Accounting for Energy to Lumify Energy: Our Brand Evolution

Back in 2014, we set up Accounting for Energy with one guiding principle: to create a more transparent renewable energy sector. And that ethos remains true today.

Over the years, Accounting for Energy has come into its own. As our guiding principle evolved into our core ethos, our services expanded and our relationships grew and thrived. So, 2014 began to look very different to the present-day company.

Here, we explore our brand evolution, who we are, what we do, how we sound, look and where we’re headed.

A Name That Fit Our Early Offering

With Travis’ background as a chartered accountant, Accounting for Energy felt like a natural, true-to-brand name that reflected our early single-service offering –an audit for landowners to check their renewable energy payments.

Last year, we carried out market research to gain insight into how our clients perceived us. Our hunch was right: for many, we were forensic accountants, meticulous in making sense of the numbers and delivering the results in plain English.

More Than Just Accountants

Yet what we hadn’t acknowledged were all the other ways in which we were supporting our clients. We received overwhelming feedback about how critical a role we had played in helping our clients analyse the performance of their sites.

That’s when the penny dropped. The Accounting for Energy brand didn’t convey our evolution, the breadth of our offering or the benefits we provide to landowners and the industry at large.

Seeing the Solutions From Our Clients’ Perspective

With that in mind, we began to ask our clients, ‘How can we serve you better?’ We wanted to see our solutions through their eyes. It was about really understanding why they’ve come to see us as an invaluable and trusted partner. Here’s what emerged.

Bringing Light to a Murky Market

Despite all the advances in renewable energy, many people still feel like they’re in the dark.

People would often ask:

• ‘Will subsidies come or go?’ 
• ‘Are our renewable projects fulfilling their potential?’
• ‘Is the outlook still bright for renewable energy?’

And many don’t understand the ins and outs of the industry, expressing sentiments like these:

• ‘I’m a farmer negotiating with a big energy company.’
• ‘I don’t fully understand the area.’
• ‘I know our project, but I don’t know about the new subsidies.’
• ‘I’m not close enough to understand the new regulations and changes.’

The reality is, there is no manual for monitoring your site’s performance. And unfortunately, the language used in the energy sector is often convoluted, peppered with jargon and difficult to comprehend, let alone make informed business decisions about.

That’s why we do the work we do – to help our clients think differently about their projects, shining a light on their personal renewable situation with insights, guidance and professionalism:

‘Accounting for Energy helps me to see and understand the reason behind things.’

‘Accounting is [about] numbers, but Accounting for Energy do so much more.’

Building Trust Like No Other

It can be hard to know who and what information to trust. Our clients look to us for help in gaining an accurate, practical and impartial understanding of their renewable energy projects so they can feel in control.

From the perspective of our landowners, there’s a power imbalance in the industry that’s created by a lack of transparency. Professionalism and credibility go a long way in building trust. As one of our clients put it, ‘In this sector, you get a lot of cowboys’.

Offering Unrivalled Specialist Knowledge

Even though many landowners have trusted relationships with their advisers, sometimes these advisers don’t have all the answers when it comes to renewables, because it’s such a specialised field. For our clients, we are ‘the missing link, providing what others cannot – an invaluable “third leg”’.

When it comes to site operators, they often seem to ‘hold all the cards, [but] the reality is [they] don’t always have a complete picture when it comes to site-specific data’, making it difficult to accurately capture a site’s performance.

‘Agreements are often tied down by confidentiality, so it’s hard for the landowner to find out what rates are available. It requires specialist knowledge to research and find the information needed to advance negotiations.’

It’s in situations like these where we work our magic.

Solving Problems Our Clients Didn’t Even Know Existed

We’ve been described as one of the industry’s best-kept secrets. In many cases, our clients never realised that a service like ours existed. What’s more, they’re often unaware that they even needed our help.

But once they discover the kinds of insights we can uncover, they quickly realise the value in gaining a full 360-degree perspective of their site.

Increasing Our Visibility in the Sector

After speaking with our clients, it was clear that we needed to be more visible in the marketplace.

We also needed to shout a little louder about the kinds of positive experiences and outcomes clients have when working with us.

Three Crucial Insights

Through all our conversations, we were able to distil three important learnings that would guide our rebrand efforts:

• By simplifying how energy information is understood, we are able to empower our clients and instil confidence in their decisions with our expert knowledge and impartial advice.

• We delve into the details –way beyond just numbers.

• With a personalised, meticulous, down-to-earth approach, we’re here to ensure that our clients can always maximise returns for their projects and our planet.

These learnings incited a year of refining our services to support landowners throughout their renewable energy journey. We’ve also spent ample time extending our relationships with site operations and professional landowner advisers.

Shining a Light on Our New Brand

Just as we light the way forward for our customers and the industry, in order to build a brighter energy future, we needed to draw our brand out from the shadows and into the spotlight.

Our brand refresh needed to articulate all of our offerings, shake up our visual identity and attract the right potential clients. Being the industry’s best-kept secret might be a huge compliment, but we can’t be accessible to everyone if we aren’t visible.

A Name That Embodies Everything We Do

It was clear that our services illuminate a tricky-to-navigate market. We feel that our team brings energy and positivity, and that everything we do centres on simplifying renewables.

But it became quickly evident that ‘Accounting for Energy’ didn’t reflect any of the above. As one of our clients astutely put it, ‘Without knowing what they do, I’d think they were an accountancy company’; ‘Accounting for Energy is quite a limiting name since they are capable of so much more than accounting.’

From Accounting for Energy to Lumify Energy

Our customer research formed the building blocks of our new brand story. We chose ‘Lumify Energy’ because it’s unique, simple, clear and easy to say and spell. Most importantly, it encapsulates everything we are in a couple of words. We feel it allows us the room to evolve as a business, encompassing the innovations that are on the horizon.

We’ve re-named our core products and services, and added a few others so we can help meet the changing needs of our customers. Take a look at our new solutions.

Plus, we’re also developing our software solution and partnerships. We hope to bring light and transparency into this new and essential part of the UK’s economy.

Meet the founders behind Lumify Energy in our spotlight interviews with Travis and Freccia.

‘There is no manual for monitoring your site’s performance. And unfortunately, the language of energy is often convoluted, peppered with jargon and difficult to comprehend, let alone make informed business decisions about.’