22 Oct Belgian Marketing Awards – Belgian Marketing Company of the Year: Eneco

A company with a completely transparent and highly ambitious sustainability mission can look all its stakeholders straight in the eye. Eneco, nominated for the Marketing Company of the Year Award, is such a company. And so the marketing team can go full steam ahead, through all kinds of collaborations and always in a consistent way.

‘Climate neutral in 2035’, ‘100% green electricity from home’: with Eneco’s mission in mind, the brand story almost writes itself. “The idea of sustainable energy from everyone is really in the DNA of our company,” says Head of Marketing Katrien Herwege. “Every decision we make as marketers, we check against the goal that drives Eneco – our ambitious One Planet Plan.” Achieving climate neutrality by 2035 across all three scopes is central to this. “Because if energy players do not take their responsibility, the North Sea will soon be flowing on our doorstep, here in Mechelen,” he says.

“With this dossier, we can definitely speak of purpose marketing,” says Walter Gelens (CEO BABM) through the Steering Committee that nominated Eneco for the Marketing Company of the Year Award. “In a highly competitive market with two dominant parties, they make the difference with an original, sustainability-based and consistently expressed offer.”

We do it now

The way Eneco handles the many sponsorship requests from all kinds of events is telling. “We always check whether the sustainable promises that are made are well-founded and accompanied by a genuine ambition to take big steps forward. For example, we are working with the Paradise City Festival, which wants to run 100% on renewable energy by 2025.”

But Katrien and her colleagues are also trying to instill a sense of urgency in consumers. “In our ‘We do it now’ campaign, everything comes together nicely. It indicates the need for quick action and also emphasizes the fact that everyone will have to do their bit. Eneco, politics, other companies, our partners, the customer … This is really a we story.”

The impact that consumers can bring about also lies in the direction in which the energy transition ideally evolves. “We need to move towards a DDS system – sustainable, decentralized, together,” says Public Relations Communication Manager of Eneco Mark Van Hamme. “In doing so, you also see consumers as producers, and vice versa. We’ve been including those emphases in our storyline since 2007.”

The customer experience is also central

Connecting the interests of the individual customer with the bigger picture, Katrien perceives as challenging yet far from impossible. “The message of sustainability is simply close to the customer today. Especially in the context of an energy crisis, people are really aware of the finite nature of certain energy sources. The realization that renewable energy is the future is clearly alive in society.”

Either way, Eneco does not forget the customer in its communications. Just by also focusing on the customer experience, the we story comes into its own nicely. ‘Together with our customers, we aim to be climate neutral in 2035. That’s why we are always there for you! We enthusiastically dedicate ourselves daily to support you with all your energy questions and plans,’ is not just prominently displayed on the website. Walter Gelens: “It’s inspiring to see how they get people on board with this story.”

Favorable indicators

Asked about the extent to which Eneco’s brand positioning is distinctive, Mark indicates that there are sometimes large discrepancies between words and deeds. “It’s no coincidence that we get such a high score from Greenpeace. What we claim to do, we also live up to.” Katrien joins her colleague with some insights from market research. “Consumers know what we stand for and see us as a forerunner in terms of sustainability and vision for the future. After all, those are important indicators.”

The marketing efforts are paying off, statistics show. “We saw our market share increase. At the same time, we were able to expand our customer base, in line with the predetermined ambitions.” But in terms of more traditional marketing KPIs, the stars are also aligning favorably. “Brand awareness and brand consideration improved significantly.”

Still, such results don’t say everything, it sounds. “Preeminently when it comes to sustainability, to me as a marketer you have an obligation to also look at KPIs that gauge the real impact of your campaigns – and thus also those on the climate. To mention just a few things: more than 100,000 people were able to dance to sustainable beats, we again collected more than five tons of waste with the Eneco Clean Beach Cup and were able to welcome 250 companies to the Green Energy Summit we organized.”

Award ceremony on 6 November

Given their great social impact and the consistent line they have been taking for years – purpose is even woven into their employer branding strategy – Eneco is confident that the Award will soon be coming their way. On November 6, we will know whether the jury feels the same way.

Register now for the ceremony of the Belgian Marketing Awards >