2010 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

Emirates Environmental Group, an NGO dedicated to promote recycling in the UAE, was organising a Can Collection Drive. They wanted general public to participate by bringing cans for recycling at their centre. But in a city where aluminum cans are thrown away soon after use with no thought, to get people to come to the centre for recycling was no easy task. This led us to our strategy. We decided to promote recycling of cans when people are about to trash them. Since it was a communication from an NGO, it had to be a solution that didn't cost much.

Creative Execution

The creative execution was most relevant for the event, the Can Collection Drive, as the sticky posters literally became a medium for collecting cans. Asking people to take the initiative to collect cans and come to the centre was not going to be as effective. The strength of our creative was that it worked in two ways. It spread the message of recycling cans at the right place and at the right time. And it also made it easy and simple for people to contribute their cans as these posters were placed - right next to the trash cans.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We changed the mechanics of the event and took our promotion to people instead of asking them to come to us. We went to places where people use cans, and offered them a recycling solution right there. Our creative was a traditional poster with a non-traditional twist. On these ambient posters, people could actually stick their cans after use and give them up for recycling - making it an innovative medium to collect cans for the Drive. Moreover, we placed them next to trash cans at places where people buy canned drinks – at food courts and restaurants in Dubai.

Results

EEG's Can Collection Drive became a super success. The sticky posters created a message that also got stuck in people's minds and eventually changed their behaviour on recycling. The posters, which were put up for only 6 days, collected a total of 1458 cans. Some people actually collected more cans and landed up at the EEG Centre as well, increasing the number of people who joined the Can Collection Drive by 12%.