Over the last week or so I have been looking closely into a CIPR PRide campaign created by 'Southern Water' that was recently awarded a GOLD award for 'Best Campaign £10k and under'.
Here are the ins and outs of the campaign, I would really appreciate your comments and views on this subject and to know what you think were the most impressive aspects of the campaign and any recommendations you feel the company could have made.
Thanks guys!
One of the worst nightmares for a customer of a Water company is having a home flooded by sewage. These nightmares are very common and are predominantly caused by sewer blockages that range from tree-root intrusion to the collapse of sewer pipes. The largest cause of all sewer blockages is the build-up of cooking fat, oil and grease (otherwise known as FOG) which is poured into the sewer network by many customers and subsequently accounts of 75% of all blockages that occur.
This problem that Southern Water and its customers are commonly faced with is not new; for decades customers have poured FOG down the plughole, ultimately clogging the arteries of the sewer network and causing unpleasant blockages.
Traditional solutions have been depended on ‘sewer-jetting’ programmes and PR campaigns aimed at persuading customers not to discard fat, oil and grease down the sink, loo or drain, but the tedious tone of the same old message was proving to no longer engage with customers.
‘Fighting the FOG’ campaign was therefore devised – one with the sole purpose that needed to ‘think outside the box’ to grasp the public’s imagination to help keep the sewers FOG-free.
The strategy behind the ‘Fighting the FOG’ campaign was purely:
To launch a ten-point PR plan of imaginative measures to raise and maintain ‘FOG’ in the public eye.
The ten - point PR plan is as follows;
1. They gave 180 packets of lard to a renowned potter, commissioning him to sculpt a ‘snowman’ figure, Lardy the Fatman, from this unusual material.
2. They commissioned a film company to create a unique cartoon of Lardy to deliver FOG messages on their company website.
3. They sent hundreds of e-Christmas cards featuring Lardy and his FOG messages – linking to his website.
4. Celebrity endorsement – at no cost we persuaded pop star Suggs from Madness to join the fight.
5. They visited FOG hotspots, and gave away thousands of fat-traps to turn used cooking fat into bird food.
6. For the first time, they launched a competition awarding pubs for not pouring FOG down the sink.
7. They rewrote their Water wise talks, delivered by staff to schools and adult organisations, to emphasise the FOG problem.
8. They translated their website FOG messages into French, Portuguese, Chinese and Spanish.
9. They invited television cameras to their works to reveal FOG damage.
10. Thousands saw at first hand the effects of FOG during their unique Brighton Sewer Tours.
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· The company had to think unconventionally to identify a new, creative way of solving the problem. A snowman made of lard, for example, is absurd – but the gimmick attracted much media coverage, encouraging customers to consider what they were pouring down the drain.
· They knew it would be no good merely coming up with one creative idea which attracts a burst of publicity and then fades in the public mind. The trick was therefore to sustain the message with one imaginative idea after the other, until the penny drops and customers routinely do not ‘FOG’ the sewers.
· The launch of other novel initiatives – such as giving away thousands of fat-traps to customers in hard-hit areas and taking pop star Suggs down the sewers with a fat-trap so he could tell the public:
“Pour fat down the sink - that would be madness.”
· A brewery competition, rewarding pubs which do not pour FOG from their kitchens down the drain, is a further example of refreshing a ‘dripping tap’ PR campaign – as is links to the Southern water Facebook page and to FOG messages on their website.
· And the creative initiatives do not stop there. They offered free tours of Brighton’s sewers specifically to Restaurateurs – a unique experience because nowhere else in the UK can people walk the sewers.
· All of these unconventional initiatives go beyond existing approaches to FOG reduction.
Evaluation and measurement
The campaign was evaluated and measured by the effectiveness of the initiatives in persuading the public not to pour fat, oil and grease down the sink. At the end of the day, this can only be measured by, hopefully, a reduction in the number of FOG-related sewer blockages.
To this end, the campaign was indeed successful (final results) – partly because they were able to persuade the media to highlight the problem to a large audience. For example, the company invited Meridian TV to visit a wastewater treatment works in Lewes to film the damage caused by congealed fat, oil and grease. Their subsequent three-minute broadcast Grease Frightening – revealed the problem to 340,000 homes.
That burst of publicity and coverage of the other initiatives (such as the pub competition which attracted 369 pubs which are now no longer pouring fat down the drain) has led to the number of sewer blockages substantially reducing.
Cost-effectiveness
There are approximately 200,000 FOG-related sewer blockages throughout the UK every year. Clearing these blockages costs millions of pounds which is reflected in customers’ bills. The reduction in Southern Water’s FOG-related blockages has brought a saving of £380,000 for the company and its customers for a campaign which was delivered within its £10,000 budget.
AMAZING RESULTS!!!
Media coverage and publicity of the initiatives led to sewer blockages substantially reducing from 6,849 to 4,907 a year – a near 30% easing of the pain in the drain.
Nearly 2,000 fewer sewer blockages annually also mean fewer journeys by company vehicles.
Typically, a 3.5 tonne diesel vehicle attends each sewer blockage and, in addition, a heavy 7.5 tonne vehicle attends one incident in every 20. With 32,000 fewer kilometres to travel annually, there is an equivalent carbon reduction of six tonnes of CO².
There are further environmental benefits. It is estimated that 2% of FOG blockages leads to internal flooding and 1% results in pollution of rivers. However, the improvement means that there are now 40 fewer internal flooding incidents and river pollutions annually.
There is also a reduction in health risks, rat infestations and odour problems. All of these benefits help the company to improve its relationship with customers and governing bodies.
Ornithologists are also delighted because giving away thousands of plastic fat traps encourages customers to fill them with discarded fat to provide food for birds.
TO SUM UP...
Not only did the judges think this was a tremendous campaign they also discovered themselves the appropriate way to dispose of fat, oil and grease, rather than putting it down the drain. Southern water showed terrific creativity in being able to devise a campaign that didn’t just rely on posting the same old messages. Not only did the campaign use a winning combination of great ideas, celebrity endorsement and important messages they did it with a relatively small budget.. What makes the sensible use of budget more impressive was that for a fairly small outlay significant savings were made by local residents changing their behaviour.
