Con Edison's 'The Energy of New York,' created by Havas in November 2018, marked the utility's first television commercial, positioning New Yorkers as active
ARCHIVECon Edison Puts New Yorkers at the Heart of a Clean Energy Story
Con Edison's "The Energy of New York" is a 2018 film campaign created by Havas that positioned the utility not as an infrastructure provider but as a collaborator with the people of New York, inviting individual residents to see themselves as active participants in the city's clean-energy transition and to engage directly with Con Edison's energy-efficiency programs.
The campaign launched in November 2018 in the United States, as reported by Campaign Live, and carries the distinction of being Con Edison's first television commercial. That milestone alone signals a strategic shift for a company whose regulated utility operations — covering electricity, gas, and steam services primarily across New York City and Westchester County — had historically relied on functional, service-oriented communications rather than broadcast storytelling. The decision to enter television represented a deliberate move toward brand-building, one that arrived shortly after Havas New York Village won Con Edison's creative and media account in 2017, according to Campaign Live.
In the United States, utilities occupy an unusual advertising position: their customer bases are largely captive, determined by geography rather than competitive choice, yet they face growing pressure from regulators, policymakers, and the public to demonstrate commitment to renewable energy and sustainability. "The Energy of New York" addressed that pressure directly. The campaign's strategic positioning placed New Yorkers — not engineers, not executives — at the centre of a narrative about how individual choices shape the city's energy future, connecting the utility's clean energy ambitions to the identities and daily lives of the people it serves. Con Edison's Clapboard Score for this campaign stands at 56 out of 100.
ARCHIVEHavas New York Village grounded "The Energy of New York" in a consumer insight that is particularly resonant in the United States: people respond to energy efficiency messaging more readily when they feel personally implicated in its outcome rather than lectured at by an institution. Con Edison's campaign positioned sustainability not as a corporate obligation but as a collective civic act, one that New Yorkers could own.
Con Edison's competitive context in the United States is shaped by the structure of regulated utilities rather than direct brand competition in the traditional sense. Within New York, its primary regulated peer is National Grid, which serves parts of New York City and Long Island with electricity and gas distribution. Both operate under oversight from the New York State Public Service Commission, meaning that regulatory reputation and public trust function as competitive currency even where customer switching is limited. Against that backdrop, a brand campaign that cultivates goodwill and frames the utility as a progressive energy partner carries strategic value that extends beyond immediate commercial return.
The campaign also aligned with Con Edison's broader "Energy Future" initiative, which the company used through 2018 and 2019 to support more sustainable power options and energy efficiency, as documented on coned.com. In the United States in 2018, the clean energy conversation was intensifying at both the state and federal levels, with New York State among the most active markets for renewable energy policy. By anchoring its narrative in New York identity — the borough energy, the pace, the plurality — Con Edison and Havas gave the sustainability message cultural specificity that generic utility advertising rarely achieves. That specificity is the campaign's clearest strategic asset.
"The Energy of New York" takes a documentary-inflected approach to its film execution, presenting New York City as both setting and protagonist. The campaign's single media asset — a television film — draws on the visual grammar of urban portraiture, using the city's textures, its people, and its ambient energy as the raw material of the narrative rather than building a story around product features or service specifications.
Production credits for "The Energy of New York" are not publicly documented in available trade sources. What the campaign's construction reveals, however, is a deliberate choice to humanise infrastructure. Rather than foregrounding power lines, substations, or engineering language — the conventional visual vocabulary of utility advertising — the creative execution centres on people in motion across the five boroughs, implying that the city's energy is inseparable from the lives of the people who consume and sustain it. This is an executional posture that aligns Havas's work for Con Edison with the tradition of New York civic storytelling, recalling the kind of brand films that position a city as a living argument for a company's values.
The film medium choice itself carries strategic weight. As Con Edison's first television commercial, as reported by Campaign Live, the production had to accomplish brand introduction alongside campaign messaging — establishing a visual identity for a company that had not previously communicated at this register. In the United States, utility brands that have made comparable moves toward emotionally resonant television — such as Pacific Gas and Electric in California — have typically required several campaign cycles to establish a coherent creative voice. "The Energy of New York" attempted to compress that process into a single film, leaning on New York's inherent iconographic power to do work that a less geographically rooted brand would need to build over time.
No verified performance data for "The Energy of New York" is publicly available. No reviews of the campaign appear in Campaign, Ad Age, Adweek, The Drum, or Contagious, and no verifiable social media reaction data has been documented, as the research record confirms. No Cannes Lions, Effie, or other industry award records specific to this campaign have been identified.
In the absence of measurable outcomes, the campaign's structural effectiveness can be assessed on its own terms. Con Edison and Havas made three consequential decisions: launching on television for the first time, anchoring the narrative in New York identity rather than product specification, and framing residents as agents of the clean-energy transition rather than passive consumers. Each decision is coherent with the strategic brief, and together they represent a credible attempt to shift how a regulated utility is perceived in the United States market.
The campaign's principal structural risk is reach versus resonance. A single film asset, however well-executed, carries a light media footprint relative to the scale of Con Edison's service territory across New York City and Westchester County. Without documented paid media investment data — reported by any named source — it is not possible to assess whether the film reached a meaningful proportion of Con Edison's customer base. The Clapboard Score of 56 out of 100 reflects that balance: a campaign with a clear strategic rationale and an emotionally coherent creative posture, constrained by limited documented impact and a single-asset execution.
"The Energy of New York" is a 2018 film campaign created by Havas for Con Edison. It marked Con Edison's first television commercial, positioning New Yorkers as active participants in the city's clean-energy transition and directing audiences toward the utility's energy-efficiency programs, as reported by Campaign Live.
Havas New York Village created "The Energy of New York" for Con Edison. The agency won Con Edison's creative and media account in 2017, according to Campaign Live, and the campaign, launched in November 2018 in the United States, represented Havas's first major documented campaign for the utility brand.
The campaign was Con Edison's first television commercial, as reported by Campaign Live. Launching in November 2018 in the United States, it signalled a strategic shift from service-oriented communications toward brand storytelling, connecting Con Edison's clean energy and sustainability ambitions to the everyday identities of New Yorkers it serves.
Con Edison primarily serves New York City and Westchester County with regulated electricity, gas, and steam services. Operating in a regulated market in the United States, where customer switching is limited, its advertising strategy prioritises public trust and civic identity over direct competitive messaging, making narrative-led campaigns like this one strategically logical.
Con Edison's "The Energy of New York" holds a Clapboard Score of 56 out of 100. The score reflects the campaign's coherent strategic rationale and emotionally grounded New York narrative, balanced against a limited single-asset media footprint and the absence of publicly verified performance or industry award data.
The campaign connects directly to Con Edison's broader "Energy Future" initiative, documented on coned.com, which supported more sustainable power options and energy efficiency through 2018 and 2019. "The Energy of New York" gave that initiative a public-facing narrative voice in the United States for the first time through television.
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