Austin Parks and Recreation Department
Amanda Moya
Marketing Communications Consultant
Austin Energy
Austin
Texas
Educational or Promotional Campaign (greater than $100,000)
Utility Bill Relief Campaign
City of Austin - Austin Energy
Jenny DiLeo
Amanda Moya - Marketing Communications Consultant, Calily Bien - Public Information Specialist Senior, Travis Senior - Graphic Designer
The goal of the Utility Bill Relief marketing communications campaign was to promote available financial assistance to City of Austin Utilities customers who were experiencing financial hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The City of Austin allocated $13 million to provide financial assistance to utility customers impacted by the pandemic, and the Corporate Communications team aimed to quickly reach as many of those target customers as possible through a comprehensive, multi-channel integrated marketing communications campaign.
The target audience included City of Austin Utilities customers facing financial hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This included historically low-income customers as well as newly low-income customers that might not have accessed financial assistance services before the pandemic.
While promotional efforts continue, as of December 31, 2020, utility bill relief efforts have provided $10,985,840 in financial assistance to 15,702 customers in need. Across the board, campaign metrics performed above industry standards: the digital campaign had 62,515 clicks with a 34.88% click-through rate on English search engine marketing (SEM) ads. Streaming video ads in English and Spanish had a 98.30% completion rate. Austin Energy’s website saw a 475% increase in new users over the prior six-month period, and results for four targeted customer emails performed well above industry standards with a 47.15% open rate.
In the spring of 2020, Austin Energy’s Corporate Communications team shifted efforts to focus on essential communications connected to COVID-19 to meet immediate customer needs and comply with a leadership directive to halt all non-essential marketing campaigns. This major pivot required an all-hands-on-deck approach to quickly plan and launch the Utility Bill Relief marketing campaign in just four weeks, along with adjacent campaigns related to energy conservation, scams and COVID-19. In addition, the Corporate Communications team successfully launched the campaign amidst an immediate move to teleworking—replete with technological and communication hurdles—at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Austin Energy is a publicly owned electric utility with a mission to safely deliver clean, affordable, reliable energy and excellent customer service. In 2020, Austin Energy led a Utility Bill Relief campaign to promote $13 million in financial assistance available to City of Austin Utilities customers impacted by COVID-19.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3x3FZ8cqx9DojRmKjIbmLjJ4fTWIM1bW