E.ON UK Makes Rallying Cry to Fight the Climate Crisis in Sustainable Advert by House 337

Leading energy and sustainable solutions provider E.ON UK is making a rallying cry to fight the climate crisis in its new ‘It’s Time’ campaign by creative collective, House 337. Taking an innovative sustainability-led approach to filming, carbon impact was considered through every aspect of the production process. 

E.ON is a leader in bringing sustainable energy solutions to its customers and the ‘It’s Time’ campaign reflects the urgency with which we now need to act on the climate crisis, bringing a much-needed sense of impatience to the sustainable energy transition. 

The 60 second hero advert launches on 24th June across TV and Cinema, running in the UK until August. The campaign will continue through digital-out-of-home advertising, print, radio and social media, highlighting the specific sustainable technology offer provided by E.ON. Solar panels, EV chargers and air source heat pumps feature against positive nature-filled backgrounds, with headlines that continue the urgent rallying cry of ‘It’s Time’.

The idea, written by Senior Creatives, Kenny Meek and Mary Johansen, is simple. Using striking CGI, businesspeople and homeowners are captured on melting ice caps, on flooded streets, in a tornado and in burning forests. Each of them nonchalantly sings lines from the Irma Thomas song ‘Time Is On My Side’ as their focus remains locked on other things. 

As the climate crisis induced scenes escalate, we finally see one woman realise the urgency of the situation. The film resolves with the positive view of the future that E.ON is striving to help bring about, through sustainable energy solutions for homes, business and cities.  

Creative collective agency, House 337, ensured the process of making ‘It’s Time’ had as little carbon impact as possible, using a combination of solar powered studios, a responsibly sourced wardrobe, recycled rather than re-filled water tanks and keeping travel and shoot attendees to an absolute minimum. Every partner involved also had a clear commitment to sustainability. Checklists were used to track the entire process from the carpenters to the caterers and after all carbon reductions were made, the entire production’s carbon footprint was calculated with any remaining carbon output offset. 

The imagined scenarios in the advert were complex, from flooding a village, to travelling to the Arctic. In production terms, this level of detail could have been hugely unsustainable. But by utilising technology, the team were able to use virtual backdrops and virtual video villages to reduce the need for travel, cutting emissions and budgets in the process. 

Scott Somerville, chief marketing officer at E.ON UK, comments: “‘It’s Time’ is a rallying cry for us all to stop putting off the changes that are needed to address the climate crisis and to work together to find a more sustainable and progressive future. 

Whether it’s governments, businesses or homeowners, there’s a huge amount of positive intention when it comes to sustainable energy, but rarely do any of us bring enough urgency to the situation. Regardless of the brand, product or service you're promoting, it's time to rethink our responsibilities and ensure that we all take steps, no matter how small or big, to begin in earnest that critical path to change we need as a society.”

Ross Newton, creative director, House 337, adds: “It’s incredibly important that we all act on the climate crisis, but we didn’t want to use the same old shock tactics. Instead, we wanted to highlight the behaviour that we’re all guilty of. We hope that on seeing the ad, viewers will feel a sense of frustration that the people in each scenario aren’t reacting to the devastation surrounding them, and feel empathy towards them as they recognise that behaviour in themselves, and consider what steps we can all take to become part of the solution.”

E.ON is leading the energy transition in the UK and the ‘It’s Time’ campaign is designed to drive brand awareness of its commitment to help tackle the climate crisis, encouraging people to learn more about E.ON’s sustainable energy solutions.

Hans Emanuel, director at FAMILIA, said: “What I loved about the concept was the juxtaposition. Seeing familiar home and work settings amongst ravaged landscapes. Hearing care-free singing between the soundscape of natural disasters. From a directorial perspective this film had all the components from epic wide shots, interspersed with intimate personal moments to huge VFX builds to wirework. The finished film is testament to the hard work from the amazing team at agency House337, my production team at FAMILIA and post house Mathematic.”