Entergy Empowers Customers

A fanatical conservationist drops from a ceiling, interrupting a couple’s romantic dinner, to share energy-saving tips in a new television spot created by Stone & Ward for Entergy Corp.

The Little Rock, Ark., shop’s upcoming campaign, which includes 15-, 30- and 60-second spots, targets Entergy’s service area of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Print, radio and collateral are other components of the media mix.

Entergy’s 2001 media expenditures were $2 million, per CMR and Adweek research. The firm has an-nual revenue of more than $10 billion and 2.6 million customers.

The TV work breaks today on network and cable outlets, including the Weather Channel, CNN and Lifetime. Campaign spending is undisclosed.

The TV ads are the first S&W has created for the global energy company, which is headquartered in New Orleans. The agency has handled Entergy’s creative and media account for more than a year.

S&W creative director Jay Cranford said the spots are designed to build customer loyalty and satisfaction by showing Entergy as a caring company that wants to help consumers keep summer’s customarily high electric bills down.

“It’s a way to empower customers and also to position Entergy as a friendly company that is here to help,” Cranford said.

The ads encourage customers to call Entergy’s toll-free telephone number or visit its Web site for more energy-saving tips.

The ad campaign breaks as summer temperatures rise. Cranford also said the timing could helpdifferentiate the client from its energy competitors.

“With Enron and everything, it’s a touchy subject, and Entergy has done an excellent job of staying out of that fray,” Cranford said. “This was a great way for us to give that position as a concerned, successful company.”

Creative credits go to agency copywriter Danny Koteras and art directors Chach Bursey, Tish Christensen, Mark Fonville and Laura McCabe.

The commercials were shot in Little Rock and directed by Aaron Greene of Rhythm & Hues in Los Angeles. Waymack & Crew of Little Rock handled production chores.

Cranford said a similar winter-themed campaign “is a possibility, but not a certainty.”