An integrated campaign, launching on 4 September, will see the brand attempt to move away from ‘patronising' ads dealing with sustainability.
The illustrated ads take inspiration from satirical cartoons in titles such as Punch, where energy topics are debated in a humourous and ‘adult-to-adult' way.
One ad shows a man and a woman talking at a party. The man asks, ‘So what do you want? To save money, look after the planet or never run out of energy?', to which the woman simply replies, ‘Yes'.
Ads will focus on three messages: the need for affordable and low carbon energy; the practical tools available to help customers save energy; and the various solutions on hand to help customers control their energy bills.
E.ON is backing the above-the-line activity with a social media campaign and dedicated YouTube page, youtube.com/talkingenergy.
The campaign is the first to be overseen by E.ON director of brand and communication, Jeremy Davies, who joined from Abbey in May 2008.
It is also the first work since E.ON appointed DLKW to its £20m ad account in March, following a three-way pitch against DDB London and WCRS. Media planning and buying is by MediaCom, with digital activity created by Grand Union.
‘At the heart of this campaign is our genuine desire to involve people in an adult-to-adult conversation about the major issues we all face, while also highlighting how we can help our customers control and reduce their energy bills,' said Davies.
Tom Knox, joint chief executive at DLKW, added: ‘Energy companies are usually seen as corporate, top down and remote from people's everyday lives. We wanted to make this campaign warm and human, whilst engaging people in a grown up conversation about the very real energy challenges we all face.'
Separately, E.ON has partnered with climate change campaigners 10:10 for a nationwide campaign encouraging consumers to cut energy use by 10% by 2010. The activity will be back with online marketing.
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