OVO

In 2024, amid widespread distrust in energy companies, OVO significantly boosted its trust scores. How? With the help of a new hybrid creative studio. Recognising the need to source flexible specialist skills alongside their in-house talent, OVO partnered with Publicis Groupe’s LeSHOP. Agency skills met brand knowledge to form a powerhouse team. It’s allowed them to create powerful, empathetic communications for their nearly 4m customers, with a distinctive, genuine brand presence.

After just one year, this collaboration has made OVO more agile: talent can be sourced 50% quicker, onboarding is 42% faster, and delivered briefs have increased 30%, with the same resource. The team gets chances to work across a huge range of briefs, and evolve skills including illustration, animation, event design, video, and even voiceover. This culture of creativity’s paying off: the studio had a 95% staff retention rate in 2024, and saw a 1.2 point increase in employee satisfaction.

The partnership’s impact on delivery has also been impressive. In 12 months, OVO’s creative studio delivered 684 briefs to 16 business areas. They've embraced AI, brought social media in-house (significantly boosting engagement), increased brand awareness, and developed impactful sensitivity guidance. Now the studio has the flexibility, scalability, and specialist skills to drive creativity in the unloved energy sector. In one year, they’ve become one team, ready to do energy differently.