Jeff creates immersive digital time travel for EWZ to celebrate anniversary

The development of the city of Zurich is closely linked to its electrification and thus to EWZ. During the three-week campaign phase, we therefore went on a digital journey through time: The people of Zurich played their way through the six most important eras since EWZ was founded.

Six games on the most important eras

Beginning in 1892, the more than 6,000 players were first immersed in the pioneering days when horse-drawn streetcars and gas lamps still dominated the cityscape. The task was to optimally control the turbines of the then brand-new Letten hydroelectric power plant and thus produce electricity for the city for the first time. A new era was unlocked every four days and with it a new game.

The elaborate graphics and infotainment sections allowed players to immerse themselves in the respective eras. In the mixed reality game, they replaced gas lamps with light bulbs in the city of Zurich, built dams in Graubünden in the 1930s and consumed as much electricity as possible in the era of abundance in order to come to their senses in the present. In the second mixed reality game, they switched off real electrical consumers such as neon signs. In the final game, the players controlled the intelligent smart grid of the future and experienced how ewz's role is changing from a pure electricity supplier to a full service provider.

The lighting in the city of Zurich switched off

To set an example for a more sustainable use of our limited resources, 125 players jointly switched off part of the public lighting in the city of Zurich for 5 minutes on a Thursday evening in mid-September as a highlight of the campaign. At 21:12, the lights of 46 buildings such as the ETH or Grossmünster went out, as reported by 20 Minuten.

Over 600 hours of playing time

Each epoch game impressed with its completely unique gameplay. The varied games have led to a pure playing time of over 600 hours and have been played almost 100,000 times so far. Together with its partners, ewz offered prizes worth over CHF 60,000 for the best players. Although these have now all been awarded, the "ewz-on" app with all the games and stories is still available in the app stores.

Responsible at EWZ: David Iselin (Project Management), Eva Boretti (Head of Digital Experience), Nicole Schirner (Head of Marketing & Communication), Harry Graf (Head of Media & PA), René Hauck (Head of Planning), Esther Rutz (Head of Content), Marc Meier (Head of Branding & Design), Katrin Rüesch (Activation), Bianca Zimmermann (Event Specialist). Responsible at Jeff: Peter Broder (project manager overall project, concept), Philip Eggenberger (technical management, concept), Joel Schuler (integrations, concept), Stephan Gimmi, Nicolas Jakob, Tine Dittmar, Tobi Harbeke, Raffaele De Giovanni (all graphics), Peter Day (teaser video, concept). Other partners: App development and game server: Staay; server infrastructure: Virtualtec; film: Hunter Film; ATL subject: KSP Krieg Schlupp Partner.