The 5 litres challenge
Company: Pennon Group Plc - South West Water and Bournemouth Water
The idea
Most of us don’t think about how much water we use every single day. In the UK, the average person uses around 150 litres of water daily - that’s everything from showers and flushing toilets to washing hands and dishes. South West Water wanted to show that even small changes add up. If every customer saved just 5 litres of water a day - roughly the amount you’d save by taking one minute off your shower - that would add up to millions of litres saved across the region.
What I did
I created and developed The 5 Litres Challenge, a behaviour‑change engagement campaign designed to show people just how achievable water saving can be. The challenge was more than a slogan — it became a multi‑channel communications programme that helped customers understand their everyday use and feel motivated to take action.
This work included:
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Insight‑led messaging and repeated customer research to refine the campaign over time.
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Outdoor advertising across the region to raise awareness at scale.
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Social media engagement and digital content tailored to everyday water saving behaviours.
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Radio and digital audio adverts that brought the challenge into people’s routines.
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Emails, printed advertorials and community outreach to keep the message front of mind.
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A campaign landing page and regular stakeholder promotion to support deeper engagement.
The impact
The campaign ran over several years and helped shape how customers thought about water use and saving. By encouraging simple day‑to‑day behaviour changes, it contributed to a broader culture of water efficiency across the South West.
Year: 2019 - this campaign has been used for the last 3 years (2022). I worked on this project whilst employed at Pennon Group Plc, the parent company, the intellectual property of this project belongs to Pennon Group Plc.
