Safety scoop for ScottishPower

02 November 2011

Not a usual story for FM Report as it describes how an FMs responsibilities can be tackled in a ways that involve little input from the FM – in this case marketing.

A campaign to improve ScottishPower’s health and safety performance among its staff has been named as one of the UK’s most effective marketing messages.

The ‘It Matters’ campaign, which helped the energy company to reduce sickness absence by 22% and lost time accidents by 60%, was recognised with a top award at the annual Marketing Design Awards yesterday.

The campaign, which won in the Energy and Utilities category, used tongue-in-cheek copy and light hearted visuals to emphasise the importance of health and safety messages. It helped the energy company to reduce sickness absence by 22% and lost time accidents by 60% and to save £2.5million.

ScottishPower commissioned Good Creative, a Glasgow-based design agency, to develop a single brand and an enduring campaign that would deliver internal health and safety messages across the group. The company felt previous campaigns had been inconsistent and poorly executed and that staff had become disengaged from internal communications messages.

ScottishPower is one of the UK’s largest energy suppliers, comprising a number of divisions – including SP Energy Retail, SP Energy Wholesale and SP Energy Networks – each of which operates autonomously and had created its own ‘brand’ to deliver health and safety messages.

There was a lack of consistency and, as a result, the group’s health and safety performance was good but static. Recognising that the safety and wellbeing of its staff was paramount, the group asked Good to create a brand platform that would work across all of its divisions, to improve key health and safety statistics, to improve brand recollection and to create a cost-effective, long lasting campaign.

The ‘It Matters’ campaign went live in May 2009 with a budget of £60,000. Using a series of simple visuals, it emphasised the message that health and safety issues affected the lives of all employees at all times, from making a cup to tea, to walking to work, driving a car or wiring a plug.

Doug Wilson, ScottishPower’s Health & Safety Director, said: “The impact of the ‘It Matters’ campaign on our health and safety culture has been positive and sustaining. The extent to which we have further educated, what I know to be a tough audience, is nothing short of remarkable.”

Good was also successful in the Interactive and Digital category, being highly commended for devising a successful social media campaign for Buchanan Galleries, a shopping complex in the centre of Glasgow, owned by Land Securities.