An overview of the "Littering Is Wrong Too" pilot campaign presented by Heather McNamara and Linda Holterhoff, executive director of Keep Cincinnati Beautiful.
31. Special Opportunities 1,000th ‘wrong’ submission! Grand Prize “Wrong” Submission: People who toss their cigarette butts on the ground. Littering is Wrong too… Olympic Gold Medalist Misty May shares her 'wrong'
Rob: Brief set up, introducing Heather and Linda, explain the need for KAB litter prevention education campaign and the pilot selection of KCB…Walking everyone through the campaign and the pilot in Cincinnati are:Heather McNamara, Senior Vice President at Hill & Knowlton, an integrated strategic communications agency which developed the campaign andLinda Holterhoff, Executive Director for Keep Cincinnati Beautiful which hosted the three month pilot campaign with much enthusiasm and hard work.
Heather:In recognizing the need for a broad and fresh litter prevention campaign - for it to be the most effective - we needed to hone in on a target audience a bit more. While people litter for different reasons and at all age levels, the worst offenders tend to be younger. We also want this campaign to reach those most likely to be influenced by a public education campaign. As a result this campaign has been developed to target adults ages 18 – 34. This includes all adult members, men and women of Generation Y and some younger members of Generation X. We started by conducting research: 4 focus groups to test messages and attitudes and a survey that would also help serve as a benchmark to measure against after the 3 month pilot. This helped us recognize that the campaign needed to get attention first. Get through the clutter and get people thinking, talking about the issue of litter. This is the first step to get them to make the connection about littering being wrong. One of the things we really want to do broad scale is create a shift in the act of littering, from it being just bad – which few argue against - to actually shifting the societal norm so people would beyond embarrassed to being caught or associated with littering. Utilizing social marketing techniques, the campaign will need to engage the target audience, get them to actually commit and take an action as another step towards creating this shift. And of course, the campaign needed to be adaptable beyond Cincinnati.
Heather: (talk while revealing more slides with more creative examples)There are no two ways about it. Littering is wrong. While taking a light-hearted approach to get noticed, this campaign inextricably links littering with wrongdoing. This simple premise is illustrated with outrageous other wrongs…some totally contrived; others topical and timely (but still universally held to be wrong). Examples include “Kicking your grandmother” and “Breaking up on Valentine’s Day.” “Networking at a Funeral.”The overarching payoff points to LitteringIsWrongToo.org. The campaign brings “wrongs” to life online, at events and throughout the community on billboards and radio spots, among others. However and wherever they are shown, they force inevitable conversations, reactions and, most important, engagement.
The campaign utilized a variety of vehicles for reaching the target audience. Billboards was a big one – primarily because KAB’s previous litter research revealed that billboards were effective and they are reaching people at a prime location and moment for littering to happen. Other activities included posters placed at bar and restaurant restrooms and online ads.
We know from successful social marketing campaigns that it is helpful to give people a prompt to remind them. The Littering Is Wrong Too campaign included T-shirts with only the wrong on the front, causing people to question with the payoff – the Website URL on the back. Other materials were given out at events when it made sense - such as can koozies at football tail gating.
The campaign drove traffic to the website LitteringIsWrongToo.org where visitors could play ad exec and write their own ad – as well as vote on their favorite “wrong” lines. This was a way to engage them in the campaign while at the same time making the connection to how wrong littering is wrong in their minds. Prizes were received from local businesses and supporters. Their were weekly winners, monthly winners and at the end of the three month pilot, a grand prize winner.
Heather: (Talk while revealing next picture/slide as well). This campaign was developed to be interactive, to engage the target audience. Therefore, a huge part of this campaign and one of the most successful was the involvement at events. I talked about the prompts people were given but also at events, people were given the opportunity to participate in the campaign by having their picture or video taken of them stating their wrongs. They got to play ad executive and say what they think is as wrong as littering. This was highly successful in that of 847 people who the campaign interacted with at events, 822 participated in a picture or video. This also serves as a sort of pledge – they are publically making a commitment for the campaign and against littering.
I’m now going to turn things over to Linda who will talk a bit more specifically about the campaign in Cincinnati.
LindaThis is a quick look at the core components of the campaign as we rolled it out in Cincinnati. The pilot was from July 15th through October 15th.I’ll briefly talk about each of these elements and the results. For the advertising and PSAs, we were able to negotiate great deals for paid advertising which resulted in :16 billboards per month for 3 months and then we also promoted some of the winning lines on an electronic billboard in Fountain Square, a popular hangout, after October 15th100 posters inside 50 bar and restaurant restrooms for 3 monthsWe also had :15 radio PSAs. These are hard to track but we had 18 radio stations reported using the PSAs, all with the 18-34 demographic of listeners.
