Winner 2018

CORPORATE INFLUENCER

Brand

SHELL

Lead Agency

MEDIACOM

SHELL BRAND GRAVITY LIGHT & BEDTIME STORIES

The Challenge

Shell is striving to address the misconception that it is simply a traditional oil company. By working with inventors,communities, citizens, and influencers, Shell aims to positively transform lives, by bringing more and cleaner energy to
communities around the world, communicated via the #makethefuture brand platform. In Kenya, two out of three people have little or no access to reliable energy sources.

Many families in rural, ‘off grid’ communities rely on kerosene for lighting; over time, this can be both costly and, due to fumes, unhealthy Shell and the GravityLight Foundation have continued their collaboration to help address these energy issues Kenyans face.

The Strategy

GravityLight is a source of clean, durable and affordable light, powered by gravity, for people in low-income rural communities across the world. We sought to encourage Shell’s target audience of Energy Engaged Millennials (EEMs) – a smart, savvy, and time poor audience, with strong opinions – to choose to spend time with the Shell brand, and with GravityLight.

To demonstrate the power of bright energy ideas, we knew that our audience needed to see these ideas in action. We also acknowledged the power of non-Shell voices for this audience, and recognized that high-profile influencers could deliver more credible impact with our EEMs than the voice of the brand itself.

There are hundreds of millions of EEMs globally, so it was vital that we took the on-the-ground activity out of Kenya, and put GravityLight on a global stage.

The Implementation

Shell embarked on a 50-day GravityLight roadshow across Kenya, raising awareness of GravityLight’s benefits with the most important audience of all; rural, off-grid communities who could improve their wellbeing with cleaner, more reliable, more affordable light. The progress of the GravityLight relay was
captured during the roadshow, and subsequently promoted in earned and owned digital and social channels.

In these environments, highly engaged audiences could track the progress of the road-show, and watch video updates of rural communities experiencing the benefits of GravityLight first hand.

To deliver greater depth, we retargeted previously engaged audiences on social platforms, with animated videos of GravityLight ‘bedtime stories’. These stories were narrated by high-profile influencers in our key markets. The campaign was supported with focused search activity, to capture deeper
interest sparked by Shell’s content.

This activity directed the audience to a bedtime stories playlist, encouraging users to discover the full range of stories and therefore spending more
time with the Shell brand.

The Result

Credibility Energy Engaged Millennials – a time-poor audience – chose to spend real quality time with the Shell brand. We’ve taken GravityLight from remote villages in Kenya to the world at large. In under 6 weeks, we’ve achieved 274m views (and counting) of GravityLight content and we’ve sparked a genuine desire with our audience to dive deeper into Shell’s
#makethefuture content.

By encouraging our audience to spend time with us, we have built a genuine understanding and appreciation of the power of bright energy ideas. We showed that collaboration and access to energy can change lives.