• by Aaron Baar , February 7, 2011

Having successfully convinced Philadelphia-area consumers to change to energy-efficient light bulbs and appliances in a campaign last year, PECO, the area's electric utility and a division of Exelon Corp., is now going after even bigger targets: air conditioners and furnaces.

"Having gotten such great results, we decided to up the ante so they could do even more," Joshua Torrisi, vice president and account director at Tierney, the Philadelphia-based advertising agency behind the campaign, tells Marketing Daily.

Just as the previous campaign positioned the older appliances and light bulbs as energy-efficient "ogres," the second-year effort from Tierney in Philadelphia does the same for furnaces and air-conditioners. In one spot, running now, a heating vent wheezes, coughs and belches dust as a man tries to read his mail. A voiceover explains that replacing an old HVAC system could result in a $400 rebate from PECO.

"People don't like to replace these things because it's a big-ticket item," says Tierney COO Molly Watson. "But 40% of [a customer's] average utility bill goes toward heating and cooling. The HVAC system is working too hard."

PECO is working under year two of a state law that mandates that utilities reduce their kilowatt-hour usage by 2013. While last year's program was successful, exceeding expectations for people to switch from old, energy consuming appliances to newer energy-efficient ones ("We had to pull the dishwasher commercial off the air," Torrisi says) and replacing their light bulbs, this year it was time to go after the bigger energy users, Torrisi says. That includes targeting businesses for the first time with a separate campaign.

"With targeted radio and online, we're encouraging people to take old, inefficient lighting systems out," he says. "Lighting can account for 30-60% of a business' energy costs."

The furnace-focused ads will run during the remainder of the cold-weather months, and will be replaced by ones that focus on air conditioners (featuring a smarmy, flirtatious condenser) in the summer. The heating spots will return in the fall, Torrisi says.

In addition to the television commercials, the campaign includes radio, outdoor and a heavy search-marketing elements, Torrisi says. "Whenever someone is looking to do one of these high-impact upgrades, they're going online and they're searching for it," he says. "We want to make sure we're front and center."