The challenge

Penrith City Council represents one of Sydney’s largest Local Government Areas in both population and area, and consequently faces an array of challenges when conveying information to the entire community.

Penrith City Council determined that a large amount of community-collected green waste material was contaminated by plastic and other foreign matter. Leonards was charged with the challenge of delivering a universal message to the community on recycling and rubbish bin practices in general. At a micro level, the brief was to specifically focus on the education of green waste recycling in order to reduce the high percentage of contaminated waste.

The solution

Incorporating an holistic approach, Leonards’ creative concept drew on the target market audience, primarily the younger generations, to become involved in educating the community. The campaign was driven through competitions, school focus groups and the implementation of ‘The Green Bin Bloke’ to capture imaginations and engage with the community. Based on Roy Morgan research, media channels were selected including outdoor buses, banners and billboards, to life size cut-out figures and a full run of interchangeable comic strip advertisements for print media – each with it’s own specific message whilst covering the bigger picture. The innovative use of digital access via QR codes channelled immediate retrieval of information.

The results

A creative and comprehensive public awareness campaign was generated to educate the community on correct recycling behaviours. The campaign proved extremely successful in generating awareness throughout all ages within the community and had great longevity with a five-year span in market.