It's relatively easy to get media coverage for celebrity events, a corporate crisis or even a plane crash. But what do you do when your client asks you to devise a campaign centered on aluminum cans headed for the recycling bin?
The client, Richmond, Va.-based Reynolds Metals Company, makers of Reynolds Wrap Aluminum Foil, wanted to create awareness of its specialized recycling division, Reynolds Recycling, and highlight its position as the primary aluminum recycling company in selected local communities. (Reynolds Recycling was launched in 1968 as the nation's first consumer-oriented recycling business.) It also wanted to stimulate an interest in recycling and the role it plays in helping to preserve the environment.
The answer was the creation of "Kids, Cans, Plus!," an elementary, middle and high school recycling contest for kids ages 6 to 18 that was created and launched in 1994-95 by Richmond PR firm Amann & Associates Public Relations.
Execs at Amann readily admit that getting the media interested in covering a bunch of crushed cans had its challenges - and so it mined the appeal of the story by highlighting certain themes popular with local media in the rural communities the contests would take place, in Virginia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Illinois, Alabama, Louisiana, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Delaware and Florida.
"It's localized, it focuses on schools and funding, environmental issues, and it is very visual," says Laura O'Brien, president, Amann. "The recycling comes first, and the PR comes afterwards -- not the reverse -- and it makes for an even stronger story." Amann has worked with Reynolds for almost 10 years.
Schools that signed on to participate in the contest were paid a market-driven price, per pound, for the aluminum cans they collected and brought to a designated Reynolds recycling center in their area.
Amann & Associates' efforts had to simultaneously get schools interested in the contest and inspire them to enthusiastically participate (through press kits and other materials, and through the promise of cash awards), which would in turn interest the local media in covering the contest.
And the program has attracted more schools to participate and increased media coverage over the past three years. It recently won an International Public Relations Association Golden World Award for Excellence in Public Relations in the category of educational programs for the 1995-96 contest.
It also has met the client's goal of increasing communal participation in recycling: In the 1996-97 contest, participating schools recycled 453,083 pounds of aluminum, compared to the 1995-96 total of 424,772 pounds, a 7% increase. There were 1,296 schools that participated in '96-'97, compared with 937 schools in '95-'96 and 558 schools in '94-'95.
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Amann & Associates Founded: March 1, 1988 Employees: 7 Clients: 10 Billings in '97: $1.7 million |
Amann inspired the schools to participate in the '96-'97 contest by creating a race track theme, and renaming it "Race into Recycling with Kids, Cans, Plus!" and through other features designed to recognize their accomplishments, such as schools that recycled 2,000 pounds or more and were inducted into the "One Ton Club." When schools reached these milestones, the local press often covered it -- further inspiring the schools to increase their participation. Amann also created an award designed to honor the "recycling educator of the year" that provided the media with a hook during the middle of the contest.
"That's what turns on the local media in a rural market -- stories about schools and teachers," says O'Brien. "The media is eager to highlight teachers."
The approximate cost of running the contest was $18,000 in 1995-96, not including Amann's fee to Reynolds.
More than 16,000 teaser postcards about the contest were sent to PTA presidents in all schools within the contest areas, asking recipients to call a toll-free hotline to receive more information and an educational kit.
Also, a packet of information was sent to 500 city/county/town recycling coordinators in the contest areas.
Additionally, Amann assisted all schools in staging a recycling event that would serve to attract the local media.
In trying to stage a photo op, Amann eschewed the less-than-glamourous cans for something more interesting to the students and to the media, although the press did actually cover can-stomping parties.
"We worked with the schools to get them to think of something visual," says Sara Hunt, communications specialist at Amann. "A physical education teacher in an Chattanooga elementary school told the kids, 'If you recycle 3,500 lbs. (105,000 cans) of aluminum before the end of the year, I'll shave my head.' That was enough to get them going."
The teacher (a man) shaved his head in front of the school at a special assembly, dutifully recorded by local TV and newspaper reporters invited to the event.
Similarly, a principal and assistant principal in a North Carolina school promised to come to school dressed in pajamas if the kids recycled a certain amount in one month.
"The kids met the goal in three weeks -- and the Durham Herald Sun ran a photo," when the administrators showed up in their pajamas, says Hunt.
Overall, the contest was covered extensively on radio, TV and newspapers in more than 115 media outlets, including WMAR-TV, Baltimore, WISN-TV, Milwaukee, WDEL radio, Wilmington, Indianapolis Star and the Charlotte Observer. The contest is currently running in 15 areas in the 1997-98 school year. (Sara Hunt, Laura O'Brien, Amann & Associates, 804/270-5400)