While School is Out, Powershop Steps in with Interactive Environmental Experience
To inspire families to use energy more sustainably, Powershop – Australia’s greenest power company – has launched a kids book with a difference. The interactive story responds to energy consumption via smart meter data. The more sustainable a household’s energy usage is, the better the story becomes.
Conceived and developed by whiteGREY, the book asks kids and parents to help a character called Goldie (a climate vulnerable Green and Golden Bell Frog) prepare for her Pond Party. By helping Goldie invite her friends, catch party food, decorate, and make party music, they learn about the impact of climate on species and ecosystems, and receive valuable tips on home energy usage. When they return to the story the next day, the book uses their household’s smart meter data to determine whether or not they have been more sustainable with their energy usage. If they’ve improved, so too does the book’s scenes and outcome. If not, the book becomes a bit less fun.
In a time when social isolation is leading to more power usage at home, it’s hoped that the book can serve as an engaging tool to help shape more sustainable household energy behaviours – a crucial goal for Powershop on its ongoing mission to make our energy consumption ‘Power you can be proud of’ (the brand platform launched by whiteGREY in 2019). It can be accessed here - with a promotional video here - and while the full experience of an energy connected story is for Powershop customers, any Australian family interested in learning more can still access the book.
Michelle Grigg, marketing manager at Powershop says: “Pond Party is a fun way for families to talk about climate change and the steps they can take to lessen their impact on the environment. Whilst we’re dealing with the ongoing effects of the bushfires and now Covid-19, a digital book specifically designed to be read at home, is an educational and entertaining tool for both customers and non-customers alike.”
Juan Garcia, national head of technology at whiteGREY adds: “I’m proud that we have been able to create a digital experience that will help change behaviour. Using modern tech and an interactive approach to the narrative, we feel that we’ve built something that is as engaging as it is smart. By working together with Powershop’s team to develop a service layer that allows account usage and attributes to be extracted and interpreted for external use, it opens new ground for an energy provider to make meaningful use of its data.”
Pond Party is supported by a digital campaign across display, social channels and influencer activity, plus PR. Powershop powers more than 160,000 homes and businesses and is Australia’s only electricity and gas retailer to be certified 100% carbon neutral by the Australian government; it is Australia’s greenest power company.
As Powershop’s lead strategic, creative and digital agency, whiteGREY was responsible for the concept, strategy, CX and UX design, technical development and supporting comms. To bring the book to life, whiteGREY implemented a server-less approach for the infrastructure using the AWS stack and ReactJS and Lottie for all the front-end and animations. This highly scalable and nimble approach allowed the different teams to work seamlessly across multiple geographic locations, as well as closely with Powershop’s own tech team to access Powershop’s data and platforms.
Joe Hill and Garret Fitzgerald, executive creative directors at whiteGREY commented: “By combining live data and storytelling, Pond Party connects households to the challenges of climate change in a constructive and inspiring way, empowering families to take climate action by making small changes to their daily lives”.
