Down a Degree

The citizens’ campaign encouraged Finns to take energy-saving actions to ensure energy for us all.

The client

An extensive energy-saving campaign was launched in the fall of 2022 with Motiva, the Energy Authority, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland, the Ministry of the Environment, the Prime Minister’s Office, and the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra. Its purpose was to advise citizens on practical energy-saving actions and to balance consumption peaks now and in the future.

The campaign’s target group was all Finns and those who live in Finland.

The challenge

In addition to climate change, the campaign’s background was particularly affected by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, whose consequences on the energy market were evident in Finn’s everyday lives and wallets. Short- and long-term energy-saving actions require changes in the behavior of all Finns and increasing awareness of the subject. How to get as many people as possible excited about reducing energy consumption? What would touch my heart so profoundly that I’d have to take action? How to pass information in such a concrete and motivating way that people are receptive and, above all, adopt the desired new habits?

The fact that a serious story was built almost daily in the media also by others brought its challenge – so the campaign focused its resources on being solution-oriented.

The solution

We created a unified communication and marketing concept, which is summed up in the “Down a Degree” message and logo. The main message was “Down a Degree. To ensure energy for us all”. At the campaign’s core was a touching and meaning-creating concept story and the most important elements of the visual appearance. The most important task of the campaign was to make people believe in the meaning of their actions and to offer easy ways so they can give their effort. Easy-to-implement, rational and everyday actions, such as a degree cooler room temperature, a degree shorter shower and a degree better timing became an important part of the campaign. The topic is serious, but we didn’t want to scare Finns more, just to encourage them with a little twinkle in the eye.

To maximize the impact, we also wanted to build a collective team spirit. We invited organizations, communities, and companies to participate in joint discussions to think about what they could do in their everyday lives. To maintain consistency, we created a freely available material package.

The results

The team spirit needed and desired spread quickly among Finns: according to a study conducted with Bilend, almost everyone who has seen the campaign has also saved energy in some way. The large number of participants was also reflected in the number of campaign page visitors and the lively social media discussion. Down a Degree also made headlines abroad, with the Finnish campaign mentioned even in The New York Times.

The meaning

We Finns are tough and tolerate the cold from the east very well. Together we can overcome this difficulty as well. The functional significance of the citizens’ campaign was wrapped around the goal of getting 95 percent of Finns or people living in Finland to do any action to save energy. The actions of a person matter. Even a little awareness and the smallest energy act help us towards greater social significance, i.e., more self-sufficient energy production, and sustainable use. The size of the campaign and its relevance can’t be overemphasized: to ensure energy for us all.