Palmetto
Palmetto committed to making clean energy irresistible. With a rebrand that lets America have it all.
For 15 years, Palmetto’s CEO Chris Kemper has been trying to convince Americans to care about climate change and run their homes on renewables. It’s a hard ask. Because up until now a cleaner home has come with compromise — dialling down, turning off or paying up.
With a marketplace for all your clean tech needs and an innovative financing model to help you pay for it, Palmetto built a product that changed the game. We’ve helped them change the narrative. Going from a world where you must make do with less, to one where you can have it all.
Overview
The partnership
A new brand and website to make switching to clean energy feel like a no-brainer.
Define
How to make people care about something they’d rather not think about? Tap into what they actually want. Cheaper bills, energy independence and a clean conscience. We helped the Palmetto leadership team take a bold leap.
No longer asking people to stop. Just swap. Run your life on renewables and you go from sacrifice to abundance. For an audience that wants it all, Palmetto lets them have it.
The idea
A subversive idea fit for an uncompromising audience: the irresistible promise of more.
Create
By swapping guilt and sacrifice for abundance, aspiration, and independence, the brand presents a version of clean energy that can cut across political divides. It makes renewable energy feel like common sense, not a cause.
Logo
A logotype crafted to feel laid-back and indulgent. A script style that has a languishing cosiness. Applied like it’s enjoying sinking into the space.
Illustration and art direction
Communicating the feeling of a Palmetto home was essential, so the art direction shows people indulging in energy abundance. And the illustrations act as an antidote to the soulless solar depictions of the category.
Colour and type
Palmetto75 is an instantly recognisable red, exuding the warm feelings of a well-heated home. And the typeface, aptly named ABC Solar by Dinamo foundry, has a bright abundance that adds to the tone’s charm.
Verbal identity
To give Palmetto’s voice mass appeal, this tone offers radical change under the radar. Purposefully unexpected for a clean energy company, Palmetto indulges your every energy desire.
Commit
This was always going to be a polarising approach. But urgent issues leave no room for halves. The Ragged Edge and Palmetto teams worked closely together on every detail, from the details in the digital experience to billboards at sponsored summits.
Website
The aim of the website was to feel nothing like a solar supplier. No sterile CGI or sunny treetops. Just an abundant experience focused on what you actually want.
The different reality
If mass appeal was the goal, Palmetto’s social stats don’t disappoint. They’ve seen a 92% follower growth rate. Daily reach is up by 729%. And impressions are up by 518%.
Thanks to our pals at Palmetto
Doing something different takes dedication and the Palmetto team is as dedicated as it gets. Congratulations and thank you to Chris, Jessica, DJ, Quinn, Jason, Jesse, Michael, Derek and Isabelle.
And to our collaborators Charlie McKay and Chris Caldwell.