Key Takeaways

Education & Outreach Committee

Consumer’s Perspective

Consumers Unaware

Consumers Aware

• More education and outreach

• Understand smart grid and associated benefits

Closing the Gap

Expanding available resources

Industry leadership

Advancing the message

Improve consumer’s awareness and understanding of modern grids

WhatIsSmartGrid.org

Expanding Available Resources

Sin

ce launch in 2

013

Last

Year

2015

59,868

Visitors

Industry Leadership

Technology Providers

Utilities

Non-Profit Organizations

Creation and implementation

of consumer education and

awareness programs

Results

ExcellenceConsumers

FirstLeadershipAuthenticity

Examining the Right Path

Most Valuable Aspects of Membership

Access to consumer educational materials

Gain insights of consumer engagementissues

Proactively address grid modernization misinformation

Most Important Collateral

Found the resources purposeful

The most effective tool? Fact sheets

As compared to 2014 statistics, trending favorably

Internal education

Reference materials when talking with consumers

Have stated they utilized the resources

Referenced in e-communications

Linked on company website

Advancing the Message

1a. Provide new ways to introduce consumers to smart grid benefits

1b. Chart and provide best practices for consumer engagement

2. Align the industry with a consumer value proposition for the smart grid

3. Provide thought leadership on the electric industry

Consumer Value Proposition

Environmentally Friendly

Flexible

Reliable

Strategic Approach

Educate

EffectivenessConsumer

Consensus

AssessValue

BenchmarkAwareness Understanding

BenefitsMeasure

GrowthStatements

Foundation Work of CVP

$154.65 of economic benefits

per consumer per year

Consumer Value Proposition (CVP)

A customer value proposition is a business or marketing statement that describes why a customer should buy a product or use a service.

It is specifically targeted towards existing and potential customers rather than other constituent groups such as employees, partners or suppliers.

The New Frontier in Media Consumption

Search Social Mobile Media

187 MILLION

Unique monthly visitors

in 200 countries get

their news from

LinkedIn

of media consumption

is done on mobile

devices

60%

Of Millennials trust

online search engines

as a source of

information, while

only 64% trust

traditional media as a

source of information

72% 70%

Of C-Suite executives

travel with at least 2

mobile devices

QuartzComScore, 2014LinkedIn2015 Edelman Trust Barometer 13

WHAT’S DRIVING CHANGE IN HOW WE CONSUME AND ENGAGE WITH CONTENT

Story Tool KitElevator Pitch Stump Speech

Message Architecture per AudienceCONSUMERS

catch phrase examples

statistics

anecdotes

analogies

stories

Media

StorylinesMulti-Channel

Content

MEDIA

catch phrase examples

statistics

anecdotes

analogies

stories

MEMBERS

catch phrase examples

statistics

anecdotes

analogies

stories

Why A Narrative?

Flexible. Smart grid provides information to consumers about their energy

consumption habits that translates to potential cost savings. New pricing plans

offered by power companies provide consumers with more control. As a result, you’ll

have freedom to make energy choices important to you.

Reliable. In event of a storm, smart grid technologies help power companies better

communicate with customers when the power goes out and makes it easier and

quicker to restore your power. The smart grid can also help prevent an outage in the

first place by rerouting your electricity around affected neighbors.

Environmentally Friendly. More sources of clean power, such as wind and solar,

are being connected to the electrical grid every day. Also, new technologies like

smart meters and electric vehicle chargers, give consumers an opportunity to make

more environmentally-conscious choices.

Elevator Pitch

A smart grid is your power company’s investment in

technology that enables our electric grid to be more flexible,

reliable and environmentally friendly.

• Historically consumers have passively paid monthly electric bills

• Now utilities are evolving, combining power sources with new digital technology to enable the smart grid

• Smarter grids decrease CO2 emissions and the use of inefficient back-up power sources

• A smart grid decreases the frequency, duration and breadth of electricity outages

• Your utility can provide cleaner, smarter, more efficient electricity

• You can have more control of your energy usage and expenditures

Stump Speech

Examples

• ATMs, the Internet, mobile phones and Wi-Fi lacked understanding and broad

use when they emerged. Now we can’t imagine a world without them.

