Avangrid is leading the transformation of the U.S. energy industry, including hundreds of rural communities, toward an energy independent, secure, and competitive future. For more than 20 years, our projects have invested millions of dollars in rural American communities, but many don’t know the impact that’s had. So, we set out to highlight how energy infrastructure projects have enabled and empowered rural America to succeed. These communities have been hit hard by economic changes, shifts in purchasing habits, and outsourcing, but what remains are resilient, hardworking Americans focused on their families, communities, and each other. From steady income when crops are slow to protection from wildfires and more, Avangrid is supporting America. This campaign set out to highlight and tell those stories, and to date, have reached over 100,000 people with them- surpassing our goals.
When you think of narrative brand storytelling, a regulated utility company or energy generation company isn’t the brand you’d expect to be embarking on these efforts. Our approach to crafting these stories was rooted in data: examining where our projects have had the most positive impact on the communities via payments in lieu of tax (PILOT) programs, volunteer hours and philanthropic efforts. From there, we dug into the data to see where and how the funding was used, researched local media coverage on the beneficiaries and interviewed our teams in the communities to uncover story concepts. Once we sketched the stories from the desktop research, we engaged the local community to hear their stories too and see how they matched the anticipated storylines and identified who would be our subjects. At the same time, the team developed the logistics plans and operational plans. These projects are in extremely rural communities, usually several hours from airports, lodging, and cities so having detailed logistics plans were critical to success. This is especially true when the majority of the content involved being outdoors so planning for weather, temperature changes, and the impacts on plant operations were constantly top of mind—and forcing shifts in locations, timing, and entire storylines.
One of the biggest challenges was convincing stakeholders of the value: from internal teams to solicit funding, convincing the subjects and organizations they represent the benefits of participating in branded narrative storytelling and the landowners who we lease the land for our projects to join in. Energy can be a controversial issue in some communities, so garnering support for participation was complex and required more negotiating and creativity than others.
Ultimately, the process strengthened the product and helped re-engage rural communities.
Our campaign is centered on how we empower local communities, so following that mantra the goal was to reengage and celebrate rural America. Secondarily, we saw the need to generate a content pipeline reaching over 100,000 people.
We’re proud to say the campaign has been a success. We’ve seen more engagement in the communities we visited, more employees stepping up to participate in our video production work, and an exceeding of our 100,000-reach goal within six weeks of launching the campaign on social media.
