As a leader in sustainable energy, E.ON is committed to helping create a greener world and are on a mission to raise awareness of the dangers surrounding air pollution and help clean our air.

During peak times, one in five cars are taking children to or from school and are responsible for creating half a million tonnes of CO2 per year. This means that, in some areas, children in 27% of schools are exposed to dangerously high doses of pollution that exceed the World Health Organisation guidelines.

Our ‘Air Heroes’ capes were fully waterproof and included 3M reflective panels and piping to improve safety for the child. As the capes were aimed at children, they underwent a stringent set of Health & Safety tests to ensure they met (or exceeded) all the regulatory requirements.

We had a very modest production budget of just over £30,000 to create 1,500 capes.

We joined forces with the fashion brand, Scamp & Dude, to create a product that would empower school children to make a real difference to air quality. We created superhero-inspired capes that removed pollution from the air, giving kids the ability to become pollution-fighting Air Heroes simply by wearing one on their walk to school.

Each cape included a powerful insert called theBreath which absorbs and disaggregates harmful particles in the air, trapping the pollution and preventing it from being released - removing two petrol cars’ worth of pollution over the course of a year.

The ‘Air Heroes’ multi-channel campaign launched on the first day of the school year to encourage behaviour change. We used advertising to empower kids and show them they could join the fight against dirty air, while at the same time directing parents to a competition site to win capes for their child’s entire class.

Our strategy was to ensure that E.ON went beyond just ‘education’ of the public. Instead, we decided to use an approach rarely seen in campaigns designed to shape people’s environmental behaviour: fun.

This strategic principle not only informed the fun, innovative product we created, it also informed where the campaign was executed.

We knew that if we were going to influence the school run successfully, we’d need buy-in from both parents and their kids. We therefore looked to target parents along with their 4-7 year old children, in fun, entertainment-based spaces.

Wherever it featured, every element of our campaign prompted our target audience to visit the E.ON website and sign up to the competition, there-and-then.

In doing so, we married a big brand idea with a very specific, direct call to action.

We launched on the first day of the new school year, and the campaign ran for 2 months. Our cinematic 30” launch film was supported with dynamic social posts and banner advertising.

Then, to feel authentic to busy parents and their climate-conscious kids, we worked with partners who already have the association, trust and reach of our audience.

To bring scale, we worked with Warner to create bespoke Teen Titans Go! content for Cartoon Network (the most popular kids’ TV platform in the UK), we gave capes to parenting influencers to use on their walks to school, and we sponsored several relevant podcasts (Sophie Ellis-Bextor was so excited she turned it into a full episode).

Finally, as research had revealed that 85% of primary school-aged children and 81% of parents worry about pollution, we supported the campaign with a strong PR launch.

The campaign caught the imagination of parents and children across the UK, helping to establish E.ON as a leading voice on air pollution. For people who saw the campaign it had the following impact:

It drove environmental concern - people were 45% more likely to say that air pollution was important to them.

It drove desire to walk to school - people were 31% more likely to say they wanted to walk to school more often.

It drove positive associations with E.ON - people were 14% more likely to agree that E.ON cares about the environment, and 15% more likely to have a positive view of E.ON generally.

And, it achieved:

• 135,000 clicks through to the competition

• 159 pieces of press coverage, including The Sun, Express, and Evening Standard

• 46.5 million advertising impressions

• Scamp & Dude completely sold out of capes in record time