Switched On: Moving Bord Gáis Energy from state sector monolith to private sector powerhouse in eight short years

This case study describes how Bord Gais Energy (BGE) successfully moved from a state sector monopoly to a private sector company in the hyper-competitive Irish energy market by using marketing and advertising as a strategic business tool.

Switched On: Moving Bord Gàis Energy from state sector monolith to private sector powerhouse in eight short years

Introduction & Background

Deregulated government monopolies aren't supposed to work. Accepted wisdom tells us that they take decades to manage the structural and cultural change required to adapt to competitive forces. What they lack in dynamism, they make up for in expertise and they take advantage of the natural inertia of their audience to keep their customer base. They emerge, perhaps not as dominant, but as respectable (if uninspiring) businesses with legacy pension obligations, HR issues and a 'job for life' culture....

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands