FPL: Business Energy Manager

As a major utility company, Florida Power & Light (FPL) has a responsibility to their community that extends outside of simply making sure the lights are on. Since the COVID-19 pandemic hamstrung many local businesses, they partnered with us to get word out about their Business Energy Manager tool, which is designed to show businesses where they are spending money on energy use and how to trim those costs.

FPL and CCOM, their agency of record, in need of video production in Miami, called us up for another collaboration. We interviewed business owners from all over South Florida, in a variety of impacted industries, talking to them about their business, how the pandemic has impacted them, and how they use the FPL Business Energy Manager to help save here and there in a time where every penny counts.

In our eyes, there are two ways to play this premise. One is very tactical and straightforward, business owners have a need and this feature helps them address it, and here is how, etc.

But the pandemic is such a powerful universal story, one that has directly impacted everyone in the audience, that our instinct was to take a cinematic approach that focused on their individual stories. When edited together, it was our feeling that the piece would feel like an anthem for an entire community of diverse businesses that, while struggling, was maintaining their energy for their community and optimistic for the future.

We employed several strategies to achieve this tone. First, we made sure that the interview felt personal and intimate, and that the question was emotionally driven instead of tactical or technical. We knew that the personal stories, while not related to the product per se, would be the foundation on which we laid the argument for the product.

Equally critical was the style of the b-roll, which needed to feel cinematic and not editorial in order to track with the rest of the creative decisions. To this aim, we used a handheld camera to give the footage immediacy and energy as well as realism, focused on tight close-ups with shallow depth-of-field, and staged setups with emotional value.

Naturally, one of the largest challenges was safely shooting in the midst of a pandemic. We complied with all local regulations in shooting this piece, and implemented our stringent COVID-19 protocols. In any scene that required more than one person in the room that were not related, all talent wore masks, and all crew members were screened and wore masks while working.

This project resulted in a wide-ranging campaign for the client, FPL, and CCOM. We visited six businesses over the course of our shoot, and the footage resulted in several long-form :60 broadcast spots, several more :30s focusing on different businesses, and a :15 for each business.

These spots were shown in high-profile media buys across the state of Florida, including in NFL games and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Artex was responsible for treatment and style, pre-production, logistics and production for this project. We completed this commercial production in Miami.

We continue to partner with CCOM and FPL to tell Florida-specific stories and get the word out about how FPL is so much more to the community than just a utility company.