Powershop put its big pink personification of power behind a corner-shop counter

Keep growing an ownable brand world for an electricity retailer whose product is identical to every rival's, and make 'shopping for power' feel normal.

A surreal corner shop that sells exactly one thing — power — where the customer is king: buy when and how you like, and the more you shop, the more you save.

Long-form video from FINCH (directed by The Bobbsey Twins From Homicide) builds the corner-store world and its quirky regulars; shorter video, OOH, digital and social land in contextual environments dramatising shopping moments, while a conversion layer twists retail tropes to sell 'Powerpack' deals.

No numbers in the source; Powershop's marketing lead says customers who join end up loving shopping for power, and the campaign's job is making that believable before they do.

Electricity, as Powershop marketing lead Annalies Kruiniger puts it, is a competitive marketplace where retailers sell the same end product — and 'shopping' is not something people usually pair with power consumption, until they join Powershop and love it. The third instalment of the brand's ongoing campaign via EightyOne lifts the lid on what being a Powershop customer is like, hinting that the answer is in the name: it's a shop. A shop that sells power.

The long-form film builds a surreal interpretation of the classic corner store, presided over by the brand's iconic big pink personification of power and staffed by unique characters with their own power-purchasing quirks. The pitch inside the joke: no free TVs, no free power after hours — a place where the customer is king, free to choose when and how to buy the power they need.

Shorter video plus OOH, digital and social ran in contextual media environments, dramatising relatable shopping moments for each benefit, while a conversion layer twisted the tropes of the retail world — the more you shop, the more you save, with regular 'deals' on Powerpacks. FINCH produced, with Assembly on post and SJD on sound; ECD Chris Bleackley summed it up as 'Milk. Bread. Eggs. Big pink thing.'

Every electricity retailer sells the same kilowatt-hours, so the experience of buying is the only real differentiator.

Customers who join Powershop reportedly love the shop-like experience; the campaign had to convey that feeling to people who hadn't joined.

A third instalment deepens an ownable brand world — characters and a store no competitor can borrow.

Contextual media and a deals-based conversion layer connect the joke to actual purchasing behaviour.

When the product is a commodity, sell the verb: turning 'buying electricity' into 'popping to the shop' gives a retailer a world, characters and jokes no rival can copy.

The source, from December 2022, presents this as the third instalment of an ongoing campaign and records no performance figures.