Prove It Media

pacific gas & electric

7 Saturdays

pacific gas & electric

7 Saturdays

Client

Challenge

Wildfires are a persistent threat across California, placing increasing responsibility for home resilience on individual homeowners. While PG&E needed to educate customers on fire preparedness, traditional safety messaging often overwhelms audiences — making the problem feel expensive, complex, and time-consuming.

The result is inaction. Faced with too much information at once, studies show that people tend to disengage. PG&E needed a way to turn an intimidating, long-term responsibility into something people would actually start — and follow through on.

Wildfire preparedness has long been a critical issue in California, and longstanding gaps in outreach remain. PG&E’s Community Wildfire Safety Program campaign reinforced how seniors — especially within Latino families — as well as individuals with access and functional needs, continue to be disproportionately vulnerable and underserved by traditional messaging.

News stories highlighted seniors struggling with basic emergency readiness, from navigating outages to understanding evacuation guidance. At the same time, many Latino families live in the wildland-urban interface, where wildfire risk is highest. Yet preparedness communications often relied on fear-based messaging or technical language that felt impersonal, inaccessible, or culturally disconnected.

PG&E needed to deliver critical preparedness information without frightening or alienating audiences — and in a way that resonated emotionally across both English- and Spanish-speaking households.

Insight

Behavior change happens when actions feel achievable, not fear-based. Breaking complex tasks into small, time-bound steps increases confidence and follow-through. At the same time, how people learn has shifted. Increasingly, homeowners — especially newer ones — turn to social feeds for practical guidance. Short, vertical video fits naturally into daily media habits, making instruction feel familiar, repeatable, and low-pressure rather than overwhelming.

Idea

Make fire preparedness feel doable — over the course of 7 Saturdays.

Solution

7 Saturdays to a More Fire-Resistant Home reframed fire-hardening as a simple checklist spread across seven weeks. Each Saturday focused on a few easy-to-do actions, allowing homeowners to build momentum and confidence over time. The series was co-hosted by David Hawks, a PG&E senior safety specialist and retired fire captain from the Cal Fire Butte Unit, whose calm, authoritative presence replaced fear with reassurance. He translated expert guidance into plain language, explaining not just what to do, but why it mattered. Designed specifically for feed-based environments, the content ran across TikTok, Instagram Reels, and Facebook, blending seamlessly into everyday social consumption. TikTok-first executions used familiar creator formats so the message felt native rather than instructional. Media targeting focused on homeowners in high fire-risk ZIP codes, layered with behavioral signals such as home improvement and hardware shopping to reach likely homeowners. Creative was strategically versioned to increase relevance and emotional resonance, including general homeowner listicles, family-focused assets, and a pet-focused version — recognizing that pets are often excluded from emergency planning despite being central to family decision-making. Each episode directed viewers to PG&E’s Safety Action Center, helping move audiences from awareness to action.