Public services always have a choice, especially at a time like this when, in Britain anyway, trust is in short measure and many people don’t think they work at all. They can put their best foot forward or keep quiet and hope to stay under the radar.
The UK’s National Grid is something you don’t hear much about – except when the lights go out and all hell breaks loose. The prospect of energy shortages is real though, not least through digital transformation and its newest manifestation AI. The latter means more giant servers competing with everyone else for expensive energy.
So the National Grid has reappointed M+C Saatchi to its across-the-board account covering strategy, creative, social, PR and influencer. (One might query what influencers should have to do with it.)
The National Grid says this will build on last year’s “Great grid upgrade” work with a focus on tackling (so-called) misinformation and building public support for the grid upgrades to help deliver net zero targets.
And there’s the rub. The communities affected are less than thrilled about having giant wind farms and solar energy installations plonked next door to them. The country at large is sceptical about Ed Miliband’s £22bn Net Zero budget which some (including Donald Trump) say is forcing up prices as well as adding to the already record-breaking British tax burden.
Phil Edmonds, strategic campaigns lead at the National Grid, says it was looking for a partner that “truly understood the complexity of (its) challenge” in terms of infrastructure and how people feel. “M+C Saatchi Group UK brought fresh, innovative thinking rooted in what communities genuinely care about. Their independent, agile approach really stood out and gave us confidence they could help us engage people in a meaningful and authentic way.”
M+C (formerly M&C) has made something of a speciality of these tricky quasi-governmental tasks over the years, stemming, perhaps, from its ancient affiliation to Mrs Thatcher’s Tory party. UK group CEO Jo Bacon says: “Cultural power (M+C’s current mantra) is about shaping conversations that matter – and this work does exactly that. It’s a chance to connect with people on their terms, reflect local realities and show how the energy transition can bring real benefits to real communities.”
As we noted, tricky.
