Innovative infotainment with Amazon documentary

With smart storytelling and powerful images, we turn the energy transition into an experience.

At a glance

01The challengePositioning as a thought leader in the field of energy transition
02Our approachInnovative infotainment on Amazon Prime Video
03The resultAn impressive documentary turns the energy transition into an experience

Sector
- Energy
- Industry
Disciplines
- Strategy & Consulting
- Conception
- Content: Production
- Project Management (Agile Workflow)
Year
- 2021
Tech Stack
- Film production
Services
- Digital Marketing
- Digital Strategy

Outstanding infotainment - German Brand Award 2022

The joint documentary by Siemens Smart Infrastructure and Merkle brings the energy transition to life for a broad audience as a streaming documentary. The jury of the German Brand Award has honored the lighthouse project in the category "Excellence in Brand Strategy and Creation - Brand Communication - Storytelling & Content Marketing".

More about the award

The DCA jury is also convinced

“The Power Reset / Alles auf Grün" made it onto the shortlist of the Digital Communications Awards in three categories. In the Content Marketing category, we were able to secure victory. In Sustainable Communications and Disruptive Communications, we won silver.

Siemens Smart Infrastructure convinces at The Lovie Awards

We're so proud the work of our people is getting the attention it deserves. Our joint project with Siemens Smart Infrastructure has won 2 Lovies at The Lovie Awards! In the category Video / Documentary the jury awarded us with Bronze. We also impressed the internet audience in the same category and received the People's Lovie Award.

The challenge

Positioning as a thought leader in the field of energy transition

Siemens is a global player in areas such as automation, energy and mobility solutions. The Siemens Smart Infrastructure is dedicated to intelligent energy networks and buildings – and thus to a global challenge: climate change. With the efficient use of resources and digital solutions, the company contributes to greater sustainability.

Siemens is also involved in many projects relating to the energy transition - for example, in Wunsiedel. Here, they have helped the small town in Upper Franconia to achieve a completely climate-neutral energy supply. To show that the energy turnaround is already possible today and that it brings more opportunities than risks, it needs the right format in content marketing. Exactly the right assignment for Merkle.

Docutainment instead of reference

The city's story as a pioneer of the energy transition is so unusual that it deserves a special content format: docutainment makes it accessible to a broad audience.

Close collaboration

In a workshop with Siemens, we jointly determine the protagonists as well as the storyline of the documentary. Even after that, we remain in close coordination with the stakeholders.

Amazon Prime Video

Amazon offers its users high-quality content. The fact that we can publish on the platform despite the strict criteria proves the quality of our documentation.

YouTube as an additional channel

In order to reach even more people worldwide, we will also publish the Long Content 2022 on YouTube.

Energy transition as a digital experience for a broad audience

Documentary instead of video reference

Siemens usually presents its projects in the form of a video reference. But the Wunsiedel project differs from other projects in several respects:

The town of Wunsiedel is located in one of Germany's most densely forested regions and wants to preserve these natural resources for future generations.
The region has long struggled with the industrial decline of various industries.
This in turn caused structural problems such as unemployment.
With the idea of the "WUNsiedler Weg" for decentralised, sustainable energy supply, the entire region is experiencing an economic upswing.

In order to meet these special requirements, we produced a documentary with a number of cooperation partners: "Alles auf Grün / The Power Reset". With smart storytelling in several narrative threads, we combine the individual aspects into an easy-to-understand success story. In November 2021, the documentary went live on Amazon Prime - a platform where high-quality content is standard.

Visual showing the pipeline system in Wunsiedel

Energy transition explained simply

With climate change, the term "energy transition" has also arrived in the public debate. However, very few people know exactly what it means.

We take this opportunity to explain, using Wunsiedel as an example, how the energy turnaround can be achieved with a sustainable supply of electricity and heat. With interviews, animated illustrations and informative accompanying texts, we show how a 100 percent climate-neutral energy cycle works.

At the same time, the content format is easy to consume: The audience can easily grasp the information from the couch at the end of the day. Even without prior knowledge, the energy transition can be easily experienced digitally.

Picture showing solar power and wind turbines

Story lines in the documentary
3.0
Terrabyte raw material for evaluation
7.0

José Machado, Global Head of Digital Engagement & Branding, Siemens Smart Infrastructure

“Thanks to Merkle’s support, we were able to bring our contribution to greater sustainability to life for our target audiences. In the years of cooperation, we have valued Merkle as an innovative, competent and creative partner – so we are already working on the next joint projects.”