PORTFOLIO

A power station called behaviour.

Strategy

Design

Research

Creative Strategy

Out of Home

Film and Video

Events and Activations

Architecture

PORTFOLIO

A power station called behaviour.

Strategy

Design

Research

Creative Strategy

Out of Home

Film and Video

Events and Activations

Architecture

WHAT MATTERED

Electricity is invisible. And that invisibility makes it easy to ignore. The City needed something that could interrupt daily routines, make electricity consumption feel real, and transform passive awareness into active participation.

INSIGHTS

People respond to what they can touch and feel. For a relatively intangible concept such as electricity saving, making it physical was critical. So, we shifted it from background utility to something emotionally engaging. Something with presence, scale, and consequence.

“DERRICK’S WORK WAS TRULY OUTSTANDING.”

Sarah Ward, Head of Climate Change and Sustainability, City of Cape Town

BRAND JOURNEY

The City’s communication evolved from informational to experiential. Instead of telling citizens to save electricity, our campaign demonstrated the scale of consumption and its very obvious consequences, in real time. We turned the invisible into something monumental.

A GIANT INFLATABLE COOLING TOWER

We created a large, inflatable replica of a power station cooling tower, and installed it in high-traffic public spaces around the city – especially in places where it would be in stark contrast to the beautiful environment. Wherever we erected the cooling tower, it became an immediate talking point, impossible to miss, inherently shareable, and visually tied to the consequences of consumption.

BEHAVIOURAL TRIGGER

By linking collective action to a visible outcome, the campaign gave citizens a sense of agency: their individual choices contributed to a city-wide result they could actually see. Supporting communication across radio, PR, and on-site messaging reinforced simple, actionable ways to reduce electricity usage.

IMPACT

This campaign didn’t just ask people to save electricity. It showed them why it was important and proved that collective action could visibly change the outcome. It created a highly visible, city-wide symbol of electricity consumption; transformed abstract energy usage into a shared public experience; and positioned the City of Cape Town as proactive, innovative, and citizen-focused. Our efforts were also picked up by GreenPeace and we persuaded the City to let the inflatable cooling tower be used in their European decarbonisation campaign.

Electricity demand in campaign

- 97 %