PSA Campaign to Save Energy Makes a Viral Try

While comic book heroes wield uncanny powers on the big screen this summer, the Alliance to Save Energy (ASE) is using its own family of superheroes and a cross-channel marketing push to teach lessons about energy conservation.

The online portion of the nonprofit group’s campaign launched today and consists of a micro-site at Projectsuperpowers.com. Traffic to the site will be driven by radio and television “PSAs” and, the non-profit hopes, viral pass-along. The Creative Studio at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide created and produced the Web site, along with the campaign’s broadcast spots.

The site and PSA spots use audio and video to depict secret lab experiments in which scientists test the energy saving potential of various superheroes abilities. In each case the test goes awry, as when a superheroine named “StormGirl” attempts to wash dishes with a rainstorm, or when a hero named “Raybeam tries to cook a stromboli with his heat vision. In each case, the lab results conclude that “We must find a better way…”, and these words link to a Web page containing energy saving tips.

Visitors to the site can also create a new superhero, and suggest how his power will save energy, according to ASE.

“One of the reasons we selected Ogilvy was for the Web element,” said Rozanne Weissman, director of communications for ASE. “We knew from their proposal that they viewed extending the campaign to the Web in creative ways, and they won the account because of the Web plans.”

ASE posts assets, storyboards, and scripts for each of its campaigns on its Web site at ASE.org, which led to a strong viral pick-up for its “Static Electricity” campaign, created by DDB Worldwide in Seattle. ASE hopes “Project Superpowers” will experience the same pass-along rate.