Rethinking the 2020s: a post-COVID-19 landscape.

Shell have been developing possible visions of the future since the 1970s, the latest of which explores a series of pathways navigating a post-COVID-19 world.

One way or another the world will be living with COVID-19 and its implications for a long time – and at the heart of the materials we developed for Shell was their belief that there would be three dramatic tensions at play in the 2020s; wealth, security and health. People will of course seek all of these to some extent, and a key element of our remit was to show the differences between each pathway and the impact of prioritising one tension over another.

Laptop and mobile view of rethinking 2020 scenarios asset
Health first graph scene shown on tablet

Exploring / comparing future outlooks.

With key differences in how these three tensions will impact the world around us, one of the main requirements from the brief was that users needed to be able to explore the separate pathways, as well as compare the projected outlook. We created a HTML asset with a distinct split between the three routes where users could tab between bubble charts that gave a visual comparison to several topics from economic growth and social change to energy transitions and global cooperation.

With built-in functionality, the asset is easily shareable via email or social media, in both ‘asset’ and ‘current view’ format allowing users to raise awareness in their own following, or promote specific pathways if they have a particular leaning.

Bringing the pathways to life.

We created three short videos to support each of the pathways and give a 60-second insight into how the world could look, under three different priorities. With a real need for these to be emotive and engaging as they told the story of the decade, the soundtrack and all supporting photography was carefully chosen to support the narrative as it unfolded.

The videos were used within the HTML pathway to give users easy access to the top line messages and outcomes, and were also able to be cropped down into smaller ‘soundbites’ for promotional use on social media platforms.

Rethink 2020 scenarios video summary

“...very impressive visualisations and easily accessible explanations...”

International Energy Agency

Supporting materials.

The videos and the HTML asset were both supported and promoted by additional campaign collateral; a launch email, a reference PDF, PPT presentation for internal presentations and a series of social media banners for external promotion.

Rethink 2020 Scenarios suporting materials Rethink 2020 Scenarios suporting materials

Explore the three potential pathways and learn more about their predicted impacts.

Launch the asset