ABEL Injects Kiwi Solar Company With Deadpan Personality

In partnership with indie ABEL, trusted home brand Harrisons has launched 'The Solar People' -- a new long-term platform designed to evolve Harrisons Solar from an iconic Kiwi business into an enduring Kiwi brand.

For homeowners navigating rising power bills and a market rife with category confusion, Harrisons is purposefully doubling down on what actually drives brand preference: human connection.

Early testing via insights platform Ideally confirmed an unmistakable category truth -- while Kiwis love the idea of solar, when a high-consideration purchase feels this overwhelming, they quietly push it into the 'too hard basket'.

Customers don't need a hard sell -- they want down-to-earth people to guide them through it.

Harrisons Solar’s new platform targets future demand by pairing buyers with trusted, local experts who keep it simple. The campaign relies on a simple, deadpan visual metaphor: Harrisons experts, literally living on top of rooftop solar panels.

"For 60 years, our business has been built on in-home trust, but in a category as crowded and confusing as solar is today, trust alone isn't enough -- you have to be top of mind," Matt Ward, CEO of Harrisons, said.

"ABEL didn't just give us a campaign; they gave us a brand engine that translates our biggest strength -- our local experts -- into a clear commercial advantage that will drive our next phase of growth."

To bring the platform to life, ABEL partnered with design agency Design Dairy to refresh the brand identity, while photographer Troy Goodall and FINCH director Alex Roberts established the campaign's dry, deadpan tone -- giving Harrisons Solar a distinctly memorable voice in a crowded market.

For Simon Fowler, creative co-founder at ABEL, the ambition was to build a brand platform designed for long-term momentum rather than a one-off campaign, noting that this launch merely scratches the surface of what’s ahead for the brand.

"We’re huge believers in the commercial effectiveness of ownable platforms," he said.

"Rather than just a clever tagline, 'The Solar People' is built as an enduring creative playground. This launch work purposefully leaves you wanting more, and there's so much more to come, the real fun of a long-standing platform is iterating over time -- getting everyday Kiwis to fall in love with the brand and its experts in the same way existing customers already have."

​The campaign launches nationwide across broadcast TV, BVOD, OOH, digital, social, and radio this week.