Want Energy Efficiency Education to Reach Your Customers? Better Be Using New Media.

Some interesting insights about the media consumption habits of GenZ and Millennials from the Banking industry have implications for reaching these upcoming customers about energy efficiency.  According to this Insider Intelligence Chart of the Day, these generations of customers get their news about banking primarily online (no surprise), but the outlets may surprise us.

I’m not sure I approve of getting banking advice from TikTok, but I’m an old GenX who still reads ACTUAL news papers and magazines.  This eMarketer data tells us that reaching the next generation with education about energy efficiency, EV charging, renewables, or virtually any new utility program requires new media channels, especially YouTube and TikTok.  Short videos, animation, and infographics with voice-over to convey direct insights on important energy and efficiency topics will resonate best for these generation of customers through these channels.  If you haven’t already created a YouTube channel for your utility and started experimenting with TikTok, what’s stopping you?  Your customers are already on these channels, often to the exclusion of your traditional channels of email, apps and websites. 

Not sure this media shift is permanent?  I recall conversations with cable executives in 2013 during the period when cord-cutting started to ramp up as some of the premium channels started offering streaming media direct to consumer in response to Netflix.  Old media scribes expressed certainty that media consumption habits of Millennials would look more like their parents’ habits once those Millennials bought homes and started families.  Cord-cutting only accelerated with the percentage of households with a cable TV subscription dropping from 73% in 2017 to just 46% today.  As the chart above indicates, media landscapes have shifted and show no evidence of returning to legacy channels for the next generations.  Utilities will need time to build expertise in these new channels and formats and should start now to adapt outreach, education and engagement programs for the new short-format video and animation format that exploded on platforms like YouTube, Tik Tok, Facebook and Instagram.

Success with social media and new formats takes time and new sets of skills, so start now, find a great partner to help, and measure everything to be sure you learn how customers respond to your new campaigns.