New Zealand’s largest energy generator Meridian Energy has unveiled a new long-term brand platform to establish its leadership position in renewable energy, investment into decarbonisation and its long-standing commitment to important initiatives such as the DOC Kākāpō Recovery Programme.
Created by The Monkeys Aotearoa, part of Accenture Interactive, the platform enlists the help of Nature, a character who represents the natural world. Arriving on planet earth to inspire environmentally conscious behaviour, she uses her super-human powers to reward or discipline New Zealanders based on their actions.
Set to run nationally, the campaign film is directed by Jamie Lawrence and will be supported by OOH, digital, social, a Newshub Weather sponsorship and a retail campaign featuring Nature.
The Monkeys Aotearoa Chief Creative Officer, Damon Stapleton, says: “Doing the right thing for our planet has never been more important, but right now it feels like we all need a bit of light-hearted humour rather than a lecture. So we didn’t want to take ourselves too seriously with this campaign. It’s just a fun way to encourage us all (including Meridian), to do our bit for the planet.”
Meridian Energy Chief Marketing Officer, Michael Healy, adds: “I’ve been in so many meetings where people proclaim, ‘we want to be a doing brand, not a saying brand’, then they continue to say instead of do anything.
“Over the past few years, Meridian has been planting thousands of trees to offset our carbon footprint and we’ve created Certified Renewable Energy that not only reduces reported emissions for our customers but is now on track to deliver over $2.5m of support for community and business decarbonisation.
“We’re building a public charging network to make EVs more realistic for more Kiwis, working with large emission customers to convert their process heat to electricity instead of coal, we are partnering with Ngāi Tahu and the Department of Conservation to support Kākāpō recovery, and we’re building new windfarms.
“It’s fair to say we are a brand doing more doing than saying and now we’re finally ready to tell more of these stories. Just like in this campaign, Nature is going to insist we all do more, and we are working hard to play our part.”
To ensure the film production itself was environmentally friendly, Meridian and The Monkeys engaged an organisation called GreenLit to advise and to calculate the carbon footprint of the production which will be fully offset.
Credits
Client: Meridian Energy
Chief Marketing Officer: Michael Healy
Meridian Marketing Lead: Rhys Musson
Advertising and Media Manager: Jordan Fahey
Brand Manager: Laura Page
Chief Creative Officer: Damon Stapleton
Creative Director/Creative: James Conner
Creative Director/Creative :Christie Cooper
Head of Integrated Production: Rosie Grayson
Head of Planning: Tom Sykes
Senior Strategist: Brona Kilkelly
Strategic Planner: Haley Hetherington
Business Manager: Harrison Stone
Creatives: Jonathan Rands & Jon Burden
Integrated Art Director: Hannah Bartch
Integrated Copywriter: Briar Wood
Integrated Producer: Callum Crabb
Designer: Lucinda Fortescue-Hansen
Production Company: Eight
Director: Jamie Lawrence
Managing Director: Katie Millington
Executive Producer: Claire Kelly
DOP: Ginny Loane
Art Department: Neville Stevenson
Costume: Barbara Darragh
Editor: Luke Haigh
Online: Toybox
Colourist: Dave Gibson
Animation Director: Andrew Newland
Animation: Suraj Nayak
Animation: Markus Kristiansen
Animation: Jake Tuck
Lead VFX Artist: Leoni Willis
VFX Artist: Andrew Stewart
Post Producer: Al McKay
Music Licensing: Jonathan Mihaljevich Franklin Road
Sound Design: Craig Matuschka Liquid Studios
Photography: Goode+Williams
Producer: Pam Goode
Photographer: Chris Williams
Retoucher: Cameron Jones
Media Agency: MBM
Group Business Director: Georgia McNaught
Director, Social Media: Brianna Regester
Business Manager: Loren Smith
Junior Planner/Buyer: Izzy Antoniadis