Power2Switch is a marketing and sales company supported by technology. We just play in an industry that most other people don’t, the electricity industry. Along with simplifying the complex world of supplier rates, we have to educate consumers about the nuances of deregulation. And we also have to sell this to as many people as possible. To do this we now have to translate the fears we’ve heard from our thousands of customers into compelling advertisements. And this is where it gets hairy for me personally…
I don’t consider myself creative. But sitting in a room with Phil and Alexa, mulling ad ideas and finding compelling ad images brought out some of the creativity lurking deep (very deep) within. I downloaded Penultimate and sketched some of the ideas on my commute home that day. I share and explain the ‘sparks of inspiration’ that we will no longer be using below (I use the word ‘inspiration’ loosely). And I also share the real point of this post below the images as you will start seeing our ads everywhere in a few weeks!
Who doesn’t think clowns are scary (Stephen King’s “It’ anyone?). This ad sketch plays off the negative space design of our new logo in highlighting our customers’ fears. It says ‘. Scary/Clowns, Not Scary/Switching suppliers, go to Power2Switch’
This one says: What’s scary/death, what is not scary, switching suppliers with Power2switch’
The next set of sketches highlight everyone’s ability to control their electricity bill.
‘What you can’t control/Time, what you can control/your electricity bill. Compare and Save at Power2Switch.com’ and the one below ‘What you can’t control/Children, what you can control/Reducing your electricity costs. Compare at Power2Switch’.
And what would ads for the Chicago market be without some cultural references placed in ‘odd’ circumstances…The one below is of ‘The Bean/Cloud Gate’ and it says ‘Electricity bills giving you indigestion? Compare prices and save at Power2Switch’.
And this one is of ‘the Marina City/Corn Cobs’ and it says ‘Electricity bills eating into your fun? Compare prices and save at Power2Switch’. Look out for our ads coming out soon. They will be everywhere because anyone can compare rates between many suppliers and switch to lower electricity prices through Power2Switch.
What’s the main point of this post? It’s that we recognize that we (as a business and as people building businesses in Chicago) only move forward if we move beyond the things we are most uncomfortable with. It’s lack of creativity in my case but it could as well be your fear of investing in that lady who’s never started a business before but has the fire in her belly or doing business development for an app company when all you’ve done in your life is B2B sales for big pharma. Just do it and get over those fears. You're bound to grow from doing it.
At Power2Switch (with the help of an amazing board/investors and even more amazing customers) we’ve become adept at doing things very quickly, shipping in good time and at high quality. And learning very quickly and moving beyond our comfort zone everyday. And we are still learning. As a company we are only as good as what we are putting out every day. We cannot do everything but the things we choose to do we will do well. It’s really hard work but we enjoy it. And we are loving that we are doing it in Chicago.
https://power2switch.com/weblog/2012/02/whats-scary-v-whats-not-scary-and-other-ideas/
