MOVING MOUNTAINS WITH MERCURY

Seeing a potential market in customers moving homes, MERCURY decided to tap into the world of moving in order to make up the potential loss of 20,000 customers every month.

Realising that homeowners and renters moving homes is the single biggest trigger for switching enery providers, Mercury took the opportunity to tap into this market to combat its net negative customer growth position post new business acquisition.

Around 67 percent of home movers choose to switch energy providers at this time, providing an opportunity for Mercury to work towards retaining more movers and convert more switchers.

Mercury was looking at a significant customer pool. In an average month with thousands of movers, Mercury was only acquiring a small percent of customers. For those moving, Mercury saw a large percent of its customers leave for a competitor.

Looking at how Mercury was unable to compete with others in the industry with price alone, the company had to think of ways to target the movers with a long-lasting strategy – customer service.

To target this large pool of potential customers, the brand launched ‘Mercury Movers’. Through market-led research, Mercury identified some aspects of the moving process that could benefit the campaign.

Results showed that energy providers are not a priority, while deep cleaning is a key point. The research also found that the process of moving puts a lot of stress on the mover and money is limited. With these findings in hand, the team behind ‘Mercury Movers’ looked to these as inspiration for the campaign.

The ‘Mercury Movers’ campaign launched with an offer to clean homes through various Out of Home channels in Auckland, street furniture in high movement suburbs and targeted messaging in video on demand property content such as The Block.

Using data, Mercury was able to split customers between genuine movers and property watchers. They offered $250 off house cleaning and truck rental when customers chose to move with them.

Mercury also created a moving kit and made its presence known at supermarkets where research showed movers often visited.

The energy provider also created a hub on its website dedicated to movers with a checklist and blog providing helpful tips. The website also helped with data for Mercury and attracting the correct customer.

For the first time in five years, Mercury was able to see a positive customer growth, ending the campaign with more than half of acquired movers on contract.

The campaign also saw an improved brand perception for the company.

Mercury was able to achieve a return on investment of 4:1 for the campaign and moved from a net loss of customers to a positive. The campaign also improved Mercury’s attitudinal equity (desirability) by a good percent.

By making it relatable, distinctive and aligned to the customer, Mercury was able to successfully create a campaign that resulted in dominating a market that has never been thought of before and placed it ahead of competition.

With this as a successful model, Mercury will now look towards the campaign as a benchmark to evolve its marketing with the use of data to build on this success.