With our economy making a decisive shift towards greener energies, the energy sector is undergoing a major transformation. As well as innovations in resources and energy use, players in the vertical are having to change the way they communicate.

In a context of transition to renewable energies, it is crucial to update your marketing strategy. This should make it possible to establish transparency in the innovations proposed by the sector, and to raise consumer awareness so that their practices evolve.

In this article, we’ll be looking at the key issues in energy sector marketing. We’ll also look at how marketing gamification can help energy companies meet the challenges they face by facilitating interaction with their customers.

SUMMARY

• The challenges of energy sector marketing
  
• Gamification for energy sector marketing
  
• 3 examples of gamification in energy sector marketing
  

The energy sector has never been affected by social, economic, organisational and environmental issues. Whether as a result of rising prices following the conflicts in Ukraine or changes in French consumption patterns (with the rise in teleworking seeing their energy costs increase). The companies that supply or distribute energy are under the spotlight.

In this context, the energy industry must strive to adapt their communication to the expectations of their audience and provide them with clear answers and solutions.

Here are the main marketing challenges they face.

Raise your profile and improve your brand image

Whether we’re talking about long-established players in the energy sector or newcomers launching into renewable energies, the challenge facing companies is to raise their profile. They need to communicate on sustainable solutions  and how these can help mitigate environmental problems.

They are speaking out to re-establish the bond of trust with consumers. A bond that may have been broken by the complexity and high costs of the sector. Companies need to be transparent and show that they are listening to their customers.

Education and awareness-raising: the educational challenge of the energy transition

The transition to green energies is a challenge for our generation. It is up to companies to raise public awareness of these issues and explain how they are helping to mitigate global warming.

The challenge of educating consumers can take many forms, including the provision of clear and precise information on the challenges of the energy transition and the impact of our consumption. It can involve presenting the advantages of the new green energies.

However, we must be careful not to make people feel guilty or anxious, as this could alienate a part of our audience. Eco-anxiety is an central mental health issue, among the younger generations. So it’s up to companies in the sector to provide information, not alarmism, but optimism, through realistic solutions and objectives (such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions).

Collecting data for better decision-making

One of the keys to success in the energy sector marketing is the collection and exploitation of customer data. For companies, this is a step towards understanding and addressing their customers’ needs. They identify energy consumption habits, the problems faced by users, or the information/offers that are likely to encourage them to take an interest in their service.

The strength of this industry is that data collection is simplified by the needs of consumers. Indeed, players (such as solar panel installers or energy supplier comparators) start their customer journey with an energy diagnostic.

This process makes it possible to collect precise information, voluntarily shared by prospects. Prospects are inclined to share this personal data, as it will enable the company to offer them a tailor-made solution, and benefit from a qualitative service.

Gamification, or the incorporation of interactive and playful elements into marketing campaigns and materials, is an strategy for meeting the challenges facing the industry. This strategy makes it possible to :

1. Boost the brand awareness of new players (or incumbents who want to raise the profile of their renewable energy offering). Marketing games such as contests, on social networks, are effective in gaining virality and reaching a wider audience;
   
2. Strengthen trust between the company and its customers. By multiplying interactions with its audience, gamification enables the brand to engage and create an emotional bond.
   
3. Consumer education through edutainment. Gamification is widely used in the educational sector to facilitate the transmission and memorization of information. In the energy sector, mechanisms such as interactive quizzes can be used to provide information in an engaging way.
   
4. Collect data to address customer needs. As we have seen, companies in the energy sector can refine their customer knowledge via quotation forms or offer comparison systems. But games such as Survey, Swiper or Price is Right can simplify information gathering and enrichment of the database.
   

Gamification is being used by many energy companies to better communicate with and engage their customer communities. Here are 3 examples of interactive campaigns to inspire you.

1. GRDF’s interactive campaign

GRDF opted for the interactive Tiny Wings mechanic to promote green gas in a fun, offbeat way. This score-based game, combined with attractive prizes (such as 500-euro gift vouchers), helped to engage users, encouraging them to spend time with the brand and memorize new key information. Result: this addictive mechanic recorded almost 18 games/player and 14min of average time spent on the game.

