Case Study: Silver Spring Networks

Silver Spring Networks

Silver Spring Networks provides smart grid products to utilities, including communications devices and software to improve energy efficiency. A key player in emerging smart grid initiatives with its utility partners, Silver Spring Networks became concerned about public perceptions around smart grid and smart meter issues – particularly in California. The company looked to us as its communications team to develop an engagement strategy that would educate communities on the safety and benefits of smart grid management. 

What we did

We produced high-level marketing events, such as the Smart Grid Symposium, and recruited the heads of marketing from the country’s leading utilities, with average attendance of 20-30 at our quarterly member meetings, including Florida Light & Power, PG&E, COMED and others. Blue Practice managed all program speakers, invitations and managed a high-level speakers series for our attendees. 

Partnered with sister agency Finn Partners, Blue Practice created the “Connect. Transform.” campaign, which was designed to raise awareness of the smart grid through curriculum materials and community events, strengthen the company’s relationships with utility partners, and reinforce its position as a market leader. What could have been perceived as an abstract, complex subject out of reach for the average consumer became rooted as a vital educational initiative.

The Smart Energy Future curriculum was successfully taught at 17 schools in California and Ohio, with the support and participation of utility partners PG&E, SMUD and AEP Ohio, reaching more than 500 students. The launch in Granville, OH was featured in a New York Times front page Business Day story, resulting in 16M views online and more than 900,000 hard-copy impressions. Silver Spring Networks also created www.asmartenergyfuture.com to enhance the curriculum and provide additional free resources.  

Our mommy blogger influencer events yielded more than 335,000 impressions through 30 articles and social media.  

A smart grid educational brochure was distributed to 500 national religious leaders at the NCC annual conference in New Orleans November 2010. In June, Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell’s op-ed on the smart grid was published by The Huffington Post, which reaches more than eight million readers daily. Within Y1, the @GetGridInfo Twitter handle generated more than 8,000 impressions and added 1,000+ followers.

The “Connect. Transform.” campaign won PR News’ CSR Award 2012 “Honoring the Best in CSR.”