Power Behind The Plug
NRG Energy
Issue 37 | December 2015
Agency
Droga5 New York
Creative Team
Creative Chairman David Droga Chief Creative Officer Ted Royer Executive Creative Director Neil Heymann Creative Director Rick Dodds Creative Director Steve Howell Copywriter German Rivera Hudders Art Director J.J. Kraft
Production Team
Production Company Stink
Date
July 2015
Background
More than 10 years ago, people started asking questions about how their food was made. This prompted the food industry to make some important changes.
NRG wanted people to start asking similar sorts of questions about their energy, about how power is created rather than simply plugging in, without pausing to think about it.
For NRG, the ultimate goals were to reduce carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 and by 90% by 2050.
Idea
'Power behind the Plug' was an evocative 90-second film and campaign that sought to show how people reacted when they were invited to take a moment to think about where their power came from.
An installation was created inside one of America's busiest airports and hidden cameras set up to capture the reactions of travellers when they were given a choice of power supply.
When they recharged their mobile phones at the specially constructed power 'station', they could choose energy generated by 'Wind', 'Solar' or 'Fossil Fuels'.
Intriguingly, most people preferred the sustainable options to fossil fuels.
The endline was, 'We're changing the power behind the plug just the way you would.'
The film directed viewers to www.nrg.com/ smartenergyrevolution, where they could find out about other ways to make better use of renewable and sustainable energy.
Results
This film, created with partner Droga5, was one of many programs that NRG planned to help educate businesses and consumers to their choices along the path to a clean energy future.
The numbers (paid)
- Impressions: 284M+
- Video Views: 24M+
- Social Engagement: 425K+
- VCR: 80%
- Site Visits: 160K
Our Thoughts
This is, I think, just one part of a much bigger campaign. A similar sort of installation was built at a music festival in San Francisco and that too led to a video. The whole hidden camera thing has become something of a cliché recently but behind this film there is an interesting insight. Consumers are seldom invited to think about what sort of energy they are consuming. When asked, apparently 91% said they would prefer their power to come from sustainable sources. It’s good to know, then, that while NRG also sells electricity sourced from coal-fired power stations, they also run a huge solar farm out in the Arizona desert and the largest wind farm in the USA.