A Bullfrog Power customer since 2006, Top Drawer Creative is the new creative agency for the green energy provider. The Toronto agency was awarded the assignment following a formal review that involved four other undisclosed agencies.
Speaking with Marketing this morning, Top Drawer president and CEO Howard Chang said his agency’s work will be focused on growing Bullfrog’s residential customer base.
Chang said while Bullfrog has been “extremely strong” in developing the B2B side of its business—the company currently has more than 1,000 corporate clients—Top Drawer will work to refine and enhance its consumer marketing.
Chang said Top Drawer’s experience with consumer-facing brands like Calloway Golf, along with retailers including Golf Town and Fitness Depot, was a key factor in the account win.
“I think they continue to look at growing that residential space,” he said. “And I think one of the reasons our agency really resonated with them is not only are we aligned from a values point of view, but because of our retail background and our consumer marketing for clients like Calloway they saw we could be a real asset for that side of their business.”
Top Drawer’s first campaign for Bullfrog will launch within the next three weeks. “We literally jumped in with both feet,” he said.
The campaign will include digital, social media, direct mail and a modest amount of what Chang called behavioural marketing. He wouldn’t disclose details of the creative strategy, but said it will represent a “pretty significant change in direction” for the company.
The campaign will yield what Chang called a “refinement of [Bullfrog’s] brand expression.”
Bullfrog Power customers tend to fall into two camps, he said: diehard green advocates who are both politically and cause aware, and a second group comprised of “light” green consumers who are not as deeply connected with the brand.
“We’re not doing a 180-degree shift; turning a brand around is like turning a tanker…but I think we’re doing a moderate change that will really be significant for the diehards. For the people that are moderately associated with the brand, I don’t think it’s going to come across as anything major.”
Bullfrog has traditionally relied on a combination of e-mail marketing, industry publications, events and social media outreach for its consumer marketing, said Chang.
While Top Drawer will provide Bullfrog with best practices on reaching consumers via those, Chang said his agency also tends to get “deeply involved” with its clients’ business, providing counsel on everything from operations to product development.
“It’s not just simply ‘Here’s the brief, now you guys execute it.’ We’re helping them craft the proposition,” he said.
Chang said there has been a “quieting” of the discussion around the green movement in recent months, which means that companies such as Bullfrog face an even greater challenge in getting consumer buy-in around their proposition. “They not only have to talk about their brand, they have to talk about the larger movement,” said Chang.
