Since its inception in the early 1900s (then known as the Catawba Power Company) Duke Energy had never run a brand campaign featuring TV ads. That all changed in 2013 when the power giant approached Capstrat looking for an agency to take the reins on their first ever major brand campaign. That was also the year I joined Capstrat and I was lucky enough to be a part of the Duke Energy team.
As you might expect, public opinion around Duke Energy, as is the case with any power company for that matter, wasn't exactly glowing at the time. Power is such a universal, expected part of our culture that people never really notice it, or think about where it comes from, until we lose it. In fact, the large majority of public opinion around power companies is shaped by power outages, regardless of the reasons behind the outage. It doesn't matter if it was inclement weather that spurred the issues, what matters is how quickly lines are repaired and power is restored.
With that in mind, we decided to focus on a reliability message grounded in empathy. Both the TV an print executions framed the conversation through the granular lens of the light switch - how often you use it everyday and how little you think about it. And - importantly - you shouldn't have to, you have enough on your plate.
While the conceptual direction was conceived through an entirely collaborative process, production was divided amongst the team. The Creative Directors on the project, Lindsey Bennett and Scott Ballew spearheaded the TV portion of the project, while my copywriter partner Amy Cozart and I handled print executions.
CD: Lindsey Bennett
CD: Scott Ballew
AD: Brendan Ward
CW: Amy Cozart
