Frank Energy blind-tested identical electricity and advertised 'Probably Cheaper' so the c

Frank Energy (the renamed Energy Online) was an obscure discount electricity retailer in a category consumers deliberately avoid thinking about — research cited by the campaign puts the average person at six minutes a year spent on their utility. Rivals all sold the same physical product, since the electrons behind every meter are identical, and most incumbents advertised on warm 'part of the family' emotion rather than price.

The obvious responses were all weak: scream a headline price claim and get dismissed as a trap; run 'your family deserves better' emotive ads and drown in the category's sameness; or promise 'guaranteed lowest' and fail the moment a rival undercuts you. Frank needed a way to let a wary public arrive at 'cheaper is just cheaper' on their own.

Blind-tested identical electricity as if it could be tasted, let all results tie, and hedged with 'probably cheaper' so buyers concluded the rest themselves.

The move relocates persuasion from claim to demonstration.

The hedge 'probably' lowers the counter-punch surface, so rivals can neither call the promise a lie nor match a number.

Every dollar of cost-of-living anxiety then amplifies the fit: the consumer is already motivated to want the conclusion, and the experiment hands them a legitimate way to reach it.

Attention compounds because testing power against power looks absurd, which makes the deadpan 'same result' punchline memorable.

When you sell a commodity that is physically identical to the premium rival but buyers distrust your discount, do not claim cheapness. Run a controlled comparison that ties, advertise the hedge ('prob

Customers +7% year one, +17% next, churn cut to 16% (industry 20–30%). Took 2024 Effie Aotearoa Gold plus two YouTube NZ Marketing awards. Frank kept the quirk as its identity — a green asterisk mascot jabbed at rival complexity, and 'Probably Cheaper' was reprised as the always-on brand platform, proving the humble-hedge position was repeatable rather than a one-off stunt.