Eleven Miles
Increasing national awareness of carbon monoxide and the Priority Services Register (PSR)
Our project at a glance
- Participating GDNs: Cadent, Northern Gas Networks, SGN and Wales & West Utilities
- Strategic priority area: Carbon monoxide awareness
- Support target: 56 million households over three years
- Duration: April 2023 to March 2026
- Investment: £1,000,000 over three years
- Forecast SROI: £120.42
Why we’re working together
As a gas distribution network, we have a responsibility to raise awareness of carbon monoxide and help protect our communities from CO harm.
As part of our extensive efforts to protect the communities we serve, we’re collaborating with Britain’s three other gas networks on a bi-annual awareness-raising campaign.
While there may be regional variations in gas appliance ownership, customer demographics and customer vulnerabilities, the key messaging on CO safety and the national gas emergency service remains consistent nationwide.
As well as raising awareness of CO, we want to raise awareness of the Priority Services Register and the benefits that signing up for this free service can bring to vulnerable households. It’s estimated that approximately 6 million customers nationwide who are eligible for the PSR are not registered.
Together with the other gas networks, we’re delivering a national holistic marketing campaign to raise awareness of carbon monoxide, the national gas emergency service number and the PSR. Our biannual campaign, running each summer and winter until 2026, is being delivered on our behalf by marketing agency Eleven Miles.
Project objectives
- Raising awareness of carbon monoxide and the PSR through mass-reaching channels
- Educating audiences on CO safety and the PSR by developing a consistent channel presence
- Encouraging action by using targeted, contextual and agile channels and messages around CO safety, PSR registration and the national gas emergency number
How we’re working together
Multi-channel awareness-raising campaign
Our annual CO and PSR awareness-raising campaign adopts a multi-channel approach to share information. Ahead of each campaign, we’ll review and determine the most effective channels to engage our target audiences. Our key channels are likely to include outdoor and transport advertising, print media, door drops, radio ads, search engines and social media.
Our first campaign in summer 2023 provided vital CO safety messaging that was particularly relevant in the summer months. Our messaging focused on the risks of CO poisoning linked to using BBQs and camping stoves, and the importance of taking a CO alarm with you to holiday accommodation to help keep you and your loved ones safe.
We used social media and radio advertisements to reach our target audience, as well as posters in and around motorway service stations and the London Underground. The initial campaign was a great success with the final reach and engagement figures from all channels indicating a total reach of over 15.9 million people and an estimated engaged reach of 477,455 people.
We know that not all customers who see or hear one of our campaign assets or adverts will be receptive to the information, so as gas networks we have agreed a 3% engagement rate be applied to the total campaign reach for all our CO awareness campaign activity. We call this the ‘engaged reach’. We continue to work with marketing and social value experts to review this engagement rate with a view to updating it pending further analysis across media and marketing channels.