Barry is the face of a new campaign, Natural Gas. The Natural Choice, launched by Alinta AGN. The campaign is the first on-air advertising and marketing campaign focusing on the promotion and benefits of natural gas since the 1990s that is not about promoting natural gas producers or retailers but the resource itself.

Lauren Ashford, Managing Director of the campaign’s designers, Pulse Marketing Group, said that there has been an absence of advertising about specific energy products due to past deregulation in the industry which saw the promotion of energy retailers and brands.

Research conducted by Roy Morgan Research on energy consumer choices showed that most people surveyed were concerned about the environment but unaware of the environmental benefits of natural gas. It also showed that over 70 per cent of people believed natural gas a better choice for hot water and home heating.

Alinta AGN Acting CEO David Clerk said that natural gas is the obvious choice for people who are looking for a cost effective and more environmentally friendly energy source for their homes.

“With current government and media attention on carbon emissions, Australians are becoming very aware of the potential negative impacts of climate change. The move to substitute natural gas in place of electricity is the simplest and most efficient way to reduce greenhouse emissions from Australian homes,” Mr Clerk said.

“This campaign is a way to show people that we, as energy suppliers, are equally concerned about the environment we live in and can provide Australians with a way to play their part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“The average household can reduce its greenhouse emissions by 3 tonnes per annum by simply replacing its old off-peak storage hot water system with a 5 star gas hot water system.”

The television and print campaign emphasises the benefits of using natural gas for cooking, home and water heating. It focuses on an average family, with a father who gets himself into some unfortunate situations around the house. While Barry doesn’t always make the best choices, one of his better ones is to connect his house to natural gas – saving him money, helping the environment and reducing his carbon footprint.

Alinta AGN Manager for Gas Network Development Peter Harcus told Gas Today that since its launch in early March, the campaign has been quite successful and that feedback from retailers is that they are happy with the campaign’s progress.

“Certainly from a consumer perspective the feedback was very good,” he said. “We are getting 1,500 hits a week on the website, of which about 1,300 are new. So we’re pretty pleased with that.”

Ultimately, however, the campaign is about increasing the number of gas appliances being installed and Alinta AGN is working with the Gas Industry Alliance to monitor and report this and more effectively monitor the campaign’s success. The alliance is made up of the Energy Networks Association, the Australian Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association, the Gas Appliance Manufacturer’s Association of Australia and the National Association of Food Equipment Suppliers.

“At the end of the day that is what this campaign is all about – helping increase the number of gas appliances being sold. So that’s one of the key industry initiatives that I’m driving,” Mr Harcus said. “Hopefully we should be in a position by the middle of this year to pull together appliance sales statistics being reported regularly so the industry can assess performance.”

Alinta has said that natural gas is Australia’s fastest growing energy source and that replacing electricity with the direct use of natural gas in New South Wales homes can reduce the state’s greenhouse emissions by up to 75 per cent. Natural gas currently accounts for 18 per cent of the country’s primary energy market and ABARE has forecast that this will increase to 24 per cent by 2020.

The winter Barry’s Got Gas campaign will be launched in June and will promote natural gas heating.