Case study · Energy · Editorial Strategy & Sponsored Content
Service-led editorial that beat its page view target by 296% for Octopus Energy
Client: The Independent / Octopus Energy
Our role: editorial strategy, planning, research, interviews, writing, optimisation and publishing
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296%
Overdelivery against the page view target
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139,124
Page views on the most-read partner article
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+30%
Dwell time against the site benchmark
The problem
Making low-carbon home technology useful to a mainstream audience
Heat pumps, solar panels, batteries and EV chargers are significant purchases. Readers arrive with questions about cost, installation, performance and whether any of it will work in their own home. The editorial job was to answer those questions clearly while supporting Octopus Energy's commercial priorities.
Our approach
Service-led journalism built on the questions readers were already asking
Identified live search demand around cost, grants, running costs, installation and common misconceptions
Built the editorial calendar around seasonal intent: heat pumps through the winter heating period, then EV charging and electrification, then solar into spring
Grounded articles in real homeowner experience, drawing on people who had already installed heat pumps and solar panels
Targeted high-intent search questions so the content earned its audience on merit
Ran the full delivery: idea, planning, research, expert and customer interviews, writing, optimisation and publication
The work sat in the overlap between three things: what readers wanted to know, what Octopus Energy wanted to communicate, and where The Independent could offer credible journalism.
The results
Nearly four times the audience the campaign was bought to reach
Page views delivered against target
The partnership delivered almost four times the page views it was contracted to reach.
Page views by article
The heat pump owner case study became The Independent's most-read partner article of the previous 12 months
Average dwell time
Readers stayed with the content 30% longer than the site benchmark.
Search and brand impact
#1
Search rankings for high-intent queries on solar panels and heat pumps
+19pts
Lift in association between Octopus Energy and low-carbon home energy
The programme targeted high-intent search questions instead of running product promotion, and took number-one rankings for valuable queries on whether solar panels and heat pumps are worth investing in. Campaign research also shifted reader perceptions on three of the biggest barriers to adoption: heat pump performance, running costs and installation disruption.
The Independent's brand, audience and search authority were fundamental to the scale of these results. The partnership also included video, display advertising, social amplification, interactive widgets and offers, and the performance figures cover that full programme. Our remit was the editorial content delivery within it.
Sponsored editorial performs when it starts with reader utility
Our role was to translate commercial objectives into credible editorial ideas: finding the questions people were asking, identifying the strongest angles and sources, and producing content that could stand on its own merits inside a major national publication. The same method applies whether the destination is a national title or your own site.