Peninsula Clean Energy (PCE) is a community choice energy (CCE) program that purchases cleaner energy from renewable sources on behalf of its customers in San Mateo County. PCE began operations in October 2016 and offers many benefits to the community that it serves. The program benefits the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which also helps the state of California reach its short-term and long-term sustainable energy goals. Excess profits from PCE are reinvested in to the San Mateo County community in the form of energy efficiency projects and programs, which help boost the economy with the creation of new jobs. Consumers benefit through the power of choice, which allows for competitive and sometimes even lower electricity rates, and a more sustainable community.
PCE hired the Circlepoint team to create branding, graphic design, and web design development services in support of its launch. In addition to these services, Circlepoint developed a full marketing and communication plan to educate the public about the program. This included developing graphics and outreach materials, such as brochures, factsheets, flyers, PPT presentation templates, e-blast templates, and social media assets. We also created media ads, including multi-lingual ads, and coordinated the placement of these ads throughout the county. The development of the project messaging structure was dictated through focus group testing in four languages. We developed other assets for use across multiple mediums, like an animated Public Service Announcement to explain how PCE works and its benefits to the public, a photo and video shoot to gather testimonials from members of the community, and detailed tool kits for staff and other program supporters to use during grassroots outreach and marketing efforts. The campaign exceeded expectations on all fronts , including the program achieving an opt-out rate of 2% during the campaign’s run.
