The Brief

China is the number one contributor of greenhouse gases in the world. Midea, an air conditioner maker, wants to do its part in helping to lower greenhouse gases emission into the environment. Air conditioners consume a lot of energy, and 80% of the electricity supply in China comes from coal-fired power plants. And coal-based power plants are one of the major culprits causing greenhouse effect. The challenge lies in how to convince their air conditioner users to actively play their part.

Creative Execution

We proposed to Midea to reconfigure and reconstruct every remote control device to include an Eco Button. The Eco Button automatically sets the temperature at 26°C or 78.8°F. And 26°C is proven to be the most ideal temperature setting during summer (as recommended by the General Office Of The State Council Of China) to save energy thus emitting less greenhouse gases overall to harm the environment. Whenever the Eco Button is pressed, a message saying, 'Mother Nature Thank You' appears on the LCD screen.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

Rather than to spend a large sum of money in doing persuasive adverting, we looked to a different solution. We chose to focus on the remote control device. It is the first thing anyone would reach out for to turn on the air conditioner. Can people in just one touch contribute positively to climate change? Yes, they can.

Results

Midea produces about 10 million air conditioners in a year. In China the average temperature setting is 23°C, and raising 1°C reduces 10% of CO2 emission. Thus Midea helps to reduce 30% of CO2 emission caused by 10 million air conditioners.