To raise awareness of Earth Hour amongst KitKat’s 26 million fans and encourage them to take part in the hour, we needed to remind them that switching off even the smallest light can have a huge impact by creating a uniquely-KitKat stunt.

We created the KitKat #SwitchOff billboard, the world’s first poster designed to turn off. The special build poster depicted a basic electrical circuit with a difference; the switch was actually a KitKat finger that could snap. The poster, which was powered entirely by solar energy, was placed in front of London’s iconic Tower Bridge and the two switched off in unison, so that it appeared that the KitKat poster also controlled Tower Bridge’s lights.

The event was teased on social and live streamed on Facebook to the global KitKat community so that in real-time the brand could remind those online to #SwitchOff.

Our KitKat #SwitchOff billboard, is the first billboard designed to turn off and ‘have a break’ from electricity for Earth Hour. It depicted a basic electrical circuit with a difference; the switch was actually a 4x scale 3D printed KitKat finger, relating the #SwitchOff to our famous ‘have a break’ ritual.

A light box, filled with over 200 LEDs, provided basis for the poster so that the circuit would still be visible when switched off. Electromagnetic mechanisms were used to emulate the articulating break motion so the finger stayed broken when off.

The billboard counted down to Earth Hour so that audiences watching our live stream knew exactly when to #SwitchOff.

Syncing our #SwitchOff with Tower Bridge allowed us to dramatise the insight that even small breaks from electricity can have a big impact. The billboard used less than 100w and was solar powered to further align with Earth Hour.

KitKat’s #SwitchOff campaign supported the Earth Hour initiative which this year managed to get over 9 million people in the UK alone to switch off for an hour.

The campaign, with no additional media budget, managed to reach almost 100k unique Instagram users and 50k people on Twitter. On Facebook, more than 30k people have seen the #SwitchOff livestream post and 60k people saw the three Earth Hour posts.