Ten years of keeping people gas safe
The Gas Safe Register launched to the public on 1st April 2009, bringing a new gas safety brand to people across the country.
Much has changed in the following ten years, and the Gas Safe Register has grown and evolved, while still retaining the same consistent focus on the central mission of ensuring everyone stays ‘gas safe’.
But how does the Register do that? And what are some of the key facts and figures
1. More registered engineers, more registered businesses
When the Gas Safe Register launched in 2009 there were 120,000 engineers and 58,000 businesses. By the end of 2018 there were over 140,000 registered engineers and more than 76,000 businesses – that means more people out there are qualified and competent to work safely on gas.
2. Inspecting gas work, making people safer
Gas Safe Register inspectors undertake over 40,000 inspections of engineers and their work each year. By targeting resources at those areas most likely to have gas safety issues, the Register is helping keep tens of thousands of families safer each year.
3. Online, all the time
A gas safety issue might not be restricted to office hours, and sometimes you just need access to information and advice immediately – the Gas Safe Register website isn’t only a great source of advice on gas safety issues, it’s also where the public can search for or check a gas engineer and know that they are qualified and competent to undertake the work. In 2018 the Gas Safe Register website had over 3.6 million visits, with 7.3 million ‘Find or Check’ searches carried out.
4. Going social
Social media is a key channel for getting gas safety messages to the public, often right to the device in their hands, and for sharing gas safety tips, information about awareness campaigns, and even the occasional gas safety quiz. The Register now has around 80,000 followers on social media – come and join the conversation!
5. YouTube – not just cat videos
There is a lot of advice available online, not all of it good. Gas Safe Register knows that it is important to have sensible, high-quality gas safety advice available to consumers in a form that is easy to access, and to share with others – it seems to be working. The videos on the Gas Safe Register YouTube page have been viewed over 730,000 times.
6. The human touch
While a lot of the world has moved online, there are still times when speaking to a real person is the preferred solution. The staff at the Gas Safe Register contact centre are highly trained and happy to help consumers and engineers alike with their enquiries. In the period from April 2017 to March 2018 the contact centre took over 360,000 calls.
7. Messages which unite the industry
Gas Safe Register created Gas Safety Week as a campaign in 2011 with the aim of improving gas safety awareness amongst the public, and it has grown consistently since then. Now, it is truly a pan-industry event, with over 4000 supporters in 2018 and total messaging ‘reach’ of over 132 million.
8. On the air, on screen, and on the page
Gas Safe Register conducts around four consumer campaigns each year, with Gas Safety Week one of the highlights. These campaigns, which are often seasonally themed, or look at different audience groups and messages, maximise the chances of getting the message out to as many gas consumers as possible.
9. It all ‘ads’ up…
Gas Safe Register has used advertising since the beginning in 2009, but the current ‘Don’t Cut Corners with Gas’ campaign is one of its biggest ones yet. Featuring ‘Jack Corner’ and a strong consumer message about the importance of only using a Gas Safe registered engineer, the TV ad has already appeared over 1,300 times on many different networks. The campaign is also using out of home locations like billboards, radio ads, print advertising, and a broad range of online messaging.