PERC’s New Educational Campaign Rolled Out “Blue” in Nashville

The Propane Education & Research Council (PERC) rolled out elements of its new consumer education campaign in April at the National Propane Gas Association (NPGA) Southeastern Convention in Nashville. The new endeavor features a dog named “Blue,” who is the companion of a propane delivery driver. In the campaign, Blue will talk about how propane customers can live an independent, cozy lifestyle by using propane, as scenes depict families cooking a meal with propane, using outdoor living appliances, and grilling food in a modern outdoor patio.

The campaign is designed to raise consumer awareness of propane and make consumers view the fuel more favorably.

PERC on February 18 approved the $10-million campaign and introduced its tagline, “Proudly Propane.” However, the council at that time had yet to decide between two campaign concepts. The first, titled “Home,” depicted a family using propane in its home. Part of that proposed campaign showed a family completing its evening routine using propane appliances. The council eventually chose the second campaign, featuring Blue the dog.

Speaking at the PERC meeting on April 7, prior to the opening of the Southeastern conference, the council’s director of communications Gregg Walker noted that PERC conducted focus groups in the Northeast, Midwest, and South. Focus group participants were either propane customers or prospective customers. The “Home” concept received a positive reception from the group, but participants said the approach was not that much different from other concepts they had seen in the media. The focus groups gave much higher marks to the “Blue” campaign, stating they felt an emotional connection to the dog and its propane delivery driver owner.

“They all agreed across the board that the concept was, and would be, much more memorable,” Walker said. “Focus group participants really liked that dog and started talking about it as a character that they would like to learn more about.” Walker added that members of the focus groups liked that Blue the dog “was a rather uncommon approach to promote an energy like propane.”

During his presentation at the Southeastern conference and before the introduction of Blue, PERC’s Roy Willis played a video depicting those who use propane as “independent thinkers.” He noted that residents change appliances maybe three times—when the appliances break, when the residents are building, and when they are renovating. PERC and its ad agency, the Richards Group, designed a campaign to keep propane at the top of consumers’ minds during those times.

“That’s what our campaign will be designed to do.” Willis went on to say, “I’m happy to tell you we already have a spokesman under contract,” as he unveiled a photo of Blue.

Willis reflected on the long process that PERC has undertaken to get to the new campaign. NPGA’s efforts to reinstate the council’s public education authority resulted in the lifting of the restriction in 2015. Since the beginning of the restriction about six years ago, PERC has kept busy with safety and training programs, and research and development projects. Willis noted that during that time, PERC built world-class training programs for architects, firefighters, mechanics, salespeople, farmers, and propane marketers. The council investigated market trends, kept in touch with consumers through its safe grilling and safety preparedness campaigns, and spurred innovation to open new markets.

“Just because we couldn’t advertise to homeowners didn’t mean we were going to abandon the residential market,” Willis explained. “With training, we plugged in to builders, architects, and HVAC [heating, ventilation and air conditioning] and plumbing contractors. We did it all online, very cost-effectively with buildwithpropane.com.” He noted that the council added products to the PropaneMARC catalog, which he described as “a diverse collection of consumer resources that you — retail propane companies — could use in your own markets.” He noted that the PropaneMARC site would be discontinued, with materials moving to PERC’s main site, www.propanecouncil.org. That site will also include resources from the new consumer education campaign.

The six-year restriction on PERC’s consumer education program turned out to be a valuable opportunity for the propane industry, according to Willis. The council during that time sharpened its focus on research and development, making investments to diversify demand across numerous market segments. PERC’s $42-million investment in R&D during that period has attracted almost $106 million in total funding that has produced more than 50 new products. So far, more than 170,000 of those products have been sold in the marketplace.

“So what’s that worth for our industry? We looked at the average consumption of each product,” Willis said. “We confidentially talked to marketers all across the country to find out, ‘For this kind of product what kind of margin are you getting?’ Those 50 different products, over their useful life, will return over $1.2 billion in value to our industry if we never sell another one of those products. And we don’t expect that to be the case.”

He proceeded to discuss the Energy Guys national consumer education program, which launched in 2005 and ran for four years. It included a series of ads featuring a male character posing as propane and another as electricity. The campaign, with the title “Exceptional Energy,” resulted in the addition of tens of thousands of propane-heated homes across the country and increased propane’s share of custom homes from 2.5% nationwide to more than 7.5% at its peak in 2007. Willis noted that the Exceptional Energy banner has been copied around the world, and because of its success, PERC wants to preserve it. To do that, the council at the Southeastern conference announced the creation of an Exceptional Energy Award to “recognize outstanding industry volunteers who worked through the PERC advisory committee, to acknowledge and recognize their leadership and generous contributions to the industry as volunteers.” He announced original council member and former PERC chair Daryl McClendon as the first recipient of the award. The council launched its first consumer education campaign under McClendon’s leadership.

After stepping down from the council, McClendon chaired the advisory committee that oversaw the consumer education program.

He was called to the stage at the PERC presentation to accept the Exceptional Energy Award, and told attendees that he and other council members “anguished” over how to kick off a national campaign that was meaningful and that the council could use to measure its success. Many marketers at the time were in favor of a national campaign.

“So I was committed to it and I knew we had to get that done for the market. I know the restrictions stopped all that for a while, and frankly, I’m very excited that we’re kicking off a new consumer education campaign. I think marketers will really appreciate it. I’m pleased we’re not going to have the brand and logo, Exceptional Energy, go away.”

The new campaign will feature Blue in various types of media to promote propane. Willis told the audience that the partnership with Blue had just been finalized and he played a video of Blue addressing the attendees of the show.

“Blue the Dog here for propane. You know, when Roy first approached me to do some advertising for propane, I was reluctant. Don’t get me wrong. As the long-time companion of my owner the propane man, I have a lot of passion for clean, all-American propane. Roy told me, ‘Blue, this isn’t about flashy advertising. It’s about taking pride in a way of life. It’s about the freedom of living where you want and how you want without compromises.’ That’s something I know plenty about. So thank you for welcoming me to your industry. And thank you for allowing me to be a humble champion, not just for propane, but also for people like you who make it possible. I’ve seen how hard my owner the propane man works, and I promise to work just as hard to help him and all of you to reach more homeowners and sell more gallons of propane…I’m Blue the Dog, and I’ll always be Proudly Propane.” —Daryl Lubinsky