Energy conservation campaign wins international awards

An innovative advertising campaign aimed at encouraging Nova Scotians to save energy has won accolades for Nova Scotia Power and Extreme Group.

The Anyone Can Save Energy campaign received two first place prizes as Most Creative and Most Memorable ad in the 2009 E Source Print Ad Awards Contest, held in Denver, Colorado. The campaign also took home a 2009 Extra award, Canada’s premier newspaper creative competition hosted by the Canadian Newspaper Association. The campaign – TV, web, public transit and print ads – ran in late 2008 and earlier this year.

“People are inundated with marketing messages everyday, but Extreme conceived an approach that helped us capture attention and remind customers there are simple things anyone can do to reduce their power bill,” said Alan Richardson, vice president, Commercial, for NS Power. “The cheapest, cleanest kilowatt-hour is the one customers don’t use and Nova Scotia Power doesn’t have to produce.”

The campaign portrays a collection of characters who have odd-ball beliefs – alien abductions, pixies, and that Elvis is alive and living in Dartmouth – but who also take reasonable steps to conserve electricity through using programmable thermostats, washing laundry with cold water and hanging clothes to dry.