Montgomery County figured they could save big if they could get people to recycle. Taking our advice, they started with yard trimmings and continued to drill down deeper and deeper on other recyclables — evaluating results every step of the way. We were changing people's behavior, which is a tall order. But to make it even taller we were expected to achieve great things on a limited budget — while the County measured and quantified results at every step. We had to get results and we had to get them from day one.
Red flag! It's not big news that people hate to have big brother telling them what to do. So The Ad Agency decided to win friends and converts among county residents by employing a lighthearted approach — an approach that was nonetheless backed by solid information and coupled with emotional appeals. And we made sure the campaign was highly visible by employing the most incisive, dollar-stretching media buying strategy. Talk about a great laboratory for some of our best new ideas!
And we made sure the campaign was highly visible by employing the most incisive, dollar-stretching media buying strategy. Talk about a great laboratory for some of our best new ideas!
Our public relations efforts were as important as the creative. We see media relations and advertising as two sides of the same coin. We go at our advertising with an eye to how it will play in the media, and we use the same kind of creativity you see in our advertising to position stories for reporters. This way the chances that stories will make it into the media are greatly increased.
Did we succeed?
If we didn't you wouldn't be reading about it here. In the composting area alone:
• The County was able to cut their three-times-a-
fall leaf pickup to two.
• They also sold 15,000 compost bins (from 9am
to 5pm government offices!), most of them to
first-time composters.
• Montgomery County's yard trim campaign has
become a model for governments around the
nation and is even being adapted for use in
Great Britain.
And that is
just the tip of the iceberg for all of the work and results that
have taken place over the last 8 years.
Composting (3.4 mb)
Grasscycling (2.2 mb)
SORRT (3.5 mb)
Environmental PR Clips (19.1 mb)