Helping our customers protect their homes from the impact of freezing temperatures is a key part of our seasonal work. In 2025, we moved beyond static advice to provide a more dynamic and visual experience on our dedicated winter webpage(opens in a new tab). By focusing our campaign on practical content, we aimed to reduce the likelihood of winter-related bursts and leaks within customer properties.
Our campaign focused on:
- Video guides: We launched a new series of "how-to" videos addressing common winter issues, making essential maintenance accessible to all.
- New imagery: We updated our campaign photography to ensure our messaging felt relatable and current.
- Useful tools: We created a downloadable home winter checklist(opens in a new tab).
- Interactive engagement: Swapped the treasure hunt competition for a habit-sharing competition to win one of five water butts given away each month for six months.
Our highlights
The 2025/26 Winter Campaign saw a shift in how we interact with our customers. By changing the entry requirements for our water butt competition, we moved from hiding icons on our website to asking customers to share their personal water-saving habits.
This change in strategy led to an increase in both traffic and engagement:
- Significant reach: Our winter water butt page attracted 12,968 views between 1 October 2025 and 31 March 2026, demonstrating high interest.
- Increased awareness: The "Prepare your home for winter" page saw 4,214 views, an increase compared to the 3,353 views during the same period the previous year.
- 2,480 entries were received for the water butt competition, providing us with a wealth of authentic customer testimonials.
- Community-led content: We’ve now populated a permanent placeholder on our 'Save Water' webpage with these entries under the title ‘What you are doing’.
How we’ve improved
We pivoted to a testimonial-led approach by asking customers to share their water-saving habits. We didn't just generate competition entries, we built a permanent resource. By hosting these tips (which change seasonally) on our website, we’re empowering customers to take action through peer-to-peer inspiration, showing that small changes made by their neighbours can make a big collective difference all together.
The transition from a seasonal game to a permanent testimonial library means the campaign's value extends far beyond the winter months. It has allowed us to:
- Humanise water efficiency: Using real customer voices to champion water efficiency makes the advice feel achievable and grounded in real-life habits.
- Refine our messaging: Analysing the 2,480 entries has given us deeper insight into the water-saving habits that matter most to our customers, allowing us to tailor future campaigns.