City of Raleigh Down to Earth Campaign
The Down to Earth Campaign is a city initiative for the City of Raleigh to improve community recycling and environmental engagement.
The problem
The Yard Waste Center serves as the recycling center for yard waste collected by SWS (Solid Waste Services) and other city crews. This material (tens of thousands of tons per year) is processed and recycled and offered to the public for purchase. In addition to the daily processed materials and products, there is a significant backlog of compacted material onsite. The backlog needs to be addressed and removed.
The solution
The solution consisted of 4 goals the city wanted to complete:
Goal 1: Reduce waste and increase recycling
Goal 2: Educate the public on organic products produced at the Yard Waste Center
Goal 3: Develop marketing/sales tools that will reduce backlog stockpiles. Develop a strategy that identifies buyers, develops a customer base, and build product recognition. This is also an opportunity to evaluate new areas of expansion.
Goal 4: Have a long-term, scalable marketing and sales strategy in place to facilitate the continued growth and expansion of the Yard Waste Center.
Impacts & results
Aggressive social media campaign to increase awareness and reach
Designed a standalone website from the .gov website so that the information is front and center without the need of searching ancillary pages. The site also allows users to purchase organic products without the need of calling the Yard Waste Center or visiting the site making the whole experience easy and accessible.
Design billboard signage for the downtown area to further push messaging and awareness.
But first, strategy
Before proceeding to the design or production phase of the campaign, the City of Raleigh discussed four goals that they wanted to achieve, both in the short and long term. These goals included scalability, community engagement, and impact factor. The City of Raleigh was open to any solutions, but whatever the solution, it needed to align with the campaign goals. I proposed a triad of solutions that would meet their short and long-term needs, while also providing a positive experience with the messaging.
The "Keep Raleigh Down to Earth" campaign is playful, educational, and conversational. Each advertisement is designed to inform the community about alarming statistics regarding landfills and their effects on the environment, but it also serves as a call to action for the community to get involved.
Visual brand
Part of the solution I proposed included an aggressive social media push and a subdomain website.
City or Raleigh has a newly established and well-executed brand guideline. One of their goals was to increase brand and product recognition. It was necessary to stay on brand with the Down to Earth campaign because one, it was a City of Raleigh initiative and two, it was bringing greater awareness to the newly created corporate brand.
Website study & solution
Part of the solution I proposed included an aggressive social media push and a subdomain website.
I examined their website and reached the conclusion that in order to boost product sales and community involvement, it is essential to have a campaign website where the community can obtain more information about the initiative and purchase organic products. You can view the prototype I created here.
Social media study & solution
Part of the solution I proposed included an aggressive social media push and a subdomain website.
Before getting into any design work, I wanted to see what tools and strategies were actively being implemented in City of Raleigh. I learned that they have an established social presence with a good amount of followers, but their content wasn’t fully optimized for social. I also realized that certain city initiatives weren’t publicized on all of their social accounts. I decided to conduct a study on all of their active social media accounts and highlight problematic, or missed opportunities areas. I presented my findings to the communications team, and also shared feasible solutions that could be done in-house.
Downtown advertising
Part of the campaign strategy also included large billboard ads to be placed in downtown Raleigh near bus stops. This was meant to reach a certain audience that was not aware of the initiatives of City of Raleigh, or are not on social media. The idea is that the campaign initiatives will reach all audience types both on and offline
