Snowy Hydro Limited is an energy business backed by the Snowy Mountains Scheme. Their retail companies are Red Energy and Lumo Energy.

Over the past decade Snowy Hydro has been dedicated to significantly improving communication in order to rebuild relationships, improve understanding of their business operations and improve community engagement as well as perceptions of their business. Snowy Hydro undertook independent research to understand how the company was perceived by the community. This information was then used to improve relationships, messages, communication strategies and community engagement.

A successful tool in the re-engage and educate strategy was the development of a regional, quarterly community newsletter; Snowy Hydro NEWS. Snowy Hydro decided to increase the profile of their newsletter by providing it through direct mail to the residents across the Snowy Mountains Region. They communicate articles and stories in the newsletter through key themes to ensure they meet the satisfaction of their audiences. Many articles are written to specifically focus on areas that show Snowy Hydro ‘cares and listens’ to the community. Past articles have included information about key community events that Snowy Hydro participated in.

A strategy was developed that all articles published in the newsletter were to be written and authored by a Snowy Hydro employee in order to personalise their business. Through this newsletter, Snowy Hydro has seen a measurable improvement in communication engagement, perceptions and business understanding in the stakeholder community.