Engaging the public in decisions about regulating the energy market

Ofgem asked Ipsos to use the Consumer First Panel to gather feedback on ten possible campaign statements that can inform Ofgem’s Retail Market Review consumer engagement campaign, launched 23 April 2014.

In this context, the research objectives were:

• To test a number of early draft campaign messages to understand and explore:
  • Whether particular messages/words/phrases are more impactful and/or motivational than others?
  • What, if anything, do consumers say they would do if they received these messages?
  • The importance of which organisations are behind the messages?
• To gather views or suggestions on what the campaign might be called.

The research found that:

• Consumers were positive about the idea of the market becoming simpler, clearer and fairer but to have an impact, the campaign would need to provide evidence and tangible examples of how this is happening.
• Statements that have a “financial focus” appeared to grab attention therefore have the potential to be developed further.
• Messages would ideally be framed as empathetic and supportive as consumers said this is more likely to resonate.
• Messages which are delivered by Ofgem may be more impactful i.e. “Ofgem has made changes to the energy market…” rather than “we’ve made changes to the energy market”.

The report also included a segmentation to help explain which messages are mostly likely to prompt engagement amongst customers with different levels of engagement currently.

• Download the full report (PDF)

Technical note

A qualitative approach was used to allow participants to assess and deliberate on the messages. A range of approaches were used to examine the potential effect of each statement on energy consumers, namely:

• Spontaneous and considered reaction: Panellists were presented with each message and then asked which were most attention grabbing. Panellists were encouraged to think about how they might react if they saw each statement in a real communications campaign.
• Individually choose top 3 that are most impactful: Panellists were asked to review all messages and decide which three would be most likely to prompt them to engage.
• Possible campaign names: Panellists were shown Ofgem's suggested campaign names and asked to decide which one most effectively communicated Ofgem's RMR work, and was attention grabbing and might stimulate interest. Panellists could also suggest an alternative campaign name.