ICF was recently honored with 18 major advertising awards for its marketing and engagement campaigns for utility clients, including eight DC American Advertising Awards (ADDYs), which recognize and reward the creative spirit of excellence in advertising, and 10 Tellys, which honor the best in television and video content.
The award-winning work was created by ICF Next, ICF’s integrated marketing and communications services group, in partnership with ICF’s commercial energy team.
In collaboration with long-standing client Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE), the ICF team created the “Fairy Tale”campaign, which alone won eight awards: one Gold and six Silver Tellys, plus one Silver ADDY. The campaign also won the Association of Energy Services Professionals’ Outstanding Achievement in Residential Marketing Award. The team used non-traditional, experiential “mood rooms” to test campaign messages and used a storytelling approach to show BGE customers how to save energy and money. In the first few months of the campaign, BGE saw a 100-plus percent increase in web traffic and new user conversions, and a 300-plus percent increase in its Smart Energy Savers Program participation martech news.
“We’ve worked with ICF since 2009 to implement our full portfolio of programs,” said Matt Buecker, marketing program manager for BGE. “The ICF team brings both incredible technical expertise in energy programs and creative engagement chops. They always come to the table with fresh ideas and these campaigns were no exception.”
In addition to the “Fairy Tale” campaign, the team created an augmented reality ad to show customers how choosing different LED lighting colors can completely change the look of a room, resulting in an additional Gold ADDY. The team also won six ADDYs for other work.
ICF scored an additional three Tellys, including one Silver and two Bronze, for campaigns for Con Edison, the energy company that serves New York City and Westchester County, N.Y.
