What it had to solve
Smart Energy GB needed to engage and reassure the public that smart meter owners are happy, citing benefits like easier budgeting and cost savings, while its Angela Rippon flexibility campaign ran in parallel.
How it works
A film directed by Fred Rowson through BlinkInk ran across TV, VOD, press, social, digital and radio from early November 2024 into 2025, alongside the Rippon campaign; media by T&P used demographic, interest-based and contextual targeting.
What it did
The campaign put social proof at the centre of the smart meter rollout's next phase — 4 out of 5 owners happy, per a nationwide survey — with the Kemp and Rippon films reinforcing each other. No campaign metrics are given in the source.
Background
In November 2024, Smart Energy GB drafted in TV icon Ross Kemp to visit households across Britain and find out how happy people are with their smart meters, in a campaign created by AMV BBDO and directed by Fred Rowson through BlinkInk.
In full investigative mode, Kemp turns up as people do chores, eat breakfast and get ready for work, asking 'Happy with yours?' in his trademark style with light humour. At the end he joins Albert Einstein, the scheme's long-running brand ambassador, who confirms via a nationwide survey that 4 out of 5 people are happy with their smart meter.
The campaign is built on proof rather than persuasion: with over half of homes now having a smart meter, it cites easier budgeting and cost savings as reasons for that satisfaction. It ran across TV, VOD, press, social, digital and radio, highly targeted by demographics, interests and context, and ran alongside — and into 2025 with — the September-launched Angela Rippon campaign teaching Einstein about flexible energy rewards.
Marketing director Chris Taggart: 'There is no one better than Ross Kemp to get to the truth. And his light touch humour shows the human side of the simple truth that most people are happy with their smart meters.'
Why it lands
Casting is the argument: the celebrity famous for confronting uncomfortable truths vouches for an unpopular-seeming government scheme by asking only one question.
The campaign sells adoption through peer satisfaction (4 in 5) instead of feature lists, the right tool for a scheme past its early majority.
Pairing Kemp's doorsteps with the Einstein brand mascot keeps continuity with years of Smart Energy GB work while refreshing the mechanic.
Running two complementary celebrity films at once (truth-finding Kemp, flexible-energy Rippon) covers both 'should I' and 'what's in it for me'.
What you can take
When your product has quietly satisfied most of its users, the persuasive move is to make the celebrity interrogate the claim — the famous sceptic becomes the proof.
Since then
The Kemp and Rippon campaigns ran side by side from early November 2024 into 2025; no results are recorded in the source.
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