NC Electric Cooperatives

Connecting 2.5 Million North Carolinians to Their Power Company

The North Carolina Electric Cooperatives are comprised of 26 non-for-profit cooperatives around the state, powering the lives of more than 2.5 million North Carolinians.  NCEC is not a typical energy company, as their structure as local non-profit cooperatives mean that they're truly invested, engaged, and involved in their local communities.

The organization came to us, with our non-profit website design experience, to bring that story to life and help personalize the company while also giving consumers quick access to important information, which can sometimes be urgently needed during power outages, ice storms, hurricanes, and more.

The result was a modern, friendly, and intuitive site that worked to incorporate features like custom icons and interactive effects to humanize the brand, while also always making sure that critical information was easily accessible to visitors.  The initial project has blossomed into a longterm partnership that has included additional microsites, ads, interactive experiences for conferences, and more.

An Inviting and Intuitive Experience

NCEC is not a typical big power company, as it has local non-profit cooperative who are deeply involved and committed to the communities they serve.  A goal of the website design was carry forward that idea and make the design feel personal, friendly, and engaging.  By using modern design and interactive techniques, such as animating icons and ambient video, and highlighting images of teammembers in the community, the site connotes the type of energy, involvement, and personal touch that the brand wanted reinforced.

Additionally, since the site serves as an important tool for customers, it was was important to make it easy for them to get the information most relevant to them, including critical updates.  The homepage uses persona-driven navigation in an Explore section to let visitors quickly see the different ways the site can help them and dive right in.  Additionally, the platform allows NCEC to put a banner across the top of the page with time-sensitive and important updates.

The site also features tools like a custom interactive map, outage tracking, and more to make navigating the site even easier while also using custom elements to present information.  The site's design works to augment the brand's mission, show NCEC's scale of impact, and also serve as a very functional tool for consumers who need timely help.

A Family of Digital Properties

After the success of the main website projects, NCEC has worked with us on a number of additional, supporting digital efforts.  Several of the projects were microsites that built on the visual language of the main site and are focused on specific campaigns or data; an example is their NC Electric Vehicle Initiative.  Others were custom efforts that used NMC's design and development team to promote new initiatives, such as the custom experience to the left, which was custom built and animated by NMC for display on touch screens at conferences.

Building On a Strong Foundation

The new site, and associated microsites, were built on WordPress with a setup that makes it very easy for administrators to build new custom pages and templates, using blocks and features from other sections of the site.  The new design represented a step forward in NCEC's visual language, and the infrastructure across sites allows the organization to continue building on that and moving forward with new efforts and initiatives.  

We continue to closely partner with the organization helping them not only with the design and development of these efforts, but also the strategy, promotion, and tracking that help make them successful.