A 'Love Coach' Sells the Energy Transition for Stadtwerke Stuttgart
Scholz & Friends casts actor Merlin Sandmeyer as love coach 'Dr. Kessel' for Stadtwerke Stuttgart, reframing the energy transition as a relationship between residents and their city — using dating language to make a dry topic emotionally sticky.
Rom-Com Storytelling for the Grid
Scholz & Friends extended its "Aus Liebe zu Stuttgart" energy-transition work for municipal utility Stadtwerke Stuttgart with a campaign, live 24 September 2026, starring actor Merlin Sandmeyer as love coach "Dr. Kessel." It reframes the energy transition as a relationship between residents and their city.
Borrowing dating language — "red flags," "love languages" — to reach Gen Z and millennials, it runs across out-of-home, streetcars, magazines and the utility's social channels.
Making a Dry Topic Emotionally Sticky
The energy transition is worthy but abstract, the kind of topic that makes eyes glaze over. By translating it into the familiar, entertaining language of relationships, Scholz & Friends gives residents an emotional way in.
The underpinning research shows why it resonates: 62% of respondents named climate neutrality and cleanliness as making a city "worth loving," and 61% cited traffic jams and emissions as damaging their bond with the city. The campaign builds on a genuine emotional connection people already feel toward Stuttgart.
The Takeaway for Public-Sector Brands
Municipal and public-sector marketing often defaults to dry, informational messaging. This campaign shows the alternative: borrow a familiar cultural frame to make a complex civic topic relatable and even fun.
Our view: public-sector branding can punch far above its weight when it stops lecturing and starts entertaining. The trick is a frame — here, romance — that carries the message without trivialising it.
Quick FAQ
What is the Stadtwerke Stuttgart 'love coach' campaign?
A Scholz & Friends campaign, live 24 September 2026, starring actor Merlin Sandmeyer as love coach 'Dr. Kessel,' reframing the energy transition as a relationship between residents and their city using dating language.
What does the underpinning research show?
62% of respondents named climate neutrality and cleanliness as making a city 'worth loving,' and 61% cited traffic jams and emissions as damaging their bond with Stuttgart.
Public-sector marketing usually lectures; this campaign entertains, and that's the whole difference. Borrowing the language of romance makes a dry civic topic relatable without trivialising it. When you make the worthy feel fun, public-sector branding can punch well above its budget. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
Public-sector marketing wins by borrowing a familiar cultural frame to make complex civic topics relatable — entertaining beats lecturing.
Is your brand lecturing your audience about something worthy, when a familiar frame could make it relatable?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: HORIZONT and campaigngermany.
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Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
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