Ofwat plans to lead by example with its drive for innovation in the water sector with the launch of a digital campaign next month.
Titled Spark!, the campaign will feature a series of videos which aim to encourage water companies to “fully embrace” innovation and the opportunities it brings.
Going live on 6 February, Ofwat’s digital channel will run two programmes a week over a four-week period with each week focusing on a theme around innovation.
These will range from: highlighting the “tangible benefits” of innovation for companies and their customers; looking at how to create a culture which “nourishes innovation” and creative thinking; exploring the benefits of collaborating with others and finally, discussing how the water sector can keep pace in a “rapidly changing and increasingly dynamic world”.
Over the course of the campaign, Spark! will feature experts from a range of companies and sectors including BT, Microsoft and Bio-Bean, each of whom will be sharing their insights on the “power and necessity” of innovation, to inspire water companies to think about what might be possible in their sector.
This campaign complements other work Ofwat is doing around innovation, which is one of the main themes of the forthcoming 2019 price review (PR19).
Speaking at Utility Week’s Water Customer Conference in Birmingham on 17 January John Russell, Ofwat’s senior director of strategy and policy told delegates the regulator would be launching an innovation channel on YouTube in February to accompany PR19.
Russell explains more about the campaign in this teaser video.
He told Utility Week: “Innovation is happening all around us; disruptive technologies and new ways of doing things are having a profound impact on our lives, our interactions with one another and our expectations as customers. In the face of this change, water companies must not only keep pace with the exciting new innovations going on all around them, they must fully embrace them.
“Through this campaign, we are aiming to lead by example as the regulator, using digital channels to help water companies to learn from other sectors and to challenge themselves to think big about new and innovative ways of doing things, to ensure they are delivering the very best for their customers now and in the future.”