Background

For the first time in Singapore's history, the electricity market was going to be liberalised – forming a completely new category full of 16 unknown brands for a product that no one could see,  touch nor cared much about. Furthermore, the switch from a category of one to the Open Electricity Market (OEM) was not happening with a big bang, but over 4 slow phased launches. Thus, in order to survive and stand out from the inherent bloodbath of prices, Geneco needed to disrupt in order to achieve our business objectives of 100,000 signups within the 1st year of OEM's launch, and build  top-of-mind brand awareness and preference for Geneco's brand. 

Describe the creative idea

We position ourselves as more human and relatable brand, using daily trend-spotting to look for opportunities to tap into socially-relevant conversations, riding on culture to demonstate that we weren’t just after their wallets, but their hearts. So, when the Trump-Kim summit was about to happen in Singapore in June 2018, we knew it would be all anyone would talk about. Geneco wanted in on the conversation without risking a political stand, executing a simple, tongue-in-cheek Facebook post that told Singaporeans that “the only power that matters to us, is the one running through your home” – one of our best-performing posts yet. When Marvel’s The Avengers: Endgame was due to show, the public was raving about the epic finale that was to come. We ran a Facebook ad integrating an iconic line from The Avengers’ very own teaser – ’whatever it takes… to power your savings’.

Describe the strategy

Singaporeans are notorious for being afraid of change, preferring to stick with the status quo rather than try something new and potentially better, making it especially difficult for new players to move the needle. Thus, while at least 9 in 10 were aware of the OEM and 3 in 4 had done their research, the majority still stuck to the default – Singapore Power. Digging deeper behind this fear of change, we found that this this trait was at odds with Singaporeans' innate 'kiasu-ness’ – a competitive born of survivalism and a fear of losing out in the face of constant and fast-paced change, which they often get a bad rep for. Thus, Geneco needed to tap into this ‘kiasu’ mindset and remind Singaporeans that change doesn’t wait – if they don’t embrace the switch, they will lose out in the end.

Describe the execution

To bring our thinking to life, Geneco adopted a two-pronged approach on digital, appealing to both the rational and emotional psyches of Singaporeans. First, we tackled search engines – knowing that with the launch of any new major initiative, the first place they would turn to is Google for all the answers. To get on their radar as early as possible, we re-looked at our keyword buys to improve our rankings, driving prospects to our website to find out more about the OEM and Geneco where everyone else was only talking about price. Next, we turned to social, knowing that kiasu Singaporeans turn to word-of-mouth for more info, especially on Facebook. Thus, to position ourselves as more human and relatable brand, we used daily trend-spotting to look for opportunities to tap into socially-relevant conversation, riding on culture to demonstrate that we weren’t just after their wallets, but their hearts.

List the results

Against our business target of achieving 100K signups within the first year, we achieved results  equivalent to 110% of our target KPI, moving from 11th place to 2nd in the overall OEM market race, achieving a total cumulative market share of 20% by May 2019 (from 2% in April 2018). 70% of  acquisitions came through Digital channels, testifying to the success of our strategy. Against our  competitors on social, our content saw average engagement rates of 5.67% (5.8X industry  benchmarks), with monthly organic fan growth of 18.5% (2.69X platform benchmarks). Finally,  consideration to switch to Geneco increased from 50% to 67% after seeing our communications,  proving our success in winning over hearts, not just wallets.