British Gas Keeps Families Running with HomeCare

Launching on Sunday 2nd February, ‘here to solve’ is the new campaign that will be at the heart of an ongoing programme of activity focused on driving fresh re-appraisal of the brand and shifting consumer’s perceptions of British Gas as ‘just’ an energy supplier. 

After a few busy years keeping the UK’s home’s warm, Wilbur the Penguin (British Gas’ brand mascot) decided it was time to spend more quality time with his family in Antarctica and has made way for a new emotive creative approach that imagines the world directly through customer’s eyes. This sees British Gas move away from an animated world to one set in very real family homes across the UK. 

Reflecting modern lives, of all shapes and sizes, this campaign promotes the benefits of British Gas that consumers may not be aware of such as HomeCare services cover for electrics and plumbing and Boiler Installation services, all of which reinforce that British Gas offers more than energy. 

The core aim of the campaign is to begin building a deeper emotional connection with audiences; by demonstrating the wider benefits that British Gas can bring to their lives. ‘Here to solve’ is a seismic shift, helping to redefine and reimagine British Gas. 

“Here to solve is not just a brand message for the campaign, it is a mindset and it is a promise that we want to live by and deliver on for all of our customers. We are already starting to apply this mindset to our broader business approach and as a company we need to think about how we can solve our customers problems rather than what can we sell them. When developing the new campaign, we wanted to ensure that as a company, we put customers at the heart of everything we do, so seeing the world through their eyes made total sense creatively.” said Jill Dougan, marketing director at British Gas 

After the successful win of the Centrica business in July 2019, this is the first campaign for nucleus, a bespoke agency model for Centrica. nucleus integrates creative and strategic talents of The&Partnership, MediaCom, WundermanThompson and BCW, and was set up to put data-led and insight customer planning at the heart of Centrica’s marketing communications. 

Shot by HLA’s Simon Ratigan, the campaign launches with two 60” commercials that bring to life the emotional importance of a smooth-running home and drive fresh reappraisal for British Gas as a brand that can fix, protect and upgrade them. The TV spots are supported by a fully integrated campaign across cinema, radio, DOOH, social, digital, PR and CRM. 

Using real families, real British Gas engineers and capturing real relationships, the ‘here to solve’ campaign tells the story of two important rooms within a home – the bathroom and the kitchen; showing the effects that a broken boiler, a blown fuse box, or a leak can have on the flow of life. 

“We wanted to show how your bathroom is one of the most emotional places there is. It’s deeply private, fun, weird, tender, crazy, loving and peaceful all at the same time. Same with your kitchen. And at the heart of them both is British Gas, there to keep the emotion flowing” said Micky Tudor, executive creative director, The&Partnership, London 

The campaign harnessed customer data to creatively inform the everyday occurrences that are portrayed with some of the creative executions dynamically tailored through video and audio channels to target different audiences based on location. This follows on from Q4 2019, where British Gas successfully became the very first advertiser to run a truly dynamic video campaign, enabled by partnering with Amillionads. 

Shot over five days in locations across South and West London, a Sony Venice was used to shoot the campaign assets as it allowed the lens and chip to be removed from the main camera body, which in turn gave freedom to the operator to shoot in front of the actor, enabling a true ‘point of view’ shot. 

“Using genuine families was an absolute must. Having a real couple in the kitchen and mum, dad and the kids in the bathroom brought an energy and spontaneity to the scenes and helped keep everything real. Being comfortable with one another soon made them forget the camera and this comes across in their performances. The mother in the bathroom film proved to be an absolute gem. Not only was she happy to bath, shower and check for lumps half naked in a room full of men, she even agreed to scoop up a spider several times despite a severe phobia for the creatures” said Simon Ratigan, director, HLA

’Here to solve’ will form the basis of all British Gas marketing and communications throughout 2020, informing a multi-channel approach whenever a customer engages with British Gas, whether that be through an engineer visit, receiving direct communications or searching online.