Contact Energy’s ‘Fourth Trimester’ Campaign Offers Free Energy to the Newest New Zealanders

Contact Energy has unveiled a new initiative called Fourth Trimester, offering a helping hand to families with newborns from 1 February.   

Contact launched the initiative in collaboration with Special New Zealand after a successful pilot in 2022 where Kiwi families-to-be received three months of free power. The initial offer proved transformative for families, so to expand its generosity, Contact announced more than two million hours of free power would be given away in the new iteration of the initiative in 2023.   

Contact launched Fourth Trimester to give Kiwis a helping hand when they need it most, to ensure home is the best place in the world for new families. Because looking after newborns can be draining. It doesn’t just take a lot of physical energy but a lot of energy too – washing machines, dryers, heaters, sound machines, steam sterilisers, the list goes on.   

Dubbed ‘Fourth Trimester’ after the first three months post-partum, the initiative is designed to help take the pressure off during a financially challenging period, enabling whānau to spend more time enjoying the newborn phase and less time worrying about bills.   

Special created a campaign film featuring a new father adapting to life with a newborn around the house. After distributing captioned onesies to customers that participated in the offer in 2022, infant-luencers were created with imagery featuring newborns in the onesies with phrases like, ‘Can’t talk. Can pay the power bill’ and ‘I’ll sort the power bill. You sort my nappy’.  

Fourth Trimester was launched in conjunction with PR activity via Special PR, announcing Fourth Trimester to press with the support of Whānau Āwhina Plunket, who facilitated gifting of the offer to new parents at its Manurewa branch. The announcement resulted in editorial coverage across major news outlets as well as partner content through The Project and NZME.   

Lisa Fedyszyn, ECD at Special says: “It’s always inspiring to develop an initiative that has purpose and this one is already proving to have a powerful impact for families when they need it most. When we developed the idea and built the creative around it, we wanted to show how Fourth Trimester helped our most vulnerable and newest New Zealanders. We’re thrilled to work with a client that shares our vision for developing creative campaigns that improve outcomes for Aotearoa.”   

Sera Flint, head of brand and marketing at Contact says: “The first three months after birth is a magical time for parents.  But we also know that it can be a challenging time too.  Offering families free energy at this time is a small thing we can do to help – removing any hesitation to run the dryer or keep the heating on to keep baby warm.  It’s one way we’re trying to improve the quality of home life for New Zealanders.

"We’re thrilled to be able to offer Fourth Trimester again in 2023 and can’t wait to hear how it makes a difference to more Kiwi families,” says Sera.