Across Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Delaware, Pepco and Delmarva Power serve millions of residential customers, many of whom are leaving money on the table. Rebate programs, free assessments, and energy-saving upgrades are available to them right now. But when the information arrives wrapped in utility branding and technical language, it never makes it past the mental spam filter. Zoe was designed to break through that filter. As a character-driven creative platform launched in 2021, Zoe humanizes energy efficiency by translating program details into the kind of language real people actually use. For Pepco and Delmarva Power, the Zoe 2.0 objective was ambitious: run a coordinated, multi-channel campaign across two distinct utility service territories, each with its own program mix and customer base, while maintaining a unified creative voice that drove measurable lifts in sessions, leads, and program enrollment. The underlying mission was equity: ensuring that energy savings aren't just available to people who already know how to navigate utility systems, but accessible to everyone.
The Pepco/DPL campaign followed the integrated Zoe 2.0 framework but was adapted to reflect each utility's distinct geography and program catalog. YouTube video anchored the awareness layer. Pepco's HPwES (Home Performance with ENERGY STAR) video achieved massive organic scale, while DPL's Pixability-placed content targeted specific audience segments across Maryland and Delaware. Both videos led with Zoe explaining programs in plain, human language, the same strategic approach that made ACE's video campaign successful, now adapted for markets with different program mixes. Email nurture brought Zoe's voice into the inbox across both territories. Each sequence was tailored to the utility's specific offerings, from appliance rebates to home energy assessments, maintaining the warm, jargon-free tone that distinguished Zoe from standard utility communications. The emails didn't just inform. They guided. Dedicated microsite subpages for each utility functioned as conversion hubs. Designed as curated experiences rather than information dumps, they let customers explore programs at their own pace through Zoe's lens. Traffic was driven through paid search, email, paid social, and for DPL, an Amazon pilot that tested entirely new acquisition channels. The strategic innovation was operational: a shared creative platform scaled production across two utilities without sacrificing local relevance. One character, one voice, two markets, zero wasted creative investment. That efficiency let the team invest deeper into each channel rather than spreading thin.
Pepco delivered the strongest performance in the PHI portfolio. The HPwES YouTube video reached 3,033,897 views with a 70% view rate, the highest in the campaign. Across digital channels, Pepco generated 105,188 microsite sessions, 323,257 clicks, a 1.93% CTR, 6,405 qualified leads, and 10,296 program conversions. The Pepco microsite recorded 7,809 sessions with a 1:58 average duration. Delmarva Power achieved the portfolio's highest click-through rate at 5.60%, with 56,461 sessions, 333,544 clicks, 3,437 leads, and 5,944 conversions. The DPL microsite recorded 4,475 sessions averaging 1:56. Combined, Pepco and DPL drove over 161,000 sessions, generated nearly 10,000 qualified leads, and converted more than 16,000 households into active energy efficiency program participants. Sixteen thousand families now saving on their energy bills. Sixteen thousand homes consuming less energy. Sixteen thousand data points proving that when you make complex programs feel human, people show up. This is what integrated, character-driven marketing can do in a category most people ignore: turn indifference into action at scale.