Captain Energy and Broadband Girl return in latest Trustpower TV campaign via Gunroom

Trustpower’s lovable cosplay characters, Captain Energy and Broadband Girl, have returned to screens in a new TVC, produced by its regular creative and production partnership of Gunroom and Robber’s Dog.

The latest commercial continues the theme that ‘Good things happen when power and broadband get together’, supporting Trustpower’s bundled utility offering.

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The characters were introduced in two TVCs during 2015, which told the story of their meeting at a cosplay convention and falling for each other over karaoke. Now we catch up with them a year later, and we meet some furry new additions to the family.

Says Carolyn Schofield, marketing communications manager, Trustpower: “We developed the characters of Captain Energy and Broadband Girl as a one-off creative execution to promote a specific broadband and power offer. However the response from the public to them has been fantastic and our research shows that over the last year they have become very recognisable as ‘Trustpower,’ so we are continuing with their story.”

Trustpower’s multi-utility positioning, where customers can sign up for bundles of power, broadband, phone and gas, is allowing the company to differentiate itself in sectors where competition is becoming more and more intense. This strategy is paying off as Trustpower is the only one of the top five power companies to have shown an overall increase in customer numbers over the last two years and to have also increased customer numbers every month for more than two years. They are also one of only three major companies worldwide to be bundling energy and telco services successfully.

The company’s activity over the past two years has also established Trustpower as a serious competitor to the major telcos.

Says Schofield: “Less than two and half years ago our own research was giving us consideration scores of 0% as a telco retailer in Auckland, but we now have over 60,000 phone and broadband customers nationally and during the last year we have been acquiring hundreds of new telco customers a week in the metro markets.

“At the beginning of 2015 around 20% of our new customers took a combined bundle of energy and broadband services.  Now around 80% of our new customers do.”

The campaign has launched with a 45s and 30s TVC for broadcast TV and online.  A further 30s and 15s will be introduced in the coming weeks to launch a new retail phone and broadband offer. The stars of the ad will also appear on billboards, bus backs and in online media. In addition a series of campaign extensions will be introduced over the coming weeks including short films featuring the puppies and behind the scenes footage.

Client: Carolyn Schofield, Marketing Communications Manager, Trustpower

Media: Independent Media NZ – Mark Reekie