Green Means Go sustainable campaign

Bringing a sustainable message to the forefront of the Commonwealth Games

E.ON is an international energy company that aims to lead customers to be more sustainable at home and help businesses reduce their carbon footprint. As part of this mission, E.ON commissioned Linney to produce a film focusing on the need to be more green. The film had two purposes. One was to showcase the film at the stadium at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, an event E.ON was heavily involved in. And the other was as an educational aid in future discussions with city authorities and planners. The video aimed to highlight how to achieve net zero through the right energy solutions and reflect citizens’ needs while raising brand awareness of E.ON’s solutions and commitment to helping cities achieve net zero.

Producing an authentic video that reflected the views of the nation

To ensure that the film reflected the true feelings of citizens across the UK, E.ON carried out extensive market research to inform the film’s topics. Birmingham’s Poet Laureate and Young Poet Laureate, Casey Bailey and Fatma Mohiuddin, were then commissioned to create a poem bringing the survey results to life to reflect the nation’s feelings, frustrations and hopes for the future of a greener UK. They wrote the poem “Green Means Go”. 

Putting Birmingham on the map

On receiving the initial brief, the Linney Film and Animation team pulled together desk research on potential locations. The team proposed that all the filming should occur within Birmingham’s centre, the backdrop of the Commonwealth Games. One location that represented the real-world voice of UK cities was the streets and urban artistry of Digbeth. Our second location, the Library of Birmingham, offered a wider, panoramic view representing the potential for positive steps towards the goals of net zero. The shoot was set as a single day, bringing the poem to life in both motion and stills for maximum output options.

Using video, audio and captions to enhance accessibility

Using influences from Birmingham’s rich musical culture and locally recorded city sounds, Linney’s in-house audio team composed a bespoke score and soundscape, enriching the powerful dialogue of the performers. In addition, supportive typography was added, emphasising the voice of the 30,000 people surveyed, and acting as subtitles where sound or hearing was impaired. The final grading in both motion and stills then added a consistent and beautiful tonality across all outputs.

From the initial brief of producing just the one 16x9 film to be shown at the games, the content was adapted and made to work harder across social media, radio and Spotify ads, along with out-of-home (OOH) screens across Birmingham’s train network throughout the games. Through Spotify and radio ads, 2.8 million listens of the poem were achieved, while over four million people were engaged through the OOH media campaign.

Campaign success 

Overall, the campaign was a great success, generating 191 pieces of media coverage across national, regional and trade publications during the Commonwealth Games fortnight, including key pieces in The Independent, City AM and Channel 4 News. The coverage had a cumulative reach of over 20 million and key message penetration of 90%. During the campaign window, media reporting of green and sustainable energy increased by 13.2% against the rest of the year to date (with 1,510 daily mentions, on average, increasing to 1,710).

Linney: your partner in storytelling and video production

With film producers, editors, camera operators, animation designers, VR/AR specialists and dedicated project managers all under one roof, our Film and Animation team can help your brand stand out from the crowd. Whether you want to create corporate videos, consumer-facing adverts or campaign video assets, our team is on hand and ready to help bring your brand to life.