National Grid is on a mission to increase awareness among hard-to-reach younger audiences about its commitment to EVs and to their clean energy transition. National Grid partnered with Props, a storytelling-as-a-service platform, to achieve this important company-wide objective.

Props unlocks new audiences by enabling brands to publish and promote authentic stories directly from their websites. 

• The platform curates professional writers, photographers, and filmmakers, each with their own unique expertise and point-of-view, to create natural and compelling content explicitly designed to appeal to distinct audiences. 
• Props combines the high responsiveness of stories told by people with the scale and control of paid media. 

This approach is proven to unlock audiences who typically ignore ads. 

When brands publish and promote natural stories, as told by people rather than through the lens of advertising, it builds trust, increases response, and drives real connections with consumers.

By partnering with Props, National Grid achieved unprecedented results.

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We Revolutionized Outreach

National Grid was drawn to Props’ content first method. 

Props recruited six young adult content creators to promote National Grid’s key messaging to a hard-to-reach audience of 18 to 49-year-olds in Massachusetts. In curating each creator, the Props platform focused on their unique experiences, storytelling ability, and relatableness to each audience segment rather than their followers, as Props relies on highly targeted and controllable paid media to promote each creator’s story. 

All six independent creators set off on their EV journey across Massachusetts, stopping at small business ice cream shops to make their content seasonally and culturally relevant. Along the way, these creators stopped at National Grid-enabled charging stations to educate their audience about National Grid’s Drive Clean initiatives.

Props leveraged  Facebook, Instagram, Google Display, TikTok, and Snapchat to promote each story to reach the younger demographic.

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Our Record-breaking Results

Overall, Props outperformed for every benchmark set by National Grid including impressions, CTR, time on site, site traffic, and engagement. Further, about 90% of the traffic to National Grid’s website had never before been to their site - a critical and never-before-reach objective achieved by this unique approach. 

With the initial goal of increasing awareness of National Grid’s 1,800 charging stations to millions across Massachusetts, Props ultimately tripled the number of views National Grid aimed to achieve.

National Grid’s content, in partnership with Props, reached 8x more people than their branded charging post content and had their click-through rates improve 10x more. And, we did this all while driving viewers directly to the National Grid website.

Once these new audiences landed on our creator’s episodes on the National Grid website, their TOS exceeded the industry standard. Why? Because people connect with people—and authentic storytelling always wins.

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The Power of People

Props proves people trust people more than brands. By having curated, independent creators spreading National Grid’s message, it carries more weight for consumers and constituents than when the message comes directly from National Grid. The imprimatur of independent curated creators increases trust and dramatically raises response and engagement—far beyond a typical ad or PSA.