City
of Los Angeles Curbside Recycling
The effect
of LGI’s historic and award-winning work on the branding
and introduction of curbside recycling in Los Angeles can
still be seen today.
When the City of Los Angeles approached the team with its
challenge of first introducing recycling and "waste reduction"
to the city’s population, it was the most extensive
recycling/automated collection program in the nation –
serving 720,000 households and more than 1.2 million residents.
The charge was to turn the largest, multi-cultural and multi-lingual
city in America into active recyclers.
LGI was quick to establish the need for a strategic
communications program conceptualized for a significantly
multi-cultural
audience. We developed a comprehensive public outreach
strategic plan utilizing cutting edge communications technology
to reach LA’s demographically diverse population including
African-American, Latino, and Asian Pacific communities with
key messages about reducing personal waste streams and to
encourage City residents to participate in the waste reduction
program through information, education, and motivation. The public outreach campaign was disseminated in 130 languages.
Grounded in original cultural and communications
research, LGI developed and implemented a strategic
communications campaign including customized introductory
materials based on relevant and compelling key messages for
each culture. The outreach strategy included a balanced mix
of communications tools: TV, radio, newspaper, and billboard
advertising, home-delivered campaign materials, media relations,
special promotions, events, public official briefings, and
a toll-free hotline making waste reduction information available
in more than 130 languages.
The agency team developed the theme and graphic standards
for the campaign: "Let’s Cut the Garbage; Reduce,
Reuse, Recycle."
The multifaceted communications program served to move people
through key stages of awareness, comprehension, conviction
and ultimately, action. The program has the highest compliance
rate for any program of its size worldwide.
The team produced a series of television spots in English
and Spanish with Chevy Chase as a comic "recycling guru."
The total cost of production and value of the pro bono media
placement equaled a savings of $3 million for the City of
Los Angeles. This included more than doubling the value of
paid media through leveraged relationships with outdoor companies
and broadcast stations.
An independent City-commissioned post-campaign survey of both
City program participants and non-participants revealed that
the public education campaign brought about a significant
increase in the number of residents who adopted waste reduction
measures. It also reported that, six months later, 41 percent
of residents saw and remembered an aspect of the campaign
– an unusually high recall rate of the type generally
associated with high profile ad campaigns such as those associated
with new car launches.
Other LGI environmental success stories include the Los
Angeles County Department of Public Works/Household Hazardous
Waste, and many others.
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