The campaign ‘Recycle Your Electricals’ by December19, won Gold in Media Charity at The Drum Awards. It aimed to tackle Britain’s hidden environmental crisis of discarded electrical items, leveraging the Fogg Behaviour Model to shift public behaviour from passive disposal to active recycling, achieving record recycling levels and sustained behaviour change.
Britain faces a hidden environmental crisis: over 103,000 tonnes of electrical items are discarded annually while 880 million unwanted gadgets gather dust in homes. These devices contain valuable materials like lithium, copper, and gold that could power the circular economy, yet they're being wasted. The rise of "Fast Tech" – disposable electricals like vapes – has intensified the problem, with battery-powered items causing dangerous fires in waste systems.
Despite 88% of people believing recycling matters, only 43% find electrical recycling easy. Most want to help but find the process confusing and time-consuming. For December 19, this presented a clear behavioral challenge: how do you transform entrenched habits of hoarding or binning electricals into active recycling behavior?
Our mission was ambitious yet simple: shift public behavior from passive disposal to active electrical recycling. If each of the 44 million UK adults who already recycle other materials recycled just one cable, we'd create 40 million meters of charging cables – enough to circle the Earth. This scale of potential impact drove our entire strategy.
We needed to bridge the gap between intention and action, making electrical recycling feel as natural and accessible as recycling paper or plastic.
Using the Fogg Behavior Model, we identified the core problem: people lacked consistent prompts on how and where to recycle electricals. Our solution was revolutionary for the sector – abandoning traditional burst campaigns for an always-on approach that builds sustained mental availability.
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Research revealed continuous presence works better than sporadic campaigns. Competitors like Back Market proved consistent annual spend drives better results than awareness spikes that quickly fade. We needed to embed recycling habits into daily life, not create temporary awareness.
Our strategy centered on "moments that matter" – life transitions that naturally trigger decluttering: moving house, starting university, having a baby, changing jobs. These personal transition points create natural opportunities for behavior change. We aligned messaging with seasonal decluttering moments including Spring cleaning, International E-Waste Day, and Recycling Week, working with existing habits rather than against them.
We disrupted the traditionally boring chore of recycling by adapting HypnoCat, Recycle Your Electricals' memorable brand messenger. This fluffy character made his TV debut, capitalizing on the channel's emotive power to literally "hypnotize" the nation into recycling their electricals. HypnoCat's memorable nature helped cut through cluttered environmental messaging that often feels preachy or dull.
Our two-pronged media approach addressed both awareness and action:
Research revealed 18-34s have the highest awareness but lowest action levels for electrical recycling. This demographic became our behavioral change focus, with adapted targeting across online channels.
Our OOH ran in key cities with high 18-34 populations, while festival screens specifically hypnotized young festival-goers to recycle fast tech like vapes, portable chargers, and handheld fans.
We maximized relevancy through personalized communications: 'Humans of Spotify,' 'Gaze into my eyes Tube riders,' 'Humans of the interweb.' Social media focused on commonly bought, binned, and hoarded electricals, driving immediate action through specific, relatable prompts.
AI-driven contextual targeting strategically placed HypnoCat alongside relevant content like recycling videos, tech reviews, and vape discussions. This ensured our message appeared when audiences were already engaged with related topics.
The 'Great Cable Challenge' encouraged people to recycle at least one cable – making the task feel manageable rather than overwhelming. We collaborated with influencers and podcast hosts whose values aligned with sustainability goals, ensuring messages came from trusted sources within people's existing media consumption habits.
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With 80% of our team IPA Ad Net Zero certified, we integrated sustainability into every decision. Using the IPA Carbon Calculator, we measured and offset campaign carbon footprints, partnering with Ecologi to fund Gold Standard projects including solar initiatives in Indonesia and Morocco.
The campaign delivered measurable sustainable behavior change at scale. Electrical recycling increased 6% year-on-year in 2022/2023, then 7% in 2023/2024 – the highest amount recycled in five years, demonstrating progressive improvement.
41% of adults now recycle ALL electrical items – compared to 26% in March 2023. That's a remarkable 15-point uplift in two years. We achieved a 13.5-point uplift in people saying they're now in the habit of recycling versus March 2024.
Through measurement and offsetting, we prevented 90.59 tCO2e emissions since January 2024, demonstrating commitment to accounting for unavoidable emissions in line with Ad Net Zero guidance.
The campaign proved creative, data-driven strategies drive both sustainable behavior and commercial results:
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The always-on approach built sustained brand awareness driving ongoing engagement. This shift created a platform for long-term growth rather than short-term spikes. With HypnoCat established as a recognizable messenger and proven channel strategies, future campaigns can build compound effects that burst campaigns cannot achieve.
2024's two three-week bursts delivered £1.3m media investment. Our sustained always-on approach invested £650k to date, with £680k planned for year-end – demonstrating more efficient, continuous engagement.
This campaign demonstrates how innovative media strategy can drive meaningful social change. By abandoning traditional burst approaches for always-on presence, using behavioral science to target moments that matter, and creating memorable creative execution, we transformed a confusing chore into an accessible habit.
The results speak for themselves: record recycling levels, sustained behavior change, and commercial success. Most importantly, we've created a scalable model for driving environmental action that prioritizes long-term impact over short-term awareness – exactly what our planet needs.
Ready to get your work recognized on a global stage? Enter The Drum Awards today. Need more inspiration? Read our Award Winning Case Studies.
December19