• Electricity can create the same kind of customer experience. The smart grid

makes interactivity with energy possible, easy and fun.

The CVP – Connecting with Customers

Scenario 1: John Smith and the Smart Thermostat

CVP Message: as the Smart Grid continues to evolve, utility

companies are getting better information about how consumers

use energy from smart meters to smart thermostats and that

information provides a more flexible, reliable and

environmentally-friendly electric grid that provides consumers

with increased flexibility and control over their electricity bills.

Scenario 3: The news media and summer grid strain

CVP Message: The smart grid decreases the frequency,

duration and breadth of electricity outages. In the event of a

storm, smart grid technologies restore your power quickly or

work to prevent an outage in the first place.

Scenario 2: Melissa Flores fears the Smart Meter

CVP Message: Utilities don’t collect private data. As

utilities invest in a smarter grid, they can provide

consumers with a more flexible, reliable and

environmentally-friendly electric grid.

CVP Messaging in Action

Scenario 4: A group of environmentally-conscious community members approaches your

company to learn more about how the smart grid can play a role in addressing climate

change and reducing emissions.

Key Message: Smarter grids will have a positive impact on the environment by

connecting more renewable sources of power, like wind and solar, and creating a more

reliable system that renders inefficient back-up power sources, like coal-fired power plants

and diesel generators, unnecessary.

Proof Points:

• The smart grid takes more trucks off the road, reducing emissions. A utility like DTE

Energy has removed 274,956 truck rolls avoiding nearly 2,474,604 miles of

unnecessary emissions.

• PG&E’s outage detection program has helped avoid more than 6,500 truck rolls and

reduced emissions by more than 61,000 pounds of CO2.

• PG&E's Net Energy Metering programs provide customers the ability to offset the cost

of electricity with their own renewable generation including rooftop solar. The Net

Energy Metering program’s combined capacity of customer generating systems for

PG&E included 181,171 installations and 1,533.7 MW generation as of June 2015.

Integrated Communications Marketing Plan

EXAMPLE: SMART GRID AWARENESS DAY

Host a Smart Grid Awareness Day during the summer, when electricity use is at the top of U.S.

consumers’ minds, and leverage the day to share CVP-related content.

Goal:

To increase awareness and overall favorability among adults 21-65 who are the household

electricity utility decision makers, and educate them about the smart grid through the

CVP, as well as inform and engage U.S. communities about the consumer benefits a

modernized grid yields.

Objective:

To champion the CVP message to power consuming consumers nationwide through a 12-18

month campaign that leverages SGCC members and a multi-media approach to increase

awareness by 4 percent.

Strategy #1

Raise awareness of the CVP message nationwide through diverse and interactive channels

that reach consumers.

Strategy #2

Amplify the CVP message and activities to enable consumers to participate in discussions,

while cultivating additional support and buy-in from industry stakeholders.

Commission the sixth edition of SGCC’s flagship research study, Consumer Pulse Wave, and

track and measure the national awareness, attitudinal and behavioral shifts among U.S.

consumers toward the smart grid.

Measure owned social and digital media analytics for growth, engagement and impressions on all channels.

Determine the total number of consumers reached from community outreach programs and partnerships.

Increased occurrence of member companies utilizing CVP materials in communications and participation in SGCC led activities.

Measure the CVP media coverage and calculate the consumer reach of publications.

Measure the tonality of article placements to achieve a percentage growth from negative -neutral to more of a neutral – positive.

How Do We Measure Success?

1

23

4

56

CVP in Action

CVP in Action

CVP in Action

CVP in Action

Advertising CampaignLow • Advertising on

news websites

• Promoted tweets

• Facebook ads

• Outbraincampaign

• Media interviews

• Partnering with SGCC members

• Radio PSAs

Med

ium • Digital displays in

airports

• Medium to large billboards

• Interior subway advertisements

• Bus exterior wraps

• Increased news website presence

Hig

h • Increased digital media presence

• Extended traditional marketing

• Regional workshops for utilities

• Promoted trends

• Television spots

Digital Media Digital + Traditional Fully Implemented

Ask the Audience