Panasonic's 'Life is electric' gives batteries backstories — Cannes Design Grand Prix 2016

Panasonic wanted a unified global image built on delivering happiness through electricity, and the rechargeable eneloop battery happened to be turning ten. The problem: batteries have become invisible commodities, and the electricity inside them is something people never see.

Charge 21 eneloop batteries with everyday energy — hamster wheels, playgrounds, cocktail shaking — packaging each cell with its origin story to make electricity visible.

Dentsu charged 21 identical eneloop batteries 21 different ways and recorded the real work: six hamsters ran exercise wheels for 60 minutes to make 0.34% of a charge, ten children spun a glove jungle gym for 63 minutes to reach 99.5%, one adult shook a cocktail shaker for 33 minutes for 0.43%. Each cell got illustrated packaging showing how its electricity was made, a printed 'electricity catalog', exhibitions at Classca and Tsutaya Electronics, and a web film of the charging itself.

The campaign won the Design Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2016 — Japan's first Grand Prix in that category — plus other awards. Jury president Tristan Macherel said it 'changed the perception on a product that has become a commodity', and visitors at the exhibitions included schoolteachers who asked to turn the idea into lessons.

Panasonic wanted its many businesses — home appliances, housing, devices, energy — to feel like one brand with one promise: delivering happiness through electricity. The problem was that electricity itself is invisible, and the rechargeable battery it chose to carry the message, eneloop, had become a commodity people never think about. The battery was also about to mark its tenth anniversary.

Dentsu's creative team, led by Haruko Tsutsui, took the idea of 'giving form to invisible electricity' literally. They charged 21 identical eneloop batteries in 21 different everyday ways, always measuring the real work behind each charge: six hamsters ran wheels for 60 minutes to produce 0.34% of a charge, ten children spun a glove jungle gym for 63 minutes to reach 99.5%, and an adult shook a cocktail shaker for 33 minutes to generate 0.43%.

Each battery was then packaged to tell the story of where its electricity came from, with illustrations of the hamster wheel, the playground or the shaker. The cells were gathered into an 'electricity catalog' and shown in exhibitions at Classca and Tsutaya Electronics, while film of the charging process ran as a web movie. Identical batteries suddenly became distinct characters, each with its own amount of energy and its own origin story.

The idea's clarity carried it across borders: in June 2016 it took the Design Grand Prix at Cannes Lions, the first time a Japanese entry had won that category. Jury president Tristan Macherel called it a work that 'changed the perception of a product that has become a commodity' and 'made a statement for the industry' — design used not to decorate, but to make people reconsider the electricity they use every day.

The concept made an invisible force tangible by tying it to real, measured human effort — every battery had a documented charge percentage and a story.

Personifying each cell turned an interchangeable commodity into 21 distinct characters, so the packaging itself carried the campaign's meaning.

The executions — film, catalog, exhibitions — all extended the same thought instead of adding different messages, which kept the idea legible to juries and audiences.

The tenth anniversary of eneloop gave the project a natural reason to exist without forcing a promotional message.

Give the invisible inside a commodity a face and a story: once a battery's charge has an origin — a hamster wheel, a playground — the product stops being interchangeable and starts being a character.

Life is electric earned the Design Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2016, described by jury president Tristan Macherel as a work that used design to change how people see a commodity product. Dentsu reported it as Japan's first Grand Prix in the Design category at Cannes, followed by numerous other awards, and the campaign became a standard reference for giving utilitarian products emotional backstories. The film and exhibition format showed that the same project could work as packaging, retail display, online content and a live event without diluting the idea.