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UTILITY WEEK | 2ND - 8TH OCTOBER 2015 | 9 Interview M eet Gaz and Leccy, the troublesome but instantly likeable cute cartoon faces of the smart meter rollout. Making the introductions to Utility Week is Sacha Deshmukh, chief executive of Smart Energy GB, the body charged with raising consumer awareness of the troubled smart meter rollout from its current level of less than 25 per cent. It's a job not many would envy – but today Deshmukh is all smiles and confidence. That confidence is going to be needed, because the challenges facing the rollout are many and varied. With another delay to the official start just revealed, there are serious questions over the deliverability of the roll- out and its value for money (some critics argue that key parts of the technology such as the in-home display units are already becoming outdated). Meanwhile, the public, still simmering with anger at energy suppliers, is largely uninformed about the rollout. It is anyone's guess whether they'll open their doors when the time comes. It's such a mess that Deshmukh's former chair Baroness McDonagh recently took to the pages of Utility Week to call for a new oversight role to be created. Weeks later, she le her post. However, Deshmukh isn't going anywhere. Having been with Smart Energy GB since day one (which was two years ago), he's confident that the campaign is the right approach to get the public on board. He's passion- ate about the creative approach, sanguine about the delays and naysayers, and ready for the rollout. Deshmukh brims with enthusiasm. Spreading the campaign's colourful creative across the coffee table, he explains that the cartoon characters are the result of a huge amount of work with consumers. "More work than I have ever done in my career in the development of a campaign," he says, as a veteran senior partner and chief executive of campaigns for household names including Sky, Santander and BMW. Deshmukh has managed to deliver the smart meter promotion campaign under budget. Roughly £4 mil- lion was spent on developing the consumer campaign in 2014, money provided by energy suppliers as part of their supply licence conditions. The company's accounts reveal that there was a £167,000 surplus in 2014, partly due to planned expenditure being reduced to achieve value for money. The choice of animated characters takes advantage of a "renaissance in animation", Deshmukh says, while also ensuring longevity over the timeframe of rollout. Doing without live actors should also help to keep costs down. There is also a series of videos on the theme of estimation being released. The next one is rugby themed and it will make the most of the rise of digital channels. A partnership with Youtube means the videos will be promoted to UK rugby fans using the site for rugby high- lights. This is "double the number using ITV for high-