Recycling incentives are a real carrot – or potatoes, coffee or cereal, take your pick

At last, recycling is to be encouraged not delivered under threat of criminality. George Osborne’s announcement today took me back nearly 20 years, to when I was PR adviser to the first attempt to incentivise better recycling practice through supermarket vouchers. The scheme envisaged trailers in car parks, staffed by people endlessly sorting the rubbish shoppers brought back and rewarding them with store vouchers. It was the early days of the barcode (revolutionary technology then which made the idea possible). It seemed hugely ambitious, thoroughly unwieldy and years ahead of its time. After all, most people’s idea of recycling was still limited to the bottle bank at the end of the road.  Then came store cards and the ‘voucher’ incentive died a death. Eventually, the supermarkets did their own thing, with reverse vending machines giving storecard points. But most people now want to recycle from home, under the auspices of their local council – kerbside collection is convenient and, if properly sorted, should give us the best quality recyclate.

So, where Windsor and Maidenhead residents lead, we might all follow. The voucher is back; a potent symbol for cash strapped Britain. And why not? Demographic evidence shows that those households who are most reluctant to get the recycling habit are also the ones most likely to benefit from and use shopping vouchers. Some may say, go the whole hog and give money off the council tax; that has its merit as well – the important thing is that those who create the public benefit reap the private benefit.

The beauty of this scheme is that it uses classic retail marketing techniques to benefit the environment. So, we can give special promotions and incentives depending on what is needed. If there is a shortage of clear glass in the system (as there often is) offer double reward points for clear jars and bottles – now there’s a good reason to rinse out that empty pasta sauce pot or jam jar.

It’s inherently flexible and treats the householder as a partner not a potential felon. There isn’t  a council in the land that wouldn’t gain from saying thank you to its residents. As Osborne says, “Carrots work better than sticks” – and soon you might get them more cheaply as well.

Messenger should never become the story

In a reversal of the usual ’shoot the messenger’ problem, a PR has chosen to shoot the source on the front page of trade magazine Recycling and Waste World.
Clearly considering himself to be the Max Clifford of the waste industry, Proteus PR’s Paul Davison has decided to become the story by criticising the Health Protection Agency for ‘failing to reassure a sceptcial public’.

Unfortunately for Mr Davison, that is not the HPA’s job. It was tasked with considering the pros and cons of incineration from a public health perspective and coming up with a scientifically-valid, objective conclusion.

Rough edges, nuances, caution and caveats surround all such studies and it is for others to draw conclusions. Mr Davison betrays his own agenda by saying that “what was needed was a clear and unequivocal statement the EfW is safe”.

There is a serious public health debate going on here and it helps no one if PR companies try to lead the story by lecturing public bodies. The focus lies on the spin not the substance. Indeed, the whole article only quotes pro-EfW sources; where is the balance that an environmental group or local authority may have given? I’d like to hear their views on the HPA report as well.

Nothing in industry is ever crystal clear and science is always a balance of probabilities. A certain ambiguity does the PR business no harm and treats the public with the respect it deserves.

Baby bottles and BPA controversy

Today’s news that 6 US baby bottle makers are finally to remove bisphenol A (BPA) from their plastic bottles is belated, but welcome, recognition of the widespread public concern about the effects of this chemical on infant health. While I declare an interest as the UK spokesman of the world’s leading glassmaker, I have to ask why people take any risk at all of chemicals leaching into their babies’ food and milk. Glass containers are totally inert and therefore  entirely eliminate any possibility of material leaching from the bottle into the contents. Indeed, the purity of glass has been used to preserve food and drink safely for thousands of years. Glassmakers in the US have started making baby bottles in volume again and the doors are open in the UK and Europe as well. Glass is available from online suppliers, especially the environmentally-aware mother and baby sites, but larger scale supply is a distinct possibility if the health issues over BPA lead to an upsurge of interest in glass. For more info visit Friends of Glass.

