CASE STUDY · THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION
POWER
IN HAND.
Renewable electricity for villages without power — a campaign, film and 360 VR experience for The Rockefeller Foundation’s Smart Power initiative in India.
- CLIENT
- The Rockefeller Foundation · Smart Power India
- OUR ROLE
- Creative direction · campaign idea
- WE MADE
- Video · 360 VR film · brand campaign
- THE GOAL
- Show what energy access changes for people.
- IN COLLABORATION WITH
- Matter Unlimited
- CREATIVE DIRECTOR
- Ahmer Kalam
- WHERE
- Bihar, Uttar Pradesh + Jharkhand, India
- RELEASED
- 2017
THE CHALLENGE
MILLIONS
STILL IN
THE DARK.
Across rural India, millions of people lived with insufficient and unreliable electricity — or none at all.
Energy poverty was concentrated in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. Smart Power India set out to make decentralized renewable energy — solar and biomass mini-grids — a mainstream part of rural electrification. The harder task was making people care about infrastructure.
THE IDEA
PUT THE POWER
IN THEIR HANDS.
“We need to create the right solution and make sure it gets to the right people.”
FROM THE FILM
Not a story about grids and kilowatts — a story about people. The work follows the moment renewable power arrives in a village, and what it changes for a household, a business and a whole community.
THE FILM + 360 VR
STEP INSIDE
THE VILLAGE.
A film and a 360 VR experience put viewers on the ground in villages gaining power.
Alongside a brand campaign, the work carried the Smart Power story to the foundation’s partners, funders and the public: lives, households, businesses and communities transformed.
469K+
people impacted by Smart Power India across 494 villages.
SOURCE: THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION
- VILLAGES
- 494
- CUSTOMERS
- 50,000+
- SHOPS + ENTERPRISES
- 26,000+
- CO₂ AVOIDED
- 21,000+ tons a year