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‘In some ways, there is nothing more British than British Gas,' says the 38-year-old Mancunian. It could be argued that this has been part of the brand's problem, as its image has, like those of many other British institutions, become somewhat tarnished in recent years.

Vlemmiks joined the energy company last December from HBOS, where he was head of marketing across finance brands including Bank of Scotland, Halifax and Sainsbury's Finance, so he has experience of facing challenging times. Before this, he had notched up 14 years in FMCG marketing working for companies including Procter & Gamble and Mars
on brands such as Pampers, Whiskas, Pedigree and M&Ms.

‘I had a fantastic time with all of those brands,' he says. ‘But I spent a lot of time trying to create meaning for two-dimensional products that just sit on the shelf.'

He was therefore determined to go somewhere that already had meaning and character. ‘At British Gas, the raw materials were already there - everything was in place for me to come in and do a fantastic job,' he adds.

Vlemmiks' marketing vision is ‘to get back to great'. ‘If you look at British Gas' history we've been powering Britain for 200 years,' he says, referring to the Gas, Light and Coke company from which British Gas has evolved. ‘In 1986, we ran the "Sid" campaign with the strapline "If you see Sid, tell him". We were recognised as the brand of Britain for 1986. That's a big difference from coming from Mars bars and chocolates.'

The ‘Sid' ads were 23 years ago, and in the intervening years, British Gas' image has slipped. When this is pointed out, Vlemmiks laughs nervously. He admits that perceptions of the company have changed over the years, but uses that overused and rather meaningless phrase currently favoured by so many marketers. ‘This creates great opportunities,' he says.

There is, of course, plenty of baggage that comes with being an ex-government utility and a former monopoly. ‘We needed to raise our game on customer service - to answer the phone quicker and get to calls quicker,' he admits. Internally, there was a call for action. ‘In some ways, our new positioning has been about enabling the organisation to fix the problems you are talking about,' he adds.

Vlemmiks realises that the business could not have moved to its current emotional high-ground positioning 18 months ago, because it was not strong enough opera­tionally. ‘Now we have fixed that detail and have to show externally that we are different,' he explains.

This year, the company has spent a lot of time pushing green initiatives such as parent company Centrica's creation of the world's biggest offshore wind farm. ‘We are not head­quartered in Paris or Frankfurt and we care about what is happening in the environment in the UK.'

Although he was not responsible for it, the work being commissioned before his arrival, one of Vlemmiks' first initiatives was to implement the company's new positioning with the slogan ‘Look after your world with British Gas', followed by the ‘Planet Home' campaign. The thinking behind the work was to present British Gas as an energy expert and offer an emotional promise to its customers.

Vlemmiks launched the campaign almost as soon as he had joined the company, just after Christmas. ‘You start to think about the challenges ahead even before you start a role. The new promise was the result of four months of thinking. It was my first big thing,' he says.

The creative featured animations of little homes on little worlds, promoting its wind farm. However, it generated complaints
of dangerous inaccuracy for showing a standard three-pin electrical plug connecting the wind farm to a household power supply. Vlemmiks brushes this aside, saying its customers believe in the campaign's promise and have a new-found trust for the brand.

The creative has a more modern feel than previous British Gas campaigns, in that it looks forward rather than toward the past. ‘We need to innovate and modernise, but we can't leave people behind,' he says. For that reason, it still features familiar images such as the British Gas van - albeit in space.

Vlemmiks says he wants to re-establish an emotional bond with consumers because he is an ‘emotional marketer'. He notes that British Gas has worked very hard on the rational in the past, but his ambition is to be ‘the brand of 2010 and 2012'. ‘If we are not building on emotion, then we won't be as successful,' he warns.

Although he cannot take credit for ‘Planet Home', it is clear that he has tried to make his mark. Other changes he has made since taking up his post include putting British Gas' digital and branding accounts up for pitch, appointing agencies Rufus Leonard and Landor respectively.

He remains tight-lipped about forth­coming projects, but is clearly looking forward to them. ‘I am a branding man,' he says. ‘I believe in brands and I build brands. We have a huge property of visual assets, from 10,000 vans on the street to uniforms to logos. We are on a journey and you will see changes.'

In March, British Gas announced a £15m sponsorship of British swimming, which covers supporting the national team as well as grass-roots projects such as its recently launched Pools for Schools initiative. ‘Twelve million people swim every month,' he says. ‘That's 50% of our customer base. If you consider people who swim every three months, then that's 80% of our customer base who are exposed to the sport. The sponsorship makes us part of the fabric of Britain.'

With that, he goes to prepare for the next day's press briefing to launch Pools for Schools with double Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Rebecca Adlington.

Although it is still early days for Vlemmiks, it is clear that he is working hard to breathe life into a hitherto moribund brand that has so often been the whipping boy of the utilities sector. In his own way, he has been leading a very British revolution at British Gas.