News and Events
April 21, 2008
Marketer's 'coming out' pivots on Super Bowl ads
Youth-minded firm give's Wiis to winning sales staff
ARLINGTON, (April 21, 2008) Texas Power's sales were up 315% year-over-year in March and 171% for the quarter. General Manager Frank Wanderski cited the strategies of Rona Davis, director of marketing and advertising. Davis and Wanderski spoke with us Friday.
Changes to the sales incentive program may have been a key factor. Top sales reps won Nintendo Wiis, said Davis. Some of the gains were from partnerships the firm didn't have a year ago, Wanderski added. One concept they hope to convey is that it's a young firm appealing to younger customers. And the firm's come a long way for what used to be "a small, family operation in natural gas. Our intention was not to build up a book of business and sell it off," Davis said. The goal was to establish the firm as a serious player.
Initially, it didn't do much with ads, trying to keep the overhead low. For a year, it put ads only on one Christian station in the Dallas area. The firm last year felt it could step up advertising with billboards and more television. The firm landed a "sweetheart deal" to advertise during the Super Bowl for about half of what those ads usually cost -- when Dallas didn't make it to the big game. Nine of the firm's TV ads are available for viewing online (Click the videos link in the left column of this page.)
Then consumers saw Texas Power as if for the first time, said Davis. That was the turning point, noted Wanderski. "We were no longer a fly by night," he observed. Finding the right software was a major issue for the firm -- finding a package that works with ERCOT protocols, said Davis. She wants Texas Power to be "a fun company" to work for. The electric industry is kind of "stiff and utilitarian," she added, and her goal was to create a contagious spirit in the call center. "If you can get your employees to sound happy, it'll extend to your call center and enrollment and have a bearing on retention of customers.
One move that helped propel Texas Power was teaming up with its supplier --Tristar Power Producers LP -- and the credit that deal offered. Wanderski believes Texas Power has the fastest growth rate in Texas -- and its 4.2% attrition rate may be the lowest.