Alupro

Brief

Deliver communications support positioning the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro) as the ‘authority’ on aluminium packaging and packaging recycling. Activity was designed to enable the sector to achieve, and exceed, its statutory recycling targets.

Activity

In June 2016 the campaign took a new direction with Alupro’s sponsorship of a women’s cycling road racing team. The team, based in Italy, had two British riders and took part in competitions across Europe. The sponsorship was designed to engage with consumers, showing the benefits of recycling aluminium packaging whilst on the go and at home.

The two British riders helped raise the profile of Alupro’s programmes to encourage the recycling of aluminium packaging, whilst competing in events in the UK. A series of radio interviews were arranged for regional BBC and commercial stations with Executive Director of Alupro, Rick Hindley and sponsored British rider, Jessie Walker, to encourage people to recycle aluminium packaging. Key interview messages were prepared and tweets were produced and posted prior to pieces being aired to encourage people to listen.

During Jessie’s racing in the Aviva Women’s Tour in the UK, tailored news releases were issued to local newspapers in the areas covering each stage of the competition. Statistics, or ‘canny facts’ were calculated including how many aluminium beverage cans could be laid end-to-end along each stage of the race and how many tonnes of metal could be collected for recycling, and how many thousands of racing bike frames this could make.

In addition, the PR campaign continued to target consumers via food and sustainability bloggers and ‘lifestyle’ journalists throughout the year, including messaging about Christmas and Easter recycling.

Rick Hindley was also prepared to take a strong stance in response to recycling targets to voice the ambition of the aluminium sector to maximise recovery and recycling of this valuable material. Proactive announcements were made about evidence-based research Alupro had conducted into levels of aluminium packaging and its recovery for recycling. Rapid response was made to announcements on legislative targets resulting in same-day press coverage in recycling, waste management and packaging media; and generating feature opportunities and blogs in local government, food and drink production and aluminium trade titles.

Results

Key people within the recycling industry have congratulated Alupro on “its solid effort to make the regulatory system work well.” The campaign has led to journalists regularly requesting comment from Alupro on industry issues, helping to position it as the ‘authority’ on aluminium packaging and packaging recycling.  Activity also extended the reach of Alupro to a consumer audience, with the majority of press coverage secured in the broadcast sector. The broadcast campaign led to 18 radio pieces, reaching a potential audience of 1,545,000 and an advertising value equivalent of £23,036.