CSR Awards: Corporate-Community Partnership – Puget Sound Energy

Campaign: Rock the Bulb Tour

To position itself as a trusted resource and advocate for energy efficiency, Puget Sound Energy enlisted the services of PR firm Colehour+Cohen to develop and implement a campaign focused on partnering with the community to reduce energy usage through energy efficient lighting.

Rock On

Following extensive research, particularly when it came to the audience segments it should target (i.e. “green idealists” who believe that it’s socially responsible to limit energy use and “practical idealists” who feel it’s important to limit energy use for cost-effective reasons), PSE and C+C created a CFL bulb giveaway program, which they named “Rock the Bulb Tour.” The multi-pronged effort included weekend bulb exchange events, a door-to-door CFL bulb distribution effort, an energy-efficiency “Battle of the Bulbs” contest and promotions. Social media tactics, such as a Facebook page and a Twitter account, were leveraged to keep the campaign fresh.

PSE met its bulb distribution goal with 507,796 incandescent bulbs swapped for CFL bulbs. With this exchange, $21.8 million were saved on energy bills. Other positive ROI: Approximately 24,500 PSE customers exchanged bulbs at a Rock the Bulb event. Also, 1,100 volunteers participated in the campaign. ■

Honorable Mentions:

Fleishman-Hillard St. Louis: UPS Road Code—
Delivering Safe-Driving Training to Teens — Leveraging community partnerships, a national launch day with extensive media outreach and UPS’ NASCAR sponsorship, the Road Code Program so far has taught 550 teens nationwide safe driving skills.

Coca-Cola Turkey: Life Plus Youth Program —
National print and TV advertising, live exhibits and environmental related events helped drive this initiative (in partnership with the U.N. Development Programme), which gives financial support and project management guidance to young people to implement environmental projects across Turkey.

Bickel & Brewer/Carter Public Relations: Calling All Students—
PR Helps International Debate Contest Reach Thousands — To raise the profile of the Bickel & Brewer/NYU International Public Policy Forum (IPPF), Carter developed promotional materials for schools and beefed up the forum’s Web site, resulting in a 20% increase in schools registering to compete.

March 1, 2010