Utilities Marketing Agency

Taking a long standing company from a ‘who’s that?’ to a household name.

CCW (formally The Consumer Council for Water) is the independent representative of household and business water consumers in England and Wales.

CCW has a long-standing reputation of knowledge and experience when it comes to dealing with household and business complaints, however until UMA started working with them back in 2019, that reputation was only held by people ‘in the know’ within the industry and not by the direct public, and their brand had been the same since 2005.

A huge proportion of consumers didn’t even know they existed, or what they could do to support them.

So, how have we helped CCW?

Brand Identity

CCW approached UMA to create a new brand solution that was robust, future proof and felt more like a consumer facing organisation rather than a government led or regulatory body. There was also consideration around how the brand would translate to Welsh audiences.

Previously, they had two logos running in parallel with the name and strapline translated in both English and Welsh which came with confusion! The brand development needed to ensure that all consumers in England and Wales understood who CCW is and as well as how and when to contact them.

Our team quickly determined through a strategic and industry specific approach that the CCW brand, positioning and outwardly facing collateral simply did not sit hand in hand with the amazing work they did for consumers and we began the journey with CCW to take them from Consumer Council for Water and suggested a name/brand change to make them CCW, the voice for water consumers that they are today.

Our creative team brought the new name to life taking theclient through a series of considerations including colour palettes and typefaces typically used in the utilities industry,as well as ensuring the new brand was colourful, friendly and inviting for consumers.

Employee Engagement

Before the new brand was launched to the outside world, CCW recognised the direct impact this would have on colleagues within the organisation, so we worked with them to find the right way to tell the new brand story that reflected CCW’s company personality and brought out the inner brand ambassador in everyone there!

The process included smaller facilitated workshops led by UMA’s strategists to understand not only what CCW meant to their colleagues, but what their role was in the company and how they saw a new brand evolving.

The final internal launch was an event with colleagues in attendance from all over the county, hosted by the UMA
team who presented the new brand to the company, guiding them through the process behind the brand and answering any questions.

Colleagues all understood the vision and purpose and most importantly, everyone was on the same page before the external launch.

The launch included:

Branded slide deck | A movie trailer | Branded merchandise and decoration | Interactive activity packs | Workshops and
group activities | Desk drops | Office signage | A guide to using the brand

Customer Awareness Campaign

We worked with CCW to develop, film and run a campaign to see if we could help them encourage people all over the UK to drink tap water instead of purchased bottled water, introducing Go Tap!

We had two key messages to consider for the campaign:

The Environmental Impact:

Drinking tap water instead of bottled can help to reduce the production of single use plastic, and therefore reduce carbon footprint and support the wellness of the planet. Carbon emissions for bottled water are 900 times higher than for tap water, making tap the environmentally friendly option.

The Economic Impact:

Bottled water can cost up to three hundred times the price of tap water, and in our current economic climate with everyone feeling the pinch financially, the option to have a drink from the tap instead of purchasing a bottle could save money.

But, does tap water actually taste as good as the purchased water you drink from a bottle?The only way to answer this question was to ‘Take the Taste Test Challenge!’ and our campaign, Go Tap!’ was born.

A cross section of the public from all over the UK were then invited to taste both tap and bottled water and see if they could tell the difference and which they preferred. Filming took place across a day and a wide demographic audience were approached, given both options to try and decide which option they thought was tap water. Most were unable to tell the difference and agreed that tap water tasted just as good as bottled.

For those that take the challenge, five hundred special limited edition water bottles were also being given away as further encouragement to drink tap water.

The campaign ran across social media as a series with fantastic results. The campaign created a lot of topical conversation and with over 100k views on Facebook and the message to ‘GO TAP’ certainly gained momentum.

“UMA have been a joy to work with and have provided us with a level of service above and beyond our expectations.
They instinctively understood our organisation’s needs, helped us overcome several barriers with determination and positivity, and provided indispensable advice and guidance when we needed it most.”

Amanda Caton,

Executive Head of Communications

Please note: The work featured in this case study was undertaken while operating as Blumilk, prior to our rebrand as the Utilities Marketing Agency (UMA). You can read more of our history here.

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