People usually do whatever it takes to turn their place into a perfect home for them. It’s no wonder why that happens: we spend 90% of our time indoors where a cozy home makes us feel safe and comfortable. When actually it’s not that safe. At least that’s what window and skylight brand Velux stated in their last marketing campaign titled “The Indoor Generation.”
According to the company—which conducted its own research and complimented it with some more studies by esteemed academic institutions such as University of Oxford, Harvard University, and Fraunhofer IBP—spending more and more time indoors increases our chances of developing serious health conditions, such as depression, high blood pressure, or even asthma.
During our weekly #ThrowBrandThursday column, we at branding.news, together with Velux and Danish agency &Co, kindly suggest that you let a little fresh air into your homes and lives. And if we haven’t convinced you to open your windows yet, then maybe the 3-minute-long video below, directed by one of Denmark’s most promising directors, Martin de Thurah, of production company Bacon, will definitely make you rethink your decision to spend so much time indoors.
Created by the Copenhagen-based agency, the video comes as a sort of a wake-up call. The film opens with a little girl narrating all the good things people have done to make their homes cozy. She mentions that we cook, shower, believe, play, and sleep inside our houses. But sadly, “we had closed ourselves into a point where nothing could get out.”
So, when things began to fall apart around us, we started to use other artificial products to make things right. Instead of opening windows to get more fresh air, we use chemicals like scented candles or room deodorizers. We use lamps to make our darkness more bearable. And we use screens to admire nature. But as focus on doing all these things, indoor pollutants start swirling around us, creating a perfect environment for development of physical and mental health issues.
The film’s message is to encourage people to get outside more and enjoy nature. It is also a statement of what our lives have become by now. Apart from that, it serves as an invitation to accept the reality as it is, which is that 90% of our time is spent indoors. As for Velux, one can see that this is just a creative invitation from the brand to ask people to improve the air quality in their homes by increasing the amount of daylight. How might you ask? Obviously, by using Velux’s roof windows and skylights.
Generation and really feel – both mentally and physically – the importance of this agenda. We set out to create a campaign that travels between people, and we managed that by tapping into intrinsically human insights – and by integrating the creative development with the distribution strategy from day one,” says &Co. Head of Brand Activation and Social, Morten Saxnaes.
The video achieved massive success. According to Viral Thread, it is already the UK’s most-viewed branded video of 2018. The global branding campaign was run in all of VELUX’s 41 markets, being supported not only by the video but also by the campaign site, www.theindoorgeneration.com.
Also, the initiative earned huge media recognition: “We’ve been overwhelmed by the positive feedback and media coverage, we’ve gained globally. Having journalists’ preference for data and surveys in mind, we carried out a population survey across 14 markets and turned that in the backbone of the news push, which was flavored with existing research from Harvard and Oxford,” unveils Media Relations Manager at The VELUX Group, Kathrine Westermann. So, maybe it’s time for you to get outside, or get some new windows from Velux…
