Ads jolt city over waste

By IRENE CHAPPLE marketing writer

As national talkfests on waste management gather momentum, Auckland has leaped ahead with an advertising campaign designed to change the behaviour of city dwellers.

The Auckland Regional Council's Big Clean Up campaign will start on April 7.

It is the council's first integrated marketing effort and includes creative work by Colenso BBDO (ambient advertising, Adshels and television), and direct marketing by AIM Proximity.

Planning took three years and the campaign is expected to run for at least two years.

Ministry for the Environment spokesman Ray Salter says the Auckland launch is a jump ahead of the nationally co-ordinated movement but will be used to study public response.

The Government Waste Strategy, launched by Environment Minister Marian Hobbs this month, is working with local bodies to develop waste management plans, and will latch on to the Auckland campaign's successes.

The ARC's $718,000 spend to date - not including tens of thousands of dollars of free creative work by the advertising agencies - has received $150,000 from the ministry's annual $1 million waste programme budget.

Salter said the national programme would be refined after studying the Auckland campaign to see what worked and what did not.

Colenso BBDO writer Toby Talbot, who has worked on the brief with Leo Premutico for about six months, said the Auckland campaign was a two-pronged attack.

Before the creative work, Colenso BBDO's David Kinnear had worked out logistics with the council for more than a year, and AIM Proximity since November.

Pulling together all aspects for the campaign was tricky, Kinnear said. "We are taking all the environmental ills and trying to fix them at once. We want something that's going to last for five years, not just a few months."

A multimedia first hit will be across television screens, Adshels, buses, youth-oriented magazines and on the pavements from early next month. It gathers facts - carbon monoxide levels in Auckland are higher than London, more than 250 people a year die from air pollution - and mixes them with advice on how to reduce waste.

According to Talbot, the campaign was designed "to shock people out of the state they are in - that they're living in Godzone and it's beautiful. Which Auckland is, but it is in danger of becoming filthy."

Advertising which is likely to cause passers-by to blink includes displays on buses which show that rubbish discarded every 20 minutes could fill a bus, and creations such as a chips packet (attached firmly to the ground) with a trail of words to a nearby bin: "This was too far for Simon Brown to walk." A gritty television commercial shows the speed at which waste gets into the harbour from a stormwater drain.

Guilt advertising, surely? To an extent, Talbot said.

"People just need to be reminded. That's why a big part of the campaign was focused on how they can help. We have set people very simple tasks. People will get into it."

Research done by the council in 2000 showed Aucklanders were concerned about the environment, but did not know how to help.

But everyday activity was not being associated with environmental damage, says ARC's Christine Young. So, a direct marketing component was worked into the brief.

ARC chairwoman Gwen Bull said the direct marketing would force Aucklanders to accept their role in waste reduction.

Next month, 300,000 households will receive mail-outs from AIM Proximity to gather information on the behaviour of residents.

Environmental plans would be based on the responses and returned to the households.

"We are engaging people on an individual basis," said AIM Proximity group account director Clint Bratton.

The Big Clean Up has a 10-point plan, some as basic as picking up rubbish or switching off lights that are not being used. Each three months after the campaign one the points will be highlighted.

Bull said the campaign was an opportunity to show New Zealand what could be achieved.

"We believe the public will enter into the spirit of it ... but we are just touching the tip of the iceberg."