While stories written about the campaign didn’t necessarily reach our target audience, they were important in building credibility and support for the campaign. Over the three month pilot: Approx. 25 media placements (stories) ranging from newspaper, online, radio and television18 Cincinnati radio stations reported using PSAs4 million impressions through FB adsBanner ads through AOL resulted in 2,435 clicks
Third party engagement is an important component to this campaign and an area where you can really be successful even if you don’t have much resources from your affiliate.We presented the campaign to select third party organizations in advance of the official launch as well as to our board. Approx. 9 local groups promoted and spread campaign information (Heidelberg, University of Cincinnati, Procter & Gamble, Give Back Cincinnati and local community groups)The ways these groups got engaged varied: some promoted the campaign to their members/customers, others like Lebanon Ford car dealership really went all out, creating branded T-shirts, donating grand prizes such as an IPad and a flat screen TV. We ended up receiving more prizes for the online contest winners than we could have imagined. The prizes included bar/restaurant gift cards, Reds tickets, Vera Bradley product , an IPad and a 50 inch flat screen TV. And we also included campaign goodies occasionally as a prize and found that they were also well received.There will be future trainings for affiliates on utilizing this campaign but this engaging third parties is an area that I can’t stress enough is important, especially for getting more bang out of your own resources.
Linda: (Talk while revealing next few pictures)We mentioned the importance of events. We engaged Street Teams who included trained people in the 18-34 demographic who brought the campaign to the streets at popular events in Cincinnati. We found it was very important to utilize people in the target age group for events.In total over the three months, we participated in: Twenty events engaging 847 members of the 18-34 year old target audienceOf those engaged, 822 submitted lines via video or camera
While we had professional Street Team members, regular volunteers could easily take on this role as long as they are in the target age: 18-34 and briefed about the campaign. It’s a lot of fun and an easy way to instantly engage people. It doesn’t have to be a formal event either. It could be hitting the streets at a popular time, popular place for a few hours – college campus, popular park, etc.
During the campaign, new opportunities emerged from time to time. For example, Misty May an Olympic gold medalist in volleyball wrote her wrong. We also celebrated the 1,000 wrong submission as well as the grand prize winning line which was: People who toss their cigarette butts on the ground.Heather and Rob are now going to talk about the results and next steps…
Heather:As we previously mentioned, while media impressions and the number of places/times the campaign has been out there is important – one of the true measures of impact is:How many people in the target audience did the campaign actually touch? How many interacted with it?Talk through these numbers and also the website nos. and meaning.
As previously mentioned quantitative research was conducted prior to the campaign to create a bench mark and then immediately after the 3 month pilot. It was directed at 18-34 year olds living in Cincinnati and the outlaying Hamilton County during the duration of the pilot. As you know 3 months is an extremely short amount of time for a campaign to have an impact. We honestly can’t expect true behavior change this quickly but the results of this survey do indicate to us that this campaign has legs.There is clear evidence that the litter campaign was noticed.The proportion of young adults in/near Cincinnati who say they saw or heard the campaign is significantly higher than the benchmark level (from the pre-campaign wave).One in three 18-34 year olds recognize the slogan, “Littering is wrong too.”The campaign has impacted attitudes regarding recycling.More consumers now believe that reducing litter is extremely important, and there has been an increase in awareness of one’s own littering.It appears that peer pressure regarding litter reduction has increased. More consumers would be embarrassed to be caught littering, More believe their friends think littering is wrong.There are indications that the campaign has also impacted behaviors. Although young adults already perceived that their own littering is quite limited:They are now less likely to have seen a stranger litter.They report an increased frequency of picking up others’ litter.Hopefully we’ve gotten everyone excited about the campaign and eager to adapt it in your local communities. Now Rob will talk to you about the next steps for doing so.
Rob – Next StepsTiming: January – introductory webinars, trainings, internal campaign web presence for affiliates to plan, develop and implement their own local Littering Is Wrong Too campaigns. Consumer campaign website will be modified more for national appeal.Following presentation: T-shirts for all attendees; reference obtaining full communications campaign plan for Cincinnati; have affiliates “write their wrongs” on white boards and take their photos