Case studies

Avery - Green Office Week

Footprint Communications are a small agency which means they’re very flexible. They respond very clearly to briefs and also react efficiently when there are time pressures.
Marc Pinner

In response to a brief for a new eco-friendly initiative from Avery, Footprint Communications created Green Office Week, which aimed to unite office workers around the country in an effort to effect change.

Overview

Avery is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of self-adhesive labels and paper products for both consumer and industrial markets; a premium quality brand offering excellent value for money products supported by personal customer service and free software support.  Whilst Avery and it’s products are well known and loved by its loyal customer base, the office products industry is highly competitive and is increasingly driven by consumers switching to low cost, low quality own brand replica products.  As a result, effectively demonstrating brand benefits and credentials whilst reaching out to new audiences are fundamental to Avery’s business strategy.

In response to a brief for a new eco-friendly initiative from Avery, Footprint Communications created Green Office Week, which aimed to unite office workers around the country in an effort to effect change.

What we did

• We commissioned a survey of UK office workers to demonstrate that people were more eco-friendly at home than in the workplace.
• We wrote a custom ‘Green Offices For Dummies’ guide. The For Dummies brand is the most recognised and accessible reference brand in the world, adding instant appeal and endorsement to the campaign.
• Against an initial target of 20, 82 ‘Green Office Ambassadors’ were recruited across the UK to get involved with the campaign and spread the word within their organisations.
• Tailored press releases were issued to a broad range of online, offline, national, regional, radio and office-based media.
• Editorial coverage was secured on a mixture of commercial and BBC stations via competitions and interviews with credible and engaging spokespeople. Our interviewees included the impressionist and green campaigner Alastair McGowan, a leading CSR expert and representatives from the National Energy Foundation and Friends of the Earth.
• A campaign microsite was developed by Avery’s digital agency with Footprint’s help to form the educational centre-point of the campaign – see http://www.greenofficeweek.eu. 
• We took the campaign to the streets in the most environmentally friendly and cost effective way utilising GOW Promo Bikes in 8 key cities around the UK to capture attention.

The outcome

• Green Office Week 2010 activities achieved a combined OTS of more than 188.2 million (+17% yoy).
• Consumers now widely recognise Avery as a leader of green workplace initiatives and the week is well established on the calendar of both mainstream consumer and office trade media.
• We achieved 164 pieces of print coverage with an OTS of 146.7 million over a period of 6 months. Coverage included a front page feature in The Guardian Work supplement and stories in the Daily Mirror, The Sun and major regional dailies.
• 115 items of radio coverage were secured providing 11hrs 40mins of airtime and an OTH of over 19.2 million.
• 911 people registered to take part via the campaign microsite from 641 companies.  Traffic figures peaked on the first day of GOW, indicating that people were acting on the PR coverage in preparing for the week.
• Green Office Week has won many awards including CIPR Wessex and Channel Islands Best Corporate Responsibility Campaign 2010 and Green Business Awards 2010 Green Champions (Customers).