Sense
Sense is a series C funded, AI climatetech startup, embedding software in electric smart meters to help consumers and utilities manage home and grid energy consumption in real time. As the first brand and creative leadership hire, I'm helping elevate the Sense brand and experience across all touch points in the US and internationally.
Credits
Company: Sense
Role: In-house Brand & Creative Leader, overseeing the brand, creative and web practices
Worked on: Brand strategy, verbal & visual identity, website, art direction, print and environmental, marketing and advertising
Team: Rick Hulford (SVP of Consumer), Ryan Miglavs (Product Lead), Timotheé Bayard (Lead Brand & Web Designer), Saloni Soni (Freelance Creative Director), Hugh Gallagher (Brand strategist and Verbal Lead), Tommy Parker (Illustrator), Anisha Sisodia (Photographer), Justin Hayes (Web Manager).
Awards
Fall 2022 - Present
Bright Homes for Smarter Living
The Challenge
Energy contributes to 70% of greenhouse emissions, making the energy grid an essential part of decarbonizing the world’s economy. But today’s grid isn’t flexible or smart enough. And it works as a one way street, keeping consumers in the dark without any concrete ways to help.
The Solution
We need to electrify everything and move to renewable resources. To truly gain the benefits of this electrification, we have to turn that one-way street into a two-way highway, where both sides are informed, empowered, and engaged. Sense exists to transform the relationship between people, homes and the grid, by building the bridge between consumers and utilities to better manage energy consumption.
Evolving the Brand
Achieving this vision requires a refreshed brand that embodies this bold and optimistic vision. Working closely with leadership to guide the brand evolution of Sense, crafting a new brand positioning, verbal and visual identity that establishes Sense as a prominent, positive force in making the energy transition accessible to all.
Sense's previous brand identity lacked cohesion and a strong point of view. We introduced the concept of 'Great Energy' to humanize and demystify the world of energy and climate change. We're moving the conversation away from fear and pessimism, towards a more positive, proactive world. We want everyone, from homeowners and renters to our business partners, to feel empowered to contribute to a brighter, cleaner future. Our brand and product teams worked together to craft this new visual and verbal identity, ensuring that every interaction with Sense, whether through the app, marketing or business services, is consistent, engaging, and intuitive.
The logo, symbolizing a smart home powered by real-time energy data, is at the heart of the rebranding. We refined it and built a lively visual language that reflects the diversity of homes we cater to. A warm and vibrant color palette, reminiscent of sunlight at different times of day and night, highlights our round-the-clock support. A candid tone of voice, photography and illustration styles are injected with unexpected moments of wit to capture real life and lighten the mood.
Bringing it All to Life
The brand comes to life primarily through the consumer app, creating an intuitive, fun, insightful and interactive experience to help people save energy, money and reduce their carbon footprint.
And the new website allows us to communicate our story to all of our B2C and B2B audiences (US and International), building awareness, engagement and optimizing for conversion.
We're also in the process of launching Sense’s latest product—embedded software in smart meters. We’re partnering with leading electric utility companies in the US to offer the Sense Home app to their customers to help them save money on their bill, while reducing their carbon footprint.
The Impact
The new refreshed brand has set a strong foundation for Sense. Our technology is on track to be embedded in 3.4 million smart meters by 2027, thanks to partnerships with leading meter manufacturers, as well as various utility companies. We’re starting with a pioneering roll-out this year with National Grid in New York and Massachusetts, where we’ll be giving free access to the Sense Home app to 1.7 million households in upstate NY.
Users of the Sense app are already seeing benefits, saving an average of 8% on their yearly energy bills. The app is also popular, with users opening it 2-3 times a week and giving it a high rating of 4.5 stars on both Apple and Android app stores.
Since launching and iterating on sense.com, there's been an increase of 112% in views, 78% more engagement, 103% in avg. session duration and a 18.6% decrease in bounce rates.
Sense was recognized as a finalist by Fast Company in its 2024 Innovation by Design Awards in the Home Category.
Competitive Landscape
Previous Identity