copy come from? The best copy seems to effortlessly jump off the page, but the behind-the-scenes of getting there can be a painstaking process.

We hired professionals to get us where we wanted to be. Over 150 taglines were written by three different copywriters for consideration.

Testing

When you work on a project for any length of time, at a certain point, you begin to question how good the ideas really are. 

We tested this campaign several times during development it to make sure we weren't headed down the wrong path. The outside perspectives helped us refine our campaign so that we put our best foot forward.

Photography

Extensive research and investigation of stock photography proved unsuccessful. Thus, research was done to find the right local lifestyle photographer and a bid process was completed for custom photography.

Original Austin lifestyle photography was shot with varied demographics for target gender and ethnicity.

– Bringing it all together –

A successful photoshoot doesn't just happen. It is as complicated as planning a sizable wedding. Below are some of the components that were involved in getting strong deliverables while maximizing our budget.

Campaign Deliverables

• Print Advertising

• Digital Advertising

• Banners/Out of Home (OOH) Advertising

• Charging Station Map/Flyer

• Direct Mail – EV360

• Branded Signage for E-Bike Partnership

• Point of Purchase (POP) – E-RIDE

• Animated GIF for Facebook – E-RIDE

• Branded Charging Station Wraps

• Promotional Items

• Branded Components, Facebook posts, + Logistics planning – Electric Drive Launch

• Social Media Management/Creation

Print, Digital, Out of Home, Flyer

These pieces use the new campaign photography.

EV360

This is one of the EVET sub-campaigns and is complimentary to the main EVET collateral.

Bikes and E-RIDE

E-RIDE is one of the EVET sub-campaigns and is complimentary to the main EVET collateral.

Charging Stations

Rebranding of the EV Charging Station Wraps.

Promotional Items

I created a variety of collateral for the team to help get the word out about the program.

Electric Drive Launch

This showcase celebrated the 5th anniversary of the Plug-In EVerywhere program and created an interactive sustainable mobility celebration, ribbon-cutting, and media event that highlighted Electric Drive as an innovative electric transportation hub. I created several pieces specific to the event as well as collaborated on the planning and logistics and worked with photographers and videographers to document the launch.

Social Media

For one year, I managed the EVET Facebook page. This included gathering/collaborating on content and photography, writing posts, finding partners, and monitoring the page activity. The EVET Facebook community has grown 25% and average post reach has grown 229% since I began managing the page.

Additional Metrics

Austin is reported as one of the top ten cities in the U.S. to own an EV. That is due to both the charging infrastructure that EVET is helping put in place and the marketing to let people know that the infrastructure exists.

For the year that this campaign ran, we received over 27,000 visitors to the EVET landing page. Nearly 10,000 were first-time visitors.

The team has received a lot of internal attention from this campaign, with other programs attempting to dissect it so as to copy the success of the EVET program and other departments requesting our availability for the purpose of working on their programs. 

EV Campaign, Phase 2

At the time we shot the HOPE Gallery EV photos, we also shot photos for Phase 2 of the campaign. Below is a sneak peak of some of the photography and elements that will be used for this next stage as well as some informal process photos.