The ESG Mindset
The Brief
Make a global workforce feel the urgency of ESG
KPMG had built a comprehensive ESG portal, but engagement was low and the content wasn’t landing. Clients were increasingly selecting advisors based on demonstrated ESG commitment. Prospective talent was choosing firms with more compelling sustainability narratives. KPMG needed an emotional entry point — a single film that could move ESG from corporate initials into something people genuinely cared about.
The Solution
Forget the acronym. Show them the world
A cinematic brand film shot in a state-of-the-art virtual production studio, transporting KPMG's Head of ESG from rainforest to moonscape in a single take. The film positions ESG not as a compliance exercise but as a shared mindset — a call to protect the one blue marble we all share.
Virtual Production Hero Film — Global Brand Film
Background
ESG had the content. It needed the spark
KPMG had been steadily building momentum around ESG. The messaging was maturing, the portal was growing, and the internal appetite for leadership in this space was real.
What was missing was an emotional catalyst. The portal had content but no doorway — nothing that made people feel the urgency before asking them to read a policy document. Without that spark, KPMG’s ESG investment risked being invisible to the clients and talent who needed to see it most.
We had previously created a short teaser explaining the three pillars of ESG. This time, the brief was bigger: one overarching film to unite all of KPMG's ESG content under a single, compelling narrative.
Approach
Put a real person inside an impossible world
We filmed in London's leading virtual production studio — a first for KPMG and possibly their entire industry. The LED wall environment responded in real time to camera movement, creating the illusion of genuine depth and location.
Within the opening scenes, we transported John McCalla-Leacy from a dense jungle to the surface of the moon. No green screen. No post-production compositing. Just seamless, in-camera magic that let our presenter speak with conviction in extraordinary settings.
The script was conversational but urgent. John addressed the camera as a trusted colleague, not a corporate spokesman, closing with an ensemble of ESG leaders asking a single question: Are you with us?
The blue marble — Earth, held in a human hand — became the film's visual through-line and its emotional anchor.
Production Stills
Key Project Assets
Virtual Production Hero Film
A cinematic brand film produced using real-time LED wall technology, transporting KPMG's Head of ESG through immersive global environments without leaving the studio.
Blue Marble Visual Motif
A recurring image of Earth held in the presenter's hands — a simple, resonant device that unified the film's emotional arc and gave ESG a tangible human symbol.
ESG Portal Entry Point
Designed as the definitive first step on every learner pathway and client conversation, connecting to KPMG's wider library of ESG content and resources.
Impact
The film became the centrepiece of KPMG's global ESG communications — the doorway through which employees and clients entered the broader story.
Project Insights
From acronym to emotion
The biggest risk in ESG communications is treating it like a compliance box. The biggest opportunity is treating it like what it actually is — the most important story a business can tell about its future.
Virtual production gave us a way to match the scale of the message with the scale of the visual. But the real breakthrough was simpler: put a passionate human in front of the camera and let them speak from the heart. Technology created the world. Conviction made people believe in it.
Production Stills
We needed people to feel the urgency before they read a single policy document. The film didn't explain ESG. It made you care about it. That's a fundamentally different starting point.
Paul Mallaghan, Director of Creative Strategy & Content — We Are Tilt
