GTE

GTE, a telecommunications services provider and publisher of telephone directories, identified a need to distinguish itself from competitors and support its marketing and public affairs efforts through socially responsible strategies in the areas of waste reduction, multicultural advocacy, education, and economic expansion. It turned to LGI for strategic counseling and assistance in orchestrating meaningful events that would advance its key communications goals.

As part of an ongoing strategy on GTE’s behalf, LGI designed and executed a major drive to collect used telephone directories so they could be recycled – a particularly relevant effort since directory recycling had never truly taken hold in Los Angeles as a waste reduction activity.

The event involved a month-long drive centered at the Museum of Science and Industry, at the site of the Our Urban Environment exhibit. It was framed for the public and the media as one of the key events marking Earth Day. The TV and radio PSAs and the pre-event print placements publicized the fact that all members of the public bringing telephone books for recycling would receive a commemorative "Globehead Family" poster. They also underlined the waste reduction benefits of directory recycling, stressing that for each ton of directories recycled, 17 trees and three cubic yards of landfill space are saved.

Additionally, LGI promoted the recycling drive through a mailing to 1,500 area schools, whose principals were successfully urged to arrange for large groups of students to visit the Museum, bringing phone books with them.

To provide a compelling visual element, LGI arranged for school-age children from throughout the region to build a pyramid of phone books in the building housing the Our Urban Environment exhibit to kick off the recycling drive. The kickoff was widely covered on English and Spanish-language television and by newspapers.