Waste now not, win a lot: how Hopeful Monsters took Gold at The Drum Awards for Marketing

Food waste would possibly now not clutch headlines like local weather protests or viral petitions, but it surely quietly drains $19bn from Australian families every yr. It sends 7.7m foods to landfill day by day and worsens the environmental disaster whilst 20% of the inhabitants struggles to place meals at the desk.

“The campaign is very much about how do we sort of try and get people to understand that they waste so much food in Australia – like 7.7m plates of edible food are wasted every single day,” says Carl Moggridge, inventive spouse at Hopeful Monsters. “That’s crazy.”

Funded through the government and advanced in partnership with End Food Waste Australia, ‘The Great Unwaste’ targets to chop family meals waste through 21% through 2030. But the messaging doesn’t focal point on guilt. Instead, the marketing campaign gave Australians easy, sensible adjustments to put into effect – reframing food-saving conduct as small wins that upload as much as giant have an effect on.

The effects got here temporarily: 25% unaided recall inside 3 months (up from 6% pre-launch), 89% likeability and 77% of audience reporting they were given helpful tricks to cut back waste. Perhaps most significantly, 90% agreed that meals waste is one thing all of us have a job in fixing.

“It’s not the sexiest thing in the world,” Moggridge admits. “If you think about all the social issues that are in the world, you don’t think about food waste. But food waste massively impacts the environment. And there are so many people around the world who cannot afford to buy food. So this is a campaign we’re super proud of – just trying to help.”

The media technique used to be wide-reaching and efficient, turning in just about 1,000 earned media hits, 85m impressions all the way through release week and $2.6m in earned media price.

Hopeful Monsters, a proudly impartial company, has carved out a distinct segment operating with purpose-driven manufacturers with out falling into social-purpose clichés. “It’s about trying to work with companies that are up for making the world just a tiny little bit better,” Moggridge says.

He believes shifts within the business are opening new doorways for small, impartial companies. “There’s so much value being sucked out of quite a lot of industries. But whenever that happens, there’s always an opportunity. It’s good for independent agencies and it’s good for independent companies that are trying to take on bigger brands.”

Reflecting at the win, Moggridge provides: “Everyone worked so hard – like, so, so hard. So getting a little bit of acknowledgment for the amount of work they’ve done, I think, is a really good thing.”

The Drum Awards for Marketing APAC is the primary forestall on an international excursion celebrating advertising and marketing that strikes the needle. Next up: EMEA on June 4 and the Americas on June 12. All presentations are streamed are living and to be had on-demand at thedrum.com.