In a bold move Affinity Water is launching its first ever TV ad campaign this week to explain, to its 3.6 million consumers across the South-East of England, how it is using the latest technology to find and fix leaks in its network of pipes.
Building on its new colourful Brand relaunch featuring rivers, wildlife, and ducks, and its successful Save our Streams (www.saveourstreams.co.uk) SOS campaign, the animated 30 second advert addresses head on the concerns customers have expressed about the amount of water lost each year through leakage in its network.
- During July/August 2021 through the SOS campaign Affinity Water was able to save over 1 billion litres of water, the equivalent of over 20 million litres per day.
- Latest research shows that 55 per cent of its customers remember SOS and 85 per cent said that SOS caused them to take some action to save water.
With 190,000 people now signed up to SOS the Company has now gone one step further to explain an often-misunderstood area of its work.
The ads will explain how the Company spends millions of pounds on identifying leaks each year and have a team of around 150 skilled people who use cutting edge satellite technology, tens of thousands of sensors, advanced listening devices and AI techniques to find the latest solutions to detecting and repairing leaks. With over 10,000 miles of pipes supplying more than 1.4 million properties, it really is a non-stop job.
Peter Duys, Affinity Water’s Head of Marketing & Experience explained:
“This year we will be working to get even more people to save water. But we know from our research that when we ask customers to save water, they want to know what we are doing to address leaks on our network. They want us to get our own house in order before we ask them to take action. With this in mind we have devised this 30 second ad and marketing campaign in a mission to explain style.
“Over the next four weeks over 80 per cent of adults in our supply area will have 13 plus opportunities to see our targeted ads employing the latest digital marketing information and techniques. It’s an exciting and new way of working for the water industry to engage with its customers.”
Mr Duys outlined how the messaging reinforces one of the Brand values of being stewards of the environment.
He continued: “We want to tell our customers how dedicated we are to finding and fixing leaks on our network. We invest in highly skilled committed teams who work around the clock using cutting edge technology. This is the first time we have communicated to our customers what we do.
“As stewards of the local environment fixing leaks is vitally important and will reduce the amount of water we need to take from the local environment and streams in our region. It really does reinforce our www.saveourstreams.co.uk messaging and will help to keep our homes & families hydrated and our ducks elated as we say in our ads.”
The campaign which will run for a month during April and will feature:
- TV ad shown on Sky, YouTube and ITV Hub
- Radio ad on local and digital stations
- A social media campaign through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
- Emails to customers
- New works barrier signage around field teams
Updates to Affinity Water's website help to clearly signpost How to Report a Leak, How to identify a leak, How we fix leaks & Who has responsibility for which pipes.
Affinity Water achieved the water industry’s largest percentage leakage reduction of 15% - for the five years to March 2020. The company also achieved the lowest ever levels of leakage for 2019/2020, reflecting the company’s investment and innovation in this area. Affinity Water is now targeting a further 20% leakage reduction by 2025 in the face of recent challenges with the ambition to become the best in the World by 2040.