NORTHERN GAS NETWORKS
EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST SOUGHT FOR PR AND MARKETING CAMPAIGN TO ENGAGE VULNERABLE CUSTOMERS
Aimed at PR agencies with a North of England reach
We’re Northern Gas Networks; the gas distribution network for the North East, northern Cumbria and most of Yorkshire. We bring the gas supply into more than 2.7 million homes and businesses across our region, in all sorts of communities: from big cities such as Leeds and Newcastle, to the wilds of Northumberland.
Our network of pipes is long enough to stretch from Leeds to Sydney in Australia, and back again.
But we’re about people, not just pipes. We pride ourselves on our award-winning customer service and providing an excellent customer experience, which we seek to continuously improve.
This is an exciting time for the gas industry, as we explore the viability of green energy sources such as hydrogen and biomethane and move towards the Government’s target of net zero carbon by 2050. And in spring 2021, NGN will enter a new five-year regulatory period with our regulator, Ofgem.
Our regulatory framework for 2021-2026 will present us with a broad range of opportunities to further improve our services to customers, and at the core of this will be how we serve and support those living and working in our most disadvantaged communities.
We want to do more to proactively engage with our most vulnerable customers, and those hard-to-reach groups including older people, those with long-term health conditions, and people for whom English is not their first language. We know that we can do more to help customers better access our services, and in particular our goal is to:
Improve knowledge and understanding of gas safety, so that our most vulnerable customers know how to act if there is a gas emergency, and how to best keep their homes gas safe;
Improve awareness of the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning among vulnerable customer groups and encourage behaviour change so that customers know how and when to call for help in an emergency, and
Significantly increase by 5000 the number of new registrations to the Priority Services Register in our most hard-to-reach communities, and more generally increase the awareness of the PSR among customer groups who could refer a relative or friend.
Could your agency meet this challenge? Can you create engaging and inspiring communications across a range of platforms and channels, to get our key messages across and to change behaviours?
Here’s the brief
We’re inviting expressions of interest from suitably qualified PR agencies who can deliver targeted interactions with our hard-to-reach customers. You will have a proven track record of at least five years, demonstrating success in developing and delivering integrated and dynamic PR and marketing campaigns. Your agency will also need to be tech and social media savvy, but also have demonstrable experience of working with more ‘traditional’ media, including print media and broadcast. You will have a reach which will enable you to work across our whole Yorkshire, North East and northern Cumbria region.
The initial contract will be for one year and offered at a competitive agency rate.
The successful agency will:
Review and analyse our existing body of customer research data, and provide baselines for CO, PSR and gas safety awareness that progress can be measured against;
Identify audiences, outcomes, key messages and the priorities for activity;
Work up a plan to deliver against agreed outcomes;
Deliver the plan across a range of platforms and channels, including social media, paid-for media and media relations;
Work to budget and agreed timescales, and
Provide regular evaluation of progress against the agreed outcomes, including measuring shifts in audience awareness and behaviour change.
If this whets your PR appetite, and you would relish the opportunity to make a real difference to our customers, then we would love to hear from you. At this stage, we’re asking for expressions of interest, and a short submission including:
A profile of your agency, including its structure and the various departments/specialisms
An example of one previous PR campaign where your agency has engaged with a hard-to-reach group, including a summary of your approach and outcomes.
If we’re impressed with your expression of interest, we will then send out a much more detailed brief and a formal Request for Proposal to you and the shortlisted agencies. Expressions of interest should be emailed to Amy Craven, Acting Communications Manager, at amcraven@northerngas.co.uk by close of play on Thursday 1 April 2021. If you would like to discuss the brief in the meantime, please call our Communications Team on 0113 322 7950.
