Campaign of the Year

How Tri-State Generation and Transmission’s massive marketing blitz heightened awareness and cemented partnerships

Its marketing campaign helped lower negative sentiment by 300%, and has been crowned “Grand Prize: Digital Marketing Campaign of the Year” at PR Daily’s 2020 Digital Marketing & Social Media Awards.

Better Together - Logo - https://s41078.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Tri-State_Campaign-of-the-Year-scaled.jpg

Power companies often operate under the radar, quietly providing and maintaining the electricity that sustains our lives and livelihoods. 

Tri-State Generation and Transmission, a not-for-profit power supply cooperative of 46 members that delivers electricity to more than a million consumers across the West, wanted to learn how it was perceived and how it might better communicate with its target audiences. So, Tri-State’s creative team launched its “Brighter, Stronger, Better Together” marketing campaign.

With goals of generating 50 million impressions and boosting website traffic by 100%–not to mention including distinct, location-specific branding for scores of its co-op members—the campaign began with a thorough, four-phases analysis including:

  1. An audit of media mentions occurring over the last three months.
  2. A competitive analysis designed to analyze how other utilities are positioned.
  3. Research examining its current share of voice.
  4. A measurement of social media sentiment scores.

Flush with fresh data-fueled direction, Tri-State went on to create more than 350 print ads, 120 versions of broadcast commercials for television and the web, more than 40 radio spots, and 39 custom, location-specific landing pages for 39 of its co-op members. The 12-week campaign also included editorials, earned media coverage, community outreach events and sponsorships.

In addition to successfully collaborating with more than 90% of its members, Tri-State soared past its goal for impressions in digital, broadcast, radio, print and on social media. Social media engagement rose by 61%, positive sentiment shot up by 25% and negative sentiment dropped by more than 300%. Tri-State also reports that the company has doubled the amount of events it co-brands with co-op members.

View More Digital PR Social Media Awards 2020 Winners.

Visit Ragan.com/Awards to learn more about awards opportunities.