In Meridian Energy’s new TVC by The Monkeys Aotearoa, Nature is a fierce female with superhuman powers to inspire environmentally responsible behaviour and dissuade those from doing the planet harm. Boosting her message is the emotive power of the 1967 Aretha Franklin hit, Respect.
The campaign for New Zealand’s largest energy generator introduces its 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.
The campaign is running nationally in New Zealand, led by the film directed by Jamie Lawrence and supported by OOH, digital, social, a Newshub Weather sponsorship and a retail campaign featuring Nature.
Damon Stapleton, chief creative officer, The Monkeys Aotearoa, commented, “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.”
Michael Healy, chief marketing officer, Meridian Energy, added, “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 that the film production itself was environmentally friendly, Meridian and The Monkeys engaged 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 & Media Manager: Jordan Fahey
Brand Manager: Laura Page
Agency: The Monkeys Aotearoa
Chief Creative Officer: Damon Stapleton
Creative Directors: James Conner & Christie Cooper
Creatives: Jonathan Rands & Jon Burden
Head of Integrated Production: Rosie Grayson
Head of Planning: Tom Sykes
Senior Strategist: Brona Kilkelly
Strategic Planner: Haley Hetherington
Business Manager: Harrison Stone
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: Gin Loane
Art Department: Neville Stevenson
Costume: Barbara Darragh
Editor: Luke Haigh
Online: Toybox
Colourist: Dave Gibson
Animation Director: Andrew Newland
Animation: Suraj Nayak, Markus Kristiansen & Jake Tuck
Lead VFX Artist: Leoni Willis
VFX Artist: Andrew Stewart
Post Producer: Al McKay
Music Licensing: Jonathan Hughes Franklin Road
Sound Design: Craig Matuschka Liquid Studios
Photography: Goode+Williams
Producer: Pam Goode
Photographer: Chris Williams
Retoucher: Cameron Jones
