Title	THE ELECTRIC SAGA
Brand	EDF
Product/Service	EDF CONSUMER SERVICES
Entrant Company	HAVAS WORLDWIDE PARIS, FRANCE
Advertising Agency	HAVAS WORLDWIDE PARIS, FRANCE
Production Company	4 MECS EN BASKETS PARIS, FRANCE

Name	Company	Position
Christophe Coffre	Havas Worldwide Paris	Chief Creative Officer
Guillaume Blanc	Havas Worldwide Paris	Copywriter
Florian Roussel	Havas Worldwide Paris	Art Director
Virginie Meldener	Havas Worldwide Paris	Agency Tv Producer
Eric Judor	4 Mecs En Basket	Director
Luc Bourdarias	4 Mecs En Basket	Producer
François Brun	Quad	Producer

Brief Explanation

Today, people consume electricity but not the EDF brand. Worse still, when they think about their supplier, it’s only when they have to: paying their bills, taking a meter reading, moving house and so on… So in order to encourage a relationship with the brand that is more frequent and more positive, we chose to present EDF in a way that it had never been before: EDF, a service provider that helps you manage your daily electricity needs more effectively.

The Campaign

Today, people consume electricity but not the EDF brand. Worse still, when they think about their supplier, it’s only when they have to : paying their bills, taking a meter reading, moving house and their energy contract. So in order to encourage interaction with the brand that is more frequent and more positive, we had to do more than just a campaign about electricity or just a one-shot media campaign. We chose to present EDF in a way that had never seen before: EDF, a service provider that helps you manage your daily electricity needs more effectively. And as we sought to integrate the brand into everyday life and to be closer to people, we chose a familiar format that everyone knows: The TV series. With Eric Judor, a famous comedian and actor in France, we extended the TV series Platane (A kind of French “Curb Your Enthusiasm”) by 14 new episodes plus additional content for EDF. Electric: the first advertising TV spin-off in France of a successful series, Platane.

Creative Execution

With the media team, we created a strategy worthy of the launch of the greatest of TV series. How? - By establishing a meeting-point on TV with the launch of a new episode of ELECTRIC every week. - With a broadcast schedule interlaced with a global planetary event: The 2014 Football World Cup. Every week 16 million French people came together around their TVs and discovered a new episode of ELECTRIC in an event format. - With a broadcast on Twitter, and a tactical targeting of supporters via hashtag (#BREMEX for the Brazil-Mexico match, etc…) - By forging an exclusive media partnership with Allociné, the main cinema web platform in France, to reference and highlight ELECTRIC in amongst all the other TV blockbusters. - And with a strategy of “un-lockable” bonus content every week on the electric.edf.fr mini-site.

ELECTRIC experienced unprecedented success: 26 million views on the web for the first 7 episodes and 88% approval by French viewers, regardless of age. And we achieved the same scores in the overall impact of the campaign: 46% retention (vs. an average of 27%), 33% increase in recall after exposure (vs. an average of 14%) and again, a 13% increase in proven score after exposure (vs. a norm of 5%). The sales plan was equally successful: EDF has become the Number 2 brand for gas in France, having surpassed a million clients (one of its long term goals). All of its services received a boost: 85% awareness for at least one of the services promoted via the campaign, 80% of French viewers expressing desire to know more and 75% expressing eagerness for the next chapter. Which is great news considering that there are 6 new episodes to come in 2015.