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| Launch of OntarioHydro Energy into the Ontario market |
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| In September 2001, Ogilvy Toronto won the OntarioHydro Energy account with a marketing budget of Cdn$16MM. OntarioHydro Energy (OHE) was a wholly independent retailer of energy products like natural gas and electricity to the Ontario market. With deregulation of the Ontario energy retail market scheduled for Spring 2002, OHE was faced with a myriad of marketing and communication issues. Firstly, the company/brand had no equity — many Ontarians confused OHE, the energy retailer, with OntarioHydro, the large provincial manufacturer and distributor of energy. Secondly, many consumers were confused about the implications of energy deregulation. Inconsistent messaging from the provincial government coupled with horror stories of California's deregulation efforts had exacerbated that confusion. Finally, consumers readily admitted that household energy was a low-involvement category with a commodity product that they gave scant attention to. Despite these enormous hurdles, OHE aggressively sought to secure over 500,000 Ontarian HH to a 3- or 5-year contract by 2005. |
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| Research had highlighted several hurdles for OHE to overcome (see above) if the brand was to survive in the post-deregulation market. Furthermore, competitors like Direct Energy had staked claim to the "value" or "lowest price" positioning, which we believed was unsustainable and would be financially debilitating in the long-term. We saw, instead, an opportunity for OHE to trade on its (perceived) heritage whilst creating a positioning that would give the brand some elasticity to evolve as the energy market matured. OHE would take a leadership position on educating consumers about energy deregulation — a role the government had performed poorly — whilst, capitalizing on the equity and trust inherent in the OntarioHydro name. In doing so, OHE would become more than merely a retailer of energy, they would become a "Customer Advocate". |
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| Multi-faceted communication was developed under the banner slogan or tagline of "Know Your Power". The creative platform was chosen to directly address two areas of growing concern in the market. One, it gave consumers a very real sense of empowerment by highlighting their ability to choose an energy supplier after the market opened — a choice never before offered as energy was previously governed provincially. Secondly, as deregulation loomed and consumers became increasingly worried that Ontario would mimic the issues California had, the campaign spoke to the heritage of OntarioHydro as a safe and reliable energy supplier. Furthermore, all messaging reinforced OHE's commitment to customer education and rights, further bolstering the brand's "advocacy" positioning. |
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| On May 1st 2002, the deregulation of the Ontario residential energy market became reality. Within two months of market opening, OHE was bought by competitor Union Energy. As Union Energy already had both an advertising agency and long-running campaign, Ogilvy resigned the business in July of 2002. The "Know Your Power" campaign was never executed. |
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