Campaign will draw on unused funds
The National Oilheat Research Alliance (NORA) is preparing to launch an online outreach campaign to help consumers and policymakers understand the evolution of heating oil.
The Alliance intends to pool leftover funds that had been previously allocated to the 23 NORA states to fund the campaign, which aims to drive consumers to NORA’s website OilheatAmerica.com. The budget will be used to:
- Place the NORA message in digital environments where the target audience is most likely to engage;
- Purchase search and display advertising designed to reach NORA’s audience at least four times digitally and a total of seven times when combined with traditional media;
- Optimize digital media throughout the life of the campaign to ensure peak performance, gain maximum intelligence on consumers and exceed impression and response goals.
NORA President John Huber said the industry has great news to share about ultra low sulfur heating oil and the prospect of Bioheat® fuel blending up to 20 percent, and it makes sense to raise consumer awareness of those developments.
The campaign aims to reach target audiences in trusted mobile and desktop digital environments by partnering with credible news publishers. NORA will also use paid search as the “digital command station to win the war on gas heat attrition.” The focus will be on near-term converters looking for information, and NORA intends to maintain strong display position in search by bidding competitively for its Google ad positions. The campaign will also leverage display advertising on Facebook.
NORA believes that consumers will use Internet search to find information about their heating options, and the Alliance will expand its presence in search and online display advertising to catch their attention. Half of the media budget will be used for search advertising and the other half for display advertising, including “remarketing” strategies that will keep NORA’s ads in front of consumers as they travel from website to website.
NORA has selected JL Media Inc., of Union City, NJ, to create the campaign, which has a media budget of about $1.6 million. The campaign is using legacy NORA funds generated before the 2014 reauthorization, and NORA is permitted allocate that money without the new restrictions on consumer education spending.
