What it had to solve
Smart Energy GB's campaign demonstrates the surprising amount of energy households can save with a smart meter. The second wave needed another human story showing the unexpected scale of those savings.
The idea
Make saved energy visible as one all-consuming hobby: a sewist's meter saves enough to run her machine 195 days a year — so she upholsters the room, boyfriend and cat.
How it works
A 30-second TV spot, also running on YouTube and online video, opens on young Saskia sewing a cushion, then gradually reveals the extent of her hobby: every inch of the living room upholstered in the same patterned material, including her surprised boyfriend and cat. Directed by Sam Hibbard through Somesuch, with post by MPC London, editing by Trim Editing and sound by Wave Studios.
What it did
The execution went live in October 2018 as the second film in a platform running since May 2018 across TV and online video, extending Smart Energy GB's smart-meter messaging with a concrete, memorable image of what saved energy equals. No performance figures are given in the source.
Background
Smart meters save energy, but 'energy saved' is invisible. For Smart Energy GB, AMV BBDO's 'Save Your Energy For…' campaign translated the abstraction into human stories with unexpected scale. The second wave, launched in October 2018, follows Saskia, a young woman passionate about sewing.
The 30-second film opens innocently: Saskia sewing a cushion. The voiceover then reveals the scale of her smart-meter savings — enough energy every year to power her sewing machine non-stop for 195 days. The camera keeps pulling back, and the punchline builds: every last inch of her living room is upholstered in the same patterned material as the cushion, and even her rather surprised boyfriend and cat have received the decorative treatment.
Directed by Sam Hibbard through Somesuch with post production by MPC London, the spot ran on TV, YouTube and other online video platforms as the next instalment in a series of human stories that began in May 2018 — each one answering the same question: what could you do with the energy you stop wasting?
Why it lands
The insight is that 'surprising savings' only land when given a human scale, so each execution picks one obsessive hobby and prices its energy in smart-meter savings.
Escalating the joke from a single cushion to a fully upholstered room, pet and partner makes the number (195 days) physically imaginable.
Using a relatable everyday passion rather than a celebrity keeps the focus on the audience's own potential savings.
The recurring platform structure let each new film add a fresh character while repeating the same arithmetic, compounding the message.
What you can take
Abstract utility savings become tangible when you convert them into one absurd, concrete image — 195 days of sewing power is forgettable, an upholstered boyfriend is not.
Since then
The film ran as the second wave of the campaign through late 2018. Smart Energy GB and AMV BBDO continued the platform in later years with further executions, including cartoon mascots and a recurring Einstein character. The source article reports no audience or behaviour-change figures.
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