Innovation Excellence Awards

Canstar’s Blue Innovation Awards 2021 highlight fresh thinking in the field of energy and telecommunications, as well as a commitment to social good.

Canstar Blue is thrilled to announce the results of its Innovation Excellence Awards 2021. And this year, they not only highlight fresh thinking from utility providers, but also showcase a commitment to social good.

Canstar Blue’s annual Innovation Excellence Awards winners are assessed from a range of utility providers across energy and telecommunications.

This year’s submissions were of an extremely high quality and Canstar’s team of expert judges was particularly impressed by the trend towards innovations designed to support Kiwi consumers’ personal needs.

“We all had a tough 2020, due to the stresses of COVID-19 and uncertainty in so many aspects of our lives. This year, we saw through our awards that local businesses stepped up to help,” says Canstar NZ General Manager Jose George. “Our winners innovated to deliver products and services that simply made New Zealanders’ lives easier, better and cheaper. They did the right thing, and we applaud them for that.”

To determine the winners, the judges consider a range of criteria including the impact an innovation has on improving a consumer’s day-to-day life, its wow factor in the market, and its accessibility.

Across the country’s telco and energy providers, Canstar recognises two companies with prestigious Innovation Excellence Awards:

Mercury – the Mercury App

Canstar Blue’s expert judging panel recognised the Mercury App as unique, with considerable wow factor, due to its highly engaging loyalty program. The app engages customers by rewarding them for challenges, such as taking a certain number of steps.

In return for this positive behaviour, designed to reduced a user’s carbon footprint and boost their fitness, they are rewarded with Mercury Dollars. These can be put towards the cost of power bills, or redeemed for Air New Zealand Airpoints. Since the app launched, Mercury customers have taken over 4.7 billion steps through challenges and redeemed thousands of Mercury Dollars. Truly a win-win app!

Pulse Energy: Pay It Forward

Pulse Energy’s Pay It Forward program reflects Pulse Energy’s values as a community-owned business – one that captures the kindness of New Zealanders. Pay It Forward enables Pulse Energy customers to add a small monthly contribution to their power bills to support families experiencing energy hardship.

As it features no fees or conditions, plus affordable contributions, the program was deemed by the Canstar judges as having a considerable impact for those experiencing financial hardship. By providing financial support to households experiencing energy hardship, Pay It Forward gives vulnerable families some much-needed opportunity to get back on their feet.