Freuds grabs brief to promote Government's controversial Green Deal

By John Owens, prweek.com, Tuesday, 08 January 2013 06:14PM

Freud Communications has landed a lucrative brief to help the Government sell its controversial Green Deal to the public.

High hopes: The Government wants homeowners to ‘go green’ (Credit: Solar Century)

The Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) has called in Freuds to work on the £3m campaign following a competitive pitch process.

Freuds’ £410,000 brief will this month see the agency kick off PR efforts to promote the eco-drive, which encourages people to invest in saving energy at home.

It comes just over a year after the agency was awarded another major behavioural-change brief, with the Department of Health, worth £1m.

A spokesman for the DECC, which PRWeek last month revealed was hunting for comms help, confirmed the appointment. ‘We announced in November our intention to spend nearly £3m on a communications campaign that will build understanding and trust of the Green Deal, which goes lives on 28 January,’ he commented.

The Government aims to persuade one million householders to invest in green technology by 2015 by offering them loans to improve their properties, with 14 million homes the target by 2020.

Freuds declined to comment on the brief.

It is thought that the agency will initially focus on the January launch, as part of a brief that could be extended until March 2014.

Freuds’ first task will be to counter significant scepticism around the scheme, which is seen as a cornerstone of David Cameron’s green credentials. Last weekend, consumer rights champion Consumer Focus warned that the scheme’s upfront charges of up to £150 for an assessment were likely to put off the public.

Meanwhile, a recent YouGov poll commissioned by The Electrical Contractors’ Association found that 98 per cent of Britons do not fully understand the Green Deal.

Freuds’ brief with the Department of Health covered four major programmes: Smokefree/Tobacco Control; the Change-4Life anti-obesity campaign; Older People; and Younger People.

This article was first published on prweek.com