2011 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

Batelco, Bahrain’s leading Telecommunications Company, wanted to design a notepad for internal use. The problem was that environmental concern is not one of the highest priorities to the Bahraini community. With restricted land, Bahrain’s landfills need to be carefully controlled. Yet, of Bahrain’s daily waste 800 tonnes is comprised of recyclable paper. However chemicals used for recycling are not entirely environmentally friendly. Batelco’s 1600 employees in Bahrain use 16 million sheets of paper per year themselves. The challenge was to produce notepads for Batelco without adding to the problem.

Creative Execution

The environment communication messages were unusually, in a humourous light hearted vein and then drove the message at the end. Because only when people would be interested would they first take notice and then action. By using every sheet of paper twice which would otherwise be used only once, our mailers directly influenced paper consumption and created awareness in Bahrain and the region.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We collected used sheets of paper in boxes placed around Batelco’s office. The sheets were then flipped around, cut and turned into notepads to write on the blank sides. The rest of the paper was stacked, wrapped into reams and used for re-printing on the blank sides. Notepad and ream covers covered 8 Different environmental topics. These notepad cover designs were turned in to ads and into indoor and outdoor posters across Bahrain, printed on the back of Batelco's old campaign posters. The environment communication messages became radio spots. The notepads inspired a Facebook application generating online interactivity.

Results

Our Direct Mailers cut paper consumption of Batelco offices around the network by 50% Batelco's notepad became an environment awareness message for Bahrain and grew into a regional movement. 15 local companies and Batelco’s regional network adopted the initiative and together will save 104 tonnes of paper, nearly 2200 trees. Xerox gave one recycling box to each of their printers. With the support of all our media and production partners through sponsorships, the campaign incurred 0 cost of any kind, generating over USD 294,429 worth of unpaid media. We received over 320,000 Facebook tab impressions, 30% of Bahrain’s population.