CITY OF MILWAUKEE – RECYCLE FOR GOOD PROGRAM

Situation:

In an effort to increase recycling among single family homes and up to 4-unit households within Milwaukee, as well as to increase awareness of recyclable items, the City issued an RFP for comprehensive three-year advertising and social marketing program.

Solution:

In a competitive bidding process, Staples Marketing was awarded the contract after submitting a comprehensive grass roots marketing plan that included upfront focus group research to discover the barriers that exist to getting people to recycle, development of a campaign theme and brandmark (RECYCLE FOR GOOD!) and a detailed media schedule that features TV, radio, print and online advertising.

The plan included such innovative approaches as display wraps for City recycling trucks, targeted direct mail to city residents featuring a refrigerator magnet showing what items can and can’t be recycled, two targeted neighborhood beautification campaigns and a web site dedicated to the campaign, www.MilwaukeeRecycles.com.

Result:

The marketing part of the campaign commenced with a news conference featuring Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett on October 1, 2008. After only the first four months, the City has registered a 6% increase in recycling pick-up. The MilwaukeeRecycles.com registered over 2,000 unique visitors and over 45,000 hits in January 2009, only its fourth month of being live.