AGL puts sustainability and digital experience at the forefront in brand refresh
Energy giant AGL has refreshed its brand and launched a new campaign drawing a line in the sand over sustainable energy supply, pledging to end its reliance on coal.
The campaign is the first work since the architect of NAB’s award winning Break Up Campaign, Sandra de Castro, joined the company in November.
The Cannes Grand Prix winning break up campaign had a massive impact on setting NAB apart from its rivals in a market with little differentiation and de Castro told Mumbrella AGL was faced with a similar challenge.
AGL has refreshed its logo with a new stylised “gas burner” and adopted sustainability and digital user experiences as the core of its message.
The campaign is the first consumer expression of the brand’s commitment to ending its reliance on coal starting in 2022 and aimed for completion by 2050.
A 45-second ad anchoring the sustainability push opens with a man admitting the sector needs a shift.
“Let’s be honest, things need to change,” he says.
“So at AGL we are getting out of coal.”
He goes on to talk about the staged approach to the withdrawal saying: “We can’t just switch off today or things won’t switch on tomorrow.”
The ad goes on to promote a $3b fund to make renewable energy affordable for everyone and the fact AGL runs Australia’s largest solar and wind farms
De Castro said the strategy was aimed at making AGL stand out in a sector where brands were largely invisible to consumers with a focus on control, convenience and affordability.
“We have done a lot of customer research and probably the big line is there really is a sense in all energy brands that they don’t see them,” de Castro said.
“With customers we are invisible. We need to embark on a journey on sustainability.
Sandra de Castro
Along with the launch of the campaign over thew weekend customers will get their first exposure to the new brand identity when they receive their bills. The AGL website has also had a complete refresh.
De Castro said AGL was setting out to engage with consumers on a new level and explain its plans for the future in a way that mattered to them.
In a bid to get better engagement with the brand and its new direction, the first ad in the campaign ends with the question “Are you with us?”
The push will include driving people to use an array of digital assets created for the energy company including a unique phone app that shows energy use in a customer’s home and predicts what their monthly bill might be.
AGL is the first and only major energy company to boast a mobile app and is also the largest owner and operator of renewable energy generation facilities outside the government.
The campaign will continue to develop over the coming months with new ads brought into rotation focussing on getting connected when moving house and electric cars.
Credits:
Client: AGL
Sandra de Castro – GM Sales & Marketing
Andrew Wynne – Head of Marketing
Caroline Ruddick – Acting Head of Marketing
Nicole Lyons – Brand Strategy & Sponsorship Manager
Mitchell Lawson – Brand Manager
Creative & Media: McCann Melbourne
Executive Creative Director: Matt Lawson
Creative Director: Nicole Mandile
Creative Team: Charles Baylis & Matt Lawson
Copywriters: Charles Baylis, Aaron Bethune
Art Directors: Adam Fitness, Corey Thorn, Victoria U
Senior Designer: Dave Budd
Managing Director: Adrian Mills
Group Account Director: Richard Hayes
Senior Account Manager: Henri Leon
Head of Strategy & Media: David Phillips
Digital Director: Tony Prysten
Social Director: Chris Baker
Head of Production: Victoria Connors
Media Director: – Jane Walshe
Media Account Director: – Emma Black
Digital Account Director – Sam Enshaw
Production Company – Goodoil Films
Director: Uncle Friendly
Executive Producer: Simon Thomas
Producer: Andrew McLean
DOP: Danny Ruhlman
Production Designer: Lucinda Thompson
Post Production
Editor: Tim Parrington – The Butchery
Colorist: CJ Dobson
Online: Eugene Richards – The Refinery
Producer: Kate Guest
Music: Sonar
Composer: Antony Partos
Producer: Sophie Haydon
Sound: Flagstaff
Engineer: Paul Le Couture
Producer: Sal Macmanus
Principals
Tim Riches – Group Strategy Director
Simon Wright – Executive creative director
Darren Swain – Creative director
Agus Wijaya – Designer
Carolina Relander – Designer
Jhon Riano – Motion Graphics Designer
Jamie Cullen – Digital Designer
Bridget Ashley – Account Director
Melissa Dale – General Manager
“The architect of Break Up”.
Break Up happened despite Sandra, but don’t let that get in the way of a good story.
Isn’t it ironic that they’ve chosen a fossil fuel to be part of the logo when the focus is on sustainability and renewables…?
Appropriating the success of NAB Break Up to this is shameful marketing. I’m sure the agency and all others involved are cringing.
It also begs the question, why no agency quotes or reference?
