Telling the Story of American Energy
The Opportunity
How do you create a film about energy that doesn’t feel like an energy commercial?
As America prepared to celebrate its 250th anniversary, EQT wanted to honor the country’s enduring spirit of independence while reinforcing its role in powering the future. The challenge wasn’t simply to communicate what EQT does – it was to create an emotional connection with the people whose lives are touched by that work every day.
The result would become Wild at Heart – a cinematic brand film built on one simple idea:
The people who power America are America.
The Creative Approach
Rather than leading with infrastructure or industry, we focused on humanity.
The film opens in the Appalachian Mountains at first light before transitioning into intimate moments of everyday life – a lamp switched on before sunrise, a child tying their shoes, a family beginning another ordinary day.
Each moment is carefully matched with an EQT employee performing a parallel action.
A mother turns on a bedside lamp.
A worker powers on a jobsite light.
A child laces up sneakers.
An operator tightens work boots.
A young professional walks into work.
An EQT employee enters a control room.
The match cuts quietly reveal what words never have to explain:
The energy that powers America begins with people.
Crafting the Film
Every creative decision was designed to reinforce authenticity.
Rather than relying on polished performances, the film features real EQT employees alongside authentic families and communities throughout Appalachia.
Natural light became a storytelling tool. Dawn wasn’t simply a beautiful backdrop—it became a visual metaphor for possibility, optimism, and the beginning of America’s next chapter.
The cinematography moves seamlessly between intimate handheld moments and sweeping cinematic landscapes, balancing human emotion with the scale of the energy systems that quietly support everyday life.
Sound design carries equal weight. Everyday sounds—boots tightening, switches clicking, doors opening—blend naturally with the sounds of work, reinforcing that these worlds are inseparable.
Combined with a restrained voiceover and an Americana-inspired score, the result feels more like a short film than traditional corporate advertising.
Beyond One Film
The hero film became the foundation of a fully integrated America 250 campaign that extended across:
- :30, :15 and :06 films
- Connected TV
- YouTube
- Meta
- Cinema
- GSTV
- Event-specific geo-targeted media
- Dedicated campaign landing page
The media strategy combined broad regional awareness with tactical activations surrounding major Pennsylvania events, allowing the creative to connect with audiences in culturally relevant moments throughout the campaign.
Results
The emotional storytelling translated directly into measurable performance.
YouTube
- 431,523 impressions
- 273,630 completed views
- 63.4% view rate, substantially outperforming the 40–50% benchmark
- $0.01 average cost per completed view
- 78% Connected TV delivery, producing the campaign’s strongest view rates and lowest CPV.
Meta
- 423,204 impressions
- 115,546 people reached
- 244,006 completed video views
- $0.02 cost per ThruPlay, significantly outperforming platform benchmarks
- Healthy audience frequency while maintaining efficient costs and strong creative consistency.
Landing Experience
The campaign didn’t simply generate impressions, it encouraged audiences to stay and explore.
Paid media accounted for 59–71% of all landing page traffic, while weekly sessions grew from 364 to more than 1,100. Average engagement time more than doubled from 2:07 to 4:35 indicating audiences were spending meaningful time interacting with the content after watching the film.
The Outcome
Wild at Heart proved that the strongest energy story isn’t about pipelines or production.
It’s about people.
By approaching the campaign with the language of documentary filmmaking rather than traditional advertising, the work transformed a corporate message into an emotional story about shared purpose, independence, and the future of American energy.
The result was a campaign that not only exceeded media benchmarks but also established a lasting creative platform for EQT’s America 250 initiative—one built on authenticity, cinematic storytelling, and the belief that what we build today shapes the next 250 years.
Services
Creative Strategy • Campaign Development • Brand Storytelling • Creative Direction • Production • Cinematography • Editorial • Color • Sound Design • Motion Design • Paid Media Strategy • Media Buying • Analytics
