No maths, no environmental guilt trips… Why Lightforce Solar threw out the usual script and harnessed sports stars to grow the category.
Creative strategists David (DT) Thomason and Paul Taylor were hunched over a storyboard, sketching ideas for a Lightforce Solar campaign.
Their mission: to make solar energy a normal choice for Kiwis as energy bills rise ever higher.
But the pair were struggling. “When I first started working on it, I thought, ‘This is really, really hard,’” says DT. “I couldn’t figure out how to convince more New Zealanders that solar energy was right for them.”
At last, they had the makings of a script. Then, a phone call changed everything.
On the line was their client, Lightforce Solar owner John Harman. Out of the blue, he had signed up three rugby superstars as brand ambassadors.
“John called and said, ‘Great news. We’ve got the Barrett brothers.’ I think my first words were, ‘Should I down tools then?’” DT laughs.
Harman knew that having these All Blacks repping the brand would boost its cultural cred, says Lyle Hastings, Lightforce Solar’s marketing manager. The company was “negotiating for the Barrett family, and after a few months, it all came together quite quickly”.
With the Barrett brothers on board, DT and Taylor had to rethink the script. But they were ready to “lean into it”.
Just common sense
Signing the Barretts was a breakthrough moment that came after a lot of hard thinking.
“In New Zealand, solar is often seen as an alternative energy source,” says Hastings. “People think of it as green or sustainable, so it sits on the sidelines rather than in the mainstream. So we said, ‘OK, we need to make this a choice for every New Zealander.’”
First though, there were ideological issues to address.
DT says: “Energy is political – renewable energy is very, very left wing, and burning shit is very right wing. I came across an interesting experiment [in the US] where they tested two types of packaging for energy-saving light bulbs. One focused on saving money and lasting longer, and the other on helping the planet. If you were a Republican, you were far less likely to choose the one with the planet picture on it.”
That was a can of worms they didn’t want to open. So they focused on what’s Kiwi.
“We had to make people think, ‘This is just what Kiwis do. It’s a normal thing,’” says DT.
Together with Taylor, they came up with the tagline ‘The future is obvious’ – signalling that, as power bills keep rising, solar energy will become the inevitable solution for New Zealand households.
Sports as a currency
Changing perceptions is hard enough – let alone making it the norm. That’s where the new ambassadors come in.
DT says: “When I was at FCB [now McCann], they’d brought two cultural anthropologists to New Zealand, who pointed out seven codes that make us culturally different from other countries. One of them was ‘sports as a currency’.
“Everyone likes a good sportsperson, and in New Zealand that culture is particularly strong. Their actions speak louder than words, and we trust them.”
Hastings adds: “We didn’t want the Barretts to be brand ambassadors just for the sake of impact – you want them to be genuine. So we thought, ‘Let’s actually give them solar so they can use it and understand it.’”
On Lightforce’s YouTube channel, the Barretts’ first-hand experiences – including energy independence during power cuts and reduced costs – have built greater trust with Kiwis, he says.
Through the Kiwi lens
They started simple. In the first two ads, Beauden and Scott Barrett just pointed to the sun – “where the most resilient, sustainable and affordable energy comes from,” according to the voiceover.
The message about solar was clear, but DT knew that once they went on TV, and brought in their dad, Kevin Barrett, as the one “predicting the future”, it would land much harder.
Kevin appears alongside the brothers as a wise man who can see the future – from foreseeing his sons becoming “decent rugby players” to calling solar power a “bloody obvious” solution for saving money and improving power resilience.
Kevin Barrett plays the wise man who can see the future.
His role as an ordinary Kiwi bloke, not a celebrity, taps into what DT calls an “identity play”.
“I think the way people sold solar has always been very rational – the information is always maths,” he says.
“But advertising is emotional. And with Kevin, it’s saying, ‘This is what New Zealanders do – we’re proud to be a New Zealander, and we’re looking at solar now.’ So there’s no rational information in that campaign at all.
“We have the Barretts, the ad is shot on a farm and the dad’s a farmer – it just works out brilliantly,” DT adds.
It’s just bloody obvious
Since the Barrett campaign launched last year, interest in solar has grown, says Hastings.
But when the new ad landed, it really took off. In the first six weeks of the latest campaign, key sales leads rose 241% year-on-year, with sales up 187%.
“It’s the best sales month in April that the company has historically had,” says Hastings.
“We can see that from the number of queries. A lot have come in to find out more, and many as serious buyers, but inquiries are higher now than they were 12 months ago.”
DT says the positive results come from cracking the cultural code.
“You could go quite serious with this and say, ‘You can save this much and you’ll be safe when there’s a storm,’ but it wouldn’t make a very interesting TV ad.
“If you want to get to the hearts of New Zealanders, you make it funny – but in a laid-back, understated Kiwi way.
“There aren’t a lot of big, loud jokes. It’s more like, ‘It’s just bloody obvious.’”
This story comes from NZ Marketing magazine issue 87, June-August 2026. Why not subscribe? Get four issues a year for just $50 (including delivery) if you autorenew.
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