Australian Phase-out of Inefficient Incandescent Lamps – Change the

Globe

Melanie Slade

Director, Lighting and Equipment Energy Efficiency

20 October 2010

Background

Traditional incandescent lamps have been the lamp of choice for residential lighting in Australia since their introduction.

The phase-out of these lamps needed to be backed up with a communications campaign to help Australian consumers understand their choices in terms of replacement products.

Aim of Communications Strategy

To help Australian consumers simply and easily switch from traditional incandescent lamps to CFLs and other energy efficient lamps by;─ helping them understand which energy efficient lamps

could replace the lamps they used to use;─ providing guidance on equivalency; and─ providing guidance on lamps for particular needs e.g.

dimming

Consumer Choice

With the removal of traditional lamps consumers would mostly be faced with a choice between halogen lamps and CFLs.

As CFLs are much more efficient, we wanted to encourage consumers to choose CFLs wherever possible.

We were aware that some consumers had concerns about the quality and safety of CFLs and took this into account in our education material.

Stakeholders

Stakeholder engagement

We established the Lighting Retailer and Industry Stakeholder Group – made up of representatives from the lighting industry, manufacturers and retailers, to help us develop our communication materials.

We held frequent meetings with this group to confirm what their concerns were and how we could work with them to ensure the transition to energy efficient lamps was smooth and simply executed.

Stakeholder engagement

Biggest concern of this Group was that the phase-out would cause an increase in lamp returns - customers would be confused about what to choose once the traditional GLS lamp was no longer available.

Ensuring that customers knew what lamp to choose meant that whatever communication materials we developed needed to be alongside the lamps in-store.

This meant that our range of materials focussed on point-of-sale (POS) information – supported by our website – www.changetheglobe.energyrating.gov.au

Concepts from two selected agencies Two graphic design companies were shortlisted

to present their concepts. The concept of ‘Change the Globe’ that one

agency presented ended up securing the account.

Ideas presented by the other agency would not have worked for a number of reasons, and I’d like to share a couple with you from that agency.

Winning concept

Change the Globe

Change the Globe - POS

Our state and territory colleagues and our lighting retailers and other stakeholders approved all materials.

Market testing occurred on all materials prior to finalisation and launch.

Launch of Change the Globe POS

On Tuesday 24 March 2009 the then Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, the Hon Peter Garrett launched the range of POS at Beacon Lighting, Sydney, NSW.

Launch was in advance of the phase-out to allow for material to appear in stores before inefficient lamps were no longer available.

POS materials to stores

From May 2009 we distributed the materials to one central distribution point for each of our lighting retailers, these included supermarkets, hardware stores and specialist lighting retailers.

Our retailers included: Bunnings Hardware, Mitre 10, Magnet Mart, IGA supermarkets, Supabarn supermarkets, Franklins supermarkets, Target, Big W, Beacon Lighting, and Megaman Lighting Australia.

Online material

The Change the Globe website contained additional material to support the in-store material. This included advice on: ─ The timing of the phase-out;─ Alternative lighting products for specific uses such as

with dimmers and motion sensors;─ Safety issues such as mercury content – clean-up

guidance;─ Health issues such as UV radiation levels of CFLs.

Evaluation and way forward

We are currently undertaking market research to help us to test the effectiveness of the Change the Globe POS materials – final results are expected in November.

These results will assist in the development of Stage 2 of our communication strategy.

Stage 2 will be a phase of educating specialist lighting retailers on energy efficient lighting products – this way we can communicate more complex messages.

Preliminary results of market research Most people were aware of the phase-out and

that incandescents no longer available, or ‘very hard to find in stores.’

Low, but consistent unaided recall of CTG campaign. Recall increased when prompted.

Vague recall of CTG slogan, or specifics of POS materials.

POS recall restricted to ‘Globe Comparison Chart’ and ‘Light Globe Conversion Guide.’

Preliminary results - continued

Most were aware of CFLs, but far fewer knew anything about MVHs.

POS campaign seen as promoting the ‘change to CFL’ message.

‘Lumens’ as noted in ‘Light Globe Conversion Guide’ don’t resonate with people at all. People understand ‘watts’ and believe unrounded nature of lumen sizes (i.e. 420lm, 720lm etc) very confusing.

Even lighting experts prefer watts over lumens.

Preliminary results - continued

Any communication going forward needs to be factored around clear, consistent labelling on lamp packaging.

Consumers, electricians and retailers are ALL confused about different colour temperatures and how manufacturer’s label them, for example, ‘day light’ as opposed to ‘cool white’, ‘warm white’ etc. resulting in incorrect purchases.

Preliminary results - continued

Need to decide on how best to describe, promote and communicate ‘lumens’ as measure of light output.

Clear and consistent labelling by manufacturers of colour temperature is also imperative.

More Information

www.changetheglobe.energyrating.gov.au