EDP is the world number 1 in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. In 2022, EDP changed their brand positioning in order to help consumers learn about their commitment to a better planet: We Choose Earth.

This was to be the first Christmas after the COVID Pandemic. Everybody was hoping to have a merrier Christmas; however, war broke out on our continent, triggering a humanitarian crisis as well as an energy crisis.

Because of this crisis, the government restricted electricity use, including Christmas street lighting, making cities darker and less Christmassy places, and causing many people to complain that this was a dark and sad Christmas.

So, just a few days before the 25th of December, EDP asked us to come up with a message, a post or a simple idea that could help bring back the magic of Christmas, but it had to be sustainable.

The energy crisis led towns and cities across Portugal to reduce their Christmas lighting. Guidelines recommended turning lighting on for shorter periods: between 18:00 and 23:00.

So EDP took off their recent campaign that was on billboards at streets around Portugal, cut off their own posters and put them back to the streets, now in the form of sustainable Christmas decorations, using the only possible street lighting (from bus shelters) to bring back some magic to this Christmas.

We used the lights from a place where lights never turned off, so while the city's Christmas lights were turned off, our billboards continued to shine and to bring more hope to the people, in a sustainable way, using their old posters and the lights from billboards which never turn off.

Christmas lights across Portugal were being switched off for a large proportion of the night, and EDP, as the largest electric company in Portugal and the most sustainable energy company in the world, made it its mission to do something.

We realized there was a solution right in front of us there on the streets; a space where the lights are never turned off: bus-shelter billboards.

So, we decided to use the light from those spaces, and using our own billboard ads that were already there we cut them into sustainable, Christmas decorations, bringing more magic to this Christmas in Portugal.

Without turning on any extra lights, we lit up the streets with Christmas decorations whilst reminding consumers that EDP was there for them.

We partnered with 2 major outdoor media companies, JCDecaux and MOP. Within 2 days we were able to take down our billboard campaigns and put them back up again, during the night, now in the form of Christmas decorations.

EDP collaborators cut up all the billboards in a team effort, using 3 different decorative shapes (christmas pine tree, snowflake and star).

The existing billboard lighting went from being mere advertising backlighting to decorative Christmas lighting.

568 media spaces brought the spirit of Christmas back to streets across 11 cities in Portugal, from 21st December to 10th January.

While town and city Christmas lights were turned on, we did our part to bring more Christmas lights to the streets. And when the lights were turned off, our initiative shone alone, providing 160 more hours of Christmas lighting.

Earned Media results were 15 times bigger than the original campaign.

189,000 people impacted from the billboards with 2706 GRPS.

17 million impressions on videos of the activation, with 371,000 complete views of the videos.

151,500 organic views on social media.

The idea was covered by news outlets in 8 different countries.

More than 1,000 measured interactions with the billboards, including photos on social media and visits via the QR Code.