Investor-Owned Utility

Expanding Awareness of Energy-Saving Resources Across Colorado

By combining practical energy education with a targeted contributed-content strategy, Linhart helped a natural gas utility reach customers across its territory, increasing awareness of energy-saving behaviors and bill-payment assistance resources. The campaign generated statewide visibility, broad message penetration and meaningful customer engagement without a paid media investment.

Challenge

A Colorado natural gas utility serving approximately 200,000 customers wanted to help customers better understand how energy use affects monthly bills and provide resources to manage household energy costs. Reaching customers efficiently presented a challenge. The utility's service territory spans communities across the state, many located outside major media markets where traditional outreach can be more difficult and expensive.

The company needed a cost-effective way to deliver consistent, educational messaging at scale while ensuring customers knew where to find available energy-efficiency and bill-payment assistance programs.

Strategy

Linhart developed a contributed-content strategy designed to maximize message control, geographic reach and customer relevance. Rather than relying on a paid campaign, the approach leveraged trusted local media outlets to deliver practical information directly to customers where they live and work.

The strategy focused on two business priorities: helping customers better manage energy consumption and increasing awareness of financial assistance resources available through the utility and state programs.

Execution

Linhart partnered with the utility's community affairs team to create a series of educational articles focused on:

Practical energy-efficiency and energy-conservation tips
Ways customers can reduce energy use at home
Bill-payment assistance resources and support programs

Linhart then executed a statewide media relations effort, placing contributed articles and opinion content in local and regional newspapers throughout the utility's service territory.

Gold Pick Award from PRSA Colorado

Print and online placements across Colorado

2/3

of outlets published multiple articles, extending message

Results

Secured contributed-content placements in 92% of the utility's larger service-area communities, surpassing the original goal
Generated 82 print and online placements across Colorado
Reached more than 3 million readers within the utility's natural gas service territories
Nearly two-thirds of participating outlets published multiple articles, extending message exposure and reinforcement
13% of outlets published all three articles, increasing audience frequency and reach
Drove direct customer engagement, with the utility receiving calls from customers expressing appreciation for the energy-saving guidance and resource information shared through the campaig

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