Few partnerships between media organisations and commercial companies result in front page splashes, but One Big Switch managed that on Monday with coverage across page 1-3 of its campaign partner, the Irish Sun. "Revolt," the front page headline read with an invitation to "join our energy campaign", a promise to "fight to get you a fair deal" and the One Big Switch logo thrown in for good measure.
The inside spread repeated the message with the line “Power to the People” and a graphic of average electricity costs for households across the EU merged with detail about how “cash-strapped punters” can “save now at www.onebigswitch.ie.”
One Big Switch, co-founded by health insurance entrepreneur Oliver Tattan and majority owned by an Australian company, said its policy was "not to comment on any partnership we have with the media". (TV3 is also a campaign partner.)
The Irish Sun's enthusiastic backing of this consumer issue certainly hasn't done it any harm, however, with One Big Switch separately noting in a press release that more than 3,100 households had signed up on Monday, describing it as a "phenomenal growth rate" that "way outstrips the growth" of its previous campaigns.
The Irish Sun wrote that "if 25,000 of our readers join our Big Energy Switch campaign, One Big Switch will use people power to get you a better deal". The company says it will negotiate "exclusive discounts" with suppliers on behalf of its members.
One Big Switch, which ran its first campaign here in February 2014, is based on an Australian idea.
Consumers are implored to sign up for free on a no-obligation basis, with the company making money on commission earned from the utility firms to which it delivers new cash-strapped punters... sorry, customers.
Update on March 26th, 2015, 12.45pm: The Irish Sun and One Big Switch have a corporate link. The Irish Sun's publisher, News UK, is a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, which recently acquired a 20 per cent stake in the Australian company One Big Switch - this company in turn owns 60 per cent of the Irish venture.