2. Sowee’s marketing game to generate leads

Sowee has devised a scripted campaign around the world of moving. The company chose to offer several interactive mechanics, enabling it to educate customers about its moving offers. CTAs at the end of the campaign facilitated the identification of relevant qualified leads for retargeting according to needs.

3. Gamification to promote Total’s offering

Total uses games as a lever to get to know its reactive customers and prospects better. Sent to a targeted part of its CRM base, the Quiz not only promoted one of the company’s offers in an educational way, but also identified intentionalists likely to become customers (via opt-in collection). By asking them about their intentions, Total was able to recruit qualified leads to retarget, maximizing the conversion rate of its campaign.

Conclusion

Gamification is the best lever at your disposal to boost your marketing strategy in the energy sector. Discover our catalog of interactive mechanics and create more effective campaigns to generate leads, engage and educate your customers!

In a constantly evolving telecoms sector, where innovation and customer engagement are paramount, operators must constantly explore new telecoms marketing strategies to improve their services and win new market share.

One of the marketing strategies that is gaining the most ground in this vertical is gamification. By incorporating elements traditionally associated with games into a non-game context, this approach offers organisations significant competitive advantages. In particular, they can stand out from the crowd, better capture and engage their audience, and also devise innovative loyalty levers that will effectively reduce their churn rate (i.e. the percentage of customers lost over a given period).

In this article, we’ll look at how gamification is helping to meet the marketing challenges currently facing the sector. We will also look at 4 examples of gamified campaigns that have enabled operators to achieve their objectives (prospecting, brand awareness, engagement, etc.).

SUMMARY

• The challenges of telecom marketing
  
• The benefits of gamification for telecom marketing
  
• 4 gamified campaigns for 4 marketing objectives in the telecoms sector
  

The telecommunications sector is facing a number of marketing challenges, linked in particular to ever-increasing competition, rapid technological and regulatory change, and new consumer expectations.

Stand out from the crowd in an intensely competitive environment and price war

Building loyalty among customers who are increasingly volatile and whose expectations have changed

Communicate its values and reassure consumers about the impact of its services

Migrating to a more digital offering

1. Better brand differentiation.
   Gamification enables telecommunications companies to differentiate themselves in an increasingly saturated market. Competitions improve brand awareness and their viral potential attracts a wider audience. It’s also a good way to position yourself as an innovative, customer-focused brand.
   
2. Increased customer engagement.
   Gamified mechanisms can make even the most mundane tasks (such as paying bills or optimising data management) more enjoyable. Operators can guide users through the customer journey in a fun way. By offering rewards for completing these tasks (such as loyalty points), they are also better able to motivate and engage them effectively.
   
3. Improved loyalty. Gamification fosters a sense of achievement among customers, encouraging them to stay with the same operator. Multi-level loyalty programmes keep consumers interested by giving them the chance to win gifts as a reward for their loyalty, via a competition reserved for customers, for example.
   
4. Better customer knowledge and simplified personalisation. Competitions are also excellent ways of collecting customer data, so you can better understand the expectations and preferences of your audience. On the basis of this data, the operator can then propose targeted offers to its customers and prospects, significantly increasing its conversion rate.

1. Boost brand awareness and generate leads

By taking part in a Memory game personalised for the occasion, players had the chance to win a free smartphone. To generate as much visibility as possible, the campaign was promoted using Adictiz Ads (supported by social ads and email marketing).

The result: over 15,000 registrations and almost 20,000 games played.

2. Redirect prospects to your digital catalogue

3. Promote these new offers

The elements scrolled through the One-Armed Bandit, aligning themselves with each click.

Result: 2 million impressions and 18 seconds of interaction with participants (compared with 3s for traditional display).

4. Engaging your customer community at a special event

Result: The interactive campaign (a Match 3 supported by Adictiz Ads media coverage) was a success, with remarkable levels of engagement. Each participant spent an average of 11 minutes on the game.

Conclusion