Client: Seeboard PLC

SEEBOARD is a regional electricity supplier facing the tremendous challenges of deregulation in the the electricity market. The majority of Seeboard's 4,500 employees are also Seeboard customers. It was imperative that they had confidence in Seeboard, not only as their employer, but as their supplier of electricity. They had to feel that Seeboard should be their power provider of choice - their first choice, the natural choice, the only choice so that they would be able to communicate this belief clearly to their customers.

It was perceived that if Seeboard people do not believe in their own company, if they were hunting around for the best offer or cheapest deal, could they really expect the customers they dealt with everyday to stay loyal to Seeboard? If Seeboard employees had any doubts about the changes and challenges ahead, doubts about the organisation, its products and strategy, were they best placed to promote Seeboard to its existing customers, let alone win new business and customers after deregulation?

Result:

Using an actor to play a fictional Seeboard employee SAND Pictures collaborated with Seeboard to create an up-beat, motivational and dynamic short 10 minute film in which all the questions that were being asked at that time were answered directly and clearly by real Seeboard employees filmed on location around the organisation.

The answers were informal, friendly and reassuring. But above all they were believable, because they came from real Seeboard people in their own words. A contract fitter put in a word for pricing; a jointer explained that if you are a Seeboard customer you don't have to worry about signing any new agreement. This question and answer approach gave the Seeboard audience the feeling that the whole company is going in the same direction and all areas of the business are on the same track.

The overall effect gave confidence to Seeboard employees so that they were fully informed about deregulation and the Challenge '98 programme. They were onboard both as employees and as customers; ready to answer any questions that other customers, potential customers, friends, neighbours and even other employees might have.

Seeboard has now managed a smooth transition to deregulation and is currently expanding it's customer base outside it's traditional south-eastern region.