It's tapped Raul Brindis -- host of the top Spanish-language radio show in Texas -- to endorse Reliant's products in ads spoofing a popular Hispanic TV variety show.
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Click here for details and to register.         That's a departure from Reliant's brand-focused ads used to reach Hispanic customers in the past (RT, 8/30/05).
        The ads replicate Sabado Gigante -- the world's longest running variety show -- with Brindis as host.
        The cast includes backup singers -- the Lolaettes -- debuting a Reliant jingle that urges customers to call and sign up for a plan that best meets their needs.
        The spots use an in-culture approach rather than just an in-language strategy, explained Gregg Hollenberg, Reliant vice president.
        The variety show -- popular in the US and Latin America -- is "highly relevant" to Spanish-speaking customers, he noted, and shows Reliant's commitment to that community.
        The integrated media blitz includes radio spots, billboards and print ads featuring Brindis in the same manner as the TV spot.
        The campaign started in the Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Corpus Christi, Lower Rio Grande Valley and Laredo markets.
        Originally published in Restructuring Today on September 13, 2006

Marketers see a new threat in Massachusetts power markets

It's Nstar's proposal to take its merger to the next step -- wiping out the separate identities of its utilities and charging all small customers the same basic power rate.
        That would save administrative costs and wouldn't harm the public, Nstar maintains, but marketers and DG owners dispute that.
        Commonwealth Electric, Cambridge Electric Light and Boston Edison now buy basic-service power for non-shoppers separately and charge rates that reflect their ISO New England zones.
        The exception is Boston Edison that has customers in the Northeast and Southeast zones but is allowed to charge small customers a blended rate.
        If the merger is OKd, all small customers would pay a blended rate.
        That's likely to have serious consequences for competition, the Retail Energy Supply Assn warned.
        Customers in the highly constrained northern zone would see artificially lower power rates than marketers could offer and those in the southern zone would pay artificially higher rates.
        RESA believes "strongly" that having non-market-based pricing obstacles or advantages based on load zone is an "exceptionally poor way to ensure meaningful and beneficial long-term competition."
        Originally published in Restructuring Today on September 13, 2006