The Snow Didn’t Show: Denver Water reunites with Sukle to help with Stage 1 drought response
The Hall of Fame “Use Only What You Need” ad campaign is coming out of retirement, as the utility is betting that two decades of trained conservation behavior can help the metro area deliver a 20% water cut with the “Water is Missing” concept.
DENVER, CO — Denver Water’s system is 100% surface water that comes from rivers, streams and reservoirs fed by high-quality mountain snow. This past winter, the snow largely didn’t come — snowpack fell to its lowest level since recordkeeping began in 1987. Hard numbers to process as Denver moves into summer facing the utility’s first major drought declaration in 13 years, and the imperative to reduce water use by 20%.
Denverites already know it. That’s what makes this drought a different kind of advertising problem — awareness, the thing most campaigns spend their entire budget buying, is free this time. What’s left is the hard part: turning a fact everyone accepts into behavior everyone changes, without panic, shaming, or fatigue. Denver Water, the public utility serving 1.5 million people across metro Denver, decided the answer wasn’t a new message. It was returning to the most effective message the city has ever heard.
“To meet our conservation targets, this drought has to feel immediate, visible and shareable across the Denver metro area,” said Stacy Chesney, director of Public Affairs for Denver Water. “Creative messaging helps people see their own role in conservation in a way restrictions alone cannot. Use Only What You Need built a foundation of awareness, recognition and shared responsibility that we need to draw on now to help stretch our water supplies through the drought.”
what happens when the water disappears from everyday life
Following a competitive selection process, Denver Water reunited with Sukle Advertising & Design, the independent Denver agency behind “Use Only What You Need” — the conservation platform that helped cut the metro area’s per person water use by 22%, earning a place in the Obie Hall of Fame alongside campaigns for Apple, Coca-Cola, Gap, Disney, and American Express. That history is the strategy. Denver’s conservation instinct isn’t starting from zero; it was trained. The new campaign’s job is to reawaken it.
The “Water Is Missing” does exactly what its title says. Familiar phrases — Pool Party, Car Wash, Watering Hole, Snow Cone, Splish Splash— appear in spare serif type with the water-related word struck through in a single orange line. Party, without the pool. Hole, without the watering, and so on. Each execution signs off with the campaign’s familiar orange “Use Only What You Need” lock-up and a call to action.
“A 20% cut in water use won’t be easy, so this campaign has to help people understand the urgency of the drought and translate it into clear, doable actions,” said Mike Sukle, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Sukle. “Instead of talking about water conservation abstractly, we wanted to show what happens when the water disappears from everyday life.”
About Sukle
Sukle is an independent, creatively-led agency built to solve the toughest and most interesting challenges clients face. For 30 years, Sukle has used unexpected creativity to drive positive change for client partners like Denver Water, Wild Oats, Great Outdoors Colorado, Children’s Hospital Colorado, Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment, City and County of Denver’s Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency, and the Wyoming Department of Public Health. Learn more at sukle.com.
About Denver Water
Denver Water proudly serves high-quality water and promotes its efficient use to 1.5 million people in the city of Denver and many surrounding suburbs. Established in 1918, the utility is a public agency funded by water rates, new tap fees and the sale of hydropower, not taxes. It is Colorado’s oldest and largest water utility. Subscribe to TAP to hydrate your mind, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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