Inspiring Consumers and the Supply Chain

The Switch is On is a comprehensive one-stop shop consumer marketing campaign with demonstrated success in California. Launched in 2019 by the Building Decarbonization Coalition (BDC), the Switch is On campaign educates, inspires, and makes the home electrification switching journey easier for communities, contractors, and all those who live and work in buildings. This webinar will present the success and collaborative partnership model of our statewide California campaign; highlight new tools and developments; and explore the exciting future and expansion of  BDC’s consumer inspiration campaigns.

Resources:

Slides: BDC Presents: Inspiring Consumers and the Supply Chain

• • Youtube Recording: https://youtu.be/LJFtQY1y0NU 
  • Next BDC Presents: Unlocking the Power of Thermal Energy Networks December 14th 10am PT/1 pm ET, Register HERE!
  • California Policy Call: December 19 at 10am PT/ 1pm ET, Register HERE!

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Key Takeaways

• The home electrification journey is long so it requires awareness and buy-in to complete the process. Often, this process is only completed by early adopters (3-5% of the market). SIO’s goal, developed after extensive market evaluation, is to help transform the market and encourage home electrification.

Building a Campaign 

• Requires multiple touchpoints with users using the same message and the campaign must be honest and helpful. SIO created this layered consistent messaging through three major mediums:
  • First, SIO focused on creating a strong website that houses all information including an incentive finder (with 70 programs and 300 incentives) and a contractor directory (1,200 contractors) that has 1000+ daily visitors.
  • Second, SIO developed strong partnerships with community members (500 ambassadors with over 100 events annually) and with industry champions such as energy providers, chefs, and manufacturers, etc.
    • Since these partners have trusted roles in their local communities this helps further reach and impact SIO’s collective messaging and call to actions
  • Third, SIO uses the media to extend its message seeing up to 26% statistically significant lift across awareness, favorability, and perceptions
    • To maximize marketing effectiveness, use existing intelligence and data to more effectively engage relevant switchers such as utility meter data.
• Measure the Impact
  • SIO’s goal is not to sell nor to market specific products, it is to: increase awareness of home electrification, develop favorability for electric homes, and influence current perceptions of electric homes so quantifying these correctly is critical for understanding success rates.

How to Tell the Story

• • Home electrification comes with many benefits including lifestyle benefits, but to share these benefits, the content needs to tell a compelling story. 

• Keep the message simple. SIO: Electric is Better: Cleaner, Safer, Smarter

• • • • For SIO content, there is an 84% completion rate compared to the average rate of 60%
    • Create content in many different formats. 
      • SIO currently has videos, a newsletter, a blog, and stories and testimonials. SIO has especially seen positive impacts from 15 and 30-second videos. 

• Get into the community

• • • Friends, family, neighbors and chefs are the most trusted messengers of all
    • Ambassadors are also key for SIO because they are users that provide real experiences to the process of home electrification and also table at events

What’s currently on SIO and what will SIO add?

• SIO has 3 main finders, but the website is designed to be localized to help consumers make the switch.
  • Contractor Finder: Uplift and promote quality contractors
    • Start with select trusted contractors to build trust 
      • Contractors are vetted to ensure quality including online reviews, customer reviews, responsiveness, etc.
    • Build quantity over time, areas with a lot of contractors see prices reduce
  • Product Finder: catalog of rebate-eligible electric appliances
    • Coming soon! The idea is to help contractors find products that are rebate-eligible through the appliance model number. 
  • Incentive Finder: reliable, comprehensive rebate data. Open data to foster more innovative solutions. 
    • Currently, houses over 300 incentives and 70 programs
    • 2024 roadmap, adding: additional product categories including solar, batteries, etc., improve incentive stacking and eligibility, and integration into website user strategy. 
• NODE Collective 
  • There are thousands of programs and incentive data throughout the U.S. that are fragmented and keeping it up to date and accessible in a meaningful way is difficult. The National Open Data for Electrification (NODE) Collective seeks to solve that issue by taking a collective approach to establish a trustworthy database that is maintained by several groups. 

5 main takeaways

• To reach beyond early adopters, you need a trusted messenger program
• Message consistency across all local partners is key
• Start small, get good, then go big
• Prime both sides of the transaction (customers and contractors)
• You are running a statewide campaign and a network of local campaigns

Q & A 

• Can there be a national income qualifier built into the Switch is On?  I’m sure all local agencies could use a national qualifier to validate income and reduce the personal information like pay stubs being passed around.  This would emphasize equity.

• The Switch is On will have ways to tell customers if they qualify for a rebate, but on the national level this might not be feasible in the near term. Eligibility often varies based on the state and the way eligibility is verified also often varies so there is no one-stop shop for certification.   

• How can these programs be used by government partners?

• Contact us at contact@switchison.org! 

• For NODE Collective, can you explain how other organizations might use this data?

• NODE Collective was made because currently a lot of organizations are working on finding this information, but there is no single source of truth. NODE Collective was made to be the single source of truth that is correct and up-to-date to provide the best information for all parties.
• For organizations to use this data, we will have an API (application program interface) that allows any organization to retrieve incentive data. From there, there are many ways organizations can use the data. For example, a manufacturer can use this information to calculate the actual cost of products for customers or organizations can analyze the costs and prices of these products to better understand the true cost of a particular product.

• Out of curiosity, are there states or regions in the United States that have been a challenge to get data from?

• Incentive data: yes, if you go to NODECollective.org, states are color-coded based on the level of coverage we have (good, better, and best). Of the top of my mind, no specific states or areas come to mind but it is difficult to get this data due to the fragmented state of it.

• Can you share more about the ambassador program and the reach it has?

• Our ambassador program is incredibly important because we need to have the right messengers and the right message (how does building decarbonization translate in other languages?). Across our ambassadors, there are 7 different languages spoken. This allows us to expand our reach and ensure that our message is getting out correctly in different languages.
• Ambassadors are also empowered to share their stories and SIO’s message through tabling at farmers' markets and other events. BDC acts as a middle man to help connect the events to the ambassadors. Currently, ambassadors are primarily based in the San Francisco Bay Area but BDC is working hard to build a foundation in central California and Southern California to expand the ambassador program. 

If other states are interested in hearing more about our program, please contact us: contact@switchison.org