No KBB Show? Smart PR will fill the gap

With the demise (sorry, postponement) of both kitchen, bathroom and bedroom trade shows, how do manufacturers and suppliers fill the gap in their marketing schedule? The smart ones are turning their budgets towards public relations. Creating your own show might be beyond the wit (and the budget) of many, but innovative communications and events, precisely targeted, still make an impact. Step forward, Tylo, the sauna specialists, who let the UK media know of their new product launch by whisking KBB Review’s Tim Wallace off to Sweden’s Ice Hotel for a chilling experience. Targeted, Different, Effective. Just what PR should be.

How far would you go to recylce?

Observer journalist, Andrew Purvis, investigates what happens to his used cans, bottles and paper when he puts them out for recycling.  He caught up with 360’s Philip Tutt to discover where his glass bottles go.

Click here to read the full article, as published in The Observer on Sunday 25 January 2009.

Is it time for the freelance team?

Looking at PR Week and talking to colleagues in larger consultancies, it’s clear that the pressure on in-house and agency teams is growing. Redundancies and recruitment freezes are everywhere just at the time when our clients need more advice and positive coverage than ever.  Perhaps it’s time for bigger agencies to work more flexibly with their smaller brethren.

While I can freelance individually (and am doing so at present), I also have a partner with whom I make a complete account team. So we can provide the brains and the muscle if an account gets too unwieldy or demanding for the current team. Or if the client should fall out with your account handlers and you haven’t got a replacement with time on their hands. Or, let’s hope, if you win more business than your people can handle in the short term.

There must be hundreds of similar small companes around the country who can step in and work under the main consultancy’s umbrella to keep the momentum going and hand-hold the client until the proper team is built again.

A six-point plan for surviving 2009

We know businesses that market themselves through a recession come out stronger and faster, but only if that marketing is embraced by the audience and builds brand appeal. So, this year above all

1. Be honest with yourself; decide what makes your product or service stand out from the crowd
2. If you can’t think of anything, create something fast
3. Get a proper creative team to work this into a campaign spend smart not just big
4. Follow through with focused PR to create a persuasive narrative around your brand
5. Involve your retailers; they are your brand ambassadors. Ensure they understand and advocate  not just how to specify your product, but the vision you are trying to communicate
6. Know your customer they are probably more web savvy than you think, so make sure social networks are part of your promotional strategy

Our advice was used as part of a larger article,  “The shape of things to come”, written by Grahame Morrison for kbb news.

The plank in our own eye

So this is 2009. I wonder what Napoleon would have made of us now? With so many household names going into administration, we’re in danger of becoming a nation of boarded up shopkeepers.

Yet, surely the answer isn’t simply to spend our way out of recession. If important infrastructure projects can be brought forward and secure employment for thousands, let’s do it (the money they cost otherwise being spent on unemployment benefit presumably). But on an individual basis?

Those of us who were around in the Sixties remember “Spend, spend, spend” and we also remember what happened to Viv Nicholson when the money ran out. Come to think of it, why hasn’t she been interviewed on ‘Today’ yet? Probably because her story is about 18 months too late – we needed to hear from Viv when we were all piling our spending on the credit cards and mortgages before the bubble burst.

And that’s the bit we don’t like to hear, isn’t it? Yes, the banks were at fault in relying on dodgy models and loaning far beyond their asset base. But I don’t remember many of us consumers turning down the ‘cheap money’ on offer or thinking ‘I still have to pay this back and things might not turn out as rosy as they are painted’. And that despite the fact that we were the same people who had already been hit by the endowment mortgage fiasco in late 80s. So, let’s have a bit less banker-bashing (which seems to have taken over from anti-Americanism as the liberal zeitgeist) and look with rather more humility at our own greed. For reference? Try Matthew 7:3-5.

Happy New Year

360 Integrated Marketing wish everyone a happy and successful 2009!!