Perhaps because one campaign came from deep cultural understanding and creative prowess, whereas the other is generic category wallpaper?
It’s like my upturned left hand ….fingers of gas and palm of coal….
“Architect of NAB’s award winning Break Up Campaign, Sandra de Castro.” Says Sandra de Castro, who is still writing her own press releases.
This is category generic wall-paper.
So how’s that ‘break up’ thing going?
Been a while since someone referenced that one as a personal triumph.
You might need to refresh a few memories on that one…
Sorry, is this article about Sandra, nab or AGL? I’m confused.
Wouldn’t it be fascinating to see what happens when a company doesn’t change it brand and strategy like underwear, when a company doesn’t treat customers like pawns on a chessboard and is actually honest about its true purpose?
Why not be the first company to get rid of the ‘discount’ on your energy rates bullshit?
Get rid of ‘market rates’, get rid of disclaimers.
Make it simple, make it clear, and stop playing the old mobile plan game of cost and usage algebra obfuscation.
Why not actually change the game?
Why not do more than just say you’re different?
Why not do something tangible so that customers see a real benefit and a real difference?
To quote John Kennedy Snr (one of Hawthorns other great coaches) – “Do. Don’t think. Do something.Do.”
It’s time to break up with the other energy retailers Sandra.
Maybe you could tailor energy to their needs, or tell them AGL is more than energy?
Are you with me?
I work for one of the agencies involved – it is a really clever logo. Inspiration is a hand (control energy from an app), that animates into all types of energy sources – solar, wind, water, and yes fossil fuels too. It is a nod to digitization and power in consumers hands.
Oh dear. That logo is terrible! Who signed off on that?
Ok I didn’t like nab break up. But it happened.
Let’s be honest that ad sucks. Way to go AGL for joining the 21st century and giving customers a mobile app. I guess for a dinosaur like AGL this is big news.
Wow, this rebrand stinks. I actually liked the old logo. It had a nice presence to it. This new one feels so light and pissweak.
What a bad joke.
Everything behind the new branding is great. The logo is just terrible. I get the concept of the hand but the font chosen to support it does not pair very well.
https://www.facebook.com/350.orgAustralia/videos/1385528948178864/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=actionkit
Spin any way you like AGL
Making sustainable energy affordable? By getting huge Government handouts from taxpayers? You have to do more than provide a pretty ad, AGL has been ripping of customers, private and business and our environment for too long.
Until AGL genuinely and completely move out of unsustainable and environmentally damaging coal, and coal seam gas, few will be genuinely impressed.
This is it. Well said.
I work with the AGL brand through my workplace. The logo only works when it’s got the new brand fully behind it. As a stand alone brandmark it is very poor and gets overrun by any surrounding elements. It’s currently getting torn apart during the brand transition.
How do you mean Waz?
I stood in front of the agl building today and remarked at what a poor cheap looking rebrand this was. Digitally the font if reduced would be lost due to the type weight. And the gradient fingers / flames / failures whatever you call them are amateur. Something representive of a student or first year graduates work. It has little design sensibility. Lipstick on a pig.
Joe have you actually seen the old brand in the lock up with Energy in Action? It is recessive branding – really bad
Totally agree Joe. One of the weakest logos I’ve ever seen. Sandra would have been better off designing the brand herself in MS Paint and pocketing a big bonus!
What a load of garbage. So as a nation we are selling huge amounts of coal for other nations to use, but companies like these jokers are getting out of coal…net difference to global pollution…zero!! Net cost to Australian consumers…blank cheque to these poodle fakers. This ad and it’s entire premise is offensive.
Who is the actor in the ad?
totally with you. me and you all the way.
Very well put sir!
Changing a logo means little. Actions have always spoken louder than words and now ‘the people’ have social media. Start doing stuff that wows the people and they will sell your product for you. It is really as simple as that.
This logo is obviously designed by a print designer with little understanding of the digital sphere.
Look at its implementation on digital devices, it is in effect smaller.
Look at how it appears on mobile it’s tiny and look at the desktop version for how the banner of the website has to make way for it.
This is why marketing and print branding experts should be kept at arms length from digital.
Ausnet Services has already launched an app which gives real time powe usage and bill forecasts. Behind the times ‘AGL’, ops I meant ‘agl’.
Facebook is a fantastic place to post pictures of your
customers together with you in the office.
Google has a different form of energy that extends well beyond how marketers behave on .
These reports is going to be open to Ad words users within the following weeks;
however advertisers (Google’s customers) must have Ad – Words Conversion Tracking enabled.