Objective
In 2021 the NSW EPA engaged Horizon to produce and execute a social media campaign to motivate Australians to reduce food waste. The EPA adopted the long-running Love Food Hate Waste (LFHW) campaign to help combat the war on food waste locally. Horizon took the campaign to an extraordinary level, producing a charming, conversational, and sometimes cheeky content series that has seen LFHW explore. Unlike other campaigns, success was quantified by outstanding positive behaviour changes to food waste – a key outcome.
Approach and scope
To deliver a successful campaign the objectives were to:
- spotlight and amplify the program’s partnership initiative,
- build knowledge and awareness,
- activate community engagement and
- support ongoing campaign promotion.
To achieve these, Horizon incorporated five key behaviour traits identified through consumer research to guide the strategy and provide the pillars for creating engaging and inspirational content:
- Meal planning
- Shopping to a list
- Portioning
- Storing leftover food correctly
- Using up leftovers
Horizon developed a suite of imagery and videos to create monthly ‘campaigns’ to drive the message home. Horizon implemented a monthly blog on the LFHW website to amplify the monthly theme and help boost website traffic –reinforcing message delivery. A monthly calendar provides an opportunity to highlight a specific food waste avoidance behaviour and curate it into a monthly theme. The paid strategy includes a Facebook page likes campaign, EDM traffic campaign and Food Smart traffic campaign designed around the monthly themes. As the online community grew, community management because a core feature, as our audience moved from passive to active participants in the conversation, often commenting their own hacks and recipes that provided ongoing inspiration for curated content.
Outcomes
The results exceeded expectations on both the client side and from an industry benchmark perspective. Horizon successfully heightened awareness of the LFHW campaign through social channels, increased community knowledge of the global food waste issue and encouraged positive behavioural changes, inviting the community to share their own food waste avoidance experience, and ultimately leading to a reduction in overall food waste. This campaign has resulted in exponential growth over the past 12 months, observing an increase of 22% in LFHW’s Facebook followers and tripling Instagram followers.
Further quantitative outcomes include:
- A total reach of 1,897,786 people
- 59k Facebook page likes (up from48k in March 2021)
- 13K Instagram followers (up from 5k in March 2021)
- Total engagement of 94,989
To check-out Horizon’s ongoing work with the EPA on Love Food Hate Waste Sydney, please visit the organisations Facebook page.
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“Horizon Communication Group is a great company to work with. The team is knowledgeable, professional, responsive, and effective. Horizon has helped to grow the Love Food Hate Waste NSW social media presence, achieving great results while keeping costs low.
The Love Food Hate Waste Facebook page has grown from 48,000 followers in 2021 to more than 59,000 today. Our Instagram page has grown from 5,000 in 2021 to over 13,000 today. Content is engaging, interesting, attractive and well managed, which has built and maintained authentic online community relationships and positive interactions.
Regular meetings ensure we work together and are well aligned in the development of new content and strategic direction.”
The communications and public relations agency delivering outcomes across government, business, sustainability and consumer sectors.
Horizon Communication Group is an independent agency responsible for award-winning campaigns. We deliver results through public relations, issues and crisis management, and targeted campaigns. Based in Sydney, we have long term affiliates in every state and territory in Australia.
Horizon Communication Group acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional custodians of our land – Australia. We acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians of this place we now call Sydney.
